The GRcade Tabletop Gaming & Miniature Painting Thread (Warhammer etc)

Hello.

This evening a friend and I had a game, a game of epic tank fighting, infantry close battles and at least 1 soldier getting a Hero of the Soviet Union after the whole affair.

The night before we decided to do veterans, an FJ vet force up against a vet soviet force, my soviet vet force, something I don't do, I like regulars, but ho hum I thought I'd give it a go.

Some photos are slightly blurd, my shakey hands.

The Germans...

A first lt with two STG buddys
2 squads with LMG, 2 STGs, SMG, rifle and 3 Panzer fausts.
2 squads with rifles, LMG and SMG.
King Tiger!

All the infantry were vets, the KT was regular.





The Soviets

A First Lt with a buddy
Commissar
Free rifle squad
10 Tank riders with SMGs
2 squads of 11 Vets with rifles, NCO SMG, all tough fighters
3 2 man tank hunter teams with SMG's and 1 Panzerfaust in each unit
T34/85

All veteran except my commissar and free squad.





The Game

Point defence was rolled for and the Germans won the roll off to be attacking or defending, they chose to attack! I nearly fell over, but ok, this could be interesting...

I took the side with the woods, my three points to defend was the cabin in the woods, the crates on the hill (obscured by trees in the picture below), and the ruins.

Basically, the crates were a supply drop, german sausages, but this is the Eastern front and if it could go wrong for the germans, it did, and their sausages landed near the Russian lines who had neatly organised the crates and were awaiting a truck to take them back to the field kitchens, the ruins were a nice little area for the commissar to keep tabs on the comings and goings of the cross roads and the house in the woods we believe housed alcohol, or a witch, either way the Russians were holding on to it to drink the alcohol or point out witches were enemies of the state and Gulag her ass.

So the table, the right was my deployment, the germans on the left, neither of us did flankers, all the germans decided to turn up in the first wave.



First turn

Russians deploy half their force, the Commissar and free squad at the rear in about the ruins, supported by a vet rifle squad in the ruins and another vet rifle squad in the woods. 1 tank hunter team sat near the house in the woods listening for the grubbles of tanks. The german bombardment came in, but not too hard, a few scattered pins and one vet rifle man was hit by splintered wood from the shattering trees.

The first of the germans turned up in the form of a King tiger trundling down the road, MMG's firing widely into the woods, but the vets kept their heads down.

The first turn was alot of manoeuvring, the tank hunter teams all turned up in the woods and ran towards the hedgerow supported by the vets who ran forward too. The T34 came on up the road too, it took a pot shot at the KT but the shot went wide, the tank riders jumped off at the cross roads at the worst time though as the hills looking down onto the road lit up with LMG fire from supporting FJ units and killed the NCO and another poor chap pinning them quite badly.

The rest of the FJ force moved in behind the KT.







Turn 2

The germans got the initiative, those 2 FJ units on the hill would be a pain in my backside. One lit up the tank riders again pinning them further, the other took shots at my LT who had ran forward to help get those pins off.

The FJ behind the the KT broke to the right of the KT into the field and took up position to fire onto a tank hunter team which reached the hedgerow but failed to get any kills on the little team, but in turn they fired off their Panzerfaust and failed to hit the massive bloody King Tiger sitting 6 inches from them!

The Soviet vets in the ruins ran forward to the farm cottage and the free squad started firing widely at the FJ on the hill htting nowt.

Start the tank battle, the T34 got off the mark, aimed and fired and.... and.... the shell bounced harmlessly off the King tiger. The king tiger traversed and fired at the little T34 and missed! Both crews rushed to reload. The photos below show what each tank could see of each other, there is a fooking hugh Tiger lurking out there....









Turn 3

Things get real.

The King Tiger reloads first, fires and hits the T34 square in the face, what happened next I swear here and now happened. The 88 shell hit the front of the T34 and went straight through it and out the other side. Crew stunned, tank on fire. BUT, the crew were vets, and the LT was close by and my little Soviet tank crew put the fire out and held firm! Team USSR!

