It was with a small measure of despair that I picked up my game with Ivan Kent for the final few turns of Polish Panzerjagers. With my centre force crushed I could see little hope of victory. Still I resolved to fight on at least for a while in the hopes of better fortune.
Better fortune arrived, for Ivan. Over in the north a pair of PzIIs had been facing off a pair of Ivan's tanks and looked set to remain in frozen immobility for the remainder of the game. Then I had managed to introduce an atr toting squad to the occasion and Ivan decided it was time to move. He started up one tank, and rolled it past my atr squad. I fired and missed but I wasn't too downhearted. He only had one way to go, straight past a PzII (with an 8-1 armour leader). He moved forward, I fired and broke MA. Ivan trundled his tank away with impunity placing it where it could overlook the battlefield then, with nothing left to fear he did the same with the other. I may have offered to concede at that point but I regained my nerve and played on.
The rest of Ivan's turn consisted largely of slinking out of my line of sight with one dreadful exception. Over in the south he had a HIP unit that had sternly held its fire while pretty much the entire German army had rolled by on either side of it without ever entering the hex. Now with my troops up on the hilltops he revealed it and made a dash for my already captured level 3 hexes in the south west. I may have screamed just a little. Fortunately my incompetence now came to my assistance. I have already noted that I felt I had brought on some of my troops too late in the game. One 5-4-8 squad with an mmg and 9-1 leader was thus lagging behind my main push from the southern hills. I needed them forward but needs must and they set out in pursuit of Ivan's squad. I'm pleased to say they caught it and broke it before it could capture more than one hill hex which they then managed to retake.
Back in the main battlefield a brief lull settled over the centre as various officers of mine tried desperately to cobble a battlegroup together out of a mess of shattered units. In the south however I eased forward, capturing a few more single hex buildings and a couple more hill hexes. I pushed forward a PzII to provide at least a pretence of protection from the trio of Polish tanks now rolling up the village street to add some weight to his defence. I had other plans for my PzIV. Single hex buildings were all very well but if I wanted any chance to win I had to grab a couple of those big multihex five pointers. One of them was well within reach in the southeast. There was also one well within reach in the centre but I had nothing to reach it.
While my troops hopped nervously forward to capture the most apparently vulnerable of his single hex buildings I managed to build up a multisquad force to take the southeastern building. Unfortunately it was defended by an elite squad with an hmg and an 8-1 officer. Sleaze from my PzIV was the order of the day. Capturing that building was actually a little anticlimactic as bounding fire broke the squad and I essentially just walked in.
Not far away Ivan poked one of his tanks around the corner to challenge my guarding PzII. My PzII opened fire, and broke its MA. In return Ivan gained a shock result. I recovered from that the next turn whereupon Ivan shocked it again. With the big building captured my PzIV moved on to the next target pausing only to break its MA along the way.
You may recall to the left of centre Ivan had a squad, 9-1 and hmg guarding a building (and a flank) which had cheerfully slaughtered a tank and anything else that had tried to approach. It followed this up by shooting an adjacent squad of mine out of a building it had taken and recapturing it. They say that doing the same thing again and expecting a different result is a sign of insanity. I did the same thing again (vehicle sleaze followed by squad assault) and this time it worked and I managed to take back both the building I'd lost and the hmg squad's original home.
Meanwhile my 81mm mortars were proving that bringing them on late really was my worst mistake. After dropping smoke onto both of his remaining 75mm guns they then shot up and managed to shock both of Ivan's tanks that had swanned past my PzII guards. This was helpful as my one remaining PzII over there and my heretofore impotent atr squad had done a run down the northern side to try and snatch a couple more level 3 hexes. Thanks to my mortars they were able to do so, a few more VPs for Neil.
Which only leaves the centre. I had managed to rally a squad and a half hiding in trees and another halfsquad hiding under the dubious protection of one of my burning tanks. Ivan shot at these worthies and they promptly went berserk and charged the full squad that had had the temerity to open fire on them. I said a quick prayer and didn't expect to hear from them again but bless their little berserk cotton socks if they didn't shrug off all defensive fire, plunge into close combat and kill an entire squad thus delivering up another building to me.
With one turn to go a quick count up of VPs stunned us both. I was only about four short of the total I needed. One multihex building would win it for me. There was one (just) within reach. In the centre just past the small hill which had been the grave of so many of my hopes. Ivan had it garrisoned with a squad but yet another of my PzIs was sitting in bypass in the hex preventing it from firing out. To boost his firepower Ivan had brought up one of his tanks from the southeast which was now sitting exactly where I needed to run if I were to reach the building. To add to the fun he had a squad and mmg covering the road I would need to cross. I had a crew with a captured mmg right next to his tank, I opened fire and blew the thing up in a mass of flames, now I had a little cover. I CXed a squad and leader forward, over the hill and into the newly created smoke. Ivan fired his mmg but didn't get a result. I had more troops coming in from the south led by an 8-1 leader, they seized the other hex of the building and to add the final touch I brought forward the crew of my 37mm gun (which I never even bothered unhooking from its truck) to also go for the building.
It all came down to the final CC. Ivan had a squad. I had a CX squad, a crew and an 8-1 leader. Ivan rolled, snake eyes. He promptly withdrew from CC into the other hex of the building and I was left just a point or two short.
This one had some wild swings of fate. I honestly thought I had no chance after my centre was destroyed, Ivan and I seriously discussed a concession at the end of turn 6, I'm so glad I kept on despite losing by an eyelids width at the end. Cheers to Ivan for an awesome game. Incidentally no photos in this one as I was too gripped to reach for my camera the entire time.
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