A Strong Response - DAR

[Ratzki]

I have not done a DAR in quite a while, so with permission from the enemy, here we go.
A warning that this DAR will include spoilers, so if you have any intentions of playing this scenario blind, you might want to stop reading now. Don't say that I did not warn you.





First off this as a change for me, I get to play with som Fin units. My oponenet and I have been playing each other over a few scenarios, for a little while now, and I know that he is quite able to ruin my enjoyment of this scenario by kicking my a$$,;). The briefing leads me to believe that I will be seeing overwhelming Russian infantry and some light Russian tanks of some sort. I do not have very much at the start, but should be getting more troops as the game goes on.
Right off, this is a neat map, just the location that would have been chosen by Finnish commanders. A good choke point and plenty of cover. I look over my men and equipment and come to the conclusion that I cannot hold ground for any length of time vs numerous Russians. I make my mind up that I am gonna try a fluid defence and will try to inflict as many losses on the enemy as I can all while limiting my own losses and making somewhat of an organized retreat to the large flag. I am prepared to lose both small flags at the moment, so will not put up much of a fight there. The small flag on my left will be easier to defend, so I might hang out here a little longer. I position my AT Rifles in the woods with good LOS and I have my infantry and MG's with short covered arcs waiting to try to catch the lead Russian infantry in the open.
The plan is to hide, ambush, move, hide, ambush, and repeat all the way to the large flag, then hold fast on the left side of the road. The worst that can happen is for the Russians to come at me in a giant wave a overwhelm my guys before they can retreat to their next positions. I do have one platoon of infantry in an isolated position. This is to again shoot the crap outa the enemy and try to cross the open ground behind them as they retreat to the flag. I just need to delay as well as cause casualties, I have to give him something to ponder.
Let's see how this willl work...
Below is the map and my starting positions. Any comments will be welcome and I will try to answer them as best I can.

[Ratzki]

Just a remender that you can pan the screenshots left and right with the bar at the bottom of the page.
It took a couple turns, but we have contact. A Russian Squad comes out of the trees, sees my Tank Hunter Team hidden in the field and quickly wipes them out. My guys do not fire a shot, they are on very short covered arcs. I want to lure as many Russian squads into the open as possible before I start shooting. I was hoping that my machine gun would start to fire at the visible enemy squad, to give him something to look at and maybe make the enemy make a bad decision that I canpounce on. I may have to play with his covered arc somewhat. The machine gun is out of command so I placed him out of range of most infantry weapons.

The Russians get a little taste of what I have in store for them as I manage to turn back the lead squad with some close range fire from my lead squad. More Russian squads show up and they quickly return fire. I was hoping that he might come at me ine a line abreast, but this was asking too much. He is using a singgle squad or half-squad to scout with the remainder on what looks to be Move to Contact.
I will get chewed up rather quickly at this rate, I will have to start to think about pulling back already. I have to get my guys into a position where I can bring multiple squads fire onto single Russian units. Right now it is the other way round.
I kinda expexted the enemy not to come straight at me, but suprise-suprise, here he is. I wonder how many platoons he has comming this way? If he blasts through me at any point, there is nothing standing between him and the large flag. On top of that worry, I already see one light tank come out of the trees for an instant, then just a contact marker. I thought I might get a couple turns without seeing any enemy tanks. I expect him to now come through the trees with his infantry and sqeeze me from the other side with his tanks. And it would seem that I have setup my men to allow this plan to go off without a hitch. Worst is that I cannot repositio without giving away the locations of my troops. This is not even on the chalkboard as suprise is the most powerful weapon that I have right now.

[Ratzki]

It is turn 6, and it would seem that the Russians are comming straight at my men. I thought this to be too obvious, but it would seem this is his plan. If Russian squads keep appearing at this rate I will be overrun. There is a very large gap in my line between this platoon at the right flag and my main body of men just to the left of this screenshot. It most probably is wide enough to sqeeze enemy troops through without too much of a problem and without my detection. I decide to start to pull my guys here back and into this gap before I get caught with my pants down. I do manage to ambush a squad here and there one at a time but he has enough squads to have some hang back and single my men out one by one. A good move on his part.
I am not in trouble here by no means but I have to get out now, or all that will happen is the Russians will hang back move up more men, outnumber me, and eliminate me one at a time. This seems to be the plan of the enemy at the moment. Maybe though I have started him to thinking that he should be carefull and this will start the time ticking away. All I can do is hope at the moment.

