AAR The Stuart Vs the Panther

[aka_tom_w]

For openers this is not a complaint.

Just a little interesting ARR

I was playing Rune's scenario, A River Runs Through It, as the Allies against the German AI last night. (if you wish to play A River Runs Through It double blind, you may stop reading now).

Anyway it is near the end game and I have crossed the bridge with almost ALL of the Allied force and there are only two tanks left in the game, ONE heroic mighty little Allied Stuart and one big bad evil MONSTER Panther.

The AI driven Panther is getting brave and does not understand the Stuart as a threat, it has LOS but is not really concerned as its flanks are protected. We are battling around a few houses and lots of woods. The area to fight in is VERYY tight, woods and houses nd not much open space. My Infantry and piat teams are crawling all over the woods and the Allies have laregely won the infantry battle. With most german infantry routed I pull the Stuart up close into "safe" place in the open beside some woods. Over on my left flank the Panther drives carelessly past a engineer squad (10 m away) in the woods that unloads two demo packs on the lumbering beast with NO effect. That Panther hunts on over toward the house and woods near the Stuart and through the woods they see each other. I see it coming over and order the Stuart in very close quarters to attempt a quick flanking move, close in on the Panther in the orders phase but the two tanks are in woods and buildings and very close to each other. The Panther gets fast move orders toward the woods and the flanking attempt fails. The Stuart is brave and does not run away but stays close to the woods sort of hiding. The Panther and stuart are on opposiite sides of some small woods about 20 -30 meters apart, and the woods are FULL of my infantry units but no anti tank piats are available with LOS to the Panther. So I think there goes the Stuart now I'm done!

BUT NO!, the tanks are almost frontal to frontal with each other, sideways a little both have LOS but off center abit, (on opposite sides of a strip of small woods, 20 m) but there is no good flank shot for either tank. So in the first minute of shooting the Panther opens up,

first Shot MISS !! (what great luck I think)

I'll bet it dies on the next shot for sure!

The stuart fires two shots that bounce off the panther. no effect

the Panther fires again Hit! ( but only a track hit! the Stuart can't back out now even if it wanted to)

the Stuart fires another shot, bounces off

then the Panther Fires another Shot HIT! but Again only a track hit Ha! think lucky So FAR!

The stuart gets off two more shots both hits, no damage to the panther

The Panther Fires again

A HIT! turret penetration NO DAMAGE! I think this is my lucky day, Panther Fires four times at point blank range, misses once gets two track hits and on pentration without result!

Finally the Stuart fires twice and on the second shot nails the Panther, and YES!, gets a measly little Track hit and imbbolizes it!

Then, finally, the Panther WHACKS the Stuart, front hull penetration Ka-BOOM, KO'd! BUT now all my infantry close assualt the beast, no luck, nothing, it just keeps hammering away with the HE into the woods.

Finally I have one Piat team with 4 rounds left (but he is about 100 meters away and out of LOS) so I sneak up to about 30 meters from the clearly exposed Panther's flank. The Piat team is wounded and has one man down. It takes FOREVER to load and aim. One whole minute goes by and my infantry in the wooods are getting chewed up with HE and the Piat does not fire. The next minute he aims and about 45 secs later he pulls trigger and AND.............. MISS!!!

Damn it! I wait another minute to reload, these guys reload VERY slowly when there is only one of the them, then finally he aims and lets go the second shot, he now only has 2 rounds left ......

The Shot HITS! Flank Penetration Panther KO'd D!!! I can't tell you how GOOD the felt!

What a battle, ALL the tanks and vehicles from both sides were KO'd, I held all the vl's at the end but only got minor victory because I had lost so many units in the battle.

A River Runs Through It, GREAT sceanrio by Rune!

-tom w

[ 05-01-2001: Message edited by: aka_tom_w ]

[Head Mahone]

What a great read! This game is by far none the BEST war game out there....

-Head

[lcm1947]

Very good read. Thanks for telling it. Yeah, I bet the guys in the Stuart about Sh!t in thier pants. Doesn't it make you feel great when something like that happens? Is this a cool game or what?

[Mark IV]

A point-blank, up-the-tailpipe shot from my Stuart destroyed not only Meeks' Stug, but his CM career as well. He has fled the board but is probably posting under various aliases. It was the most useful moment of my life. I love this game.