Late War FOW game. Sovs vs Germans 1500

On the first day of the Painting Challenge did I throw myself into painting? Nope. I went gaming.
We played 1500 points Late War and lochy was test running his Tournament list for CANCON 2014.
Using the updated Red Bear I made a Soviet Heavy Tank list which was fun. I included a new option which is a Recce Infantry unit that can include an armoured car (BA-64). This vehicle is not a transport so it was new ground for us to see how it would function on the table. The Germans won the first Game and the Sovs the 2nd game so one each was a good days gaming.

1st game was cauldron with Sovs attacking.

Deployment and turn 1 Germans move.

Early in the game I managed to destroy 2 Panthers. I should have pursued the last one as it was pivotal in the end.

Reserves arrive (Tanks at bottom recce infantry at top). I think in retrospect I should have pushed them all on together from the far side. But that's hindsight for you. Hmmm nice bunch of tanks at the bottom of the image. Better look out for 

Stuka Attack! Only 1 bail resulted. Yaaay!

Heavy's move in to assault the infantry. Didn't go as planned. 2 dead tanks. :( Stuka dive bombs again (Stukas gotta Stuk). But top armour is too tough. Recce infantry fail to assault at top of photo.

Panther wrecks an IS-2.  German infantry Team moves to contest Objective as it about to become alive. He still has some buddies in the grey building but a few got blasted by Soviet big guns.

The bigger picture. Horde double times.

Horde arrives! Assaults go back and forth and the Horde gets pushed away but the lone Panthers wrecks An IS-2 or two. The Vet infantry assaults and they wreck another IS-2. The 3 platoon IS-2 company eventually breaks.
Victory for the Germans in Game 1.

It was great to dust off playing with Soviet Heavy Tanks as it has been a while for me since I used them. The rust showed I think with my game play choices but the Germans played it very well. We may have forgotten the rear MG re-rolls when attacked I think in the first game but in the 2nd game more tank shock assaults went down and the re-roll hits rule made a big difference in typically critical assaults. In the 2nd game we managed to drag in a young spectator to roll dice and help out with the Sovs. Hopefully this has made him keen to get down and play as he said he has a FOW collection at home but hasn't played a lot.   

Later that evening I had enough time to walk the dog and get a little painting in. A great day! 

Cheers from Brendon (The Kiwi)