Community

Notes:

Looking for a good demo for a local convention, I poured over my Panzerblitz, Panzer Leader and Squad Leader scenarios. I wanted a good tank battle, in order to get interest from browsers at a distance, who would recognize quickly what was going on, but also have a good balance of infantry with armor to really flesh out a combined arms force.

After much discussion with my opponent (axisarmyrules45), we agreed to this scenario. The biggest problem was adapting the Panzerblitz circumstances to Axis & Allies miniatures at a reasonable scale. The hexes in Panzerblitz are 250 meters, instead of 100 meters, and each of the three mapboards are 10 hexes across, and 30 hexes long, making for a map about 30x30 hexes, or about 75 hexes in AAM terms. Also, the terrain analogs weren’t matching up well, with a couple of good-sized cities, and a map with heavy forest and large hills, over which the Soviet forces had to maneuver. The map arrangement I settled on had enough terrain to be a problem, while still having roads running East-West, to get the trucks moving at a fair clip for both sides. This is to be a mobile battle of maneuver, including the infantry. The movement rates for the comparative times (e.g. 400 m per one-minute turn in AAM for a Speed 4 T-34, 2500 m per six minute turn in Panzerblitz) meant a comparable number of hexes in the same number of game turns at the reduced scale.

The next part was to adapt the forces. The Panzerblitz scale for units also dwarfs that of AAM. The Germans can stack 3 platoons, and the Soviets 2 COMPANIES, per hex. For soldiers, that was bad enough. A single German tank platoon was to be 6-7 vehicles, while a Soviet tank company was ten vehicles. The battle called for 12 T-34/76 companies, a total of 120 T-34/76’s!

So, I scaled it back, by a factor of six for the Germans, and a factor of ten for the Soviets. That included the soldiers. A German rifle platoon is supposed to represent about 60 men, including 11 SMG’s and 6 MG’s. The Germans are supposed to have 15 rifle platoons. Treating each 10 men as a single figure in AAM, and scaling the Germans down by 6, meant 1 figure per rifle company. With 3 SMG platoons in addition, I made the difference up by using 6 VWI, 6 Mauser, and 3 SSST (for the SMG). The MG42 approximated the MG complement, plus the two commanders, which I deemed necessary to reflect the sheer quantity of units in the Panzerblitz scenario being very hard to kill. Also, to allow for the Close Assault Tactics (CAT) attack of infantry, the WOLt plus several Panzerfausts would keep Soviet tanks from simply getting too close to drop off the riders. The feature in Panzerblitz of needing to have spotters from line units to direct the very important indirect fire of the SPG’s, which are capable of shooting armored targets, albeit at lower values, I gave each side a spotter, and further gave the German spotter the ability to spot for the Wespe, Hummel and Maultier. This would make the Soviet trucks and half-tracks appropriately vulnerable to HE rounds, the way they should be, and make even tanks worry about getting their turrets blown off.

The Soviet rifle companies, in turn, represented 150 men, plus MG’s and SMG’s. Unlike the Germans, swapping out PPSh’s and DP27’s was no problem. The Mosin-Nagants are good CA units anyway, so their close assault potential was sufficient. Besides, the wave of T-34’s, even at 1:10, should be more than enough. The Soviets didn’t have much in the way of artillery, and in Panzerblitz, their biggest gun is actually the 120mm mortar, a very powerful weapon, but completely absent in AAM terms. Rather than approximate it, I left it out entirely. It wouldn’t have been much use against tanks, and the scaled-back German force wouldn’t demand a dangerous weapon like the 120mm. By comparison, the attack value of the 120mm is 8 times that of the 82mm mortar, and about 60% of the Wespe. (It would probably have about 9-10 dice, Enhanced Range 20, Inaccurate 1, Shrapnel, and possibly Blast, just to begin to give such a massive weapon justice.) I also left out the German 150mm mortar, as it wouldn’t have been as important to the Germans as the Wespe, Hummel and Maultier. I put the Maultier in because of its mobility. The Soviets should also have had an Engineer company, but I didn’t want to start borrowing too much from other countries for units. The Germans should also have had a quad 20mm Flak battery, and the Soviets a 12.6 mm AA battery, but leaving out aircraft would minimize the true need for such weapons, and they could be better approximated other ways, such as extra MG’s, or the German 20 mm. If we did use aircraft, I would have designated one of the Maxims to gain Antiair as a Special Ability.

The opening German deployment. The line of Panzers is awaiting the Soviet advance. The German infantry is along the road between towns. The Spotter, MG42, and one of the PAK 40's is deployed ahead, with some Wehrmacht and the Haupsturmfuhrer in support. The Wehrmacht Oberleutnant and Panzerfausts are in Sd Kfz 251's on the German left, and the SPG's are to the rear, eight hexes back of the spotter (maximum range).

After combat, turn one. Long range fire from the German 75's have disrupted or damaged a handful of Soviet tanks. One did get to return fire, and disrupted a Panzer IVG. The Soviet infantry cautiously brings up the rear, and the trucks are maneuvering to get onto the road, so they can rush the town at the right time. Already, the Soviets are having trouble coordinating with the soldier commanders, so that the Command Dependent infantry can dismount from the tanks.

(I started using the flash here, so the foreground is a bit washed out. Sorry.)

The Soviet tanks are rushing up the center, and on the left, but are taking casualties. A Panzer IVG on the left is also disabled, but fighting on, and the rest of the panzers continue their fighting withdrawal. The PAK40 and MG42 in the town have been neutralized, so the Soviet infantry begin advancing to begin their assault while the tanks continue to push the Germans back. In response, the German infantry mounts up, and prepares to reinforce the town.

In the fierce firefight, an expert, if desperation, shot by a damaged Panzer IVG strikes home!



The valiant Panzer IVG, and it's T-34 quarry.