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Revenge is swift, but losing a core panzer is never good news.

On the left, our advancing troops have encountered and destroyed Soviet infantry. The lone 105mm howitzer has been aiding suppression while a reminder of earlier conflict is in evidence...

On the right, Soviet infantry mount a brave but futile attack on the Pz III platoon.

I'm loving this AAR too!

ORIGINAL: spellir74

I'm loving this AAR too!

Well I guess I'd best continue [:)]

The support weapons in the centre move up, enabling the 50mm mortar team to come into action.

The light panzers lead the way for the Pz IV and HQ (Pz III) platoons as they close on the left objective.

After middling resistance, the left objective is taken and the reduced Pz III platoon on the right also takes its objective.

The Soviets seem to be building up for a large counter-attack.

Our Panzer grenadier platoon mounts up and rushes from left over to the right, where at least company-sized Soviet infantry forces are gathering in the woods.

Za Rodinu! In the centre, a shout goes up and Soviet rifle teams charge panzers from the burned-out village.

On the right, the Red Wave charges from the woods.

The Soviet counter-attack gains momentum, but the Pz IIIs hold them off, supported by MG fire from the halftracks and Panzer grenadiers.

With the left objective only under intermittent attack, the Pz IV platoon turns sharp right and takes the Soviet attackers in flank, blasting away at short range.

The attack wilts under the new cannonade and Soviet morale is broken. 1st Panzer have the field but at the cost of a Pz Kpfw IIIG that they can ill-afford to lose... One less cannon to face T-34s or KVs does not bode well.

While I'm generally happy with my performance, it is a blow to lose a tank. Perhaps I would have been better off deploying the Panzer grenadiers unmounted on the right to support the Pz III platoon - this may have made spotting and killing the AT guns quicker. Once the Soviet armour and AT guns were out of the picture, it was just a case of not getting too close with armour and not exposing my infantry too much. Soviet artillery was sporadic and inaccurate which also helped me.

I have a sneaking suspicion that we will be seeing heavier armour soon, or even Soviet CAS.

In every battle that I've played thus far, there's always a situation that you can't control which pops-up at the most inconvenient moment. If you're lucky, it will just result in track damage or possibly a killed crewmember. If you're unlucky, you'll lose a tank, maybe more.

There's a notable increase in performance when you get medals/awards/abilities that improve the capabilities of your tanks, so later battles are not necessarily more difficult as long as you get a feeling for how to use your forces.

As your tanks have better guns, you don't need to sneak up on T-34's to shoot them from less than 200 meters, something I generally have to do, so provided the ammo situation remains good and you keep your Panzer IV's alive, you have a good chance. With Panzer Ace, their HEAT ammo might even be able to destroyed a T-34 from the front.

Your experiences thus far mirror mine for the early battles. They're not too difficult, but there's always some tricky situation. Of course, I restart when I lose a tank or crewmember and you keep playing, so I'm hoping your core will stay fairly intact.

Elite Pz IVs with Panzer Ace could take down KV-1s with HEAT in PCK, so I imagine they'll be my backbone against heavier Soviet armour. The Pz IIIG 50mm with APCR is no slouch either, capable of killing T-34s from the right angle and distance (obviously closer than one would like [:)]). I think the biggest problem as the Germans in the early battles is that you are assaulting positions that are defended by AT guns in AFVs that are relatively fragile - everything you have can be killed by a 45mm round without too much difficulty.

Absolutely superb AAR!

Elite Pz IVs with Panzer Ace could take down KV-1s with HEAT in PCK

From the side I presume, as their frontal armour's rated at 12 and HEAT has only one documented penetration value (8).

I think the biggest problem as the Germans in the early battles is that you are assaulting positions that are defended by AT guns in AFVs that are relatively fragile - everything you have can be killed by a 45mm round without too much difficulty.

Depends on what tanks you have, the Panzer IVE's and my Panzer 38(t)E's can take a 45mm shell to the front without too much difficulty, but those Panzer IIIG's most certainly can't.

I'd actually say that you're more likely to be able to take hits early in the war than at any other stage, although you eventually get Panthers I believe and those can take hits. The upgraded 45mm in 1942 as well as 57mm and 76.2mm AT guns should not have too much problem with the armour of Panzer IIIL's and Panzer IVG's. The range at which the armour can be penetrated also increases.