The Best Defense is a Good Offense BATREP FOW

By Ian Birdwell

After having all of my time the past few weeks eaten up by “real life” and “responsibilities”, I was finally able to take some time to head over to the club to play a game.

Challis, one of club members, has also been waylaid by the same things I have been and hadn’t had an opportunity to play his soviets since August of last year (Check out the battle report here ) we were fixing for a friendly throw down.

Given our mutual love for all things Eastern Front, we opted to throw down with 109 point forces from Red Banner and Desperate Defense (check out the release article here ).

The Lists

Since it had been a while since either of us had played MW, Challis opted to run with Soviet Hero Motor Rifles and I selected a formation of T-38s and an infantry company.

Hungarian Forces:

1 Formation of T-38s and 1 Formation of Infantry

1 T-38 Commander

3 platoons of 4 T-38s

1 platoon of Toldis

1 Infantry HQ

2 Small Platoons of Infantry with attached HMG

3 Pak 38s

1 Mortar Platoon

Support

3 Pak 40s

3 Panzer IV F₁

 

Soviet Forces:

 1 Formation of Hero Motor Rifles

1 Command Section

2 Platoons of Hero Rifles

1 Platoon of Hero SMGs

1 Platoon of 6 120mm Mortars

1 Platoon of 2 45mm AT guns

1 Platoon of 4 PTRDs

1 Platoon of 8 T-34s

 

 

The Pre-Game Set-Up

The Hungarians won the roll off for determining attacker and defender in Dust-Up, selecting the closer corner hemmed in by woods. While helpful for defending against the Soviet attacks with infantry, the mortars would not enjoy this blockage of spotting territory…..

For reserves, the Soviets opted to place their T-34s in reserve to match the Hungarian tanks in Reserve. With all of the Hungarian AT guns overlooking the narrow gap where objectives were placed those T-34s looked to be in a precarious position, but the cunning Soviet Battalion Commander had a plan to remove those impediments to the revolution. Otherwise, the Toldis spearheaded to gain a little bit of ground for deploying the infantry more aggressively. Beyond that, the set up was as pictured.

 

Turn 1

Hungarian Turn one was rather unremarkable as the infantry and Toldis advanced up cautiously to take advantage of as much cover as possible. Other than that,

the Hungarians held their ground and awaited the Soviet advance.

The Soviet first turn was a much more dynamic one, with the infantry moving aggressively up the middle of the table, in the hopes of quickly overwhelming their Hungarian foes. As the officers attempted to drive the men even further with Follow Me Orders being issued, the Soviet veterans erred on the side of caution and refused to advance any further. Meanwhile, the Soviet mortars failed to range in on the Hungarians in the woods.

Turn 2

Hungarian turn two began with the attempt to solidify their positions to cover the approaches of the advancing Soviet infantry, succeeding in their orders to dig in. Reacting to the Aggression of the Soviet forces, the Toldis pulled back to reinforce the center of the Hungarian position. The Hungarian Mortars proved completely ineffective in finding their targets in the cornfield immediately opposite the comrades in the woods. However, those troops in the woods proved effective in pinning down the Soviet Platoon in the cornfield and the T-38 Captain joined them in pinning down the platoon advancing across the open.

For the Soviets, the start of the second turn was a mixed bag, only one of the two advancing infantry platoons unpinned. But, that unpinning allowed the platoon to continue to advance towards the unprotected Hungarian flank. The Soviet Artillery rained down upon the Hungarians in the woods, pinning both the Pak 38s and infantry sheltering within it in addition to slaying a Pak 38 and a stand of infantry.

Turn 3

As luck would have it, the Hungarian turn began with the timely arrival of a platoon of T-38 tanks, who quickly advanced into the face of the PTRDs guarding the approach to the Soviet deployment zone. Unfortunately, though, the forces pinned by the Soviet artillery fire remained shaken from the bombardment and did not unpin. The Toldis continued their advance to meet the oncoming Soviet infantry, spraying them with machine gun fire and pinning the platoon. Meanwhile, the mortars continued to be great disappointments, failing to range in for the second turn in a row…..

Though the Soviet turn began without the arrival of the T-34s, the Hero SMG platoon would go on to show why they were heroes in the first place, unpinning and moving towards the unprotected left flank of the Hungarian lines. The PTRDs opened up on the advancing T-38s, with a shot finding its mark and bailing one of the Hungarian tanks.

