Ratzki's DAR vs 107thCav

[Ratzki]

Not much action the last turn, I finished getting the lead platoon in Group C out of harms way and to the back of the clump of scattered trees near the flag. I lost contact with my mortar but that will improve once I get my HQ out of hiding. It looks like 107th is content with comming at me with only 1 platoon of infantry from the woods. I will take those odds as I stilll have my armour for support, and the tanks can see into the woods when he pops up. Most of his other infantry platoons are turning to head for the church and are trying to deal with my 2nd platoon in C Group. It looks like they are doing some area fire or at least the fire that is happening is very uneffective. I will keep heads down for another few rounds and see if he will chance crossing some open terrain.
His T-34 sits behind the same house and does nothing which is still fine by me.
I landed some 80 rounds of HE from my FO on to the church and area, watched a few squads bob up and down. Now have targetted smoke to cover my assult on the church. I always seem to have a problem with the timming with smoke and moving so this might get ugly. I have about 60m to cover and will be going alll out with the pioneer platoon and 2 infantry platoons, as well as advancing one R-35 up for support out of his gun's LOS.
His armoured car put it in reverse and is now out of LOS of all my units. I don't know what his plan is with it. I am hoping he will move it into range of my AT Gun and try to flank some of my infantry, but this is just wishfull thinking.

[Ratzki]

Well, after all that trouble of getting my guys out of his LOS, I catch a bad break. I get one large HE tree burst directly over my HQ's head and he goes PANIC. 107th is blasting away at a spot near my men with area fire from every unit that has LOS. Under normal conditions, I would be able to ride it out, but with no HQ, it does not take long and two of my squads start to explore the map with all the grace of a couple of headless chickens. Towards the end of the turn, even my HQ starts to sneak away. Lets pray that he get's out of the effects of the area fire before he BREAKS like the other two and strikes out across the map.

The T-34 gets to take one shot, and guess what?... It takes out my R-35. This makes for two bad breaks in one turn. He only got LOS for a short time, and if I could have moved a bit farther, would have been safe. Apparently, bad breaks come in threes, so all that is left is for my FO to drop smoke somewhere that I don't want, or one of my Pz's to shoot a friendly.

At least my smoke lands well. I am going to play it safe and only advance with the Romanian platoons. After this turns events I am going to shift my attention from the town to the two flags over by the Jager platoon, and will bring my pioneers in for support.

[Ratzki]

It was kind of a good news/bad news turn this time round. The good news is I was able to deal with a major pain, the bad news is that "bad news comes in 3's" saying,.... well I now know what the 3rd bit of bad luck is.
After I wrote the last update to this DAR, I decided that I would take out the house that his T-34 was behind. I was going to have to deal with him sooner or later and after the last round felt that he might be ripe for the picking. The T-34 was concentrating on my men about to advance through the smoke, he may have put a covered arc on it to keep it's turret that way as well. If so now was the time to go for it. I chose to take that house out and deny him cover. I would have to wait for the dust to clear and then I might be able to get a good shot at him.
I had 1 Pz take down the house, there was a squad in it so that was a bonus. It only took a couple of shots as it was already damaged a fair bit. The dust from the building collapse does not let me get a LOS to the T-34.

The dust from the rubbled house does not last long. I will have to check out the weather as I expected the dust to last longer then that. I manage to get a couple of rounds off, the first two miss the mark and the T-34, still with it's hatch down finally picks up my threat and starts to swing it's turret my way. The turn clock ticks away 57... 58... . His gun aims.... BAM, both of my Pz's get a second shot in before time runs out. Both score hits, but I do not know if he is out of action or not as there is no time left. Chances of him taking 2 shots from this close range is not good, but I will have to let the Pz's fire away 'till they confirm a kill.

Back in the trees, my lead platoon from Group C is fighting for it's life. My HQ gets ROUTED but his morale+1 keeps him together and he setttles down and goes PINNED with not amoment to spare. He rallies one squad and stops the route. Now I will work him back to the flag. I have a ATR team moving through the trees as well, tring to position themselves to get a good flank shot at the T-60s.
His platoon in yellow continues to fire at my 2nd Group C platoon, but he is too far away to have any effect as they have not bad cover at the moment. I am still hitting them with small HE from my mortars and MG fire. I can not suppress them all at once but seem to be able to keep 3/4s of them heads down.
The green platoon is unknown to me right now. I have not had contact with them in 2 turns. I am assuming that they are SNEAKing towards the flag near my squad and HQ. If i have any chance of keeping this flag, I have to get my armour into help out in this area.

