Bat-rep FOW LW – awesome terrain

By Benny Christiansen

In the middle of a steaming hot summer, with a pregnant wife and a job, where a lot of colleges are on holiday, I found the time for a game with one of my friends. We are going to play in a Total War battle in October, where we will be fighting for Kiev. We decided to test some of my 4000 points list in a friendly game. The game would be on his new table, which is meant for a Stalingrad battle, that is also in the making.

My list. My opponent’s list

My friend enjoys making terrain. He has made a lot of it, over the years, and it keeps getting better and better. We have fought on the 25cm tall sides of a mountain and landing on D-day and all kind of places. Always he makes the terrain amazing to behold and a pleasure to play on.

 

The Mission

We decided to play Dust Up, with Fog of War cards. Neither of us had given reserves any thoughts, so we started out considering if we had forgotten all about FOW since our last game. The mission provides us with a chance to use spearhead units. The fun part is to remember to take turns deploying a unit.

Deployment

In Fog Of War I find that a focus on the center and, in fact, the entire mid part of the table, is the best way to go. I decided to keep my HQ and the small infantry platoon on the table, along with the artillery, 45mm AT-guns and scout unit, with the HMGs. He deployed Pak40, Pioneers, inf platoon and Nebelwerfers.

I try to deploy the least interesting first, such as artillery. It is limited how many places it can be anyway, and I enjoy the pressure the Russian artillery can provide by simply “being there”. In V4, heavy artillery is not that good an investment, but this is Udarny, so they work like veterans and it’s a good price for the entire squad.

Turn 1 to 3

At first, the Germans put pressure on the Russians by advancing through, and on the side of, the big empty production building.

The Russians moved the HQ towards the long table edge where their reserves would come from, but soon realized it would take too long and not put enough pressure on the center of the table. The German artillery managed to get the upper hand on the Russian Zis-guns, forcing them to move away at top speed.

The Russian HMGs tried to put pressure on the Pak40 squad but ended up doing very little, except to give away their position. The scouts and the 2 45mm AT guns from the HQ moved towards the red Train Station, that was filled up with Pioneers.

The Russian heavy artillery managed to make the German halftracks into wrecks, only allowing the last one to escape, with the 3 others burning in the middle of the road.

Turn 3 to end

As the reserves started to come on the table, it became evident that the Germans had lost the initiative on their side, as their tanks were not allowed to get closer to the flank, as it was protected by 3 Zis-2 guns, as well as a half-strength Udarny squad hiding in a building at the edge. The German Pioneer squad came out to eliminate the scout squad. The scout squad was sacrificed to remove an objective the German player had in his deployment zone, by claiming a “Spread Disorder” objective. The Pioneers had been protecting one half of the 2 objectives for “Dual Objectives” where each player place an objective within 60cm of the center of the table. You gain 6 points if you hold both at the same time.

The Germans had 4 Panzer IV arrive and threaten the side of the table, but the building was a perfect hiding spot for the Udarny platoon.

The Panzer IVs then turned their attention to the center of the table, as the German player received orders to eliminate the Russian HQ unit.

The Russian HQ managed to take hold of the center of the table and push back the German infantry unit, in large parts due to the PTRDs and their Volley Fire.

The Russian player had been ordered to take control of a building and establish a forward HQ. At the same time, orders had been issued to take out the German Infantry units, in order to minimize future resistance.

Having managed this along with establishing control of the central area of the battlefield (and thus managing the mission called “Line in the Sand“) the Russian forces pushed the German forces away from the battle after an epic close quarter struggle in the center of the huge factory, eradicating the German HQ and infantry hiding there.

Conclusion/Lessons learned

Fog Of War is enjoyable especially on a table like this. There is so much terrain, and Fog Of War makes it more likely to be “used” by some of the forces. I believe the only area we did not get into was a 30cmX30cm burned out building area. Everything else was used to some extent.

The Russian Udarny units benefit from a skill test of 3+, which I would love to see them use in hand to hand combat. It is, however, very difficult for them to get there, as even a few halftracks or tanks can stop the assault. “Surgical” assaults of 1-2 teams can be done, but I found it very difficult to get an assault of 4-5 teams past the Defensive Fire.

I have already changed part of my list for the Total War battle, where I will be fielding 4000 points of Russians. The HMGs are really growing on me at the moment, so I plan to field more of them.