Dust Hades Campaign: Game 2

After the retreat from Central Hospital, Major Wilhelm was once again summoned by the Axis High Command in Zverograd.
His 203 Panzerabteilung had shown that the SSU's air superiority would be disruptive enough for Axis operations.

A such, they decided to attack the allies with Klaus' army while keeping W.H's platoon to protect them from any SSU attack (Axis spies were pretty confident that the SSU, bolstered by its victory, would attack the Axis), the 203 was kept in reserve hoping to muster enough strength and buy enough time for heavy reinforcements to reach the front.

While the 203's soldiers were sent doing grid patrols, they stumbled upon the allies in Central Park trying to do a Big Push on Axis positions...

Conditions of the Battle: None

<<A Beautiful day in Zverograd? That's the first I ear of it.>>
--Battle Grenadier of the 203 Panzerabteilung
Deployment of the Battle: FUBAR

<<Finally we can wait in ambush and use our camo in an appropriate environment.>>
--203 Flamm-Luther's Driver
Battle Objectives: Symbolic Victory
<<''Winterchild Memorial'', symbol of SSU's favorite son. One would think it'd be the soviets that would want to capture such a thing...Whatever their reasons are, we'll deny these Allies this useless relic.>>
--Major Wilhelm

Forces:
Axis: 203 Panzerabteilung (Sturmgrenadiers Platoon)
Command: Kommandotrupp
1st Section: Battle Grenadiers
2nd Section: Laser Grenadiers
Support: Flamm-Luther
Platoon Upgrade: Extra Panzer Support = Hans (no picture available yet)

Allies: Commander Andrew's Expeditionary Forces (Elite Platoon)
Command: Ozz
1st Section: Heavy Rangers Assault Squad (The Hammers)
2nd Section: Heavy Ranger Attack Squad (Grim Reapers)
3rd Section: Heavy Ranger Attack Squad (Grim Reapers) 

4th Section: Heavy Ranger Tank Hunter Squad (Tank Busters)
Platoon Upgrade: unknown?

Pre-Battle Anylisis:
Again, a lot of infantry in front of a platoon that wanted to arm itself heavily against tanks...It is making Axis High Command reconsider the supplies they sent to the 203. For having faced allied heavy infantry armies like this in the past, Major Wilhelm knows that his infantry rank 2 stands no chance if the allies get in close quarters. Even at range the Reapers will be deadly so use of cover will be strongly advised.
On the other hand, if the allied tankbusters can be killed, nothing will stop the 203's Flamm-Luther from a good allied BBQ.
After all, they say ''fight fire with fire'', so let's give the allies a taste of their own medecine!

On a long-term Hades Campaign point of view: the rank 3 armor is hard to produce and any single loss in a allied unit could mean the disbanding of the whole squad as this kind of technology is difficult to come by. Men are issued the order to shoot on sight and spread the casualties.
There is also the opportunity for the 203 to get rid of an allied hero: Ozz.

Get to it men!

Allied Attack on Central Park

Central Park, the ''Winterchild Memorial'' part of it with whatever trees were left of the intense bombardments Zverograd endured.

In the middle of the frozen hills north of town, Major W.H's axis forces have to face an attack helicopter. Thankfully, Axis High Command had seen this attack coming and had kept the platoon with the most Flakk in reserve for it.

At Zverograd's monastery, the freshly arrived forces from Africa, Klaus' NDAK platoon, are sent against the allies in an extremely violent offensive.

In the meantime, Allies and Soviet clashes in downtown Zverograd.

Aerial view of Central Park and most unit's deployment. Due to the Axis ambush, conditions are FUBAR.

As the 203's Battle Grenadiers realize with horror the 203 is facing an entire platoon of heavy armored infantry, the reassuring presence of the platoon's Flamm-Luther lies in ambush amongst the remaining trees.

Ozz and his Hammer squad quickly cover the ground separating them from the retreating grenadiers.