Remember that 3rd bit of bad luck, I was talking about?.... Well here it is. I let loose over 70 rounds of smoke and to my horror nitice that every enemy squad that can shoot at me effectively, somehow keeps LOS. Now you would think that 107th would have mercy and not fire at my men strolling across open ground, but he apparently is not that type, and he not only let's his men shoot at my guys but targets with that Pesky T-34 before I was able to get it's attention with some well placed AP. When the dust settles, 1/2 my advance is in shambles but as I am now out of smoke I decide to press on with the other Romanian platoon, albeit with a slightly modified route.
And did I forget to mention the Russian air support that fired at one of my Pz's? And just after I get my quad AA gun hooked up to the truck, so now I am into quick set-up of that gun again, 44 seconds away.

[Ratzki]

This turn goes by with little fanfair. The HQ of the forward platoon in Group C is back in good shape and the whole platoon is back rallied and I have started to get them back into position in the tree line. The ATR team is almost into position to have a go at his light tanks from about 30deg. front/side, I may get lucky and score a commander or get a side hit and penetration. 107th is still moving men into the woods near the flag so I am assuming that he does not hav control of the flag yet. It is only 1 woods tile and I can't see him wanting to pack too many men into such a small area so the flag must still be neutral. On the other side he is shooting non-stop at my 2nd platoon in the trees but it is doing no damage.
I have started to move my Pz's down the road towards the church with HUNT commands. I just want to see what is out there and will soon be in a position to flank his light armour and/or blast away at the church and see if I can dig his guys out of there.
My Group B is still recovering from the disruption they too after the failed advance toward the church. I have 1 HQ BROKEN and 2 squads from 1 platoon, the other is just PINNED but is now in ok cover. I will hold here untill the R-35 and or the PZ's can come for support. The pioneer platoon is holding fast as well.
Group C is getting ready to make a little leapfrog move forward several metres. I am going to use the time that the enemy is firing on other targets to move. I have 2x R-35s moving over here to lend a hand, one has been shocked but the 2nd one is fine. Once on top the hill they will be out of his guns LOS and they should be able to move in and oust the enemy from the scattered trees.
I'll have to see, what kind of shape I am in after this turn.

[Ratzki]

My ATR team takes up position but gets pinned as soon as it targets the T-60, the incomming fire does not last long and he manages to squeeze off a couple of shots and makes contact with one hit. The T-60 is slowly turningcounterclockwise and for a moment I fear that he has located the ATR but it keeps rotating past. If it keeps up I will have a better chance to kill with the ATR. More of his infantry join in at the party in the one woods tile. And none of his squads ever seems to come out or fire, they just dissappear into the woods. I will deal with these T-60s first, then will fill the woods with some HE.

Just as the turn comes to an end my Pz makes it to the edge of the tree cover. I may have pushed him a little far forward as he gets into LOS of both T-60s. There is a small chance of the T-60 knocking out the Pz but not much, hopefully they will turn tail and run. The ATR team will take on the near T-60. I am moving up a Pz on the other side of the hill that will cut off their escape.

Here is an overview of the situation at present. This is the right hand side of the map showing Group C and my Pz's. Most of his infantry(Yellow) is contained now by the 2nd Romanian platoon, a couple HMG's just out of sight, and my armour. I am at odds at the moment what to do. On one hand I want to work on wiping out this force in the trees near the flag on the hill. I know where he is, for the most part and this would finish the game for him. On the other hand, I want to eliminate the platoon in the church and the other 2 flags on the left of the map. With these flags in my control and his platoons in shambles, I should have enough time to deal with the rest of his force. He has enough units, and position now that I will need my armour to dig him out. I just do not know if I have the time or ammo to do either, and here I thought he would be armour heavy and the other has occured, a couple good passes with that air support and a bit of luck on his part could change everything fast.

The left side of the battlefield is relatively calm and I am content to sit for a couple turns till my armour gets here to lend a hand. I want to deal with the ATGun and the armoured car and get my infantry into the fight from a little closer range. I will wait for the one Romanian platoon to come back online then will be ready to take the church.

[Ratzki]

At the top of the turn my Pz takes out one T-60 just to have another move to engage my tank. After a few shots are exchanged it meets the same fate as the first T-60. The bad news is that the first T-60 managed to hit a track and I am now Immob. Bad news as there is not alot I can do with this Pz from way over here. Those T-60s can fire several shots to my Pz's single shot, and even though nothing penetrated, I am down one more tank just the same. I have a Marder into position as well and he will start too chuck some HE into the woods and see if I can dig out the infantry that I know is in there.

