Battle Report: German Armor vs Russian Armor in a Late war tank battle.

By Eric "Truckstop" Lauterbach

The Desperate Measures book for late war play in Flames of War currently has the best tank lists for the Germans, hands down.  So, I have been working on a few lists with my brand new, fresh off the line, PAK patrols.  I had heard these guys can be tricky to run but can be a deadly tool.  Bob Rossi, my opponent for the day, is known as an attacking tanker who runs a lot of Russians.  We wanted to mix it up and see what our lists could do so we did Free-For-All. 

The Lists:

Bob is  "Checking his Rudel spacing" by making sure only one tank is under the template. We haven't even started yet and he is scared of him.

The table

Rossi's Russians defending the objective.

The "Rat-man" (Leytenant V. S. Rat) and his assault guns.

All of Bob Russians on the right are hiding

On the German right the tanks hide inside woods and PAK patrols get ready to recon out!

Jags and Paks in the center.

Assault guns and the 2ic defending left objective.

I get the first turn, so no Rudel. And then my luck goes bad...3 bogs

Oops and the a recon 234 bogs.

Lurking forward with cautious movement...

I can get one long range shot on a ISU152 and all get is a bail.  (Bail count starts now..1)

The Russian horde rolls forward!

Of course he bails back in and is now looking to crush Hitlerites!

Its a general advance.

My 2ic and his duck friends hiding behind the woods.

Cautious movement, concealed, Hen and Chicks....need sixes....BLAM no problem for Rossi.  At least we pass the morale check.

Cautious movement, concealed, Hen and chicks...BLAM.. no problem again!!

Well my glorious start to running PAK patrols is not going well at all. I am learning you NEVER ever let them be shot at.  It did not help I failed break-off moves.

At least on the other flank vs the Ducks he's slowed down by 2 bogs.

Good news...Rudel is overhead and ready and I unboged all but one vehicle.  Bang! I get three hits!

The Ducks jump out for a shot! The Stug hits and two Duck hits. 

Bang! Bang! two hits from the Jagity-Panther! sweet!

Rudel sees... his target!

The three Stug hits are....kill, bail and a bail...(3 bails so far)

The Jag panther hits are TWO BAILS!!  (5 so far)

The Duck hits kill one and bail one. (6 bails) and the Stug hit just bounces off...

My man Rudel MISSES! and gets one stinking BAIL (7 bails so far!!)

Russian turn and to make matters worse Rossi gets ALL his bails back in but one.

Yup... that happened he kills the 2ic and a duck.

One of Jagpanthers dies as well...but on my turn this Jag takes care of the Rat-man but good, I kill both ISU-122s but Rossi passes his morale check.

On his turn the only good news for me is that his shooting on the flank is real bad and the Stugs get off easy.

German turn and Rudel is back!

I decide to bring him over here cause my only two surviving ducks are in trouble.  The Ducks shoot and get four hits!! Yes!

All go in!   ... and......are you FREAKING KIDDING ME!  Three bails! (10 Bails now!!) On the fourth check I do get one kill which is little consolation.

On the Stug side I get 4 hits... at least I get one killed T-34/85....  And of course another 3 Bails... at least two these are due to armor ties.  (13 bails and counting)

Three bails, one dead, no morale check. 

My only saving grace is Rudel is able kill two tanks and saves the day.  At least we cause a morale check on these guys who are about to over run me.

4 dead, a bail, a bog and two runners.  Morale check and Rossi fails.

Yeah!!  Rudel saves the flank!

I stormtrooper away and squish...two bog.  I should have known this woods was bad news. I have bogged 4 times in it.

PAK patrol gathering point.... I really wasted these guys.  Time to send them on infiltration runs to the enemy objectives.

My two bogged Stugs are feeling very lonely.

Bob moves in for the kill on the two Stugs.

Blam...Six hits all together.

As expected BOOM both dead...lucky for me its not half the platoon.

My turn and its getting desperate, we've got to roll forward and kill some of these guys.  Rudel comes in and heads for the Platoon leader tank of the Russian platoon coming toward me.

I reposition the Jags as well to try get shots on these guys. I bog one of them but the other gets a long range hit and kill. My Stugs mange to bail one and kill another one.  Its just enough for a morale check. (bail count is 14)

YES! Bob fails his morale check with the one company we concentrated fire on.  The other T-34 company is still in good shape though.

My Bogged Jag. In his turn Bob sends his CO and the last ISU152 after him.

Bob's turn and he sits still to blow away the Stugs. The CO survives with a good armor roll.  Bob's CO hits my Jag in the flank and I bounce the weaksauce 76mm round with a six on the die.

German turn, sit, shoot and hope is all we can do. CO stug shoots...hits... and its a bail (Bail count 15)

My other Jag kills Bob's CO for offending his brother Jag.

I get two long range shots from my Ducks that have been maneuvering for a turn.  Two hits and of course two bails...(bail count 17)... This is getting really ridiculous.  The good news is Rudel comes in and smokes the platoon commander of this platoon so these guys can't move! 

On Bob's turn both bailed tanks get back in their turret and bang bang....he kills both my Ducks. I have now lost two platoons and Bob has lost two companies. The only thing keeping me in the game is Jags and the leftover PAK patrols.

My turn and the Jag hits the last ISU-152 and it's NOT a bail!!!

With his CO and the last ISU-152 dead a failed battalion break check gives the Germans the win.

This guy had also sneaked his way back to an objective, so either way the Germans were going to win.

It was good fight between two pretty close armies. This wasn't Bobs favorite Russian list, it's just the one he could do this day. So I look forward to meeting his favorite horde in the future. I like the mix I had of Jagpanthers and Stugs, I think its the way to go. I really squandered the PAK patrols, and ran them very badly.  I need to never ever let them get shot at. I need to just sneak a shot in and stormtroop away. Rudel saved me time and time again; that guy is money vs. the Russian T-34 horde. He forces the Russians to buy Flak and deploy carefully. Sniping Russian leaders is great stuff for Rudel. 

Eric can be heard on the WWPD podcast with all the guys where they discuss how many shots it takes to get to the center of the Jagpanther tootsie-pop.