Up in the castle Ivan's cupolas of death hammered away at my forces as they tried to cross open ground that seemed to be a long way from the action. Sadly the extra half level of height provided by the rooftop positioning of the cupolas gave Ivan the lines of sight he needed. Still I got through his turn without too much in the way of losses and started my third with hope. My intention was to consolidate on the left and ready for a formal assault later in the game, press on the right to maintain a threat and purely for laughs bring on my bridgelayers in an attempt to bridge some antitank ditches. There is absolutely no sense in this except for the sheer fun of seeing it done. I have a pair of tanks and a squad and a half in the centre which will no doubt be horribly slaughtered if they attempt to cross any bridges my bridgelayers lay.
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| Well, things don't seem to have changed much but if you look closely I have inched a little nearer my goal |
Not much happened on my third turn except for Ivan killing an entire squad on the right with a snake eyes from a cupola. OK so moving in the open (well wheatfield) is dicey and I was prepared to accept a pin or a break but outright death! My remaining forces, brushing bits of blood and bone off their uniforms moved forward. I'm not sure if they're threatening but they're definitely present. In the left and centre incremental moves and more bloody moving in the open results were the order of the day. A 9-1 officer lead an hmg toting squad on what I hoped was a covered route to the hill mass. It wasn't covered and the officer is now wounded and the squad a pair of broken halfsquads cringing in a building while the hmg sits forlornly in the blood spattered grass.
In my next turn I used my mortars to drop smoke rounds on his forward cupolas which may prompt the question, what the hell took me so long? The answer is deeply embarrassing. I just don't get elevation line of sight rules. Every time I get screwed over by them I go back and reread the rules and I still don't get them. Thus it took Ivan's ability to kill me to convince me that my mortars could hit his cupolas in return. Hit the cupolas they did and his front defences are now wreathed in smoke. His infantry may have to step forward a little now.
Over on the left a PzII attempted to leave a minefield and of course was immobilised. The crew fled to a nearby building. Despite this I'm starting to build up a position near the woods. My broken half squad in the minefield self rallied, attempted to leave and promptly died but other forces are inching up the hill. My left flankers are trotting forward and building up a large if somewhat incoherent force and oh yes, I've found his other antitank gun and his antiaircraft gun. Do I need to mention how I did that? My last PzIV was sitting up on the first level of the hill. I viewed the wide open space with suspicion. Somewhere there were three HIP squad equivalents but how to find them without my troops dying horribly? I decided my PzIV would have to take one (well quite a lot really) for the team. Besides I needed to get rid of that other armour leader.
Revving up the tank rolled forward and Ivan promptly revealed his second 37L but mercy of mercies despite two shots (and two hits) he couldn't kill the PzIV. To escape I rolled up to the next level and bumped into the AA gun. He took another pair of shots with it without result and then I overran that sucker and sent the crew yelping rearwards. Dropping back down the hill I finished up right next to the atg (but outside his covered arc) when an unsmoked cupola stunned my heroic tankers. Taking their cue from the hero PzIV I now have a PzII and an early model PzI up on the hill as well plus a squad with an hmg. A halfsquad charged bravely forward, took some fire, battle hardened into fanatics and plunged into close combat with a squad. No they couldn't wipe out the entire squad but they did take a halfsquad down into death with them so not a complete waste of time.
Do you remember the immobilised PzIV which broke its main armament shooting at a roadblock? Well I finally managed to repair it and, bereft of anything else to do, fired at the roadblock again. And broke the main armament again. These guys really aren't interested in the war. In other roadblock news the combined efforts of three half squads finally managed to clear the other one just after my tanks got tired of wating and crunched their way through trees and minefields up onto the hill.
Ivan's turn four is coming up. I have at least a presence on the hill and with some luck might still have a tank alive at the end of his turn. The Luftwaffe has finally turned up and I will have to think of what might be a useful target for its bombing attentions. On the left my assault troops are beginning to move into position. In the centre my bridgelayers are up to the antitank ditch and Ivan has revealed a 76mm artillery piece in a so far unsuccessful attempt to kill them. Over on the right my troops have discovered more land mines the hard way and are struggling forward towards wire tangled trees.
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| Well, things don't seem to have changed much but if you look closely I have inched a little nearer my goal. Oh yes and more tanks are about to die. |
I have plenty of time left but it remains to be seen whether possibly I've paid too high a price to get this far. Of the fifteen tanks which started the game two have been destroyed and three immobilised. Of the remaining ten two are bridgelayers and (despite my early attempts at concentration the remaining eight are scattered across the board. In retrospect I think the PzIV made his deathride a turn to early. He should have waited until the remaining tanks were ready to join him. As it is I have already written the letters to the tank crew's families and put the commander up for a posthumous knights cross. All I have to do is fill in the dates.
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