Jim & MarkO's Strelkovy v. Renfrey & James' Grenadiers in a 1500 pt FFA.
The table featured a large plain on the German left, a line of ridges on the German right and a line of ridges in the Russian centre.
The Russians put one objective on their far right & the other in the centre - in both cases a wood gave some cover to the approach.
The Russians deployed their 2 Stelkovy side by side on the centre ridge with their 5 T34s & 3 KVs behind.
The Germans put Grenadiers & Pak 40s on the ridge on their right, HMGs & Tiger in the centre, Grenadiers on the left objective and artillery behind the ridge on their right.
The Russians began by moving their right flank infantry & the T34s sideways to the right, holding back the left Infantry & the KVs in the centre. The Germans responded by pulling the Paks out to move them to the right. The Ivans then advanced in the centre-left. The HMGs moved right to replace the Paks in support of the Grenadiers on the right. The Tiger dominated the open ground left of centre, but the T34s double moved just outside the Zone Of Death into the wood on the table edge & the KVs lurked on a flat hill top out of sight. Then things got really interesting. The KVs came over the crest to shoot at the Pak 40s moving across the German rear, braving the Tiger fire. The T34s came out of the wood and engaged the Grenadiers in support of the Strelkovy. Mark's Infantry on the left kept up pressure on that flank.
The Tiger shot badly while the KVs popped 2 Pak 40s & their tows in 2 turns & the survivors failed morale. The German HMGs suffered badly from rifle fire as they tried to redeploy & fell back onto the centre objective. The KVs got another HMG & they too failed morale. Renfrey's Grenadiers tried to counterattack Mark's Ivans but bad saves stopped him (Mark got only 4 hits in defensive fire which failed to pin & stop the attack, but when Renfrey threw 4 1s & 2s for saves it didn't matter). While the Tiger was busy failing dismally to deal with the KVs, the T34s attacked the far objective. The T34s drove the Grenadiers off the objective, but were then destroyed by a counterattack. But Jim's Strelkovy still held that objective and Mark's had taken the centre one. The Germans made last ditch counterattacks on both objectives, but the Ivans held firm to win the battle.
This was a most enjoyable battle - in the balance until the end. The Ivans believe they won though skill, determination & Guiness while the Germans could point to some signally bad luck - while they were not alone with spells of bad saves, they lost the Paks & HMGs to hot shooting & bad morale throws while the Tiger could manage no more than a couple of bails on the KVs.
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