To Breach the Stormwall

They’ve been holding this small town for the past few weeks, a once unremarkable trading crossraods now reduced to rubble. It’s elevated terrain and commanding view of the nearby bridge making it an ideal spot for mounting a defensive line, a perfect spot to place the Stormwall. For many days, the Axis forces in the area tried to breach the entrenched SSU lines to no avail, all their attempts to advance were met with bullets and Tesla fire.

Intel reports that the Axis is again about to make another push at the Stormwall. This latest wave is composed of elements from the dreaded “Xevero” group supported by two heavy walkers. To make matters worse, reports came in that SSU choppers were felled near the Stormwall lines and these choppers were carrying communication codes to be used in the war effort. These codes must be retrieved.

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I finally had the free time to write about our recent exploits at Post 52. In this entry I will report the match I had against one of our Axis Veterans and his annoying Axis Wotan.

For this match, we played a 125 pt. Dust Tactics: Battlefield game. I used the following SSU army list:

Stormwall Platoon:

Tesla Bunker
Read Bears
Red Storm
Red Thunder
6x Barbed Wires

SSU Wolfpack Platoon:

2x Nadya
2x Natasha

1x Captured Ludwig
1x Nastasha

My opponent fielded the following list:

(Axis Xevero Command)

Lara
Panzers

Markus
Kampfaffen

Manfred
(Joined by some Infantry unit with Panzerfausts I forgot the name haha)

SturmKonnig w/ Panzerprinz Pilot

The annoying Wotan (Yuck!)

We rolled Dust Up as our game mission and placed our objectives at the stated table corners. Since we were playing far table corners, I placed my barbed wires at the center field to force the opposing infantry to skirt the edges of my defense line. I also placed the Bunker near the center to get as much field of fire as possible given the restrictions of the board.

Preliminary placements. The infantry units at the upper left are not yet in. The Axis heavy walkers are hiding behind ruined buildings at the top.

There it is men!

At the early goings, I ran my mobile units to hide from the Axis heavy walkers. I was able to position my infantry within shooting distance of the Axis heavies for the next turn but I lost initiative and things started to get bloody!

The Wotan started by ripping the scrambling Red Storm apart, the Sturmkonnig followed by taking potshots at my hiding Red Thunders. These attacks in turn exposed both walkers to retaliatory fire, the Wotan suffering from a huge volley of Tesla fire and captured Ludwig sneaking in lucky hits at the Konnig. Early on, the Axis forces lost both of their heaviest hitters!

Seeing the biggest threats gone, the SSU Wolfpack sprinted for the game objectives behind enemy lines. 

Sturmkonnig down!

This is when Manfred came in and took command, calling in their extra Wotan which rained Laser fire on the KV47s. One by one, the SSU light walkers fell before the Wotan and by midgame, the Axis monster wiped out every SSU KV47 on the board.

One by one they fell.

With the tides of war turning, the Axis infantry made a mad dash to capture the SSU objectives, while the SSU defenders were forced to consolidate behind the barbed wires to halt the Axis advance. Markus and his apes were able to reach the SSU defenses first but were cut down by a barrage of SSU bullets. Manfred and his squad managed to reach the lines in front of the Bunker but also got stuck. 

Apes at the gate!

So close yet so far.

After round 8, the Axis infantry were stalled by the barbed wires in front of the SSU Bunker, and the SSU army protecting the ruined town was almost wiped out with the Bunker, Red Bear and Ludwig remaining. Since no player captured the game objective, we called it a draw. However, upon closer scrutiny of the rules, I noticed that we should have counted the total AP destroyed to determine the winner. Since the Axis destroyed most of the SSU army, this is an Axis Victory!