Achtung Panzer: Shield of the Prophet AAR

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

TURN EIGHT - continued

Enough with delaying the inevitable.  I fight the battle with my depleted forces in the southwest. I choose the middle battle icon which will basically link the forces to the north and south to this battle and make it one big fight. Although I still have a fair number of units, their morale is very low. (I have one T-55 tank selected here.  The bird icon at the bottom of the screen is the unit's morale.  It's currently red and has a value of 2/100.  That's bad.)   




My forces:
3 mech infantry platoons (down to 4 BMPs, 8 squads, 3 command elements)
2 T-55 tank platoons (8 T-55s, 3 missing commanders)
1 supply platoon (5 5-tonne trucks.  They'll hide in ditchs)

5 of my tanks have been in place long enough to have entrenched, so that will help. I place them line abreast, facing where I expect the main enemy thrust to come from.  I place the other three tanks and the BMPs off to one side and well back.  I hope the enemy will commit against the entrenched tanks and then I can roll up and hit them in the flank while they're fixated.

   

I start the battle and the enemy doesn't disappoint.  A massive wave of M60 tanks charges towards my entrenched line.  (One of the things I like about this game is that the battlefields are persistent.  This is the same area where I fought previously so the burnt out hulls of my old vehicles are still here.  The Iranians are using them for cover.)



I count 20 M60 tanks.  My entrenched line opens up on them.  I knock a few out but they start getting the range and my tanks start taking hits. I lose a few more commanders and one tank.



I order the units off to the side to move up and engage.  They knock out a few more tanks but the M60s can really take a beating.  A group of them slew around to face the new threat and knock out 3 BMPs.



I manage to destroy or heavily damage a lot of enemy tanks.  The Iranians offer up a ceasefire.  I don't relish the idea of slugging it out further, so I agree.  Things could have gone a lot worse...



So ends turn eight.  I need to get a move on and grab those victory locations.  6 turns left in the campaign.

 

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Sorry for the delay.  The work load has been pretty heavy for the last 5 days and looks to be so for the next week.  The AAR for turns nine and ten will be a bit truncated.

TURN NINE

16:00 - cloudy

No new intel or orders this turn.

I order my forces on the main line to continue pushing west.  I take the units that were behind the main line last turn and have them leapfrog past those on the front line and push into the Iranian territory.  Then I move up the supply and repair vehicles to get to work on the battered units that were just leapfrogged past.

In the west, I have the remnants of the initial flanking force continue to try to dig in and order the units from the second flanking force to push towards them.



In response, the enemy orders a heavy tank assault on the battered flanking force and a fast attack of tanks and mech infantry on the 2nd flanking force.  The force of this attack dampens morale quick significantly even before the battle starts.

Along the main battle line, the enemy activity is subdued.  They launch only some very minor offensive action in one area and my recon reports tell me there is only infantry and some AT guns facing me along the rest of the line. 



I fight the series of battles along the main line.  The attack against my line turns out to be a probe consisting mostly of Mujahideen fighters with a few mortars and recoilless rifles.  They're turned back with heavy casualties and I suffer only a few wounded infantry.

Along the rest of the line, my tanks roll over their infantry with ease.  I suffer a few losses from the AT guns but other than that, it's a turkey shoot.

Next, I elect to defend against the sudden attacks against my 2nd flanking force.  I choose to fight the westernmost battle first

I have:
two mech infantry platoons (5 BMPs left, 6 squads, 3 command elements)
1 T-55 platoon (3 T-55s)



There's nothing pretty about this fight.  They hit me with a mixed bag of M60s, Chieftains, M113s, and Iranian and Muji infantry.  We spend 40 minutes just battering the hell out of each other.  I lose all of my BMPs plus one of my T-55s.  By the end of the half hour mark, I'm down to only infantry and two T-55s but they are heavily damaged and can no longer fight.   For my part, I manage to knock out all eight of their tanks, 4 M113s, and get mobility kills on 8 more M113s.  I try to push my infantry forward to seize the objectives but they have 1 M113 left and between its .50 HMG and their infantry, I lose about half my strength.  For the first time, I witness some of my troops surrendering to the enemy.  I'm forced to order a retreat. 

Even though I cede the battlefield to the enemy, the game still scores it as a victory for me.




I then go to fight the second battle along this line, just one KM to the east.

