First Panzer Battles Tournament

[ComradeP]

You killed a lot of guns Landser, I probably won't get a draw.

I alerted a battalion that would normally be Fixed (the reason why I don't like T activations for battalions: you move one unit one hex to the left and presto, an entire enemy battalion is released and can simply leave their positions as the defenders have no incentive to hold their positions for most of the line) and I alerted a tank brigade early by accident as well.

Those two events meant I cancelled my offensive into Pokrovka as mathematically speaking my chances of capturing the objectives were much lower than hoped for, also due to how the assault mechanic works (every unit needs to be disrupted before the defender leaves its hex, even if the only undisrupted unit is a small and weak unit) and my opponent breaking up gun units into smaller units to use that to full effect. Maybe it would've been possible to capture Pokrovka in the end, but I lost 3 artillery units to an excellent Soviet air recon roll followed by most of the guns on the map shelling the Nebelwerfers in T mode and when I released the tank brigade, my artillery was not yet in a position to support the advance.

All things considered, I'd say it's possible to attack Pokrovka. There were just some things that went wrong for me in terms of Soviet unit releases that limited my attack.

I still don't understand how the actual Pokrovka scenario can be seen as pro-German against a Soviet player who properly utilizes his armor, though.

My losses as of turn 24 are not too high, although they still mean LSSAH has lost about a regiment worth of troops, which is a lot when you consider that the other regiment historically wouldn't actually be in the scenario until the end as can be seen in Ozerovskii.

My losses as of Axis turn 24:

Soviet:

Men: 2437/256 VP's.
Guns: 106/143 VP's.
Vehicles: 23/31 VP's.

German:

Men: 1434/193 VP's.
Guns: 52/93 VP's.
Vehicles: 37/56 VP's.
Air: 3/19 VP's.

My opponent used artillery against vehicle units instead of infantry units on many turns, which limits infantry losses, but increases vehicle losses as with the way vehicle/gun/aircraft combat works more or less anything can knock them out no matter how high the defense value is.

There will be a full AAR of the game after the tournament round is over, where I'll describe in more detail what went wrong and where and why the scenario plays differently than before.