Legendary victory, presumably only barely as I ended with 80% score and the Soviets with 20% (they had mostly infantry left, though). One mobility kill, and track damage on a HQ tank which made me fear it could not be recovered, but it was recovered, and two tanks suffered from single track hits. Those were also recovered.
This is the second battle where I get messages about Soviet units surrendering or abandoning their equipment, previously I wasn't informed of that.
Those who played the bootcamp campaign or watched Erik's video of the first mission will recognize the map.
The start, with a black arrow showing the planned route of advance.
Red circle: 3 T-34's.
Yellow circles: 76mm infantry guns.
Green circle: BA-10M and T-26 M39.
Purple circle: F-22.
One of the HQ tanks would soon have its engine knocked out by a T-34, so the HQ tanks spend most of the battle in the woods where the first arrow is (as seen from the starting position), the Panzer IIB's spend most of the battle in reserve behind them, as I didn't want to expose them. The 5 Panzer 38(t)E's moved to the church and the other objectives, splitting up to cover the flanks as indicated by the arrows.
The original plan was a wide flanking move along the western edge of the map, but the presence of 76mm infantry guns in buildings made that impossible, so I had to make a new plan.
I used my mortars to place smoke between me and the T-34's, which allowed my tanks to get closer to them to a distance from where their AP and APCR shells had a better chance of penetrating the armour of the T-34's.
Turn 20. My tanks are still slowly trying to get moving, disabling the 76mm infantry guns and T-34's one by one.
All T-34's were finally destroyed on turn 20. One had been destroyed almost immediately after the start of the battle by a side hull hit, another one was damaged and had damaged tracks, which somehow caused it to twist around a bit. It eventually ended up being shot in the rear hull for some reason. The final one took 4(!) damaging hits and a track hit or two before being destroyed (shown as abandoned). They were green, so I can only wonder what will happen in battles where they're veteran or elite.
Turn 30, the church has been secured and two tanks move up to the final objective. Two tanks on the flank are having a duel with some AT Riflemen in a building.
The end on turn 36.
Panzer IIB in the process of killing a Soviet unit.
A nice shot of the terrain and a Panzer 38(t)E, with my tanks advancing on the church in the background to the right. In my opinion, the model of the Panzer38(t)E is quite pretty.
To be safe, I substracted the kills from the previous battle from the kill totals of my units in this battle, due to the probable corruption mentioned in the previous post.
Core:
1/1/2-6 PzG /1 Close Combat Bar (Bronze), War Merit Cross 2nd Class and Infantry Assault Badge (Bronze), killed 1 Rifle squad.
/2 Infantry Assault Badge (Bronze), Close Combat Bar (Bronze).
/3: Close Combat Bar (Bronze), Infantry Assault Badge (Bronze), killed 1 Rifle squad.
Transports: /1 Veteran Driver.
/2 Veteran Driver.
/3 nothing.
1/1-37 Aufklaerung /1: Veteran Driver
/2: Wound Badge (Black), War Merit Cross 2nd Class and Panzer Assault Badge (Bronze), killed 1 Maxim crew, 2 Rifle squads and 1 50mm mortar team.
HQ 3/2-25 Panzer Regiment/1: War Merit Cross 2nd Class, War Merit Cross 1st Class, Iron Cross 2nd Class, Wound Badge (Black), Panzer Assault Badge (Silver), Wound Badge (Silver), Iron Cross 1st Class, German Cross (Gold), Wound Badge (Gold) and Panzer Ace, killed 32 Rifle squads, 4 50mm mortar teams, 8 Maxim crews, 4 45mm AT gun crew, 2 BT-7's, 2 BA-10M's, 2 DShK 39 crews, 2 BT-5's, 1 T-26S M39, 1 BA-6 and 2 AT Rifle squads.
/2: Wound Badge (Black), Wound Badge (Silver), Panzer Ace, Veteran Driver, Wound Badge (Gold), War Merit Cross 2nd Class, Iron Cross 2nd Class, Panzer Assault Badge (Silver) and War Merit Cross 1st Class, killed 37 Rifle squads, 4 76mm infantry gun crew, 3 Maxim crews, 4 50mm mortar teams, 1 AT Rifle squad, 2 BA-10M's, 3 BT-7's, 3 BT-5's, 1 122mm gun, 5 45mm AT guns, 2 Flamethrower squads, 1 BA-6, 3 BT-7M's, 2 T-26 M33's, 1 T34/76 M41 and 1 Sniper squad.
