SOTR 80 point a side battle...the wolf and the nihl fist

[Glenn]

The American ego had been wounded. Recent losses against marauding packs of Jaegerhundts and wolf runners, combined with the theft from under their own noses of an occult artefact by their supposed British allies had stung them into action.

Bringing up huge amounts of armoured resources of mechs, both heavy and light and APE suits forced the Germans to respond, and respond they did. A battlegroup of mostly wolves led by Faust himself was formed and in the dark forests and ruined villages a battle was fought.



the chosen battlefield had ruins to the south, woods in the centre and a hamlet to the north.

The Americans fielded a force designed specifically to cull the wolves. Bill Donovan, a sarge mech, three commanches, a squad of APEs, a medium mortar and several squads of armoured infantry prepared to bait the trap.



The Germans were mostly light troops, several packs of jaegers, a few sections of wolf runners, supported by regular mech grenadiers and as many panzer shreks and panzer fausts as possible, all led by the wolf man faust himself.

the American infantry hugged the start line and sent the mechs and APEs forward whilst the Germans tried to respond with their own scouts and wolves moving quickly.





Early exchanges of fire from the Americans were devastatingly accurate or lucky and Faust himself vanished within the blast of a mortar shell before he could even give orders, his wolves, normally so devastating were cut to pieces whenever they appeared in the open by the silver ammunition so plentiful with Donovan on the field and the massive fire power of the mechs in play.

Desperate times for the Germans....



The battle progressed, the American infantry largely hiding and sending their armoured mechs to the fore, the Germans responding with several bloodily repulsed feints.

Mechs guns and armour proved too much for the lightly armoured scouts and wolves



The Germans were forced to make desperate moves to make ground and try to outflank the Americans



Then.....a brutal time of change, a German mortar wreaks havoc on the surprised APEs and armoured infantry, a set up light machine gun cuts down a tentative American advance and finally, after numerous misses and failures to penetrate a panzer shrek round destroys the first commanche



However the German successes are hard to repeat as the wolves, scouts and wolf runners are slowly but brutally thinned out. The small number of Germans with panzer fausts and explosives is a dreadful thorn in their own side and forces brave but pretty much suicidal tactics in the face of the American fire power and armour. All too often the result is more dead Germans and no loss to the mechs.





Occasionally lone scouts or jaegerhundts make it towards the cowering American infantry but even then the mechs speed and firepower stops any but the shortest melee or incursions.

 



With the Germans losses rising to the point where they have no real counter to armour and the Americans refusing to move anything other than their mechs to the front the Germans morale begins to drop.

A single Blitzhundt almost turns the tide of battle, reaching and destroying an entire American rifle team and a mortar team.



But in truth its too little too late and as the German lieutenant put in charge after Fausts apparent death in the first mortar round of the battle is cut down aiming his last panzer faust at the Sarge mech the remaining German forces pull back, leaving the blood stained and bullet riddled ground to the Americans



...........................................................................

[Glenn]

Soooo...... thats the in character story

The out of character stuff.

this was a HUGE battle, roughly 80 points a side. Matt (The Americans) wanted to test a heavy armour (mech) list to see how it'd do against a largely wolf/scout army...to be honest...I think we both knew it would be a bloody and painful experience for the Germans.

Matt had a sarge, three commanches, a squad of APEs. a medium mortar, Bill Donovan, two armoured infantry squads and a command team

I had Faust, four jaeger teams (each with one blitzhundt), two wolf runner teams, two aufklarer teams, two panzer shrek teams , various upgrades to chuck in body armour and panzer fausts and explosives,a mortar,  a sniper team and a mech grenadier squad with an lmg.

We had a six turn battle and it was all about the kills mostly.

Matts forces sheer firepower and armour were telling factors, so many hmgs and all that silver ammo courtesy of Bill Donovan meant the jaegers and wolf runners were routinely butchered for no gain and forced me to take risks with my few Anti armour assets, we did also make an error with the ablative armour rule which meant that rather than reducing rolls once armour was penetrated we reduced rolls to penetrate, this gave the commanches and Sarge a ludicrous advantage....still, you play...you learn

Mortars proved lethal, with Faust being killed on the first roll of the game and later four out of five APEs beind killed by the German mortar. Melee, when it happened was horrible and tended to go the Germans way, the Blitzhunt that reached Matts mortar and rifle team on the flank being particularly vicious and one sided.

However the sheer losses to the lightly armed and equipped Germans by the mechs machine guns, rocket pods and the silver ammo on his line troops proved too much. Combined with Matts decision to keep the mayority of his troops safe and far behind the cover of the mechs forcing the Germans to make the advances made for a bloody battle indeed.

We both had fun in this one, though it was a tad frustrating at times for me to be honest

As experiments go we learned a lot, we learned that amrour vs scout armies......is bloody, that wolves vs silver and mechs...is even more one sided. But nevertheless the Germans did give a good account of themselves over all and against an infantry army I think the wolf pack en masse could be bloody scary.

After a hugely brutal ongoing mission in the role play game and this battle the next SOTR rpg session needs to be a subtle one...so we're aiming for a kipnap mission from a German high society party!

[Glenn]

Also.....I phone cameras.....are a bit rubbish, I'll take the piccies myself next time 

[FATROC]

Thanks for the AAR. Looks like you guys had a great time. Sounds like the Germans could've used a little more a.t. support.

[Glenn]

Thanks for the AAR. Looks like you guys had a great time. Sounds like the Germans could've used a little more a.t. support.

definitely

if we replayed it I'd have used wolverines to counter the commanches and APEs and could have then focused the a.t. on the Sarge.

[FATROC]

Love the Wolverine mecha. How do you kit yours out?

[Glenn]

so far...primarily as an anti infantry and lt armour role...so flamethrower and lt mg