Tide of Iron: Eastern Front

Started by Silent Disapproval Robot, April 02, 2017, 10:41:32 PM

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Silent Disapproval Robot

Start of turn 4.  Snow squalls return so visibility is limited to 3 hexes.  Soviets start the turn with initiative.

Overview at the start of the turn.




I felt pretty thin up in the top left corner of the map near the victory hex so I select my initial activations there in order to strike first.  My damaged T-34 takes a shot at the damaged panther and knocks it out.  My squad engages the newly arrived German infantry and inflicts heavy casualties.  They lose 75% of their men.







The Germans respond by tearing up Russian infantry caught out in the street near the centre-most objective hex. 





I'm still worried about the top-left victory hex so I spend one of my next activations to use one of my cards.  I spend my final command point to play Out of Ammo and select the Panther guarding the objective hex.








For my next activation, I screw up royally.  I select one of my partisans squads and rush it onto the centre objective hex.  I blame all the chits but I sincerely thought it had a building in it.  Sadly, it didn't and all I did was rush a squad out into the open at point-blank range.






My opponent was hoping to use one of his cards that allowed him to remove pinned status in order to use his tank, but much to his annoyance, that card only applies to squads, not vehicles.  He takes out his frustrations on the gift I just gave him and shreds the poor bastards I just ran mouth first on to the end of MG34 muzzles.  He also finishes off one of the squads which was hit earlier.











Silent Disapproval Robot

I return the favour and knock out his Pak 40 gun crew and inflict heavy casualties on one of his mortar teams.







He engages my squads in the southern objective hex with his remaining mortar and pins one down (which, as it turns out, was an illegal move as no active German squads were available to act as forward observers thanks to the snow squalls.  Oh well, it's not a board game unless the rules get screwed up at some point.)



He gets the lone survivor of his ravaged mortar team to fire at the weakened Russian squad next to him but misses his shot.



I rush another squad up from the woods to reinforce the objective building.  I also select my lone saboteur and use him to throw another sabotage card into the German decks.  I now have a card on each of his decks.  I really hope he pulls this one (instant minefields) on his next turn as the one I played last turn (reinforcement delays), is now useless.









The Germans rush their newly arrived MG teams into the nearest building and then take a potshot at the partisans and score a single lucky hit.  (forgot to take a photo).



I run up my two partisan squads to the German objective hex.  The first one lays down fire on the panzer-hunter squad covering there and kills one.  The other charges in and engages in hand-to-hand combat.  (hand to hand works like the assault command but prevents squads in adjacent hexes from adding support to attack or defence.)




I guess Panzerfausts don't make effective close combat weapons as my assaulting squad makes short work of the Germans and takes no losses in the attack.  The German building falls to us.









MengJiao

Very graphic!  Must stop self from sound-effects!

Silent Disapproval Robot

(Forgot to take photos again.)  The Germans, down to their final two activations, send their Panthers with ammo forward and have it engage the building just taken by the partisans.  It inflicts no damage.  They also move their final squad forward into the contested building.

For my part, I move my T-34s up.  One takes a shot at the Panther but the shot bounces.  The other finishes off the mortar squad.   I move my mortar team up onto the ridge in the SW and my final two squads up to reinforce the partisans.





That ends the action phase.  I gain 6 command points and the Germans get two.  I have to spend mine first.  I spend 3 to ensure that I will retain initiative next round and 3 to get an anti-tank squad as reinforcements.






The Germans opt to hold on to their two points.



I place my reinforcements on the map on one of designated reinforcement hexes (which gives me a nice flank shot at the Panther).





Finally, we draw cards.   I get another reinforcement card.




The Germans are forced to draw a sabotage card as there is one on each of their two decks.  They pull the hidden minefields card.  Doesn't help me too much as most of his units are in such a position that placing a minefield in their likely path of advance will also inhibit my movement.

I decide to place the mines near the Panthers, just to limit their mobility a little.






In addition to the minefield card, the Germans pull the "All or Nothing" card which will let them re-activate a fatigued unit for a cost of 2 CPs.




Very bloody turn!   On to turn 5.








MengJiao


Silent Disapproval Robot

Work...



I've got the pics on my camera.  Just have to get around to downloading them, editing, and uploading.  Hopefully by tomorrow.

Silent Disapproval Robot

#21
Turn 5.  No squalls this turn.  Visibility is normal.  Soviets start with initiative.

