Leto's View - To assault a Soviet. QB DAR vs Colonel Talvela ***

[Copper]

Upon receiving some unit info, and more taunting from Dave, I've drawn a very unnerving conclusion as to the kit selection Dave has made.

The guns that I have come across thus far ARE NOT 57mm, but 76mm Russian ZiS.

This tells me that Dave has not picked the Soviet SMG battalion, but FOUR COMPANIES OF GUARDS MECHANIZED SMG/LMG troops.

Why do I think this?

1) The absence of ATR's. I would be plinking away at my soft armor with these, and I have not come across one yet. The battalion pick has something like 8.

2) The company picks provide Maxim MG's, but no ATR's.

3) The guns are not 57's (very expensive if chosen outside battalion).

4) Dave's continual tauntings that his defense is not built around the SU-100, but on SMG's "come and get them" he taunteth.

5) The surprising amount of infantry that Dave has popping up now that I am in close proximity to his eastern flag (see below).



6) The reason for having the SU-100 itself, 76's have a small capacity for taking out German Panzers. I've encountered 2 on the east side and the SU-100 is there to compensate.

I believe Dave may have one or two 57's on the west side as he has his T-34/85 there, and that tank plus a 57 may give a good defense against even a Tiger platoon.

Therefore after doing the points summation, Col T has the following:

SU-100
T-34/85
Crack Sharpshooter
4 Companies SMG troops
2 mortars
3 76mm ZiS guns
1 57mm gun
15 strips of barbed wire.

This is very close to 2000 points.

Strategically, this is a "break your offense against a rock" defense, and there are 4 companies or 36 SMG units to defend 5 flags (note that Dave has a wealth of resources enough to place foxholed men on the flank side of the eastern forest on approach to that flag - see above slide). Each SMG placed in a strategic area around the flags (his defense is deep) so you must trigger each (and each time you do so, you lose a squad theoretically).

The weakness to this defense is thus:

1) If lured into a firefight at range, the SMG/LMG are no match for the Sturmtrooper with its MP44 heavy troopers.

2) Artillery will disrupt and destroy a good lot of these bastards (note front of the east flag hit quite hard.

3) It is susceptible to mobile artillery attacks (my grille's of which I only have 2 functioning) and heavy tank attacks but he's deeply engrained in the forest areas, and thus hard to get at.

4) Concentrating my forces so that I have a full oversized company attacking each objective mitigates the advantage Dave has (I have taken very few casualties thus far, but have lost a sturmtrooper squad in the east because of sloppy play and not taking my time to check the backside of the forest).

Luckily, the 81 mm arty has completely nutted his west flag defense, and I feel confident that I can take it with a platoon and my hetzer now. (He's lost over an entire platoon so far that I can see, and the rest are most likely now pinned or disrupted, making them susceptible to attack, especially from the rear).



It will be a real tough fight to get the East flag (I suspect an entire company is there), but my grille and hetzers will now be able to attack unabated. AS well, the front part of his defense has been smashed by heavy arty.

I may be able to secure the second west flag if I can coordinate my flanking company with my MG company to its front, and take out that T-34/85 next turn (hetzer moving to intercept). IF dave continues to area fire my MG units, then the hetzer will get it (barring a gun getting the hetzer in the meantime).

In the middle, my dilemna is sealed. I can't go any further.

I'll use the grille and 150 IG to blast as much as I can, and my troops to engage at range on his SMG's if I can turn them up.

A very hard fight, and an extremely well planned defense by one of the best in the game. A draw is looking very good right now.

Cheers!

Leto