Dog Fight - Ostkreig Tournament Round 2

[Dog Soldier]

German turn 15.
12:00 PM December 13, 1942
Snow Conditions
Visibility 1km.


Victory points after the German
turn fifteen


I am now playing to set up the final turn assault unless an opportunity presents itself to go earlier at the Sulatskiy bridgehead.
The 11th PD infantry are now joined by my remaining infantry besieging the Sulatskiy bridgehead. I want to pin the Russian troops on the south side of the perimeter allowing me to wear down the defenders in the 250VP hex and on the northern side of the perimeter. I withdrew one battalion of PzGr which were disrupted in the Russian turn. I replaced them with the last best battalion of infantry I have left in the area. This stack in the village NW of the 250VP hex will provide enough of a fire base to disrupt the remaining Russian infantry. With the trench and village fire modifiers, I do not expect the Russians to hurt them much more. I will have my artillery try to get a lucky shot on the red armor in the VP hex to disrupt the flame T-34s. If I can not disrupt them, I can at least fatigue the T-34s enough to fail a morale check when my final assault goes in. The flame T-34's are attached to the 52nd Army HQ. This HQ may still be fixed far to the north of the bridgehead giving me a chance. We will see.

The surrounded Soviet armor is whittled down by direct fire of my disrupted infantry and five PzIIIs left in the area. I destroyed four vehicles (T70’s and armored cars). Additional fatigue was inflicted on the T-34s in the armor stack. Destroying the stack will be a matter of the infantry rallying.

In the west I run my LW infantry on the southern end of my line to close with the end of the river coming up from the board edge and secure this flank against a sudden Russian move towards the final VP hex in Axis hands. I deployed my last good 88mm AT gun battery in the VP hex with the Corps HQ and a company of LW infantry. I have doubled up my lines in the center, at the expense of my artillery units. On the northern end of the line I bunch up into large stacks to hold for the final Russian turns and maximize my defensive fire opportunities. I focus my direct fire attacks here on single Russian infantry units to attempt to disrupt or fatigue them enough so they drop a morale level. That will weaken the impending Russian infantry assaults to when they try to break this line.

I have eight infantry units left to hold back the red cavalry. Five are disrupted, red fatigue and E morale. Two are in good order. These two are a bicycle unit with D morale, 74 men and the 11th PD recon company at B morale with 68 men left. Not much to hold two divisions of Russian cavalry, even if the Russians are at half strength. I am forced to move my six PzIII’s into the trench hex north of the 25VP village hex. While I was not able to disrupt the cavalry in the village, I have to trust they can not assault the tanks successfully to rip open the northern side of the perimeter and begin moving to threaten my troops besieging the southern part of the Sulatskiy bridgehead.
I moved the 16 PzIV’s into the front line south of the 25VP village to bloody the cavalry if they try to move that direction. My disrupted infantry are behind the tanks to try and rally for the next turn.
I expect the Russian cavalry to assault the motorcyclists in the southern most village. I positioned the 11th PD recon unit where it can interrupt and maybe disrupt any Russian flak vehicles who would exploit a breach on the far south side of the perimeter. The PzIV’s will intimidate the cavalry. They may even disrupt a Russian unit. Then I can move them north to the Sulatskiy bridgehead to participate in the final turn attack there.

Dog Soldier