Another Silly After Action Report - The Trouble With Elephants

It was July 1943 on the eastern front and the Germans launched "Operation Doing the Bleeding Obvious" (soon to be renamed "Operation Zitadelle") in an attempt to reassert their primacy over the Soviets who were somewhat cock-a-hoop after the conclusion of the Stalingrad campaign.  To assist in this latest grand offensive the German armaments industry cranked out a whole bunch of new armoured vehicles to take part.  One of these vehicles was the tiger tank.  During the development stage two designers, Henschel and Porsche, submitted designs for the tank.  The German army chose the Henschel design because the Porsche design was (to use a technical term) shit.  However Porsche had already knocked together almost a hundred of these badly engineered, unreliable monsters and rather than waste them the Germans converted them into tank destroyers.  This involved dropping a massive gun and even more armour plate onto a design already suffering from an underpowered and unreliable engine.  The result was the elefant, a huge, cumbersome, monstrously armed vehicle with a top speed just exceeding that of political debate and an engine that would break down if you breathed on it.  The Germans then put them in the front ranks of the Kursk assault.

The 5th of July 1943 saw a group of Soviet soldiers just north of Ponyri patiently waiting as the elefants and accompanying infantry advanced with painful slowness towards them.  This is ASL scenario J118, Elephants Unleashed.  Here I shall command a small but very tough group of German infantry supported by not one, not two but three of the gargantuan elefants and a trio of more realistically sized tanks attempting to dispute ownership of the territory with the Soviets.  Ivan will command the Soviet troops slowly getting old waiting for the elefants to arrive.

Ivan's defenders are thin on the ground, he has four first line squads, a single 8-0 leader and a heavy machine gun plus some barbed wire and a whole mess of landmines.  In the first turn he gets another four elite squads (with accompanying flamethrower and demo charges) and five T-34 tanks.  In the second turn he receives a pair of SU-152 self propelled guns.  I have a pair of 8-3-8 assault engineers, three other elite squads and four first line squads with a pair of light machine guns and one heavy.  I also have to Pz IIINs, a PzIVH (with a 9-2 armour leader) and the three aforementioned elefants.  All vehicles start in motion, presumably to spare the Germans the embarrassment of having all three elefants break down before combat.

At the start my plan was in flux.  I would have dearly liked to exit the elefants off the board for the win but I doubted the ability of the lumbering beasts to reach the finish line.  I decided to clear out the forward village buildings and position myself for either an end of board dash or building capture depending on how Ivan handled his reinforcements.

To take the buildings I set up both Panzer IIIs, the Panzer IV and an elefant in the grain facing the buildings.  The bulk of my infantry was hidden below the tanks.  The elefant sat to the west.  The other two elefants I set up in the east, each with an accompanying squad.  Their job would be to move forward to cover the reinforcement routes (and possibly make a dash for the exit if that looked viable).  In the centre a squad and a half of expendables sat waiting to make dashes into the open in the hopes of persuading troops to drop concealment and shoot at them.  If they weren't shot at then possibly they could threaten either flank.

Starting positions. 

Ivan set up most of his troops in the forward buildings with what I assumed (wrongly) was a hmg team upstairs in the west.  Another squad went into a victory building on board 44.

In retrospect I think I was a little overcautious in the beginning.  I armour assaulted my troops forward through the grainfield (a process that took two turns) huddling under the tanks all the way.  This certainly preserved my soldiers but put me a little behind time.  Up in the east (top) the elefants and their accompanying squads rolled very slowly forwards while my diversionary guys in the middle diverted no-one and managed to advance unhurt.  Unhurt that is until Ivan rolled the first of his seven sniper attacks for the game and broke the squad leaving a sole half squad to carry the flame.  Subsequent sniper attacks would reduce, then kill the squad, kill an officer, break another squad and stun a PzIII but that is in the future.

Ivan brought his first turn reinforcements on but, with the elefants hulking slowly forward, used his armour with, shall we say, circumspection.  He settled for getting his reinforcing troops into the rearmost of the buildings he had to hold and setting up his tanks in defensive (ie unhittable) positions.

End of turn 1, I am crawling forward whereas Ivan is keeping well to the rear.

Finally in turn 2 things started to happen.  My tanks reached his forward position and parked ready to slaughter the occupants.  Whereupon Ivan sprang his surprise,  the squad upstairs didn't have the hmg, it had an antitank rifle.  At pointblank range he managed to deliberately immobilise a PzIII fortunately the crew heroically stayed with their vehicle and in the next fire phase blasted the squad out of its position.  The other two tanks did the same to his other defenders and the forward buildings were clear of troops.  Up in the east the elefants inched gamely forward while the third rolled past his defended buildings and took up position in the orchard to cover the approach of his SU-152s.

