McIvan's View - Clash at Pavlograd - McIvan v [hirr]Leto

[McIvan]

The first thing that happens is that the PIII on the rail embankment pivots nicely, acquires the T70s just fine, and then proceeds to miss with every shot......except the one you see below which, rather than striking any part of the entire side length of the T70, hits the turret front....and simply bounces off. I was distinctly unimpressed :)



The two T70s move round the side of the little hillock behind which they were sheltering, out of LOS of both my boy on the embankment and the two PIIIs out of sight on the road a little to the right. In the game shot, the right hand T70 has just completed its move. Sensible orders from Pete....won't be easy for me to get a shot at them there without exposed flanks to fire coming across the river.

Bugrit. Perhaps we'll have more luck with the Sd251/9 and the T70 cowering behind the Small Arms Factory, yes?

Actually, that would be a no. The T70 reverses away from the building and down the road. The Sd251/9 fires twice and misses twice. To add insult to injury its using hollow charge shells instead of perfectly adequate AP........dammit I need those HC for anti-T34 work.


Grrrrr....this is getting annoying. Hit something!......

Although the PIIIs pick up the T70 momentarily, they don't have time to fire. It is more than likely now safe, although there is still a targeting line on it.

On the left, the T34s move up towards the middle of the map. Pete is starting to sense my weakness and throw his troops forward. It won't be long before there's an attack developing.


T34's approaching...

Over by the Grainery, Pete has now fully occupied it. The Sd251/9 is out of sight before it can be shot at, but the Russians throw a T70 forward with the Stuart on overwatch behind. One of my Psw223s throws some smoke and retreats a bit, just to make sure that Pete knows they're there, even if he didn't already. There's really nothing they can do, except maybe sacrifice themselves as targets so the Sd251/9 can get some shots in.....but I'm loath to undertake that kind of tradeoff. I may not get a choice in the matter if the Russian light armour keeps coming forward!


Russian light armour hunts the ACs...

On to the orders phase. The pendulum of luck will swing back my way.....but some reinforcements on my left would help considerably.

[McIvan]

Doh! Still no reinforcements.

I decide the smoke will soon clear on my ACs. When it does, I might as well try and hail fire the T70 to death. We'll see what happens.

Over on the right, my Sd251/9 still has some LOS on the escaping T70....maybe time for one last shot.

I give my PIIIs orders to advance forward and then left toward the river , with a small rise to their left to screen their sides from enemy tanks across the river. They're hunting the T70s....either to take time out themselves or to force them to retreat into the LOS of the PIII on the railway embankment. We'll see whether they get a shot.

I'm woried that Pete moving his T34s forward last turn means he's got more tanks coming in behind them, so don't want to expose too much to fire from across the river.

[McIvan]

With bated breath, I watch to see how long it will take the AC smokecreen to disappear. Leto's T70 keeps advancing ominously....dips into a hollow and back out again. Hasn't he seen the snoke indicating my armoured cars? Or does he just think its ony the one?

About thirty seconds into the turn, the smoke sputters and dies. Two Psw 223s immediately acquire the T-70, with the other two Psw 223s and the Sd251/9 following a second or two later. The AC's turn their turrets and spatter the T70 with 20mm fire harmlessly; the T70 responds by targeting the Sd251/9, being the only thing that can really hurt it. But the 251/9 is well on the way to its first shot and with a thump a hollow charge round is sent crashing into the T70s hull.

That probably killed it, but just in case it didn't, the relentless hail of 20mm rounds continues. A track hit immobilises it, a lucky shot actually gets a penetration through the side armour, before the Sd251/9 puts matters beyond doubt with its second hit....


Beaten to death by a hail of sharpened toothpicks...helluvaway to go

Meanwhile, the Stuart has also advanced. It picks up the Mg42 on Hill 161, which has been squirting some rounds at Russian infantry advancing down by the river, and suppresses it to cautious status with MG fire. The HMG42 recovers later in the turn and fires a burst at a Russian halftrack which is pretty much 90 degrees broadside on...and the Russian HT does an excellent impression of a vehicle that has been knocked out...coasting slowly to a halt...but it also looks like a spot where it could have been ordered to stop, or maybe it's just shocked. I'm cautiously optimistic however (later turns out I was wrong).



