War stories

[starwiz01]

Well the best story I have is.  We had a 100 point country specific war.  I ended up feilding a japaness army with paratroopers, sniper, 1 tank and a zero.  Surprisingly this weak looking army was able to not only defeat a sherman strong us army.  But also was able to take out a very strong German army.  Mostly the luck was in the dice roll.  And the fact I was able to take the objective with paratroopers early and hold out until a full 10 rounds…  But the only bad thing, whenever I fielded my Zero it was with out a doubt the one piece I rolled bad dice for…

[thommieh]

I recently had good experiences with the japanese aswell. Because my collection isn´t that big the only japanese tanks I´ve got are two of those amphibious ones. So my friend and I decide to use the maps with the big water area´s (Able 3 and Able 4 if i´m not mistaken). We played with two house rules: The amphibious tanks can carry one soldier and while in the water it has cover on a roll of 4+. My friend played with a russian army with the core being a T34/76 and a T 70. We used a 3 by 2 setup (had the two water maps in the middle with the land sides against each other which formed a small passage) with the objective in the centre of the map. Because my friend (also a new player) rushed down the centre towards the objective I actually managed to outflank him through the water with my amphi tanks and get a nice clear shot in from the rear, which in two turns proved to be fatal for his T34/76. His T70 was killed by my antitank gun. Needless to say he was a bit surprised but we had fun though!

[Guest]

Im not really surprised that the T-70 got blown up, it doesnt have exactly what you call good defense.  However T-70’s are very good when you use them in packs of 3, seeing as how cheap and fast they are, they are good to take out light armor, such as half-tracks, light tanks, and low armored tank-destroyers.  The T-70 is perhaps the best light tank in AAM.  The T34/76 is okay but id much rather take a KV-1.

@starwiz01:

Well the best story I have is. We had a 100 point country specific war. I ended up feilding a japaness army with paratroopers, sniper, 1 tank and a zero. Surprisingly this weak looking army was able to not only defeat a sherman strong us army. But also was able to take out a very strong German army. Mostly the luck was in the dice roll. And the fact I was able to take the objective with paratroopers early and hold out until a full 10 rounds… But the only bad thing, whenever I fielded my Zero it was with out a doubt the one piece I rolled bad dice for…

The Japanese have an exceptional army.  Their infantry in my opinion beat the hell out of the SS-Panzergrenadiers.  However their tanks are like……meh.  Not as good as German and Russian armor, but it could probaly take on some regular Shermans.  I wouldnt count on Japanese armor taking on anything better than a regular Sherman (like the Sherman "Easy-Eight.)

[Der Leiter]

T-70s are very very good IF you use them properly. Their undermanned SA requires some consideration. However, as many players will attest they’ve had Tigers (King, Vet, I) taken down by a pack of T-70s.

I don’t agree that the Japanese have better infantry than the SS-PGs, but they have equal too. Japanese tactics against armour require skill and luck. Their best unit against armour has always been the Ho-Ni, though it is unfortunately easily neutralized by aircraft - and thus far Japan has no AA unit save their Zeros; this is generally the only reason I field them now. Alternatively just go all, or mainly infantry.

An Honour-Bound Hero is a must in a JP army.

[Der Leiter]

Some new war stories from the first half of our Battle of the Bulge game:

We’re convinced that at least some of our spotters have had sniper training; my ally’s spotter killing an adjacent Oberleutnant dead in one shot. My spotter kept directly mortar fire all around him as the SS surrounded and pounded his location (there were cries of ‘Broken Arrow!’).

Best of all though was my Buffalo Soldier who earned some medals that night (though posthumously): His mission was simple - hold the road to delay enemy reinforcements. It was suicide, but if he failed the Germans would overrun the nearby city - if he succeeded he could delay their advance enough to give the US armour a chance to reinforce the cities. A StuG and MG42 are ahead of him; two Panthers closing in nearby.