Here I have:
1 T-55 platoon (3 tanks, one missing a commander)
1 MG platoon with arty observer attached (2 BMPs, 1 BRDM, 1 MG team, 1 command element, 1 forward observer with a battery of 4 122mm howizters on call)
1 company command section (2 BMPs, two command sections)
1 supply team (5 big ol trucks)

 

I expect to take a bit of a beating here but thankfully, the enemy committed all their armor in the attack to the west.  Here, Iranian mortars lay down a smoke screen in front of me and then launch a human wave attack of infantry.  The MG from my armor and infantry drive them to ground and the howizters pound the snot out of them.  They're routed so completely that I end up taking control of a huge section of territory.  They even cede the area to the west that they'd just taken from me in the last battle as well.



Things don't go so well for the remnants of the 1st flanking force.  They're attacked from all sides by waves of enemy tanks.  They were already low on ammo and most vehicles were already damaged.  I lose the last of my APCs and half my remaining tanks but I manage to hold out.  I have 3 T-55s left and an ad hoc collection of infantry who are now besieged.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

TURN TEN

20:00 - cloudy.

Along the main line, I continue to push west this turn.  I think I've broken through as I'm able to push forward and grab the objective this turn while running into only slight resistance.  (the battles were just my tanks and arty against denuded infantry.  Pretty much a cake-walk.)

In the southwest, the enemy pulls off several units from the siege of my 1st flanking force and then loop around behind the 2nd flanking force.

Only two battles to fight this turn.  I select the one in the south to fight first.



I have 3 T-55 tank platoons with 8 tanks left in service.

I put them into a line along the southern edge of the map.  Several minutes go by and then I come under what I suspect is tank fire from a couple of unseen locations.  Eventually, I spot two M60A1s and my tanks exchange fire with them.  I knock the two tanks out without loss and spot a third one moving behind the wrecks of the first two.  My tanks get some shots off just as I lose sight of it.  I'm unsure if I hit it so I hold tight for a few minutes.  I don't spot anything else so I order all tanks to move forward in line formation.

Apparently the Soviet armor school had an affirmative action policy in place because it's obvious that one of my tank commanders is going full retard.  He turns his lights on and goes off for a lovely night drive in the desert and nothing I tried could get him to turn the damned lights off again.



Not surprisingly, he catches an FAL round in the face.  The rest of the crew appears to be from the same gene pool as the commander as they all decide to bail out of a perfectly good tank.  The driver doesn't even bother to take it out of gear before scrambling out.  As a consequence, I had to contend with a ghost T-55 careening across the battlefield.  Murphy's Law kicked in and the ghost tank looped around and rammed one of my remaining T-55s as it was busy engaging some infantry.  One crewman is injured and the tank is damaged.

Bloody annoying to lose two tanks to infantry after successfully knocking out their armor support.




For the last battle of the turn, I go to the besiege units of the 1st flanking force.

There isn't a lot of good terrain to choose from but there are a lot of vehicle wrecks from previous battles.  I use these and set up an all-round defence as best as I'm able and start the battle.

Again, I come under fire from unseen tanks but take no damage.  I spot three M60s and we exchange some fire but neither side suffers any losses and they decide to pull back.

Several minutes go by with no sighting.  I expect they might be trying to sneak some infantry up to RPG range so I order a tank crew who lost their tank in an earlier battle to crawl forward and act as a piquet.  Imagine my surprise when they spot not only a mass wave of infantry but also 8 M60s only 200 metres ahead of my tanks.  How none of my tanks spotted them is beyond me but it was certainly an exciting firefight.  The poor buggers on piquet duty are all cut down but they save the rest of the force.



Luck's on my side and I quickly knock out 4 of their tanks.  I hit the fuel on two and they fireball, crews bailing out in flames.



The burning corpses help illuminate the battlefield and the remaining enemy tanks are taken out.  The enemy infantry pulls back and offers a ceasefire.  I agree to it.





That's the end of turn 10.

(I decide to pull up the Operational Statistics page to see how things are going.  I find the some of the data on this page a little confusing as the casualty numbers never add up.)



From left to right:
The first box lists the number of platoons you started with followed by the number you've lost so I started with 54 and I've lost 10.  The Iranians started with 83 and have lost 48

The second box lists victory points obtained so far.  I've got 650 to Iran's 884 which means I'm on track to a tactical defeat.

The third box lists the number of soldiers and officers your side has killed/captured .  I've killed 453 and captured 27.

The fourth box lists the number of tanks you've destroyed and captured.  I've destroyed 85 and captured none.

The fifth box lists the number of guns, mortars, and MGs destroyed/captured.  I've destroyed two and captured none.

The sixth box lists the number of APCs and soft vehicles killed/captured.  I've destroyed 45 and captured none.

The seventh box is where things start getting strange.  It shows the number of soldier casualties I've suffered.  It says I've lost 230 but the Iranian kills box says they've only killed 81.

The eighth box lists the number of tanks I've lost.

The ninth shows the guns I've lost.

