First Crisis at Army Group North: The Russians have three KV-1's, two BT-7's, and two T-26's and some supporting infantry; they need to exit three AFV's from the far board edge. The Germans have three PzIII's, a 37L ATG, two HT's, some infantry with DC's, and an 88 AA gun that comes onboard on turn 1.
This is my first real crack at Chapter D, so I have no Russian strategy; let's just whack that transmission with a hammer and see what happens. The KV-1's are pretty invulnerable to everybody except the 88, so they'll all come on board 4 and try to cause trouble as much as possible while providing some Big Brother protection for the thin-skinned T-26's (platoon movement and SLOW) and the BT-7's (non-platoon movement and FAST). Gotta watch those dang Deliberate Immobilization shots too - the Germans have a 9-2 Armor leader and the KV-1's are large targets. 7 hexes will do nicely, thank you.
I pass on the board 5 road; too easy for the Germans to block and bring in DC's on the vehicles. A BT-7 moved up the woods road on turn 1 just to provide some protection against a marauding PzIII. Russian infantry legged it in as best as they could. Major mistake to stack the sole leader with the MMG; the Russian infantry was relatively worthless for 3 turns as a result. The 8-0 and 3x447 should have CX'd and advanced to 5I4 on turn 1 to help out the BT-7 there. Don claims the scenario designers put the MMG in there to see if I was smart enough to ignore it entirely; I failed the test. Ah well.
KV-1's don't use platoon movement, which surprised Don and caused a great deal of shuffling in the German defense after the Russians came onboard. The Russian tankers couldn't make him pay for it, though, as the BU/Hindrance DRM's were too much to overcome. The Germans fell back a bit but failed to cover the gap leading from board 4 to board 5. Turn 2 saw the KV-1's move up to guard that gap while the T-26's and BT-7's prepared to zoom through it onto the relatively undefended board 5.
Unstoppable force met immovable object, and shells started flying. A T-26 caught one and burned, but was revenged by some lucky KV-1 return fire. The German armor held position on board 4 but was again hurt by another lucky shot which took out a PzIII and the 9-2 armor leader, making the tank ratio 6:1 in favor of the Russians. The Germans loaded up the 88 and moved it toward a better spot closer to board 5; it ended the turn being towed by an unarmored SdKfz 7. 467's with DC and LMG moved to cover the gap leading to board 5; the LMG being a nice AT weapon against the likes of the BT-7's and T-26's in these early war days.
Now the Russian armor faced a quandary: go after the towed 88 while it was vulnerable, or wait for the Russian infantry to catch up? Hang this combined arms stuff, let's go 88-hunting! A KV-1 was dispatched to get up close and personal with a LMG-wielding 467, freezing it by the TPBF rule. (Although nobody told me that the 467 would be eligible for Street Fighting!) Another KV-1 rolled up the gap and chanced a Thrown DC; the DC missed and would have broken the throwing squad had it not been a Dud. These moves cleared the way for a BT-7 (having just repaired its Gun) to zoom across the board and get to within 4 hexes of the towed 88, whose crew undoubtedly wished they hadn't loaded up. Just looking to acquire the SdKfz7, the BT-7 actually hit with yet another lucky AFPh shot, but the nearly guaranteed kill was a Dud! Aaaarrrrgggghhhh....
German turn 3 - The last PzIII puts it in high gear and rushes to the aid of the stricken SdKfz7. The BT-7's crew ignores the tank as it gets closer, closer, when they suddenly realize that Don is fully capable of rolling a hit with Bounding Fire. Quick, Smoke that sucker! Nyet, a miss! The PzIII made no mistake on its BFF shot, taking out the BT-7 just one hex away from exiting the board. Again, aarrrggghhh.... To add insult to injury, the PzIII turns and acquires the other BT-7 and warms up its dice for next turn. Things look bad. Real bad.
But wait, that 88's still got to unload, and it's still acquired by a KV-1. Quick Klaus, unstrap the achtundachtzig-achtundachtzig! The 88's crew unloads as fast as they can, but not fast enough. The KV-1 fires and hits, and the Dice Gods grant a non-Dud on the To Kill roll. Ding Dong, the wicked 88 was dead! Adding to the celebration, several German suicide squads bite the dust, and the Germans trying to sneak up on the VBM'ing KV-1 fail their PAATC. The emotional rollercoaster is on its way UP again.
Russian turn 4 - Tank count is 5:1 in the Russian's favor, but they need to exit 3 with functioning MA. One KV-1 has a malf'd MA, the T-26 is way behind and needs to overcome its fear of non-platoon movement, and the BT-7 has three strikes against it: Thin skinned, Stopped, and Acquired by the PzIII. Sensing the crisis with its Danger-ometer, the KV-1 who took out the SdKfz7 rotates a bit to the left, takes aim, and blasts the PzIII. Things look good. So good, in fact, that the BT-7 tries to race offboard without noticing the 37L ATG pointed at him. Blam, down he goes, and suddenly the Russians are looking at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. For the third time, aargh.
On the plus side, the T-26 kicks into motion and joins up with the KV-1 whose crew is frantically working to repair its MA. The two form a bastard platoon and try to limp off the board for that third exited tank; it's gonna take at least two more turns. The Russian infantry finally get within 10 parsecs of the battle and race to take up positions to protect the platoon movement from the two remaining German LMG's and that 37L ATG. On the board 5 woods-road, Russian infantry swarm over a SPW 251/1 like ants at a picnic; the other HT had moved to intercept the BT-7 and will hopefully die to more well-placed rounds from the two KV-1's in the area.
Could the Germans knock out the T-26 and frazzle the KV-1's crew from successfully repairing its MA? Could the Russian infantry harass the Germans from completing their mission? We'll never know; Yurgei found the sprocket and repaired the KV-1's MA. With no hope of taking out or immobilizing any of the KV monsters with the ATG, the Germans conceded but earned big points for keeping the loss off the latest edition of the Ladder :-)
A wild game where the dice did the talking. All but one of the killed vehicles were the victims of To Hit DR's of 4 or less. Throw in some boxcars to turn your hair grey as well. Reinforces my firmly-held belief that I'd rather be lucky than good.
Both of us made mistakes, but it's hard to see how the Russians can overcome the 88 if it has the time to unlimber. The Germans have several ways of taking out the thin-skinned BT-7's and T-26's, and even the KV-1's are susceptible to deliberate immobilization shots. After they fight their way through the PzIII's, the LMG's and DC's, and the 37L ATG, they've got to face the 88? Yikes!
Tom