All directions are: relative to the perspective seen in the screenshot.
I've installed the battle flags mod.
Second battle ended in another legendary victory, this time without any damage to my forces. I had to replay part of the battle after an extremely lucky 203mm hit knocked out a Panzer II.
The Soviets seem to get pretty serious artillery support, they had 152mm and 203mm support in this one. 203mm support means that you can forget about having your infantry anywhere near the front in the open.
The maps thus far have been quite open, so my infantry is mostly sitting around and doing nothing. The Soviets have so many Rifle squads that moving my own 3 squads to the frontline would be pretty suicidal even without the Soviet artillery.
The battle was somewhat tricky in theory, but my plan worked.
The start. My tanks are in the northwestern part of the orchard, from where they are scheduled to outflank Soviet defensive positions in the field north of them (I could see the trenches in the setup phase). I figured that most of the Soviet AT defenses would be focussed on the road in the central part of the map, between the orchard and the dried up river bed/ditch in the east.
As the Soviets already controlled one of the flags on the plowed field, I knew there were at least some units there.
Like one of the briefing excerpts from a German training manual advises, concentration of force is essential. As my advantage at this point comes from quality and not quantity, massing my tanks in one spot to ensure that even though their guns are not powerful, they will get a large number of shots in on the target is the best way to deal with Soviet defensive positions. The orchard will also limit how visible my tanks are.
My infantry spend the battle hiding in foxholes east of the orchard. For some reason there was a Maxim crew in one of them, which was quickly killed.
As I predicted, 3 Soviet 45mm AT guns were located in the central part of the map (and more in a treeline in the northwest). By turn 5, the 45mm's in the central part of the map were destroyed by massed fire. 1 tank might have a poor chance to hit, but if you have 4 tanks with a reasonable ROF firing at one target, shells will inevitably hit it. At this range, the Soviet AT guns could barely hit me and all shells bounced off. The destroyed AT guns are to the left of the western Soviet flag.
As you can see, some BT-7's came charging at me from across the map. The icons you see in the northwest are 2 (out of 4) more Soviet 45mm AT guns, powerless against me at that range.
By turn 10, 6 BT-7's were destroyed, leaving only one at the question mark in the central part of the screenshot. It's difficult to see at this angle, but the orchard and the field my tanks are adjacent to are higher than the central part of the map, so the BT-7's in the foreground were hull down when they were destroyed. All I had to do was wait until they popped up after moving into the low ground in the center. The other BT-7's were killed with poor or average chance to hit shots. I moved my Panzer 38(t)E's forwards a bit. My Panzer IIB's didn't do much as it was too risky to have them around with the 45mm AT guns firing at me.
2 of the 45mm guns in the woods of the northwest have been destroyed, 2 were abandoned by their crews after 2 damaging hits. All that remained was a massacre of the Soviet infantry, trying to move towards my tanks in despair (the trenches can only hold 2 squads). There were 2 BA-10M's at the position where the first AT guns were. They were quickly dealt with.
The end. My Panzer 38(t)E's moved across the plowed field towards the woods in the northwest to check whether the AT guns were really gone, but the scenario ended. A 76mm infantry gun got a final hit in on one of the Panzers, but it deflected.
Kills, awards and medals in the campaign thus far:
1/1/2-6 PzG /1 Close Combat Bar (Bronze) and War Merit Cross 2nd Class, all of that for killing one Maxim crew.
/2 and /3: nothing.
Transports: /2 Veteran Driver.
/1 and /3 nothing.
1/1-37 Aufklaerung/1: Veteran Driver
/2:Wound Badge (Black)
HQ 3/2-25 Panzer Regiment/1: War Merit Cross 2nd Class, killed 5 Rifle squads, 1 50mm mortar team, 3 Maxim crews, 1 45mm AT gun crew, 1 BT-7, 1 BA-10M.
/2: killed 6 Rifle squads, 1 76mm infantry gun crew, 1 Maxim crew, 1 50mm mortar team, 1 AT Rifle squad, 1 BA-10M and 2 BT-7's.
2/3/2-25 Panzer Regiment/1: killed 6 Rifle squads and 1 45mm AT gun crew.
/2: Iron Cross 2nd Class, killed 11 Rifle squads, 3 T-26 M39's, 1 76mm infantry gun crew, 2 Maxim crews, 1 BT-7, 1 45mm AT gun crew and 1 AT Rifle squad. 20 kills in two battles.
/3: Wound Badge (Black), killed 3 Rifle squads, 1 Maxim crew, 1 BT-7 and 2 45mm AT gun crews.
/4: War Merit Cross 2nd Class, killed 1 T-26 M39, 5 Rifle squads, 1 76mm infantry gun crew, 2 BT-7's, 2 Maxim crews, 1 AT Rifle squad, 1 45mm AT gun crew.
/5: Wound Badge (Black) and Iron Cross 2nd Class, killed 2 Rifle squads, 1 BA-6, 1 AT Rifle squad and 1 Maxim crew.
1/3/2-25 Panzer Regiment (now elite)/1: Iron Cross 2nd Class, killed 2 Rifle squads.
/2: War Merit Cross 2nd Class, killed 4 Rifle squads.
/3: killed 4 Rifle squad and 1 Maxim crew.
/4: War Merit Cross 2nd Class and Veteran Driver, killed 5 Rifle squads, 2 Sniper teams.
/5: Iron Cross 2nd Class and Veteran Driver, killed 4 Rifle squads.
My primary edge over the Soviets will be unit quality, and I'm really hoping to get some good medals and awards soon, such as the Panzer Ace ability as I'll need that +1 Penetration against the T-34's in order to deal with them at reasonable combat ranges. The main advantage of such a long campaign is that statistically speaking, I should probably get all available non-wound badge medals and awards as long as I don't suffer losses. Of course, such a lengthy campaign is also more difficult to win, so I'll need every edge I can get.
