For this one we return to the Eastern Front after a fair old absence. Despite my first SU76 company being one of my first purchases 6 years ago, the Light Assault Gun Regiment wasn't finished until a week ago so it definitely needed to hit the table.
…and before you say it, I know the SU122 is miles better than the SU76 in every way and there's no reason not to take 16 of the damn things. Which is, of course, exactly why I've got 11 SU76's in my list! On the topic of which, the Russians;
CiC SU76 (CT)
2 cpy * 5 SU76
2 cpy * 4 SU122
10 * Sherman 76mm (FT)
3 Quad 50 cal AA
Recce plt, with BA64 and truck.
Collins SS Nordland Panzergrenadiers.
IC & 2IC both with fausts (FT)
2 shreks
2 Full Inf plts both with twin faust upgrades (One KG'd for 10 platoons)
4 medium mortars
3 Nebs
2 8 rads
3 PaK40's
2 Sdkfz 10/5
4 PaK RSO's (CV)
5 StuG's (FV)
We rolled up Dust Up with Colin getting the top left and myself, the bottom right.
Colin starts with a pretty solid firebase covering his objectives, 5 SS StuG's, three PaK's and the 4 RSO's mean that anything trained and Russian will die fairly instantly if any attempt is made to drive straight for the objectives. In all fairness I don't really notice this until the game has already started.
I start with my Shermans and both SU122 platoons on the board, my Shermans shuffle towads the Germans doing their best to look like trees. My SU's take a flank each. Not sure why, it just looks good.
Colin chills, waiting for the Red Horde, which is just about when I realise that any attempt to engage any of the primary German combat units with my Shermans will result in my poor Emchas dieing fairly quickly. I decide to wait for my reserves. The Shermans take up hull down and concealed positions, whilst the right flank SU's double back to support the other SU cpy, which is waiting for the German reserves.
Colin decides he's not waiting and moves the StuG's up to begin the party, with gold old stormtrooper in his back pocket to scurry them away to safety.
Two things occur, the StuG's hit nothing and they fail their stormtrooper roll.
My SU's take a shot, a very long shot.
An SS StuG burns, 6 to hit, followed by the classic "don't roll a one Colin, OK, roll a one then!" First blood to the Reds.
The Emchas join in and two more StuG's have a bad day.
Colin pulls the two remaining StuG's back to safety and extract a measure of revenge.
There's plenty more where they came from!
I decide with three StuG's down we can play the odds and go for the kill, so with that in mind the Emchas move up.
My newly arrived SU76's don't fancy playing with dug in Pak40's, even if they are trained, so hug the flank moving back to my deployment quarter.
The StuG's try and whittle down my Emchas to no avail.
Colin's reserves start to arrive. Not that a big a threat maybe, but my assault guns have no MG's or tank riders.
My SU122's move up to try and kill some SS infantry.
They manage two kills with their breakthrough guns. Ooops.
With 10/5 AA leading the way (!?) the German infantry close with one cpy of SU's.
It doesn't end well for the Reds with mu surviving SU breaking off but at least staying in the game.
My SU76's move up to support the 122's whilst the Emchas play the long range snipe game with the StuG's.
The last Russian reserves arrive, although I'm, not sure what to do with them!
Over the next two turns my assault guns hammer German infantry whilst the StuG's and Shermans wave at each other.
…until….
Two SU76's go up in flames when the StuG's decide to go for the soft targets.
I come up with a cunning plan and decide to go for it. The Shermans are going to move into the woods and get themselves shot by one or two RSO's. This will mean no GtG on the RSO platoon so the quad 50's will move up and hit them along with all the remaining Shermans using their MG's (the RSO's are armour 0 after all). The StuG's will get to kill something but as long as most of the RSO's are killed all will be good. Flawless.
The Emcha's move up.
In the process having a pop at the 8 rads and missing them.
In return two are killed by the RSO's. A bit steep but such is life, I've still got eight.
I move to execute the master plan and…
Despite being fearless and with protected ammo the bailed tank refuses to mount up and, even worse, two mof my runners bog! Disaster.
Meanwhile my assault guns carry on terrorizing German infantry.
Colin doesn't miss the trick and sends out a small infantry group to inflict some apin on me.
With no DF it just comes down to the tank terror, (which in hindsight he didn't need to roll since I had no runners within 6") , of course he passes and…..
Suddenly the Emchas are at half strength.
As a small measure of retaliation, with the German infantry from reserve all dead, my SU's move on to the AA wagons and score a long-range kill.
My reduced strength SU76 copy moves up along with Emchas to sit on my side of the hill of death to decide what to to do. The only ray of light is that the quads nailed the German infantry that assaulted my armour!
With no more targets my SU122's adopt a novel way of moving around the board.
Whilst more Red armour arrives at the standoff. Of course Colin is popping up and down with the StuG's during this time. He fails to kill any Emchas but does pass stormtrooper in order to keep them alive.
By this point Colin is down 3 platoons, two infantry and his nebs that moved on and were wiped out by 122's.
On the topic of which, I lose another one to long range fire from the StuG's.
However they do make it to the woods and kill the 2nd AA wagon, 4 platoons down.
In the next turn one of my SU76 cpy's plow's into the woods to attack the 8 rads who have been harassing my recce. They get both, 5 platoons down.
The icing on the cake is the StuG's finally failing a stormtrooper check and being left on top of the hill. My SU76's manage to bail one, but the Emchas…
..…kill both survivors and platoon number 6 goes up in flames. Colin obligingly fails his first fearless company motivation check and it's all over. 6-1 to the Reds.
Well, that was a turn up for the books. I do like playing with my various Russian forces but have accepted that with Red Bear and V3 they don't normally do so well anymore. OK, I'll admit that it does help if you think at least a little bit about what you are doing with your toys, but to be fair, that's something that I'm not normally guilty of!
Of course, if all else fails, you can just rely on Colin failing some critical roll or two!