On the right, the Sd251/9 doesn't get a chance to fire again before the Russian T70 scoots to safety. Oh well.

In the middle right, one of my two PIIIs performs as ordered and advances down the road and turns, acquiring one of the T70's behind the burning wheatfield hillock. The other PIII rotates in place....clearly, in giving it multiple waypoints, I've forgotten to change a "reverse" to a "fast" after moving the relevant waypoint. Will fix that up next turn.

In the interim, the PIII that has acquired a T70 fires twice and misses twice at a miserable 135 metres range!?! The bloody PIIIs are shooting like graduates of the Helen Keller gunnery school of late.



Down by the river, Russian infantry are working their way forward through the scattered trees and woods. They are engaged by one and a half German squads and a little bit of supporting MG fire from a Sd251/1, but it doesn't seem to cause any appreciable result. The Sd251/10 that I sent across the river is coming close to the bridge area and should be able to give some supporting fire next turn.



Our own infantry that are advancing toward the church on the left side of the river receive some long range MG fire from Leto's T34s and halftracks, and take two casualties with the squads concerned going to ground.

Losses so far:

Germans
2 x PIIIJ
1 x Sd251/10
1 x Psw222
4 x infantry casualties or so.

Russians
1 x T34/M43
2 x T60 light tanks
3 x T70 light tanks
1 x M5 halftrack (maybe two)
1 x LMG team
1 x half squad

Still nothing much in it!

[McIvan]

Reinforcements at last!

Well....only infantry......but what the hell. A company of good German breeding stock.

One platoon goes left, two platoons go right, HMGs head for Hill 161.



Flushed with sucess, the armoured cars and the Sd251/9 decide to go hunting Stuart. This might end badly but I don't care....they're on a roll :)



Meanwhile from Hill 161, I order my spotting half squad to sneak just a little closer.....another 16-17 metres to within close assault distance. The HMG gets orders to sneak back.....it's been spotted by the Stuart and even if its not a full ID, I expect Leto's T34s to start area firing on it. Probably to late to stop it getting routed, but c'est la vie.



On the right side of the battlefield, I fix the orders for the stranded PIII and send it after the other...hunting the wily T70.



With that we fire the turn off to Leto...

[McIvan]

On the left flank....the Stuart...will it stay still for either my infantry to creep into assault distance OR the Psw223s and Sd251/9 to sweep round its rear?

Errr....no. Off it goes, heading unexpectedly inbetween Hill 161 and the wooded hill to its left behind which my armoured cars and halftrack are traversing. I guess leto is trying a bold move to get behind MY AFVs and pick them off one by one, starting with the Sd251/1.

As the Stuart clanks past my infantry, it comes into assault range for a few seconds. Too much to hope that my boys would manage a close assault, but they do fire off their two rifle grenades...and one thunks into the Stuart's side.



Looks like it was a no effect tho, as the Stuart rolls blithely on.

Meanwhile my boys are doing the same thing....but in reverse...



As the Stuart rolls round the rear of the woods, however, it sidles into the view of my quad 20mm AA halftrack sitting at the back of Hill 161, which acquires, turns, loses sight of the Stuart, then picks it up again.....



Niiiice.......let's hope that did some damage. Even if it didn't, a quad 20mm has a real high fire rate. I'm real hopeful that it can knock out the Stuart.

An overview of the forward portion of the left side.....The Russians have pushed one T34 forward, the other is stuck on a fence with some kind of movement order stuff-up. The Russian infantry was once again pushing forward through the trees by the river, taking fire from my troops and halftrack without much effect apart from one squad going face down (but no screams).



On the right, the duel between the PIII and T70 continues.

Again the PIII fires, for its third attempt to hit at a miserable bloody 133 metres. The result: a useless gun hit....since the T70 immediately fires back and scores a partial front armour penetration, but for no serious damage. Hmmm! The little fellas have teeth....of course they're going to have a few tungsten rounds of their own.


Once more the PIII tries to get its sorry act together. This time it manages to hit the turret.....and the 50mm AP simply bounces off! Is it just me, or is the long 50mm completely and utterly useless?!?