2/3/2-25 Panzer Regiment/1: War Merit Cross 2nd Class, Veteran Driver, Wound Badge (Black), Panzer Assault Badge (Silver), Iron Cross 2nd Class, Iron Cross 1st Class, Panzer Ace and Knight's Cross to the Iron Cross 1st Class, killed 25 Rifle squads, 2 45mm AT gun crews, 3 50mm mortar crews, 3 T-26 M33's, 1 truck, 2 Maxim crews, 1 AT Rifle squad, 1 Sniper squad, 1 T34/76 M41 and 1 F-22.
/2: Iron Cross 2nd Class, War Merit Cross 2nd Class, Iron Cross 1st Class, War Merit Cross 1st Class, German Cross (Gold), Wound Badge (Black), Panzer Ace, Panzer Assault Badge (Silver) and Veteran Driver, killed 39 Rifle squads, 3 T-26 M39's, 2 76mm infantry gun crews, 6 Maxim crews, 2 BT-7's, 1 45mm AT gun crew, 2 AT Rifle squads, 1 BA-10M, 3 T-26 M33's, 4 DShK 39 crews, 5 50mm mortar teams and 1 Sniper squad.
/3: Wound Badge (Black), Veteran Driver, Iron Cross 2nd Class, Iron Cross 1st Class, War Merit Cross 2nd Class and Panzer Assault Badge (Silver), killed 29 Rifle squads, 4 Maxim crews, 1 BT-7, 4 45mm AT gun crews, 1 BT-7M, 2 DShK crews, 1 BA-3, 1 KV-2 M41, 1 AT Rifle squad, 1 Sniper team, 2 T-26 M33's and 2 50mm mortar teams.
/4: War Merit Cross 2nd Class, Wound Badge (Black), Iron Cross 2nd Class, Panzer Assault Badge (Silver), Wound Badge (Silver), Veteran Driver, Panzer Ace, Iron Cross 1st Class, War Merit Cross 1st Class, Wound Badge (Gold), Knight's Cross to the Iron Cross 1st Class and German Cross (Gold), killed 1 T-26 M39, 32 Rifle squads, 1 76mm infantry gun crew, 3 BT-7's, 4 Maxim crews, 5 AT Rifle squads, 5 45mm AT gun crews, 3 T-26 M33's, 6 DShK crews, 1 BT-7M, 2 F-22's, 2 BA-10M's, 1 50mm mortar team, 1 BA-10, 1 T-26 M33, 2 BT-5's and 1 T-34/76 M41.
/5: Wound Badge (Black), Iron Cross 2nd Class, Panzer Assault Badge (Silver), Iron Cross 1st Class, Veteran Driver, Wound Badge (Silver), Panzer Ace, War Merit Cross 2nd Class and Knight's Cross to the Iron Cross 1st Class, killed 40 Rifle squads, 1 BA-6, 4 AT Rifle squads, 4 Maxim crews, 1 BA-3, 2 BT-7M's, 4 T-26 M33, 2 45mm AT gun crews, 2 50mm mortar teams, 2 BT-7's, 1 BA-10M, and 1 DShK crew.
1/3/2-25 Panzer Regiment /1: Iron Cross 2nd Class, Veteran Driver and War Merit Cross 2nd Class, killed 20 Rifle squads, 1 50mm mortar crew, 1 Maxim crew and 1 T-26 M39.
/2: War Merit Cross 2nd Class, Veteran Driver and Iron Cross 2nd Class, killed 15 Rifle squads, 1 50mm mortar crew, 1 Maxim crew and 1 AT Rifle squad.
/3: Iron Cross 2nd Class, War Merit Cross 2nd Class, Veteran Driver and Iron Cross 1st Class, killed 19 Rifle squad, 3 Maxim crews.
/4: War Merit Cross 2nd Class, Veteran Driver, Iron Cross 2nd Class, Iron Cross 1st Class, Wound Badge (Black) and Panzer Assault Badge (Silver), killed 19 Rifle squads, 2 Sniper teams, 1 BA-10, 1 Maxim crew,1 BT-7M and 1 76mm infantry gun crew..
/5: Iron Cross 2nd Class, Veteran Driver, War Merit Cross 2nd Class, Iron Cross 1st Class, Knights Cross to the Iron Cross 1st Class, Wound Badge (Black), Panzer Assault Badge (Silver) and Panzer Ace, killed 20 Rifle squads, 1 Sniper team, 3 50mm mortar teams and 3 Maxim crews.
Non-core:
Ju 87/1 War Merit Cross 2nd Class, killed 1 Rifle squad.
/2 War Merit Cross 2nd Class, killed 2 Maxim crews.