Dog Fight - Ostkreig Tournament Round 2

[Dog Soldier]

German turn 3.
08:00 AM December 12, 1942
Snow Conditions
Visibility 2km.


Victory points after the German turn three.
So far so good. I have destroyed 325 Russian infantry and seven tanks. German losses are heavy also.


The retreat from the Axis bridgehead moves forward without any interference from the Russians. My only worry was if the Russians in the west combined the mobile forces and pushed hard along the southern river bank to reach the bridge. I would be hard pressed to hold them. As it is the Russians seem to be probing the LW troops to the south on my western flank. They are looking for a point to over run the defense there. The Russian T-34’s do not venture far from their infantry support. Notice the motorcyclists still in column formation there. RickyB is risking this unit to either draw fire from my few artillery that can reach that far or leaving the unit mounted, so they can swoop forward and paste a LW unit that gets disrupted by Russian artillery next turn. Unfortunately for me, I can not get all my LW troops out of LOS this turn to keep him guessing.
I have most of my AT guns moving off the front lines to help dig positions in the rear . If the Russian break the line, I plan for the AT guns to disrupt marauding T-34’s. This may give me a chance to assault out of a surrounded position is there is a break in the line.

The Guards cavalry have begun crossing. While they are facing murderous fire from the German infantry dug in the village, they will soon rally and be able to conduct assaults. Already one German infantry company was reduced by 48%. They were retreated from the village to prevent annihilation. The motorcyclists lost 26% and one morale level. I am hurting the Russian cavalry, but they appear to be flanking my village position along the river to bring more fire power to bear. I will have to concentrate on the Russian units already across the river to prevent them from assaulting my cork in the bottle.
Notice the village I am holding is already in RUBBLE. This will make it harder for me to reinforce or rotate the troops there. Any Axis unit wishing to enter the village will have to stop in the clear terrain outside for one turn in LOS of the mixed cavalry division stack. This will allow the Russians to concentrate their artillery across the river on the Axis unit, causing fatigue and casualties, perhaps disruption, before I can get them into the relative safety of the entrenched village.


The main fighting is in the Sulatskiy bridgehead. Here is a close up of the action. The 11th PD is hurting the Russians as much as possible before they retreat into the hedgehog of the villages inside the bridgehead. Artillery, direct fire and assaults have caused significant Russian casualties and fatigued their units. Still, they are managing to setup some stacks in the three villages directly west of where the engineer bridge is located. The 250 VP village hex is dug in for more protection. I will need to continue the assault for one more turn before events on my western flank compel me to send part of the 11th panzer west.

Dog Soldier