Armored Maelstrom

By Klaus Fritsch, in Tide of Iron

I have finished this scenario, the Russians won, being in control of all three Victory Objectives during Round 10 with no way for the Germans to capture two of them during that last round.

The game was fun, and the Germans definitely want to have a go at it again because of some tactical mistakes that were identified after the action. The Russians also found potential for improvement, so the next try should be fun.

A more detailed report will follow.

This warms my heart, cuz this is THE scenario i want to play.

The german has plenty of super-tanks & ELITE formation, so in pure millitery strength the german has an great advantage. The only thing I feared for this scenario is that it was broken in favor of the germans. Obviusly it doesnt strongly favor the german :)

Cool this one worked. boy it was a pain to balance.

BJaffe01

hi,

we played this scenario two times. the germans won the first one, the soviets the second one. it seemed both times quite ballanced and really engaging. honestly, this is "the scenario" i hoped for when i first came into toi during june 2007: a large intense battle between advancing german tank troops and the defending soviet army. thanks ffg, bill and co. :-).

greetz from germany!!!

We also finished this scenario last weekend. We played without "Elite formations" Op card -- it seemed to us quite strong.

It was really a thrilling scenario, till the last round. Russians won - controlling all 3 victory hexes. But if I (playing Germans) had one more round, I think I could win. By the end Russians held fast to their building victory hex, but the other two were far less defended.

Now we realize what we could play better: I will use next time more aggresive advance with my tanks, I will not be parading in balka exits with my squads (to have shorter distance to the nearest cover behind buildings) happy.gif , and surely try to use my trucks to block enemy reinforcements in the village area, on a road (it needs a proper timing).

Russians units kept the first half of the scenario at the distance, either in woods, in buildings or behind buildings in partial cover. They bet on surviving their units than to have better chances to hit an enemy. Germans initially advanced in two directions -- on the right over the road and on the left, left of the river. German troops were unloaded in woods and headed to nearest balka to contiue their going through it. Weak Russian meeting party confronted them on the other end of balka and both sides suffered certain casualties, but the exit was cleared for Germans. In between Russians received their 14 T34s which were distributed evenly in their deployment zones. German soldiers waited in balka exits, but unfortunately they were pummeled by mortar shells and kept frozen there. Tanks on both sides were exchanging their deathly greetings and their number slowly diminished. During last two rounds cca 5 German tanks were destroyed and their forces seized the victory hex in the middle and their infantry readied for the final assault on the victory hex in the building. However Russsins succeded in retaking that victory hex and blocked the hex in front of the building with the victory hex with another tank to prevent an assault. German infantry lacked MPs to bypass the hex with a tank and assault the victory hex itself.

Casualties: Russians: cca 17 tanks, 3 AT guns and all squads except cca 4; Germans cca 9 tanks and cca 2/3 of their squads.

Some my recommendations:

a) use Normandy variant of destructible buildings, it could change modus operandi in the village quite drastically.

b) each russian division will deploy during setup 2 SU-122 and 2 KV-1, instead of only KV-1s or SU-122s

c) instead of Elite formations Op card use Elite tank crews , because german infantry has no problem with dealing with its russian counterpart, but german armory will surely appreciate better chances in confrontation with more numerous russian tanks.

Artemis said:

We also finished this scenario last weekend. We played without "Elite formations" Op card -- it seemed to us quite strong.

I played with the card, and it did not make that much of a difference. Priorities and objective selection are much more important.

Artemis,

thank you for your write up. it's awesome to see the scenario go to the last round. i actually used the elite tank card intially and later added elite formations as this was the best scenario to include it in.

BJaffe01