In the centre of the map is the same story. A general advance on a wide front with other Russian squads firing at any of my men that are located. Again, I manage to ambush some Russian squads, but here I could be even more trouble as his light tanks seem to be moving this side of the map. I have no way to really counter this threat other then my AT Rifles. I have checked them out, I do stand a chance at taking out some different Russian tanks, I wonder what he has. If he gets into a good position he will be able to fire away with his tanks and squads at my men. Poor setup by me. I like to be a little deeper into the trees, but I really thought that the Russians would come fromway over near my single platoon. I do see one squad over there now, but that is it. My plan was to shoot at range across the fields at targets as they tried to cross the open ground. This way I would have flank shots with my squads and head on shots with my machine guns.

[Ratzki]

My men are giving out some hurt to the Russian hordes, but there are more then they can take care of. First, one of my squads panic then another breaks. It is the combination of infantry fire and the fact that the Russian tanks are able to join in. On top of this, some enemy squads look like they are heading for the hole in my lines (marked with the !! on the picture).
I now find myself trying to pivot my whole front lines about 90 degrees and at the same time slide out of the LOS of the Russian tanks. I am bringing up the Company HQ in order to allow me to move the squads that are not broke into better positions and still have an HQ that can rally the squads that I might otherwise lose.
At the same time I am pulling my platoon on my right back so that they can plug the hole in my defensive lines as well as stay in contact with my main force. If they get isolated, they will be much more vulnerable to being eliminated by superior Russian numbers. If these Russians are SMG squads, I might be in deeper trouble then I am prepared for.
My ATR's are plinking away at the enemy tanks. Range seems good, I will need a little luck to get a kill. I think that next orders turn I will take the arcs off them and target the tanks that I can see. If these are Conscript or Green tanks, maybe hitting them more often might influence them to bail out sooner rather then later.

[Ratzki]

I am hanging on by a thread where he is pushing with most of his forces. I manage to rally squads, but as quick as I am able, more panic. One platoon is pinned and not moving, being shot at by Russian tanks and infantry. If they do not get moving soon I will lose the whole platoon. I can't afford to do that.
My men do manage to stop the Russians from cutting off my platooon on the far right. Again, just barely. If the enemy had another one or two squads ther, I would not have been successful. The shooting is very heavy now across my front lines. So far I seem to be holding, but there is no way that I can take too much more pressure, without taking some sreious losses.
On my left, I pull off a good ambush. His men were caught in the open, and my guys with short arcs were able to stop the enemy advance in it's tracks. The problem here is that if he comes at me throew the trees with a large force, I have a whole lotta open ground to cover in order to get out of the way. Plus it will be just a turn or two before the Russian tanks move into position here and start hammering away with HE. I know that I will not be able to stand that for long. I will keep this platoon here for now, but for how long,.... I don't know.

[Ratzki]

At the right small flag the Russians are advancing with what looks to be a couple of platoons of infantry. He has one tank that has been area firing into the building at the flag, but as I have no men there, no harm done. It is a good thing that I decided to let this flag go, I do not think that with this kind of enemy firepower, that I would have survived. The platoon that was here is now needed more then ever in my centre.
I have managed to hold off the Russian hordes by the skinof my teeth. I dropped some 81mm HE on my own and enemy positions. Actually, it is just barely getting my men every now and then, but after almost a full turn, it has done no damage to my men. At the moment I have three broken squads and a couple panic'd squads. Mostly due to the Russian tanks and infantry being able to tag team some of my units. I think that I have moved out of LOS for the time being, but now I may lose a whole platoon if I can not get these guys to rally. I am going to pull back to better positions with the units that are ok and let the better Co.HQ take care of trying to rally the men. The goal here is to make some form of fighting withdrawl to the large flag that is just out of sight at the bottom of this screenshot on the road.
My platoon at the top left manages to ambush two enemy platoons, one in the open fields and the other as it moves through the trees. The bad news here is that I do not have a very good exit path to safety with this platoon. I will stick around here for a little while but I have every intention of getting outa here before a large number of enemy troops show up. There is a slight elevation rise between this platoon and the Russian tanks, so they are unable to shoot at me for the time being.
My ATR's are firing away like mad, but it does not appear as I have done anything yet. I should be able to score a kill if I get a good flank shot in on his light armour, willl have to wait and see.
I have enough 81mm HE for another half turn or so, I have repositioned my FO's target so I should be able to spread out the fire over the end of next turn and maybe the one after.