My turn 2, already the sniper is starting to take a toll

I swept into the forward building capturing (eventually) his hmg and Ivan pulled back his one surviving squad and officer to the building across the street.  I was not to be denied and swung the PzIV around through the orchard to take the building under fire while I attempted to build a position in my newly captured buildings.  In the middle the surviving half squad charged forward with no thought for his own safety and Ivan obliged by shooting at it with the last of his onboard force thus losing concealment in the face of two elefants and a pair of squads still hiding underneath them.

I took a little time getting myself organised but eventually tank firepower blew his defenders out of the remaining building in the west and the elefants finally shepherded their infantry next to his squad in the building to the east.  Despite knowing that close combat is not my friend one of my squads darted out from underneath an elefant to challenge for the building.  Ivan ambushed the squad and then casualty reduced it but then (oh bliss) I rolled snake eyes on my return fire and wiped him out.  Suddenly I had another building although the looming presence of his tanks and reinforcing infantry indicated I might not be able to hold it for long.  In the west I nervously (I was terrified of mines) occupied the building Ivan had retreated to (and my tank had blown him out of) and suddenly I was only one building short of the numbers I needed for a win.

I'm in a great position here, how could I possibly screw it up?

 Ivan was up to the challenge.  First he moved a squad, officer and flamethrower west from his main defensive position in the village to try and occupy the threatened building in the northwest and, when my Pz IVH reduced them to a greasy stain on the grass, bit the bullet and sent in a pair of tanks.

Up until this point tank casualties on both sides had been light.  An immobilised Pz IIIN for me and a single burning T-34 for him.  Tank tactics on both sides to this point had been somewhat pusillanimous to say the least with more justification on Ivan's side since the elefants could kill anything he had.  Now he needed to draw fire to get some infantry through.  An SU-152 in overwatch on the hill rolled forwards, his T-34 which had spent the game hiding behind a tree moved out into plain view and another T-34 moved west from his village strong point.  The remainder of his tanks and his other SU-152 poured a mass of fire down onto the poor halfsquad in my newly captured building in the east.  They didn't hurt him but I saw the writing on the wall and pulled out underneath an adjacent elefant.  With the Elefant's gun and a squad and a half in readiness I hoped to be able to take it back if he managed to capture it (wrong).

Ivan's armoured foray in the east came to grief, my elefant nailed his SU-152 before it could move but a pair of  T-34s now threatened my force and the open path to the rear building was gone.  Further with my armour busy shooting his armour he managed to CX another squad in the direction of the rear building.  I would have to fight my way through.

Ivan's tanks come to the rescue in the nick of time

 In the centre I rolled the surviving mobile IIIN forward to where I hoped (wrongly) that it might have an effect on his troops in the centre building.  I also had a force of a squad and a half, a hmg and two leaders hiding in the woods waiting for an opportunity.  Ivan also saw an opportunity and moved a squad back into the building in the east that my lucky close combat had gained me.  I wasn't worried, there was an elefant next door plus a squad and a half of my own guys, surely they would secure me the building (no, they wouldn't).

The final couple of turns rolled around,  in the west my IVH and the elefant burnt a T-34 each and all that was left in my path was the one squad he had in the building.  I armoured assaulted a squad next to it with the IVH but all advancing fire could do was pin him, hopefully that would be enough (it wasn't).  With the last turn upon me I threw caution to the winds, dropping smoke into the adjacent hex I moved a squad forward to at least pretend to threaten his centre building.  The hmg halfsquad and its officer ran around in the open (Ivan showing rigid discipline refused to fire and sacrifice concealment) and one of the two elefants (who let's face it had done almost nothing until now) started up and rolled up behind  T-34 he had covering the road.

I needed a little luck and I didn't get it.  The elefant prep fire on the building in the east did nothing as did my squad's prep fire.  My attempt to kill his T-34 failed and it then fired on my hmg team as they raced up next to the building and while they didn't break the leader pinned, robbing me of a vital -1 modifier for ambush and close combat rolls.  In the west I had one CX squad next to his pinned defenders but I wanted more.  I had an 8-3-8 within range but here's where Ivan's cunning got the better of me.  The safe route to approach the building had been occupied by his tanks but were now occupied by burning wrecks thus inflicting an extra MP cost to enter them.  If I wanted to get the squad to his building I would have to run out in the open.  I had eight morale and he was pinned surely it was worth the risk.  Nope, his pinned squad smashed me as I ran through the open ground towards him. 

Endgame, so close I can almost taste it :(

I would have to go with what I had and hope for the best.  The game rested on three close combats in the final turn.  If I could win two of them I would have the game.  I won none of them. 

So I was defeated at the last.  In retrospect I was a little sluggish moving forward at the start and I should have handled the armour, particularly the elefants, a little more aggressively.  Much thanks to Ivan for the game which was one of the most enjoyable I've played.