hellcat vs minefield - Blood on the Hills

[hellcat]

Bolshy babes on da beach [8D] bring in a tank to provide some shade against the harsh UV glare of the burning forest [8|]

We find one of the enemy ATGs on their side of the river and knock it out, along with a few more infantry. The Northern breakthru picks up pace!

In the South we pick off some recon vehicle sitting on the hilltop...

the prison babes jog a bit further up the road...

[minefield]

It looks as if the hellcat has broken through in the north. We will have to stem the tide as much as possible. There is already one immobilized tank and one abandoned tank up there. One was spotted indirectly when a 120mm shell went *thunk*! I think that's the one on the beach. There may be another.

In the south we knocked out that tank that took out my immobilized 'recon' SdKfz 233.

Report coming in sir!

This is 1Lt Wirth. We emptied our APCR ammo into an immobilized soviet beast and it was wirth it. The bras are burning as we speak.

Excellent news indeed. That's one less tank to worry about.

We need to silence those 122mm FH's again.

[hellcat]

my crews are bailing from their tanks... proximity to the beach has rendered them senseless it seems... I'm losing tanks too fast... It'll be down to the Prison women now... [:@]

I've never seen cheap Stugs work so well! [&o] minefield!

[minefield]

Thank you for the compliment. I am still learning but I am pleased with this battle so far. There just seems an endless supply of tanks and infantry coming at me.

I know you still have some though, so I'm not going to get too happy.

---Replay---
The Russians made an assualt on my lead vehicles on the road near the VH's. I was able to push them back but that area is now vulnerable. The whole area is on fire practically. There is a giant L shaped fire column. We still have at least one tank to deal with, although my recon is nil now since all this fighting errupted. During the replay, he moved a tank close enough that a StuG was able to force them to bail. I should've brought bigger guns. These soviet cans are tough to crack.

--German Turn--
Our main mission right now is to survive and minimize casualties until we can get reinforcements.

A german rifle squad up north single handly inflicted 4 casualties on a MC squad, causing them to disperse. Where those women dispersed to is for god to know. We were ordered to take as many hot prisoners as possible.

No sign of the prison babes yet. Lots of conscripts on the road though. Interesting note: the bridge has been blown by his artillery.

The crew to the abandoned tank at the top edge of the map has been seen. Sacrificed a kuebelwagen to do so though.

Limited mobility now as some of the 122's are working.

120 does more casuallties to the arty crew. Hopefully that will limit the amount of firepower he willl have.

Over and out.

[hellcat]

Oh no! I lost two more tanks... it's all downhill from here I can feel it... the Bolshy babes are swarming across the beach however and despite no tanks we've broken through in the North... too late sadly... [8|]

[minefield]

A mercedes just took about 20 volleys from conscripts before going down. He must've been doing some crazy driving.

Flame tank took aout an SU-85 as it passed by.

Reinforcements arrive just as I'm informed there probably aren't any more soviet tanks left.

--Germany--
A couple of Tigers arrive with the appropriate adjective, (late). We're moving up boys. Secure all VH's. Put up some guards around our artillery. Forget the beach for now. Let them party while they can.

Infantry in the north scramble to prevent crewmen from jumping back in a crippled T-34. We push back some soviets trying to destroy one of our abandoned flame tanks (when I say tank I really mean flammwagen).

We take the center VH's with the flames leading the way. Well, 4 out of the 5 have been taken. Next turn should yield the 5th. Infantry is everywhere still. Get to work flamers!

Artillery rounds are falling as fast as the truck can unload them.

[hellcat]

Our northern breakthrough force is just about the only thing going for me at the moment, the game will soon be minefields... [:@]

there will be a rematch... [:D][:@]

[minefield]

By going for him, he means that I just moved a IVh into the region and am pushing them back to the beach. The infantry squads at the very top of the map aren't doing so well, but they have help coming. Took some more VH's, but not enough to win early.

Flammwagens prove again and again they are well worth the money. They send back several squads again this turn. Without armor to face, they are having a lot of fun.

We hold 10 out of the 13 middle VH's.

I have yet to see the prisoners. So far only conscripts have faced the german death squads.

[hellcat]

ok so not going so well now... for the almost last turn there's a lot of shooting going on and I don't just mean at me! [:D]

[minefield]

Lots of small arms fire in the replay. A soviet halftrack was destroyed during its retreat.

--Germany's strikes back--
Preciousssss victory hexes. Preciousss.

Not much going on other than the slaughtering of soviet women...

They keep trying to jump on top of our armor, but I have warned the men not to open the hatches no matter what the women say.