The MG42 fires twice at point blank range - no effect.
The StuG fires off a round, again at point blank - no effect.
Both Panthers open up with their MGs - one manages to score a disruption

The Buffalo Soldier was out in the open - everyone expected him to die. Instead the squad  held up enemy reinforcements AND managed to retreat into the forest. But the squad wasn’t finished yet. A full SS Panther platoon drove around him, blatantly ignoring him, since SS-Stormtroopers were nearly on top of his position. Again, against all odds the squad not only slipped away from the SS soldiers, but close assaulted a Panther disrupting it with defencive fire, and damaging it in the assault phase.

Unfortunately the combined fire of 4 Panthers, 2 Stormtroopers, and MG42, and a half-track FINALLY destroyed the squad.

[Guest]

@Der:

Best of all though was my Buffalo Soldier who earned some medals that night (though posthumously):

He was a real american hero.  :cry:

[Der Leiter]

@MechanizedWarfare:

@Der:

Best of all though was my Buffalo Soldier who earned some medals that night (though posthumously):

He was a real american hero.  :cry:

I’m thinking the shock of having his whole battalion wiped out might have made him a little nuts - like rolling berserk for the russians in squad leader.

[Mr Ghoul]

What a neat thread! It’s too bad this game didn’t come out 10-15 years ago. I would have been all over it.

I did pick up a few pieces with the intention of using them for Flames of War once a buddy and I had some terrain built but it hasn’t happened yet. Making terrain is tough work…sick.

I enjoyed reading that battle of Kursh recap, although I wouldn’t have used as many Tigers and probably would have thrown it a few elephants or others assault guns. Good stuff!

[axisfan]

I expect that Elephants would soon be making an appearance (Hopefully)  I just picked up some tank killers and had some success with my Hetzer.  I now have a JagdPanther and a JagdTiger just waiting for the right time to introduce them…  Lost another one last Sunday.  But this one was very close went 10 rounds and lost on points.  My vet Tiger was impressive taking out 3 out of the 4 tank fielded with some help of some SS pG (God I love those pieces) But that Friggen Flaming churchill rolled 3 6’s and that was that.  It’s amazing how much punishment my vet took before going down.  All in all excellent game.

[Der Leiter]

The Elefant isn’t out yet; it is in the upcoming set (Reserves) though.

[axisfan]

Chalk up one for the Fatherland.  Had that 300 pt game.  It opened with an unpleasant surprise of not 1, not 2 but 3 crocks and a KV1 with a reg Sherman in support.  Lots of Screaming Eagles and a Royal Engineer hero and a P 51.  I fielded KT, VT, 1 SS Panther,  and a Brumbar 7 SS pg’s 2 snipes 2 ss haups, hero FW 190.  The game started out with a 6 for a map roll (Tiger heaven) and the race was on.  The allies came in hard and started pushing the axis back.  they broke into 2 armor sections .  2 crocks on the left and the KV/Crock and Sherman on the right.

I used the headshot ability early on and disrupted the KV on the right and a Crock on the left.  I went in on the KV with the King and Vet with the Panther in support but ended up taking out the crock instead. The paras dropped in to visit and put a  nice ring around by force.  The FW190 came in to take out the sniper and ended up having a dog fight with the Mustang (both planes ended up flaming each other)  I can never get a plane to work for me!!!  The god of dice treated me well and slammed the armor force.

The Brumbar worked extremly well as well as the snipers (Besides hitting the head shots one took out the Engineer)

Thanks DL for the ideas !!!

Axis fan out

[Der Leiter]

A few new ones:

My Dornier speed boosts to disrupt a Meteor, which in turn destroys my ammo depot. I have a Hungarian ATG I was going to move, then think ‘what the heck’ and try and shoot the Jet plane. It prompty goes down in flames.

A lowly Volkstrum soldier, with a little extra ammo, mowed down a Canadian Hero that hard torn the rest of his unit to shreds.

A four way battle on 8 maps; each player recieved two boosters and made a 100 point force out of whatever was in it. My army wasn’t great but not terrible; a Soviet Lee, two nebelwerfers, some infantry (though a Fallschirmjager and Ranger was nice), no depots, and two czech tanks. Opponent #1 had an Elefant, Ammo Depot, Fallschirmjager, and some infantry. Opponent #2 had a Panther, Fuel Depot, Ammo Depot, T-35, and two BA-10Ms. Opponent #3 had a Meteor, two canadian ATGs, a ton of partisans (french and german), and assorted light vehicles. There were three objectives; all along the centre - one in the middle and two to either side.  The middle was worth 10 points/round, and the sides 5 pts/round.