The tenth shows the APCs and soft vehicles I've lost.

The eleventh box shows the number of soldiers under my command who have been wounded.

The twelfth shows the number of soldiers under my command who have been badly wounded.

The thirteenth shows the number of soldiers under my command who are missing/captured.

The last box shows the number of KIA I've suffered.

[TheCommandTent]

Good stuff SDR

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

AHA!  I've figured out how they derive total casualty figures.  They add KIA, MIA, and badly wounded but ignore those who are just wounded.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

TURN ELEVEN

0:00 - cloudy

I'm more and more convinced that Iranian resistance along my main line of advance has crumbled.  The Iranians seem more interested in crushing my flanking forces in the south than going toe to toe with my main force in the east.  That suits me fine as the main line forces have lost a lot of cohesion over the last two days of fighting.  Many units are low on ammo, fuel, and/or officers. 

I order my 2nd flanking force in the south to abandon its push to relieve the 1st flanking force and instead cut up behind the forward Iranian positions opposing my push from the east.

I order the remnants of the 1st flanking force to push west and try to break out of the pocket they're currently trapped in.  I'm hoping that a moonless night will enable them to slip away without too much fighting.



The attacks in the east go well.  I encounter only small pockets of infantry, mostly low on morale and they either surrender or retreat without putting up much of a fight.  My losses are light.  The attacks made by the 2nd flanking force in the south run into stiffer resistance.  The Iranians facing them still have a few tanks left as well as AT guns and mortars.  I take moderate losses but succeed in pushing the Iranians back.




Next, i attempt to break the 1st flanking force out.  I disperse my units and order them to hold fire and attempt to use what little cover there is to move out to the west.

This fails spectacularly when the Iranians light up the night sky with dozens and dozens of flares all along the battlefield.



I scramble to get my troops into a defensive position as the Iranian tanks begin their assault.  Whatever morale issues the units along the eastern line are suffering haven't made it back to these troops.  They press their assault and chew up my forces.  I manage to knock out a few of their tanks with my remaining APCs but they're quickly knocked out of the fight.  My infantry manage to get some mobility kills with RPGs but the Iranian tankers just hop out under fire and begin repairing their damaged tracks.



It's a slaughter.  I take about 80% casualties and the few remaining troops hole up again and await the next onslaught.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

TURN TWELVE

04:00 - clearing

I don't have to wait long.  The Iranians again attack the pocket in force.  In the east, I continue to push forward against scattered opposition.  I hope to be able to seize the two objective locations in the north next turn.



I fight the battle in the pocket.  Things are looking dire.  I'm surrounded and I have almost nothing left.  I've got 3 T-55 tanks left.  One is out of fuel and missing its commander.  The other two still have some ammo and fuel left but each has only two surviving crew men.  I have 7 tank crew members left, but no tanks to put them in.  I would like the option to throw them into my remaining undermanned tanks, but the game doesn't seem to allow this.

I also have the remnants of the company command element.  Three men left, including a forward observer.  The guns are down to 28 rounds of HE. 

 

I deploy my units in cover and await the inevitable.  15 minutes go by and, apart from some more flares from the Iranians, nothing happens.  The sun peeks up over the horizon.



Iranian M60 tanks start lobbing shells at my armor from very long range. The two tanks with fuel roll into depressions while the crew of the remaining tank decide to bail.

Some Iranian infantry appear in the distance.  I call arty down on them and that seems to break up their attack.

They try a few more times over the course of an hour, but each time the arty sends them scurrying.  I can't understand why the Iranian tanks don't attack.

Finally, the mission times out after the hour is up.  I'm able to go into the stats screen.  The Iranians are out of fuel!  My guys set to digging in.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

TURN THIRTEEN

08:00 - clear

Knowing that the Iranian tanks are out of fuel around the pocket, I leave my troops to dig in and hold on.

In the east, I push for the objective markers.



In the pocket, the Iranians attack again.  My men have now completed slit trenches and are in somewhat better spirits.  The Iranian tanks lob a few shells over but do no damage.  Their infantry again push forward but, just like last turn, my artillery breaks up their attacks and drives them to ground.  Their attack fails and we suffer no further casualties this turn.

In the North, I launch a massive attack against the objective location.  I have 21 tanks, 8 mortars, two forward observer teams with 122mm howitzers and 120mm mortars on call, and 2 platoons of infantry.  The enemy has concentrated their remaining forces to defend the objective, but all they have left are some mixed Iranian and Mujahideen infantry, 1 recoilless rifle, and 2 23mm AA guns.  They can't do much against my armor and artillery barrages.  They lose 60 KIA to my 3.   I take the objective.