The mortars continued to pound home on the Hungarian infantry in the woods, eliminating two more stands and weakening the Hungarian center. The enterprising Lieutenant leading the Soviet SMGs moved forward to assault the PaK-38s, eliminating one of the critical anti-tank weapons and inspiring his men onto further heroics.

 

Turn 4

Turn four began with more failures to unpin and a failed last stand check for the Hungarian PaK-38, weakening an already assailed flank. With the pressure mounting from the repeat bombardments, a decisive retreat out from underneath the Soviet heavy mortars was made by the infantry in order to regroup and hopefully protect the gun teams.  The Toldis advanced to address the SMG platoon in the woods, though they didn’t wish to get too close. The Mortars finally ranged in on the Zis-3 guns on the hill, only hitting one but failing to be effective in doing anything other than pinning the unit.

The T-38s moved up to exact their vengeance upon the PTRDs, assaulting following an ineffective spray of machine gun fire. In return for their efforts, they traded a single T-38 for a single PTRD team.

Another turn without reserves for the Soviets, but the brave Soviet Lieutenant continued his efforts to eliminate every AT gun standing in his way, destroying a PaK 40 by himself once more in an assault. The 45mm AT Guns turn to face the T-38s alongside the PTRDs and all fail to stop the advance of the Hungarian armor, bailing only a single vehicle despite their impressive firepower. Unfortunately, other Soviet efforts to turn the tide and stall out the Hungarians have been met with little success as the mortars failed to range in again and the Zis-3 guns fail to hit any of the Toldis.

 

Turn 5

Hungarian turn five began with a bang, because though almost nothing unpinned from previous turns every Hungarian unit still in reserve arrived this turn. The Panzer 4s move to reinforce the Hungarian anti-tank guns while the T-38s advance to assail the main bulk of the Soviet forces.

Moving aggressively towards the objective heedless of the Soviet AT weapons arrayed against them, a platoon of T-38s dashes towards the enemy though it fails its follow me roll. The other T-38 platoon hosed down the 45mm AT guns and destroying the only gun in range of its weapons.

The furthest advanced T-38s consolidate to join their newly arrived comrades, failing to follow me in the process. While none of the shots against the rampaging SMG platoon land true, the Toldis position themselves to protect the Pak 40s as they’re the only tool in the Hungarian arsenal capable of dealing with the T-34s which are guaranteed to come on. To this end the Toldis attempt to eliminate the rampaging Hero SMG Lieutenant and fail miserably. The mortar’s repeat bombardment once again pins the Zis-3 guns though it fails to eliminate any of them.

Sensing the way was now clear, the T-34s now cautiously arrive to support the attack! Their opening volley targets the Toldis, and the single shot hitting home is warded off by a lucky glance of the Toldi’s front armor. Soviet infantry moves in to support the beleaguered AT weapons and stem the pressure on the Soviet artillery. Critically, the Soviet 45mm AT guns fail their last stand and flee the field, removing a critical force for deterring the advancing Hungarian armor. Seeing the exposed flanks of the T-38s, the PTRDs moved to eliminate the Hungarian armor. Though the PTRDs landed several hits on the T-38s, no shots found their mark on the Hungarian tanks.

Turn 6

The aggressive maneuvers of the T-38s on the Hungarian right flank saw the Hungarian T-38s contesting the objective. With this in mind, the T-38s moved to put as much machine gun fire on the Soviet infantry in range as possible in order to make safe the way to assault the objective. In the process, a single Soviet infantry stand in range was destroyed and all but 1 PTRD was eliminated. With ineffective defensive fire, the T-38s were able to take out the last remaining infantryman within range to contest their hold on the objective. A failed counterattack secured victory for the Hungarians.

The Dust Settles……

Ultimately, the two deciding factors in this game were the untimely arrival of the T-34s and the timely arrival of all three remaining platoons of Hungarian reserves.

Given the overall success of the Soviet pushes into the Hungarian right flank, earlier arrival of the T-34s would have crushed that flank fairly quickly and the security offered by the PaK 40s could have quickly been dealt with by the accompanying infantry teams. Luckily for me (and unluckily for Challis), instead of getting a single platoon on turn five, I received all three.

I was then able to reinforce the push onto the objectives in the Soviet deployment area and send the Panzer IVs to support the Pak 40s. In short, if the T-34s had arrived on any other turn but turn 5 I likely wouldn’t have had the forces available to deal with them and would have had a hard time holding on for my reserves which wouldn’t be able to adequately deal with them anyway. Regardless of the outcome, Challis and I had a great return to V4 for an afternoon away from responsibilities and a lot of fun.

For your enjoyment here are the rest of the images from the game