And as Ozz and the hammers finally get to the grenadiers, the Flamm-Luther crashes out of his cover to set them ablaze. On the left, the platoon's modified Hans is laying down suppresive mortar fire to help the platoon's men.

Finally the reinforcements arrive in the form of the veteran laser grenadiers.

Aerial view of this side of the fight, you can also see all the 203's reinforcement on the edge of the woods (bottom of picture).

"Schnell our men are in danger! Repell the Allied vermin!''

(Simply another picture of my modified Hans because the 203's engineers are proud of it. To be used as recruitment propaganda.)

Finally the platoon's heavy fire is more than the heavy assault rangers can take and three of them are cooked inside their armor as Ozz is heavily wounded.

But the Flamm-Luther's driver, too busy with the ambush, fails to notice the allied tankbusters...Their rocket disabling entirely the walker.

In the meantime, the 203's Battle Grenadiers, despite surviving their close encounter against the assault rangers, are not so lucky anymore and get mowed down by allied Grim Reapers' machine-gun fire.

And just when the 203's infantry thought they could take no more, another squad of Grim Reapers appeared from the trees' cover.

Laser Grenadiers storm toward the allied threat, struggling to get them in range.

But it is too late, they suffer the same fate as all of the 203's infantry deployed that day and get vaporized by Victory Machine-guns...
The Hans' camo allows it to be the sole witness of the allied Symbolic Victory over ''Winterchild's Memorial'' in Central Park.

 Casualties of this battle:
Axis: Battle Grenadiers and Laser Grenadiers
Allies:Ranger Heavy Assault Squad (The Hammers)

Units that gained experience:
-Hans: Hades Veteran (I knew modifying it to carry a mortar and fight in the 203's way would pay off! It's camo even allowed it to survive)



"This platoon of the 203 fought to the last man standing, while losses were extremely heavy, this allowed us to gain better knowledge on the new allied heavy infantry deployed in the Zverograd warzone.
Major Wilhelm and his squad made it alive, the semi-serum allowing them to overcome their injuries. It is to be noted that we could'nt spare enough semi-serum for the platoon grenadiers and as such their losses were very real. Widerbelungsserum to be administered.

Rumor has it that SSU soldiers faced kampfaffen and untertoten, this probably means the EBKG1 made it to Zverograd. Experiment 22 to start soon."

Blutkreuz Report Notes, 20-01-1947

Post-Battle Thoughts:

Major Wilhelm really thought he had a chance: this was the allies most inexperienced player and his list didn't had any flyer in it (the 203's major weakness) and somehow, his platoon suffered the worst fate he could ever imagine: getting wiped off the map while only removing the Hammers...
It could have been catastrophic campaign-wise had the semi-serum not functionned and the axis engineers not worked hard to bring back the lost Flamm-Luther (understand: lucky dice rolls). Still, all the infantry was lost and this is a set back.
To be noted: 203's ambush worked and they almost killed Ozz (but he fled after seeing his Hammers buddies burnt to crisp) and this game wasn't a loss from the start but the Tank Busters' good placement and the allied commander's good covering fire made it hell for the poor rank 2 infantry.

Flakk Grenadiers will be field-tested on the next battle. Hopefully they'll make the SSU think twice about sending his copters our way and I also cross my finger they'll help if Major Wilhelm faces any more of this nasty rank 3 allied infantry.

On Other Fronts:

Major Klaus' Axis forces emerged victorious but suffered extremely heavy losses in their assault on the Allied-controlled Monastery of Zverograd. The Blutkreuz has sent a mysterious platoon to ''inspect'' the ruins. I wonder why.
On the frozen hills, the SSU was slaughtered to a man and their attack copter was crashed by Major W.H's flakk, thus proving the good choice of Axis High Command to keep him in reserve.

Thanks for reading, as usual, comments are welcomed!
Stay tuned for the 203's Game 3 in its Hades Campaign.