I went first and landed the Fallschirmjager on the middle objective turn 1.  My tanks were shot up by the Panther and Elefant, and few of my infantry survived. I managed to drag one of the nebelwerfers across the map before it finally fired - opening up with a salvo and taking out a ton of enemy infantry (he had forgotten the salvo and hadn’t noticed I was in range). The Elefant did very little except lumber around, as both of my other opponents tried to team up and take it out.

Finally on turn 10 my Fallschirmjager, who had been sitting on the objective the whole time, jumped off to close assault the Panther that had moved beside me to stop me from getting the points and destroyed it. That paratrooper singlehandedly won me the game. My only other kill was from the Lee taking out a BA-10M.

He single handedly won me the game, despite aircraft and enemy infantry trying to dislodge him.

[axisfan]

Leiter:  I tried checking out Kurst pics and can’t see them.  Are they still available?

[Guest]

@axisfan:

Leiter:  I tried checking out Kurst pics and can’t see them.  Are they still available?

Actually Id like to see them again as well.

[Der Leiter]

I think I’ve fixed all the links now, let me know if any don’t work (although occassionaly it’s just because of freewebs being… well freewebs).

We recently had a 4 player game of Poland 1939; two players were Poland, one was Germany, and the last (myself) was Russia. The map was 4x4 with a large city in the central. Objective: Each City Hex is worth 1 point; 2 points to the Russians (due to their smaller force).

GERMAN FORCES, 300 Points
4x BMW R75
3x Light Mortar
9x Mauser
3x Me 110
4x Pz II C
4x Pz 38(t)
3x Sd Kdz 222
9x Sd Kfz 250
4x Sd Kfz 251
1x SS-HSF

POLISH FORCES, 300 Points
5x 37mm ATG
3x 40mm Bofors
6x BAR Gunner
2x Bold Captain
4x Vickers MG
9x Cavalrymen
12x Determined Infantrymen
12x Polish Mauser
3x Vickers Mk E
2x 7TPdw

RUSSIAN FORCES
3x BA-10M
2x BT-7
1x Commissar
1x Cossack Captain
4x Cossack Cavalrymen
3x DP-27
3x KMT MG
9x Mosin-Nagant
2x Soviet T-26
1x T-35
2x KMT Officers

Not quite as big as our usual battles, but we wanted something we could finish in one night.

Poland deployed first, with MGs and two 37mms pointing west, the rest pointing east. All three Vickers tanks were deployed east as well, along with a significant number of cavalry and infantry. I was starting to think the Polish might suspect a Russian attack…

With all their infantry mechanized, the Germans simply blitzed in; ignoring casualties and defencive-fire they just kept coming. On turn two the lead units were already outside the city, while back on my side the Polish were actually invading my maps! However I took only light loses and managed to push them back. The high speed of the BA-10Ms and BT-7s allowed a very mobile reserve.

My T-35 slowly trudged down the road, not even firing; I wanted to get it in or close to Poland ASAP.  I took very light casualties, though two of them included DP-27s. In return I managed to knock out all of his ATGs, damage one tank, and drive the other two off. His infantry were falling back as rapidly as possible to the city.

Back on the Western side, the German Panzer IIs had taken up firing position on the city and were hammering away at it; their 8 attacks devastating the infantry. The Pz 38(t)s, Polish Vickers, and Russian BT-7s/BA-10Ms began some sort of bizzare dance, with all sides taking pot shots at each other from long range.

The T-35 on the second last turn FINALLY gets to fire a shot; it singlehandedly shoots down an Me-110. The T-35 was actually quite useful, keeping enemy infantry and vehicles at bay since they couldn’t handle it’s firepower, allowing my infantry to move up fairly unimpeeded.

In the final rounds my fast tanks sped into the city preventing either of my opponents from capturing the locations and allowing me to squeak by with a win, though I would only call it a temporary and minor one.

All in all a very nice game, though the Germans seemed to have too much stuff for one player; we’re thinking maybe 30 units per player is the magic number.