Aaaaaand, we're back! (with Bat Rep!)

The Throck of War Team, back from some needed R&R
I'm that saucy minx in the center.

Well, hello there stranger! It's been a good long time since I've been able to do anything with my humble blog, but I'm very happy to say ThrockOfWar is back in action! Having navigated an election, a super storm, getting my car totaled, the holidays part 1 and a pretty nasty illness it's taken me a bit longer to get here than I would've liked. But here I am, nay here we are! The Throck of War team is still in tact and we've even gained a few members.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be posting up a backlog of stuff I've photographed over the last couple of months including:

~An Afrika Corps photo study for my mid war army, with WIP pics of the actual army to follow.
~WIP Picks of my 101st Para's & Welsh Guards for some upcoming market garden fun
~A pic dump from a Tournament at Huzzah Hobbies from late September where I got housed but Loon actually won the darn thing.
~Bolt Action Learn to Play fun and WIP pics of my SS and Ranger armies
~And hopefully much much more!

But first up I bring you a most excellent Bat Rep as last night my boy from the WWPD Forums Pyrrhic Victory and I threw down an epic 1780 point late war battle.

Scenario: Counter Attack
Points: 1780
Attacker: 99th ID by Pyrrhic Victory (Confident Trained from Devil's Charge)
Defender: 12. Volksgrenadierkompanie by Throckmorton (Confident Vet's from NUTS!)
Place: Our FLGS Eagle & Empire, Alexandria, VA.

The Board:

The Board with objectives. I deploy bottom right, Pyrrhic deploys top right. 

Read on for the list's and the actual bat rep!


THE LISTS:
12. Volksgren
HQ: 2x Commanzerfaust
Combat Plat 1: VG Sturm Platoon w/1x Schreck
Combat Plat 2: VG Schutzen Platoon
Weapons Platoon: HMG Platoon
Div Support: Volks Pioneers with 9x Stands (2 flamethrower) and CMD
Div Support: 4x Hetzer
Div Support: 3x StuG G (Late) Starting in Mobile Reserves
Div Support: Volks Rockets 6 tubes
7 Platoons 1775 Points

99th ID
HQ: 2x Cmd
Combat Plat 1: Rifle Platoon w/Bazooka
Combat Plat 2: Rifle Platoon w/Bazooka
Combat Plat 3: Weapons Plat 2x LMG 2x 60mm Mortar
Weapons Plat 1: Mortars 4x 81mm
Weapons Plat 2: 3x 57mm AT Gun 3x Bazooka Teams on Truck
Support Plat 1: TD's 4x M10 and recon element
Support Plat 2: TD's 4x M10 and recon element
Support Plat 3: Engineers, 4x Bazooka, 4x Rifle, 2x HMG
Support Plat 4: Cav Recon 1x M8, 1x Mortar Jeep, 1x Recon Jeep
Support Plat 5: Arty, 4x 105's
Support Plat 6: AOP
10 Platoons 1780 Points

Setup

German Setup... I'm dumb, I know...

American Setup, A lot of meat in a small place

Recce Move:

Pyrrhic Swings his Recce Boys around center table

And quickly contests the left objective (it doesn't go hot until Turn 6)

GO TIME

Pyrrhic Moves his troops out

And layeth down the smoke so my nebs are blind

My StuG's arrive

And head up the hill along with the Sturm Platoon, moving towards the out lying objective

Pyrrhic's TD elements move behind the hill, waiting for their moment

As his engineers move up the center

And the balance of his forces begin to move out on the German Right

Throck's StuG's and Hetzer move up to combat the TD threat

While the Sturm platoon takes fire from the slew of MG's and loses a few stands

The StugG's are shocked to see those jeeps magically transform into M10's!

As the M10's are happy as can be to see they have a target rich environment

The other TD element (we called it reverse lend lease) helps weight the center along with the truck born AT and the engineers

Artillery and M10's open up on the Stug's taking out one and bailing the others

The onslaught continues as the TD's eat up the Hetzers and Force the StuG's to flee. 

However, the Neb's do a yeoman's job on the mob in the center scoring a number of kills on the trucks and engineers, however they only bail one TD. 

Noting that the situation is beginning to get a bit out of hand, I start to shift my Pioneers (front line just creeping up on the hill) over to try and help secure the objective. 

Yet, the American (lightly) armored fist moves ever foward

Bearing down on the Pioneers

Finishing the last Hetzer

And Gutting the Pio's

Things, indeed, do not look good for our anti-hero

I decide to  up the action, send the boys over the top and start feeding a stand at a time into the objective

Poor lonely guy needs a friend

There we go...

The push in the center goes very well for the American's they've kept my pio's pinned and are now moving up to assault my HMG's and Schutzen protecting the right objective!

Inching ever closer through the forrest

As the M10's light up the Sturm platoon taking them down to one little heroic stand

And the artillery begins to take it's toll on my rockets... Being reluctant and pinned is never good.

The Yanks assault!

But are driven back at the loss of two stands

Sadly though, things look positively hopeless on the left. 

As my one stand takes the combined fire of 4 tanks

But survives!!!

Until that bloody recce shows up

And cuts them down

Here's where we called it. Pyrrhic had the game well in hand. 

 Well... Ouch... What did we learn? First off, Pyrrhic is a great opponent! It was a blast to push tin solders around with him and I'd gladly do it again. Second, when dealing with TD's board control early on is key, and I failed at this. I had the opportunity to keep guys up on that small middle hill so he'd have to swing much further around to avoid LOS restrictions. Instead, he got the ability to control the board from the get go. Third, I didn't need to defend so far back on the right objective nor did I need to defend it so vigorously. I essentially gave myself a DZ the size of the attackers, an unnecessary and silly mistake.

In other words, I've got rust on them thar wheels and Pyrrhic is a great player. Meaning I got housed like I so richly deserved :)

Well, that's all for the first post back. Hope you enjoyed reading it at least half as much I as enjoyed playing it.