15mm Sabresquadron: The Defense of Dorf von Geringer Bedeutung.

Tonight's game of Sabresquadron (also available from Timecast) was Nick and Nick with the Soviets, I was using Nick's West Germans, all figures by QRF

Soviets:

Battalion HQ - T64

10 x T64 in one company.

Full Motor Rifle infantry company in BMP1s

Observer in MT-LBu

West Germans

Company Commander and rifle stand.

2 x platoons, dismounted from Marders (three milans, three infantry stands)

4 x Leopard II

4 x Jaguar 2 Tank Destroyers

4 x Leopard 1A4 (in reserve)

1 stand AA (Red eye)

The table, a rather open plain, with crops (no effect on fire or movement) a couple of woods, a few low rises, and a line of pylons.The Soviet objective was the crossroads, my objective was to stop them!

1st Platoon deployed across the rises, Milans looking down the road.

2 platoon deploys in the wood, awaiting the inevitable. Company command takes a quick dip!

The Russians bring in smoke, right in front of both infantry platoons, three turns of blindness!

What sight lines?

The Soviets arrive, the jaguars deploy hull down with a bead on the BMPs.

The Soviets bring in their pre-game bombardment, the Germans hunker down. Only one suffers a kill, this is looking good. One jaguar also was disabled too.

2-in-C is hit and killed, damaging the wall too!

Leopards deployed on the rise, and then the artillery comes in. The red-eye stand goes first, followed by all three infantry stands and one Milan. Before anyone asks, 7 dice, 3 ones, 4 twos!
(INSERT SWEARWORDS HERE)

So, I'm effectively a platoons down, but the Leopards should be okay...
Oh FRACK! Three out of four Leopard IIs disintegrate under artillery fire. So much four these two platoons holding that flank! There's 10 T64s out there, and I've got two Milans and a Leopard II to stop them.. This is going to be a short game.

Jaguars take a heavy toll on the advancing BMPs.

One set of crew failed to clear, the other hopped out merrily.

Well, not that happily. Three failed morale rolls, and this squad has decided they need a short, sharp chat with the battalion political officer!

Through the smoke, a milan hits a BMP, killing a stand inside.

This squad also promptly failed two morale rolls, halting their advance,

The smoke lifts, and on the other flank, one of the Milan teams scores a hit, while two T64s dodge.

As the smoke lifts, 2 platoon's Milans cause two more kills.

Halting another platoon, and killing a couple of infantry too.

Bye, off you jolly well fuck!

The Soviets close, ready to assault, 73mm guns cough into life.

One Leopard II, and he can't hit for toffee.

But the Soviet fire finishes the infantry. The whole flank is utterly open.

Small arms from the Germans tears into teh Soviets, but not enough to stop the rush. I did manage to halt the grenade launchers and LMG support.

Oh my word, that's an awful lot of gun barrels pointing my way.

After the Soviets pour a companies' worth of fire on to them, my 2nd platoon fail their morale and breaks. My forces are in real trouble,

Needing a 7 to hit with 5 tanks, my Leopard II was doomed.
Or not!

So, they've got us out-numbered!"
"Poor bastards!"

My C-in-C is killed by Nick's C-in-C (tank shell through the side of the pool).

Reinforcements finally arrive. Leopard 1A4s should not be greatly armoured, but to be effective, they still pack enough of a punch. The Jaguars redeploy, carefully driving around the greenhouse.

The last Leopard II dies, after causing no hits! An A4 kills a T64, an obsolete tank is better than the top of the line kit!

The Jaguars are destroyed after taking out a T64 through a gap.

One platoon of tanks down! Another badly beaten up. For a last line of defense, they are fighting hard, except two of my tanks were blown apart.

And the third casualty from the platoon seals their fate.

Back down the road that they came down.

Soviet losses mounted up, in the background their infantry moved slowly through the woods towards the vacated village.

The final moments, the crossroads is now unguarded, a big win for the Sovs. 4 German platoons destroyed in exchange for two tank platoons and one infantry platoon, losses the Soviets can easily absorb.

The pregame bombardment crippled me, but we still put up a hard fight. Great game again, and a real challenge to pull anything out of it. Fab game, thanks all.