Semi-Interactive AAR: Return Road to Kharkov

[Erik Rutins]

Ok, we have two contradictory opinions so far. Send two Panzers to deal with the T-70s while the rest help the infantry (and wait with the infantry until they arrive) OR send all Panzers to deal with the T-70s and continue the advance with the infantry. I will wait to hear more advice before making a decision.

[Barthheart]

"Never get outta the boat man!"

Keep the panzers together, let the ground pounders fend for themselves.

[jamespcrowley]

I would split the tank platoon. HQ + one section towards town; remaining section to deal with 2 T70s. Do need to deal with the T34 on the other side of town and to support the infantrys grab on the town.

[Kineas]

+1 for keeping the panzers together. So far we had luck with the panzers, might as well begin pushing them. Cautiously.

[spellir74]

ORIGINAL: Mobius

ORIGINAL: spellir74
As said, once a tank is within 30m a squad's firepower can become antitank.

It's 25m for infantry AT grenade range. AT 30m they are a sitting duck.

Oops.

Sorry fellas.

[dazoline II]

With that T-34 on the other side of the village the infantry avenue of approach is very bad. The T-34 will be able to shoot at all the infantry before they even get to the first house let alone try to cross that cross street.
 
Looking at the lay of the land there seems to be a shallow valley to the right of the trees that may provide cover from the T-34, can't tell if it leads right to the village though. May want to redirect the infantry approach  through that instead.

[Erik Rutins]

Ok, looks like "keep the panzers together" wins by a very slight edge. However, I'm going to take it slow with the infantry per some of the other advice and see if there is a "safer" route into town given the position of the other T-34.

[Erik Rutins]

Here are the plots for Turn 12. I'm using Rush to quickly redeploy the Panzer Platoon towards the T-70s. The crest should block any enemy fire and LOS for our movement until we are heading towards the T-70s (no enemies in sight, except for the rightmost Panzer)

Two of the Panzergrenadier platoons are moving towards the right now. The woods there do slope a bit to the right and I'm aiming to use that slope to conceal at least one platoon from the other T-34 we spotted. That platoon will be the most advanced platoon - we can see what it sees before committing the others, or move the others in support sooner if we so choose.

[Erik Rutins]

It turns out the Soviets have artillery! For the first time in this battle, we have incoming enemy indirect fire - 82mm mortars, to be precise.

[Erik Rutins]

Otherwise, the turn proceeds uneventfully. A few near misses from the T-70s, but the Panzers are almost in position to engage them as a full platoon again. The infantry is still moving, so here's the situation while I run another turn.

[Erik Rutins]

We cause quite a bit of damage to one T-70 and finally destroy it. The Panzergrenadiers are still moving up.

Our Panzers can't see the other T-70, so I will move them a bit further forward. I chose their current positions so that the woods on the platoon's left would screen me from the flanking T-34, but I think pushing forward a bit further is safe as the village and the slope leading to it will be between us.

[Erik Rutins]

Here are the plots for Turn 14. I order the Panzers to Bound towards the remaining T-70, with one waypoint to make sure they get LOS to it around that farmhouse. The solid lines are those tanks that will be moving, the translucent will be covering this phase, then they'll switch during the Reaction phase.

I move the 3rd Platoon infantry across the slope to take the lead heading into the village. All of the infantry are on Advance orders. The main thing slowing us down here is frankly the beta implementation of fatigue, which is tiring out our infantry a bit too quickly. The 3rd Platoon is still fine, but the other two hadn't fully recovered and are tiring out again. This is already addressed in the newest beta build, which I can't upgrade this AAR to due to save incompability, so please bear with me. Just imagine these guys had a very long day before this battle.

[Erik Rutins]

The last T-70 is destroyed!

[Erik Rutins]

Here are our positions at the Start of Turn 15. With no enemies in sight, I will run one more turn to let the damaged Panzer catch up a bit and allow the two Panzergrenadier platoons that are heading towards the village on the right side of the wooded slope to advance a bit further.

You can see that our victory bar is doing well - about halfway to the top now and we haven't yet secured the two main objectives.

[Erik Rutins]

A very uneventful turn, with one exception. A few of our Panzers and some of our infantry think they catch sight of some moving Soviet infantry on the road heading into the village, but just as soon as we think we see them, they are gone before we can fire anything at them. I've marked the location where we caught a brief glimpse on this screenshots. We could not see what kind they were.

[Erik Rutins]

Here's the situation at the beginning of Turn 16.

[Erik Rutins]

So, I'll pause for advice again. We have one possible sighting of Soviet infantry (of some kind) on the road heading into the village. No other enemy in sight. What should we do?

[[hirr]Leto]

If you are about to face Soviet infantry, I suggest you load up the fart cannon!

(yes, from the diabolical Nazi labs that brought you: "Despicable Me")

Cheers!

Leto

[Barthheart]

Swing the Panzers towards the Sov. infantry and try to pin them.

Advance slowly with grenadiers to attack when pinned.

[thewood1]

I would area fire the suspected infantry spot or around it for about 30 seconds with a couple Pz while moving some infantry up the edge of the woods.  I am not sure what's on your flanks but I would keep some infantry on the left to keep anyone from getting into the village from the left road.