TURN FOURTEEN 

12:00 - hazy



I want to push on to the final objective marker in the middle of the line, but my forces there don't have enough fuel to press the attack.  That's annoying.
In the south, I try to push toward the pocket.  My forces in the north are also low on fuel and will have to spend the turn regrouping.

The Iranians again attack the pocket.  They have almost nothing left to attack with and my artillery, although getting very low on ammo, sees off a few anemic infantry attacks.  I suffer no casualties.

The armor I ordered to push towards the pocket runs into a few APCs and mixed infantry.  My T-55s punch through and we're finally able to link up with the troops stuck in the pocket.  Even though this doesn't gain me any victory points, it still feels like an accomplishment.





TURN FIFTEEN

16:00 - hazy

This is the last turn of the campaign.  Intel informs me that the remnants of all 3 Iranian divisions are in full retreat.




I order my forces to make one last attempt at the victory location.

I mass all my armor with fuel and ammo left and I order them to attack.



I send in 18 T-55s, 5 BMPs, 2 BRDMs, 6 infantry squads, and the armoured company commander.

I can't see anything when the battle starts so I send a mech infantry platoon out front to recce the area.  The two BMPs accompanying the infantry squads move up about 600 metres ahead of my tanks and trip an ambush.  Eight M60 tanks unmask themselves from behind wrecks and blow the hell out of the BMPs.

My 18 T-55s open up in response.



It's over in seconds.  All 8 M60s are knocked out and the remaining forces surrender.

Unfortunately, my push wasn't quite enough to dislodge the Iranians completely and they manage to hold the objective.



The campaign ends and I look at the tally board.



The Iranians lose 69 out of 83 platoons and suffer 1487 KIA, MIA, and seriously wounded.  They also lose 94 tanks. 
I lose 13 out of 54 platoons, suffer 299 casualties, and lose 23 tanks. 

In spite of these lopsided casualty figures, the game determines that the campaign results are a draw with the AI controlled Iranians earning 1080 victory points and my Soviet forces earning 1066.



This was my first full campaign with the Achtung Panzer games so it was a bit of a learning experience.  Each square on the operational map can only hold 2-4 units and I think that was one of the things that held me back initially.  I couldn't push my units forward as fast and as far as I would have liked to due to the capacity limitations of the squares.  The reinforcement/resupply system also gave me some headaches during the initial turns but I now feel I've got a much better handle on how it works.

I'm glad I finished the campaign and I hope it was interesting enough for you to follow along.  Having said that, I don't think this particular DLC is nearly as interesting as the others in the series.  The chief reason is the map.  It's just too flat and too open.  In essence, each battle becomes a slug fest between the armoured units with infantry being pretty much useless.  The battles end up feeling a little too sterile and monotonous after a while.  There isn't a whole lot of tactical variety available to you on most maps and the battles tend to devolve into who can mass the most firepower along a certain frontage during the daylight battles and who can sneak up and hit a flank during the night battles.   It's a shame that the devs didn't choose a more mountainous region of Afghanistan to model for the campaign map.  I imagine the battles would be much more tense if your armor were forced to stick to mountain roads and your infantry would have to clear Muji ambush teams hiding in the rocks and hills.

I feel like I understand the game mechanics a lot better now than I did when I started this AAR and I'm looking forward to playing through a new campaign.

I just have to decide if I want to do one of the WWII Eastern Front campaigns or if I want to try the Cuba/Angola vs South Africa DLC campaign next.  They both sound like they'll be a lot of fun.

[Windigo]

I really enjoyed the AAR. You gave, relatively speaking, a lot of detail about what influenced your choices and why you made them. Thank you muchly for this, I am a fan SDR!

[TheCommandTent]

I really enjoyed the AAR. You gave, relatively speaking, a lot of detail about what influenced your choices and why you made them. Thank you muchly for this, I am a fan SDR!

+1

[undercovergeek]

+1 too - good stuff

although setting the tank crew alight to see the battlefield seemed a bit harsh!

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

The immolation wasn't intentional, just a happy accident.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

[Dolan50]

Very good AAR! 8)
Really enjoyed it.

If your thinking of doing a WW2 AAR for this game you may like the Rakitnoe campaign.

Lots of forest area that channels the armor and mech forces and the infantry are very deadly in the forests especially against open topped AFVs.

It's also a very large campaign with plenty of tactical options if you choose to command the Allied forces also.

[Dolan50]

Double post :(

[Tuna]

Good job SDR.. kind of motivates me to get back into this game again.. I don't understand why I fall away from games I like.. must be that Gamer's ADD.. lol.. last few nights I picked backup on my Napoleon TW campaign that I haven't played in 6 months!