By Dirty Jon
Tom "The Crotch" DeMayo and I got together for a pre-
Muster throwdown. I wanted to test out my new
tournament list, so Tom made up a list to match up well against me.
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| Ut oh. KV-85s come in from Reserves. This might get ugly. |
Jon's List:
Tom's List:
We rolled randomly and got Breakthrough. This was pretty tricky, and Tom decided to start with his SU-85Ms and both infantry units on the board. I put out the Jagdpanthers, Nebs, Luchs and the Ostwinds; the Hetzers and StuGs in Delayed Reserves.
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| The board. I am still trying thinner terrain than we have used in the past. |
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| Rudel comes in and kills a Su-85M. |
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| JPs need 6s to hit the Su-85Ms. |
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| JPs bail one. |
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| Observer, Command StuGs and Ostwinds head in to the village. |
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| After cheat-trooper moves. |
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| Tom runs his infantry toward the objective. His Assault Guns stay static to keep Gone to Ground in the wheat field. |
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| The Command and the Luchs head toward the objectives. Thats a LOT of infantry. |
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| Rudel and the JPs work over the Communist Assault Guns. |
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| StuGs advance and the Luchs stay put. |
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| Ostwinds move to shoot up the infantry, now that the Assault Guns are almost gone. |
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| Ut oh. KV-85s come in from Reserves. This might get ugly. |
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| The SU-85Ms are dispatched. |
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| JPs move to address the KV-85s. |
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| 1 poor Luch is killed. |
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| The infantry gets in position to receive the German Delayed Reserves. |
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| SU-76Ms and Katys arrive. The Luchs are killed to a man. |
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| HQ moves up to shoot the Katys. |
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| JPs move up to address the Soviet armor from Reserves. |
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| Ostwinds and the 2iC take fire from the KV-85s. |
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| 2 SU-76s are killed. |
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| JPs move up and crush the KV-85s. The SU-76s are also destroyed. |
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| Hetzers arrive from Reserves and kill off the small Strelk. This puts Tom below half and he fails his Company Morale check. |
Conclusion: 4-3 for the Germans.
Rudel was on the scene just about every turn and really did a number on the Assault Guns. This mission was not great for our armies, but we really wanted to play whatever we rolled. I thought the Jagdpanthers were great - everything I shot, I blew up with ease. I was very careless with both the Ostwinds and the Luchs and I ended up losing both platoons. The Hetzers were ok, but pretty useless against the infantry, as I predicted. I will probably replace them with Pz IV Js.
I think Tom's deployment did not sufficiently account for Rudel. I was able to sit back and shoot the Assault Guns for quite some time, eventually destroying them. At range, the Jagdpanthers were practically immune to shots from anything. Tom may add in come higher AT assets for Muster. This was close and we had a good time with this match and that's what counts.
