Silly After Action Report Part 3 - Because Apparently I Don't Know How to be Brief

Ivan's turn five started with him bringing on the rest of his armour (he left his remaining infantry for another turn).  He brought on a tank in the north and another in the south.  Where did he bring on the other three?  In the centre where they could make a charge for my gun truck.  It's safe to say that that gun truck is starting to obsess Ivan more than a little.

Up in the north things started looking a little worse for me.  He pushed a squad and crew forward next to my 40mm position while he raced another squad and leader across the wheatfield (defying the mighty gun truck) to approach from behind.  His mortar dropped a couple of smoke rounds in convenient places and he lurched his tank forward, straight into the line of sight of my 75mm gun which cheerfully blew it to scrap.  The crew, however survived and joined the rest of his infantry starting to monster my 40mm position.  I was hoping the presence of my armour might help hold the line (point rather than line really) but its starting to look less likely. 

Down in the centre he moved a halfsquad in front of my berserkers who promptly exterminated them, leaving a batch of Polish prisoners searching for a home (and some weapons).  Behind the hill I managed to hit his UK tank with another antitank rifle round and blew the thing up in a sheet of flames.  I was glad to get rid of the tank but it did provide him with some cover which I didn't appreciate.  He pushed a squad and mmg into the woods next to my building and my position started looking a little shaky.  With the north apparently doomed I desperately needed to hang on to this building.

In my turn things briefly got better and then much much worse.  Up in the north I mangled the units he had boldly pushed next to my 40mm but with enemy infantry all around them the writing was on the wall.  I moved my two little dinky tanks around behind the building overrunning (unsuccessfully) his rearward squad.  I also shoved my 75mm gun a hex closer to the action and tried to bring up my remaining armour assets in the north, the 47mm SP gun and neighbouring tank.  Unfortunately I stalled the engines trying to get them started and lost seven movement points, what remained wasn't enough to get them into position but at least they're on the move.

The north is looking increasingly doomed but the gun truck is still the Goddess of Battle



In the south I moved my two 47mm toting tanks forward to where I hoped they could dominate the church (currently occupied by a broken German halfsquad) and not get hit by the reinforcing tank he had brought on.  I turned out to be wrong about the not getting hit part but fortunately he missed his shot.  I rolled my two tanks with the double mg main armament up to his guys in the woods but all my fire succeeded in doing is sending his troops berserk.  Meanwhile my own berserk guys abandoned their heavy machine gun and charged down the hill towards a tank and a squad with a medium machine gun.  Somehow I survived a pair of 24FP shots and plunged into close combat where I was promptly killed.

In the centre Ivan deployed the firepower of three tanks against my lonely gun truck for no result except two broken MAs.  The gun truck continues to reign supreme and Ivan's obsession is approaching mania.  In the next turn one of the tanks would be recalled while trying to repair its MA.  Ivan had seized a lodgement in the victory building behind the hill with a halfsquad but I managed to shoot him out of it and even moved forward and recaptured the stone building just in front of it.

Ivan's sixth turn was obviously the do or die effort.  He pounded a single crew past all sorts of fire and into the building with the 40mm.  With a big kill stack just across the road I ignored it and fired unsuccessfully at the others.  I finally managed to repair my 100mm gun but just as I did so Ivan brought reinforcing infantry on that simply walked up next to them, shrugged off defensive fire, advanced into close combat and killed my crew.  In other close combat catastrophes his squad to the rear of the 40mm building managed to kill one of my tiny tanks while other troops and a pair of his tanks rolled up for an almost ridiculous amount of overkill.  His crew advanced into CC with my gun crew and are now locked up in melee, a situation that helps him more than me.

In the centre my gun truck once again shrugged off all fire and managed to stun an armoured car that got too cocky but the odds are getting longer.  Ivan's brought his infantry on now.  A pair of squads in half tracks are circling deep to my rear obviously hoping to sneak in from behind while the remainder are piling in towards the centre.  At the victory building behind the hill Ivan also went for broke, charging a squad into CC with my defenders while his berserkers leapt for a nearby tank.  Fortunately for me the close combats went better in the south than the north.  My tank killed his berserkers and the building defenders killed the squad that went against them.

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So now all I have to worry about is the fact that Ivan has now received reinforcements pretty much equal his at start force and my own troops are looking decidedly ragged, and by ragged I mean "dead".  I am holding solidly in the south at the moment but a single casualty would make things doubtful and the north is pretty much gone unless my remaining vehicles can somehow pull off a miracle.  Far to the south a pair of troop carrying halftracks threaten a deep outflanking move unless I can get something back there to stop them.  Many commitments, few squads.  More work for the tanks coming up.