I still feel the biggest threat is the German armour so for my first activations, I focus all my efforts into knocking out those Panthers.  On the right, I get my T-34 and my anti-tank team to combine fire and take a flank shot at the Panther. I throw all the dice in the world at the tank and manage to immobilize and heavily damage it.




Near the top left objective hex, my other T-34 engages the damaged Panther and manages to knock it out (forgot to take pics).


The Germans decide to try to hold tight around the centremost objective hex and concentrate fire on the nearest Soviet troops.  They target oneunlucky squad and tear it to pieces.




I rush another squad of partisans into the building and use my last T-34 to try and chip away at the defenders.  HE does its work again and I manage to get some good hits on one of the defending German squads.





Silent Disapproval Robot

We now run into an artificial "gamey" constraint up in the top left corner.  We were playing with an optional rule which required that destroyed tanks remain on the map as obstacles.  Ruined tanks provide cover but they also count against stacking limits.  Each hex can contain a maximum of three units, only two of which can be vehicles of any type.  As there are two ruined Panthers on the objective hex, I am prevented from using my T-34 from taking control.

Because of this, I have to use my seriously weakened saboteur squad to try and seize the objective.  The Germans, realizing this, open fire on him and take him out.  (I've also included my combined fire against the Panther in this shot as I missed it earlier).





They also open up on the other squad there which had already activated along with the T-34 in order to take out the Panther.  The Russians take heavy casualties.





As I need to take at least two out of the three objective hexes in order to win and as the top left one it most likely beyond my reach, I decide to throw everything I have at the Germans in the centre.

I use my MG team to hose down the German squad holding the last German CP hex.  They manage to clear out the building.  I throw another squad forward into that space and have them open fire on the squads blocking my advance.  I get a hit in and reduce the defending squad slightly.




Somewhat surprisingly, the elite German squad opts to engage the Russians that just moved in (the Russians had already activate this round and so would be prevented from doing anything else this turn whereas there were two fresh Russian squads still to go).  This squad got to throw 10 dice needing a 4-6 to hit and, because of their elite status, got to re-roll up to 4 dice.  Not surprisingly, they annihilated the Russian squad.





I have three squads massed next to this elite German squad so I sent them all forward in a close assault.  It ends up being insanely bloody and bodies fall everywhere.  I manage to knock out both German defending squads but I take such heavy losses in the attempt that I fail to take the hex.





I now see why the Germans used their elite squad to wipe out the already fatigued Russians.  I think they weren't anticipating the loss of their best squad.  On their first activation, they use their 2 remaining CPs to activate this card which allows them to refresh an already-used squad.  Now that their elite squad is gone, they opt to re-activate their remaining rifle squad and plink away at my surviving assault team.







They score some good hits and knock it down by 50%.




That ends the action on turn 5.


The Soviets control 6 CPs to the Germans 2.  I spend two points to use both my hardened veterans cards to reinforce my denuded squads.  There's no way the Germans can spend enough CPs to gain initiative on the 6th and final turn so I don't bother dumping any points on the initiative bid.  I hold on to my remaining 4 CPs.






The Germans hold onto their two CPs and we draw cards.


I draw elite reinforcements.  Nice card but useless as I won't be able to use it before the game ends.





The Germans draw Take Down the Beast.  Great card but it came one turn too late as they won't be able to use it before the game ends.  It would have helped them immensely had they drawn it a turn before as it almost guarantees a tank kill.




On to turn 6, the final turn.

Overview at the end of turn 5.












Silent Disapproval Robot

So I appear to have deleted all the turn 6 photos. 

Anyway, the Germans couldn't stop the remaining Russian tanks and they were able to seize two out of three of the objectives for the win so....yay?




MengJiao

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on April 25, 2017, 09:42:24 PM
So I appear to have deleted all the turn 6 photos. 

Anyway, the Germans couldn't stop the remaining Russian tanks and they were able to seize two out of three of the objectives for the win so....yay?

Urrah!

BanzaiCat

Amazing stuff, SDR!

Man, I should have picked up this game during the last holiday sale...I remember how good the prices were, too.  :-[

Silent Disapproval Robot

You can still find it on sale at a lot of places.  The only one that's difficult to find is the Days of the Fox expansion but FFG/Asmodee just did a stealth release of the reprint so if you ask your FLGS, they should be able to bring one in.

Meeplemart in Canada has it on sale right now.

http://www.meeplemart.com/store/Search.aspx?SearchTerms=tide%20of%20iron




Uberhaus

SDR, do you know if the Normandy supplement has Canadian scenarios?


Uberhaus