Please don't read this if you haven't already played battle no. 3. Don't want to spoil the party.
Having finished battle no. 3, I wanted to make some comments on it.
So far, it seemed to be the easiest battle: what I did was infact to stay where I was, rushing forward the infantry in the woods northwest from the village, and waiting for the Germans to show up. I sent one platoon each in the woods on both sides of the open area in the north of the village, because I suspected that the Germans would try to infiltrate there (the third went to the southwest corner of the village). And they should up, indeed: but only with two tanks without any infantry support, and so they where quite easy kills for my troops there (1 close assault, 1 by bazooka). Don't knwow if it's a design problem to have the AI protect it's tanks with infantry, but I think no human player would ever have sent its armor alone in a nightfight.
However, the Krauts tried to break through in the southeastern corner of the village, massing there tanks and infantry there, but I did that too and shoot it out (I won
). They eventually grabbed the victory hex but lost it in the end, along with 7 tanks and dozens of squads. Forgot that they tried to close in also from the east, but went into crossfire from my infantry in cover.
Also German arty was not so devastating than in the first scenarios.
So, after all, I scored a decisive victory on this one.
My core force are 4 M4A3E8 HVSS, a M2 Halftrack and a Bazooka team. I deliberately did not upgrade them so far (just for the more historic feeling). I used the halftrack to bring some of the engineer squads in the west to the front line.
AC
"Tridentina, avanti!" General L. Reverberi leading his Alpini troops in the decisive assault on Soviet-held Nikolajewka, 26th January 1943
