Pre Natcon warm up game

On Saturday afternoon My good friend Mark was kind enough to invite me around for a 1550pts Flames of war game. It was a last chance to get a practice game in before we both went up to Auckland on Easter weekend for Natcon. Both Mark and myself were both using Soviets out of the Barbarossa book I would be using a Motostrelkovy Batalon and Mark would be using a Tankovy Batalon with a mix of T-60's, T-34's and a KV-2.
We rolled for a random mission and it was fighting withdrawal and as i was an infantry company and Mark was tanks i would be defending. I was looking forward to this as my army i didn't think is well equipped to deal with large numbers of tanks so this would be a good test.

The Setup my forces on the left Mark's on the Right

The left flank My Artillery kv1 and an infantry platoon held this side with the HMG and mortar platoon in the middle of the table. They would be holding 2 of the objectives.

The right flank the second infantry platoon, AA guns and the Katyusha battery would be holding the 3rd objective.

The T-60's and AA trucks charge forward while my troops await their fate.

Same thing in this flank T-60's the Kv2 and unarmed sappers move to position.

In my first turn in reply i decide that is far enough for the T-60's spring my 45mm AT guns from ambush. But sadly only killing 2 and bailing 1 with 6 shots hitting on 2+ I expected more.

Mark's next turn he continued the charge His kv-2 hitting and killing one of my artillery guns. Yes that's right a conscript ROF1 hen and chicks tank hit something on the move wow. Mark's T-60s wiped out the AT guns leaving just the platoon command who would be eventually killed.

Mark's Katyusha made a mess of mine killing 3 of the 4 trucks which is only fair. After all my
Katyusha's killed his AA trucks the turn before.

The unarmed sappers decide to let the Kv-2 clear the way before stepping out in the open for their assault.

Mark's T-60s charge up the hill into the first assault of the game killing 3 stands of men. The T-34's kill both the 37mm AA guns getting rid of any decant defensive fire for the troops.

My troops wern't in the mood for a counter charge their foxholes where nice and warm. My Katyusha platoon or what was left of it was the first to be pulled off the line.

After the Kv-2 failed to make any impression on the troops in front of him the unarmed sappers went for it managing to kill one stand. My artillery guns killed another T-60 and bailed 2 more.

With the unarmed sappers in the open after the assault 3 of my Maksin HMG's open up on them dealing a lethal blow. The artillery guns killed 1 more T-60 forcing them to flee. This flank was staring to look secure the other flank how ever....

This wasn't looking so good with no AT asset in the area my Kv-1 was racing to try and save the day but being a slow tank I left this a turn or two too late and my men where paying for it but holding on. JUST. My mortars where the next to come off the line.

I was slowly being whittled down only just passing some motivation tests although I might of shot a few men n the process.

With this flank falling apart for Mark he just charged strait for the objective with his Kv-2. So I swarmed it in an attempt to kill it in assault. This turn the HMG's where pulled off with no infantry left on table their work was done.

Turn six my men had just fled but i was able to withdraw the first objective and the Kv-1 was on hand to hold back the tanks from moving onto the center objective killing 2 T-60's in the process.

After 2 assaults with the Kv-2 i was able to make him break off but as i had him surrounded it meant his death. Mark's company commander arrived on the scene just a turn too late to help.

With too many tanks for the Kv-1 to stop they stated getting through but at this point we had got to the start of turn 8 which is the end of the game so no more could be done.

Well it ended up being a very hard fought 4-3 win to my Soviets. I'm glad I could face a typical early war tank army as I feel I lack the amount of AT assets needed for early war but with this army you have some tanks or guns but not both. I feel that i should be ok vs an Infantry army given my amount of infantry, HMG's and template weapons. Well next stop Auckland for Natcon thanks for reading.

Natcon 2015 Army

Well with the odd points level for Natcon this year for late war being 1450 I could find a list that worked for me. So I switched to early war with it being 1550pts I thought it would be a good time to try out the new Barbarossa book. I'm going to fly up to Auckland on Thursday night the 2nd of April and meet up with Mark and Andrew Stanton two fellow war gamers and great friends I have known for a long time and with finding accommodation close to the venue we wont have to worry about driving to and from the venue each day. Here is what i came up with for my 4th tilt at a Natcon event.

Motostrelkovy Batalon (Confident Conscript)

HQ
Battalion HQ + 2 x 45mm obr 1937 AT guns 90pts

Combat Companies
Motostrelkovy company with 3 Motor rifle platoons 260pts 
Motostrelkovy company with 3 Motor rifle platoons 260pts
Motostrelkovy Machine gun company 8 x Maksin HMG 155pts 
Motostrelkovy Mortar company 6 x 82-BM-41 90pts

Divisional Support 
Motorised Artillery Battalion 4 x 76mm obr 1902/30 235pts
Guards Rocket mortar Battalion 4 x BM-8 Katyusha + Crew and OP 130pts (Confident Trained)
Anti-Aircraft company 2 x 37mm obr 1939 AA guns + trucks 75pts 
KV Tankovy Company 1 x KV-1 obr 1939 255pts

Total     1550pts

The army as a whole just a few bits to finish.

The Battalion Komissar, 2iC and AT guns

The lone bit of armour in my army I'm hoping it has the same effect as a king tiger does in late war.

The mortars and artillery guns although these with be in an anti-tank role with ROF2, AT9 and FP3+ they should do the job.

Ahh the BM-8 Katyusha each of these with their crew count as four guns firing. And under the rocket rules for 16 weapons firing that's a devastating bombardment template with re-rolls and they count as fearless trained.

The Air sweeping service these should keep the Huns out of the skies

At full ROF there is 48 shots here could even make a mess of some of that light early war armour.

I'm hopping that these big chunky platoons will be able to take the punishment as well as dish it out. With 3 platoons being able to bombard not that they all will be anyway who says the US are the only ones that can have an artillery park. As i found last year at Call to arms even though you are conscript infantry if your defending and dug in your still very hard to shift.And with these large platoons I'm hoping that in missions with reserves ill still have enough models on table to counter anything.

I'm hoping to get a game in the coming weekend if anyone wants to show me the error of my ways just so i know what I'm doing with this massive horde.