The T70 shows its derision by scoring a clean 45mm penetration through the PIII's turret. That's two shots for two hits and two penetrations, as the Russians show the German gunners how it's done. But unfortunately they must have been using Ap shot manufactured by German prisoners of war, because again there is no result for the luckless (result wise anyway) Soviets.



FINALLY the PIII slams a round into the T70's interior, and knocks it out, just as the other T70 noses forward.

The second T70 noses about a bit, retreats, then comes forward again, pushing the other knocked out T70 out of the way. Both PIIIs (the second has now arrived) acquire it, and fire three shots for a single hit....



Sadly that doesn't seem to do any damage and the T70 retreats again.....

That's all there is of note...on to the orders.

[McIvan]

Simple orders this turn. No reinforcements, not that any were expected after getting some last turn. The overview of the left shows:

1. Armoured cars and Sd251/9 on the far left reversing and returning to concealment behind the trees....and to face the Staurt if it somehow survives.

2. Hopefully the quad 20mm flak can take out the Stuart. Surely it will......right?

3. German infantry company continues to advance

4. German infantry platoon continues advance to the river bridge on the right.



The overview of the right (below) shows:

1. Infantry and halftracks down by the bridge, trying to interdict Russian infiltration through the woods along the left bank of the river. A Sd250/7 has been left out of command range and is trying to reposition to get some useful line of sight. The halftracks are moving around periodically to try and keep out of sight of the T34s across the river.

2. The PIIIs are on hunt orders to try and finish off the T70.

3. The PIII on the railway embankment gets orders to fast move down its length, with a view to acquiring the last T70 at the end of the map and the Russian halftrack hidden in woods to the right of the embankment....although it might have been driven off the back of the map by now.

4. Three blue move lines are for my AFV crews....moving them back to the rear.

5. You can see (actually you probably can't, but they're there) two half squads of infantry securing the Railyard area.

[McIvan]

After three weeks Pete is still shaking his head over the two no effect penetrations of my PIII by the unlucky T70. Colonel T knows what Leto's like when he starts bemoaning the fates conspiring against him...he's always highly amusing :)

Personally I don't think you can expect too much off small calibre solid shot rounds. It's like having 2pdr armed tanks....you've really got to pump quite a bit of AP into the German tanks to get results.

First order of business.....the Stuart that wandered behind Hill 161 seeking to blindside the armoured cars and 251/9 but ended in the sights of my quad 20mm AA gun, taking a penetrating hit right at the end of last turn.



Instantly the turn starts, the Stuart slews sideways a little and comes to a halt. This is good and bad. Good because that kind of slew tends to indicate a tank knocked out. Tends to mind. Ain't certain. Bad, however, because it places the Stuart at a very handy angle for bouncing 20mm AP rounds.

The Quad happily fills the Stuart full of 20mm AP, but they're just bouncing harmlessly off....no, there's a partial penetration. Chewing through its entire remaining stock of eight AP salvoes, the crew score two partial penetrations and one full penetration through the lower hull. They then switch to HE and deliver another seven salvoes of that...hitting every time but scoring absolutely no external result that I can see....15 salvos of 20mm AP and HE and no immobilisation and no gun damage. Even though it didn't move, it might still actually be alive, just shocked. I think it's dead. But......is it?!?

Bah :/

Troops move up slowly and steadily in the background, out of sight at the time that screenshot was taken. The armoured cars and 251/9 turn themselves around with the inevitable dodgems confusion.

Meanwhile an adventurous T34 comes slowly down the main road....



For a little while there one of my advancing PIIIs and the T34 catch sight of each other, but the T34 isn't on hunt orders, and before anything can fire it moves out of sight behind the burning building, where there is a short pause as it re-orientes its waypoints from getting hung too close to the fire.

Carrying on, it ends up next to the Church, getting a burst of MG fire for its trouble, but fortunately (for the T34) not attracting a close assault.

I suspect Pete was pushing it through with the intention of helping out the Stuart, or at least avenging it. I'm going to have to shift stuff pretty smartly if it gets into the rear.



Dunno if the fire from the half squad killed the tank commander. It was pretty close range......but I went in close and listened for a sound of pain.....nothing. Oh well.

On the Right

Pete's hapless T70 is being targeted by no less than 3 Panzer IIIs....er, only two of which can see him as he keeps reversing back behind the wheatfield fire...



