The Battle of Ostrov... Developing subject logo: MILGAM
2006-03-03
Posted by: badanov

Reinforcing of the Ostrov sector is almost complete. We have a brigade of motorized rifles either in the sector or will arrive in the next turn. Opposite them are two German tank battalions, one PZVG Panther and one Tiger battalion.

In the woods northwest of Ostrov there is a reinforced infantry company, weakened after being hammered by T-34/85 gunfire and by artillery.

The sitation is now we have extended the front about five kms with little at the flanks to deal with a German attack. And the German are massing armor and making probes into the unprotected northern flank of the Ostrov sector. We last counted three tank companies were in the area, one PZIVH, one Panther and one PZIVD infantry support tank.

Earlier in the game we tried to move some armor into the area for the sole purpose of catching the AI approach marching truck or halftrack-borne infantry. Those targets are the highest value of the game, because in East Front II if you kill a truck, everything inside dies as well.

Instead, what we got was the three tank unit probe of the area and no real way to counter it. This deployment has been costly, with about nine T-34s destroyed. But the remaining Soviet armor in the area can't be moved or they will die from easy shots from German Panthers, so they must stay and fight.

Nowhere to run, baby, nowhere to hide.

The armor group west of Ostrov is stopped by our short tank brigade in the area, but all the AI has to do is to bypass Ostrov to the north or the south and things will get hairy for the Red Army.

This is roughly the third turn or the big artillery displacement, where we are trying to get our heavy mortars moved closer to where the action is.

Our 82mm mortar units are great, and they do quite a bit of damage but nothing says I care like a 120mm mortar battery/battalion fire mission in the middle of a group of unprotected German infantry.

Much further back and coming fast are the heavy tube artillery: the 122mm howitzers ( we have about two battalions of 122mm field guns on the move right now ) and some 152mm guns and howitzers. The long reaching 76.2mm field guns are now being used to engage infantry at Ostrov, but they are firing at max range ( 8 miles ), and if we manage to break up this little operation of the AI at Ostrov, we will need to move those guns closer to the action as well for breakthrough operations.

Once the heavy guns deployed are safe and snug with adequate antitank means, we can start to establish fire blocks along with highways the bad guys are using for reinforcements.

If you have something to add, Fire Away!

Number of Comments so far: 0

Click here for a list of stories in the War and Military category