It only takes a couple rounds from the 75mm on the Marder and I get some enemy movement in the trees. One squad is heading back to quieter pastures. My platoon is not able to take advantage though as I have tried to position them so that they are not in LOS of any enemy troops. I want this flag with a few men tied up as possible.

It looks like I hve bottled up more then half of his total manpower in the trees on the hill. I am controlling their movement with one platoon and a couple of MG's. My armour has now gained three sides and there is no hope of getting out of there for 107 without taking some shots. At the tail end of the turn another T-60 pokes it's head out looking to get into some action without being seen. My Pz takes care of him in a single shot, now there is only 1x T-60 left that I have seen, it too, is in the trees on the hill. I have moanaged to get a R-35 up to the church and will start to take on his infantry that are controlling this flag.

My other functioning R-35 is trying to get around the side of his infantry in the depression of the sttream bed, but is being targetted by his ATG. The ATG bounces a couple rounds off my little tank but no harm done. Hopfully I can get it out of LOS soon. I will advance on the church soon, onec a couple rounds of softening up the enemy platonn is complete. I would have to say that the battle is winding down now. I do not think that he has any more armour oth then what I have seen, it will be just a matter of time before I will be hammering away with my armour on his infantry. Barring some total meltdown, I should have the game.

[Ratzki]

107th must have decided that he has finally had enough of me and launches attacks across the map. At the flag in the woods where I have the lone infantry platoon, it looks like a blue light special at K-Mart. There are Russians comming from all directions. They break the covered arcs that I had set and my men open fire to try to hold them off. By the end of the turn I have about half his advanceing force on the ground but he has made some good ground with what he has left. I will be ordering my Pz to fire with HE on any targets that make it to cover.

Near the church my Pz and R-35 give the enemy platoon a good roughing up. I want to deny him access to the church and do not want to destroy it. Right now the church is giving my infantry good concealment and I will be using it as cover for a squad once I get there in any numbers. 107th probably does not have enough large cal. guns to bring it down, and I am not going to rubble it if I can help it.

Just before the turn ends 107th makes a made dash with his men to assault my Pz at the church. A half dozen grenades and a molotov later, I am still ok, my Pz is moving away from his men, and I will have to swing the gun around and take on this new threat. I just kicked a platoon out from this flag and he goes and moves another one in here.

Overall, my advance on this flag is going quite well. No real losses to speak of, if that arty of mine had not let me down this would have been done earlier. Better late then never. I think that a good plan is worth sticking with. I wanted this flag from the onset of the game as it again divides the map with great cover and a good vantage point. I took a bit of a bloody nose the first time that I tried to take it. I wanted to give up on it then, but it is a good flag. Once my troops were back online, I knew that i would have to go for it again.

My R-35 moving to flank his infantry on the extremem left of the map is taken out by the ATG of 107th. My other R-35 is in trouble as well, he is well within the LOS where this one started to take fire so I can't stop now, I just modified his move orders as much asI could but will proceed and hope for the best.

[Colonel Talvela]

still reading & enjoying this dar

[Maakt Droog]

quite right. this is an excellent dar!

[Ratzki]

Well thanks guys. It means a bunch to get some feedback when you work on one of these and try to put out a good read. I would encourage everyone who reads these things to comment on them, it keeps the spirit up, and we just might get more of them happening.
Ok, been a few days since the last update on this battle. A few turns have gone by with more of the same, 107th tries to move his men up to take a flag or gain position and I am able to pretty much totally stop the advance on all sections of the map. This is the final screenshot as I had pushed the ceasefire and I gather 107th had done the same. Even though he still could have dished out some more damage to my men, he knew that the writing was on the wall, and I walked away with a victory. On the map below, 107th's infantry is in yellow and his armour in red. My infantry is in green and my armour in blue. The white line is the front line as I see it.

As you can see, 107th's forces were in total route in the centre of the map. I was going to leave the flag at the far right alone and see who would get it. My plans would have been to advance throughh the centre to take the easy flags as they had little protection, but the battle ended before I was able to get started.
I think that 107th played a good game once he was up against the wall, but by that time it was too late. Moving his armour into the town with no support and then sitting pat, allowed me to gain the advantage when in reality, I was quite concerned at how fast he got there with the T-34s. The same with the T-60s, he got into good position but then seemed to stall and let me get my footing again. If he would have pressed from the right flag early in the game I would have been in a much poorer position in the centre and possibly would have been forced to move around my armour to plug the hole and could have been picked off one at a time doing so.
Thanks for the game 107th!