[Ratzki]

I finally get my front line straightened out somewhat. Now the Russians only have two options, go around my guys to my right but this will take up some valuable time. The other option is to plow straight into me head on. He has enough troops to do it, but it will be costly. I do have one platoon that has been worked over pretty good. 3 Broke squads, but I am now out of enemy LOS for the most part. His tanks are just area firing now, so I am assuming that he has lost contact and My men are contact markers now. The enemy can come in from that one side and work over my Broke men some more if he wanted to, I have little to stop him as when I pulled back out of LOS, I lost the ability to fire outside the trees myself. I am going to keep holding on here and hope that my guys rally real soon.

Here, the enemy caught me off guard somewhat, he has made a small end run, now I will have to get out of here real soon or be over run. I have to do as much damage to his squads as possible before I move out or he will wipe me out as I try to cross the open ground between my men and safety.

[willow]

Great DAR Ratzki, really enjoying it. It's nice to be reminded of the importance of HQs in rallying squads, and to not be afraid to withdraw under fire if necessary.

[Ratzki]

I am still somewhat on edge as to what the Russian total force consists of. I have gotten another sound contact for an enemy tank comming through the woods. I have to assume there will be more infantry as well.
The only real action taking place is with my isolated platoon. The Russians are moving more and more men into the area. Thus far I have been able to deal with them effectively, first they have to run through some of my machinegun fire, then once in the woods, my men have been putting them to flight one squad at a time. Mostly I have been moving my lone platoon around what limited ground that there is here trying to stay out of enemy LOS while still being able to fire at the Russian squads as the present themselves. So far so good. When I do decide to bug outa here, I will have about 110m of open ground to cover before I reach the safety of more woods.
The Russians seem confused and have stalled elsewhere on the map. I am stilll shooting with all my ATR's as they get targets, as well, my artillery is firing away at his exposed infantry. I have been repositioning my FO's target to buy time and slow down the ratte of fire. So instaed of firing the whole turn, they only fire for around 25 seconds as my repositioning the target causes a delay. All I am really trying to do is waste time as I am out of effective rifle range and have little in the way of machine guns.


At some point I notice the enemy tank has the drooping gun look. This means one down, more to go. I do not know if this is just luck and the crew has abandoned the tank or I scored a good KO hit.


I am still shuffling my men around this small clump of woods. When I locate a Russian squad, I am able to get most of the platoon in on the fight quickly and route the Russian squads. I do not know how long I can keep this up though. I am sure that my enemy is figuring out what I am doing and comming up with a plan. I do have a hidden Tank Hunter Team out of they way in case a Russian tank or two decides to come this way. These units are tough to spot, so unless the Russians step on some of my guys fingers, they should be able to remain hidden.
You can see the couple more armour contacts emerging from the woods, I have to think that there are more infantry as well.


The great news this turn is that I have received a 25mm AT gun and some more infantry, one platoon. I will be moving the infantry into position around the large flag just out of the screenshot. The AT Gun is going to be towed here and pushed into these woods so that I might be able to get off some killing shots on some of that Russian armour.
You can see the machine gun team that is working over the enemy as he moves towards my single platoon in the woods. I think that he is doing a fine job of softening up the bad guys. More importantly, more time is slipping away from the turn count. This is a good thing.
The last of my HE falls on the Russians, now he will be able to come at me with the troops that I had pinned. Again, this was more to waste time off the count, I am so out classed here and outnumbered, really this is all that I can do.
I hope the the Russians are at a loss as to where I am and what my defences look like. I am trying to look stronger then I am, will have to see how it works.

[Ratzki]

Thanks Willow, trying to keep it interesting. My opposition is making this one tough, I figure that he knows his tanks will be key but I am guessing by his hesitation that he has not a clue where I am shooting from and with his infantry in a little tough right now, he does not want to expose the tin cans to any more then he has to. Things will start to look up for him now that I have run out of HE and he has a good idea what I am up to. I now have only one more unknown in that 25mm AT Gun, If I can get it into position I might be able to hold him off for a couple more turns.
Funny how you don't get to play nations like the Finns for a long time, then all of a sudden, I have two battles using the Finns going on. The other one from our H2H section where I am attacking. It's a good change of pace.