[hellcat]

It's all over with a CV for minefield at 5634 and a measly 1895 for me [:(]

My force was as follows

AO
Recon Halftrack Platoon
MC Platoon
Scouts
Gaz A Util Vehicle platoon
KV85 section
OT34 Platoon
SU 85 Section
T34/85 Platoon
122mm onboard Battery
Ammo carrier (that got blown up early)
Rifle Platoon
Conscript Co
Engineer Platoon
M3 HT Platoon
1 Stalinets Prime Mover
1 HMG Section

Reinforcements were

1 Rifle Platoon
1 Conscript Co
1 SU85 section

thoughts...

so what went wrong for the Russkies here? Well the narrow map plus the addition of the lake and also the marsh made the point of conflict pretty tight and here as a result of generally superior equipment in a face off the Germans won it out. We both began feeding the hole but my guys weren't up to the job. When it's a matter of concentrating what you've got at certain points the Germans are very good at this. Perhaps a few more elite squads rather than conscripts would have helped a little.

Then there were the flammwagens... worth their weight in gold for this particular scenario (I know minefield will agree) where they guarded over the main conflict point in the centre... Minefield also ade very good use of their 2 hex range to unleash maximum damage and as he told me during the game the crews of the flammwagens will need counselling therapy after this fight to come to terms with what they did!

Perhaps I could have pulled back from the conflict Zone and gone onto the defensive but with my arty on borrowed time after the ammo truck went up and the fact I hadn't really purchased a cohesive defensive force and the lay of the land I didn't. Besides, I was hoping for flank shots on German armor and needed a breakthrough...

Maybe some AT guns would have helped, but I'm not sure.

It was pretty intense and for a small points game we certainly got our share of fun out of it!

minefield and hellcat will be meeting on another battlefield very soon....

[minefield]

First I must thank my opponent, Hellcat the leader. He has been a very good opponent and made the game immensely enjoyable.

The game was enjoyable not because of the crushing victory [:D], but because of the threat of losing was always present. I had not anticipated a force coming up north at all, so when I first saw those vehicles and infantry, I had to rush my forces up there as quickly as possible. If not for the lone sniper on the northern most hill, he would've moved aggressively and broken through. Instead, the movement hit for being spotted plus the uncertainity of what was watching him enabled me to hold the weakest sector of the map until I could move troops and a tank into the area. Even that tank and its accompanying flammwagen were destroyed. At one point I was holding on with 2 ATG's and a platoon of infantry. One ATG went up and the platoon was severely wounded with 2 or 3 squads with 5 or less men.

I must say that the terrain did play the biggest part in the battle. We merely were pawns to its chokepoints and unpredictable visibility. I thought the map would be more balanced since the VH's were closer to him (and he did manage to grab them first and hold them until his forces were broken), but my superior firing positions on the ridge allowed me to whittle down his forces.

I don't know if my force selection was that great, since the early StuG's only had 2 shots at full readiness. His 85 mm guns were more than a match for my IVh's. However, I did call in a couple of Tigers as reinforcements (two turns after I saw his big beast reinforcements) although they didn't see battle.

I am particularly proud of the flammwagens, since they ruled the day. When my lucky artillery strike hit his ammo carrier, I knew that he would lose the biggest advantage against close quarters fire units--suppression from artillery. As long as I didn't move my flammwagen into open terrain or next to a ready unit, then they were safe in the smoke and trees. Indeed quite a few brave soviet women tried to approach, but even at 2 hexes away the flammwagens proved to be a show stopper.

The only real fault that I can place on Hellcat is buying 122mm FH, artillery units I knew from experience to be completely and utterably immobile. With the great visibility, it wasn't long before I spotted the smoke. On my second turn I already had my snipers looking over most of the map so the counter battery was inevitable.

I am not sure what Hellcat could have done to win, but I do think that a more defensive posture would've saved more of his forces. He had no real need to advance other than to take my home VH's and I would be at a good loss for points as the two clumps of VH's lay squarely in his territory while the southern was exposed to long range fire. I would've been forced to advance on the VH's eventually.

I agree that the map was extremely fun and I think the small points allowed for a faster pace than usually experienced. It also made force selection extremely critical, which I think was something that hurt him more than me since I have superior selection in most cases.

With all of that said, I do want a rematch just for the sake of gaming against Hellcat again. Here is my force selection:

HQ
2 75 mm FH
6 120 mm mortars
2 FO, one destroyed
Ammo Carrier
12 Mercedes Benz (to move artillery and ATG's)
4 PzKpfw-IVH (3 destroyed)
4 StuG ausf G(E) (all alive)
6 SdKfz-233 (3 dead)
4 incredible Flammwagen/16 (2 destroyed)
4 75 mm PaK40 ATG (1 destroyed)
4 rifle platoons
1 platoon of MG34's
about 10 kuebelwagen / sniper pairs

Reinforcements:
2 Tiger IE (late)
4 SdKfz 251/10
all alive

Points have already been mentioned.

minefield over and out. pack up boys, time to hit the road.

[minefield]

Here is the link to a picture of the middle section of the map if you want to see the blood and fire on the hills.

Burnt Blood on the Hills