Silly After Action Report Part 2 - My Panzers are Getting Jagered

I scarce know how to begin.  My cheeks are wet with tears and the groans of my heart are fit to drown my words.  Nemesis has descended among my troops and it turns out she's a real bitch.

As you were probably expecting things haven't gone so well for me in the second part of my game of Polish Panzerjagers with Ivan.  In fact things have gone rather dreadfully and a fair amount of it was my fault.  That too probably won't surprise you.  Things started on a hopeful note.  My artillery got back in action and I dropped a smoke concentration on Ivan's recently revealed third 75mm gun.  With hopes of extending the screen the next turn I was feeling mildly cockahoop a feeling that increased when Ivan broke his 81mm mortar.  Sadly the next couple of turns would prove my hoop to be well and truly cocked.

I can deal with the flanks first and gain what shreds of comfort I can from the achievements there.  On the southern hill mass I extended my position, snatched a few more level three hexes and starting moving a few squads down towards the village.  In response Ivan has sent a platoon of tanks in that direction and soon I suspect there is going to be a bit of an armoured bloodbath but for right now the flank is looking good.  Over on the northern side I achieved a certain amount with skimpy forces.  A squad toting an atr dashed up to the hill mass and advanced up courtesy of some well placed smoke from one of my PzIIs currently facing off the rest of his armour.  A lone halfsquad meanwhile is making a suicide run deep into Polish territory and has so far survived despite my expectations.

So much for the good news.  Now for the bad.  My centre has been destroyed.  All that is left is a group of shattered squads whimpering amongst the trees.  How did this happen?  Partly my fault,  feeling the pressure of time I pushed a couple of units forward looking to draw some fire, if they survived they would be well placed.  They didn't survive, Ivan shot them to bits but even so I was sanguine.  The shots had revealed some positions, the last of my reinforcements were arriving and I had a decent force prepared to assault in the centre.

Things are looking very briefly up

Then everything went terribly wrong.  A PzI was reduced to a burning wreck by an atr.  Ivan scored a critical hit with a 46mm mortar and followed it up with a snake eyes on the effects roll.  Over to the left (south) he had a squad, hmg and 9-1 leader in a building behind the wheat fields, I roared another PzI up and bypass sleazed him hoping to move other troops up to hit him in CC.  Nope, didn't happen, the other troops got broken and my tank was left to deal with the squad itself.  It surprised me by surviving two full turns but then Ivan killed it without taking so much as a scratch himself.  Meanwhile I was getting desperate to capture the small hill in the centre.  Not only did it have three buildings worth a VP apiece but I needed it as a platform for an assault on the village proper.

Having learnt my lesson from the reckless charges of earlier I eased forward, assault moving and being as tactical as I could.  It didn't really matter, Ivan managed to roll a succession of threes which smashed this second attempt and left me back at my starting point.  Even now I thought I might gain success.  My smoke FFE2 proving to be less than useless I decided it was time to bring the artillery down on this centre hill itself.  It was risky, my troops were close but I picked my spot,  there were five hexes where the artillery could stray to Ivan's detriment and only one where it might hurt me.  Do I need to mention what happened at this point?  Suffice it to say I've managed to break two and a half squads of my own troops plus an officer and I have virtually nothing left to take the hill.

The hill looks undefended but getting there was virtually impossible

I say virtually nothing, I managed to divert one squad from its previous task of attacking his hmg unit and a crew toting an incredibly heavy atr headed towards the hill as well.  My own 81mm mortars have finally arrived (bad mistake on my part delaying them so long, I should have brought them on a turn or two earlier) and after the carnage in the centre my own little 50mm mortar decided to go on a rate tear.  It pounded the hill and broke all of the defenders on it.  The hill is mine if I can actually find a living soldier to take occupancy.  Naturally the good news couldn't be completely good.  The mortar shot which broke his last squad on the hill also generated a sniper which broke the mortar crew.

Over on the north hill Ivan revealed a 46mm mortar which promptly managed to massacre a squad and a half of my troops over on the south hill.  Vengeance, however, was swift as my atr squad in the vicinity gave up thoughts of tanks for a moment and slaughtered the impudent little beggars in close combat.

The last point at which it looked good.

Over in the south my troops have started moving towards the village and have actually snatched a couple of buildings but the core of his defence remains and sooner or later his trio of tanks are going to do something unpleasant.  This is where we left it for the night.  On paper I look well poised to push forward but my casualties have been so high that I daren't take risks and the time for risk taking is now.  I've finally managed to get a unit onto the centre hill but I'm not really placed to take advantage of it now although I have finally taken one of the buildings.  In the south a somewhat incoherent move forward looks impressive but I'm not sure if I really have the firepower to produce a result.  Somewhat to my surprise I still have some tanks left and I rather suspect they are all going to have to be sacrificed if I have any hope of getting a result.

I'm almost as good at killing my troops as Ivan is

Friday is D-Day, I'm leaving for ASLOK on Monday and would dearly like to go there on a win.  I rather suspect I might have to sell my soul.  That isn't a problem, the difficulty is finding a buyer.