The FJ in the field next to the KT shoot down the Tank hunter team that had failed to hit the KT last turn, but by engaging that team they allowed another little 2 man tank hunter team to crawl up close to the Tiger, they braced, fired and BOOM!, king tiger is toast (hit on a 5, pen'd on a 6, damage rolled a 6).

The tank riders pushed across the road to take up a position behind a wee wall but took fire from the FJ on the hill, the other FJ team on the hill caught wind on the Rifle vets moving into the farm and went into ambush, and the rifles took up an ambush position too, both eye balling each other for the turn.

In the woods the other rifle team with the other tank hunter team moved ever forward, my LT, out of nowhere, with 1 pin on him, fubared and started back down the road even after helping the T34 crew.

the remaining FJ took up positions around the KT, when it blew up I think my opponent knew then the sausages were not to be his.









Turn 4

The free Rifle squad continued to pepper the hill with rifle fire and managed to kill a single FJ!

This enraged my FJ friend, it was too much, crapy free rifle men killing the elite FJ and his King Tiger being blown up it was now a matter of killing as many russians as possible, the FJ in the field finished a Tank hunter team, his LT and body guard moved on the man who had blew up the Tiger and fired and killed his mate, in turn he pulled up his ppsh and killed the FJ LT (exceptional damage!)

The Vet rifles in the wood made a picket line at the hedgerow and held tight. The T34 got into gear and started rolling forward targeting the FJ on the hill. The hull MMG firing and hitting no one and for the craic I fired the AT round that was ment for the Tiger, it hit and blew one of the FJ in half, not very pleasant.

The other FJ unit on the hill broke cover and went for the T34, fired 3 panzerfausts and all missed! Unfortunately for them the vet rifle squad of soviets came around the corner of the cottage and unleashed a volley of rifle fire cutting them all down.

The last FJ unit went towards the hill to reinforce that flank as the other FJ unit was dug in nicely in the field.











Turn 5

By this stage, there were alot more red dice in the order bag and the soviets took a massive initiative. The lone surviving Tank hunter, who had killed a Tiger and an FJ Lt headed home, Hero of the Soviet union.

The Vet rifle squad in the woods behind the hedge decided to dig out those pesky FJ in the field across from them, bayonets were fixed and a charge was made. 3 russians died. 4 FJ died. The one surviving FJ was clubbed to death by angry russians who took up the FJ position and started looting the bodies! (need more panzerfausts!)

The FJ squad still on the hill made a desperate charge at the T34 to fire their panzerfausts, and again the dice gods were not with my friend as they all went wide, and just like what had happened of the other flank, a full sized veteran rifle squad of Soviets fixed bayonets and fell upon them and clubbed them all to death, this is the Eastern front, you weren't expecting a happy ending for the Germans were you?

The T34 kicked into action and trundled down the road swinging it's turret round to now bare on the last surviving FJ squad, the MMG fired but did little to them. The tank rider squad ran forward but scored no kills either. The FJ fired back and took out a couple more Russians.

No pictures for this turn, sorry

Turn 6

The Germans decided to fight to the end, the T34 turned to face, and drove down the hedgerow firing MMG's widely and failed to hit a thing.

The bodyguards of the long dead FJ Lt charged the Vet rifles and both died a horrible death as the toughened soviet veterans clubbed them down.

The last of the FJ charged the tank riders, they killed 3 on the charge before 14 dice of ppsh fire cut them to pieces.







Conclusion.

Soviet Veterans take names! Badassery.

Nice game, it was fun to play a game without flamethrowers and such other non gentlemenly things, that being said this was a violent game, most of the FJ fell not to bullets, but the wooden stock of a nagant.

And King tigers are scary big things, I think if my friend had of been more aggressive, and drove through my lines allowing his FJ to get into the woods things could have ended differently.

I played aggressively, sure I had veterans, but I had alot of veterans to throw out there so as usual, a good defence is a brutal offence!

Boris