Happily for Pete's tankers, the PIIIs continue to shoot with all the elegance of a blind man kicked off balance in the middle of a china shop. The T70 goes back out of sight completely unharmed, while one of the PIIIs is momentarily distracted by a T34 as mentioned earlier....never gets a shot off tho.

Going behind the haystack, it gets picks up in a crossfire by the PIII sitting on top of the railway embankment which fires and misses. After a few secs the T70 crew realises there are some drunk Krauts shooting at them and may one day hit, so it scoots backward again, heading toward a shack. The embankment PIII shoots again and, yes, misses again. Orders kick in and it heads down the embankment with the intention of flanking the T70 next turn in a crossfire. Meanwhile, the two PIIIs in the wheatfield are cruising forward on hunt orders. One of them acquires the retreating T70 and finally hits it, but with sad predictability the 50mm round simply bounces off.....



Will that bloody tank never die?!? :)

On the other hand, the second PIII acquires the T70 that a minute or two before had retreated back under a hail of (missing, naturally) fire from the Sd251/9 by the side of the Small Arms factory.



Oh yeah, baby! One shot, one hit and.....after a few seconds wait....one kill. That's how it's done in the Wermacht.

From the look of the T70's turret and lack of response, it seems to me that the turret penetration of that T70 a long time earlier in the game had resulted in gun damage....was a sitting duck. No sympathy for the untermensch round here!

Back goes the turn to Pete for him to have a look at the replay. Hope that blimmin Stuart is dead.

[McIvan]

Having had another look at the turn replay while doing the above post, I reckon that the T70 by the haystack took a gun damage result too, from last turns turret penetration. That turret stayed pretty stubbornly fixed in one direction all turn.

Unless we're pretty unlucky, that's more or less disposed of Pete's light tanks, although he'll doubtless be bringing more on.

[McIvan]

[McIvan]

Hmmm! The cunning and wily Leto is coming round behind Hill 161 all right.....but not by the road.

Taking its time (but the half squad in the church still doesn't launch a close assault, to my disgust), the T34 pivots and heads off.....by road and cross country around the left side of Hill 161, in fact the same route that the luckless Stuart took.

Speaking of the Stuart, a few seconds into the turn the crew abandon their riddled and pockmarked hulk. Amazingly, the crew survive the rest of the turn without dying or surrendering.....in fact only the Sd251/9 shoots at them with a bit of MG fire. Everything else pretty much ignores them, even though a platoon HQ moves quite close to them...not quite sure why, it wasn't from restrictive covered arcs.....possibly it was from fear of hitting the platoon HQ and after they moved away they didn't re-acquire.

Leto's T34 ends the turn having moved into the gap between woods and spent quite a bit of time in the close assault arc of my recon half-squad situated there, as I hover over the screen in eager anticipation of a close assault. Don't hold your breath there fat boy, says the game. Clearly my Germans like it better in cover than all this nonsense about getting up close and personal with a 30 ton tank. I resolve that one way or another I'll get at least one miserable close assault out of this scenario before its over.

On the left, my armoured cars reposition at the back edge of the wood, oriented toward the T34. I've grown enamoured of this hail fire stuff with the destruction of Leto's T70 earlier, completely forgetting of course that it was the hollow charge rounds of the Sd251/9 that did the business on that occasion. Speaking of the Sd251/9, it's coming along, but lagging somewhat behind.



You can see the T34 in the middle of the woods, still with a yellow line from my complacent, fat, cowardly infantry team.

A little to the right, my hurry-up orders manage to create a bit of an infantry traffic jam, and some long range fire from Leto's infantry and MMGs takes its toll...two Germans take a bullet and several squads hit the dirt. Good thing there isn't a T34 breathing down their necks with canister about now.



Over the far right, things go a bit better. The Sd251/9 and the PIIIJ hunt out from behind the buildings perfectly and catch the T70 napping. Although the PIII bounces yet ANOTHER 50mm AP off the T70, the Sd251/9 has more luck....with its second shot (which you see in the picture) a hollow charge round smashes through the T70's turret and knocks it out.



To the right you see the half squad heading off to hopefully round up Leto's T70 crewman.

On to the orders.