Battle Report Number 2: Surrounded on the Eastern Front

This is the second battle report. I fought this one on June 5th, again with Flames of War against my father Dave, but am just now writing  about it.
Forces... there were no reserves in this mission... 1500 points
Jordan:
German Late War Generic Infantry Company, Confident Veteran
Command: 2 Panzerfaust SMG teams and a Panzerschreck
Combat: 3 squads of infantry and a Panzerfaust
               3 squads of infantry and a Panzerfaust
               3 squads of infantry and a Panzerfaust
Weapons: 2 MG sections (4 HMGs total) and a Panzerknacker
                 1 MG section (2 HMGs total) and a Panzerknacker
                 2 Mortar sections (4 Mortars and 2 observers total)
Support: 2 light 7.5cm infantry guns with trucks
               3 PaK40s with trucks
               3 Stug Gs
Dave:
Soviet Late War Udarny Strelkovy (shock infantry) Battalion, Fearless Trained
Command: 2 rifle teams, 1 Komissar, 4 ATRs, 2 45mm guns and limbers
Combat: 3 (smallish) platoons of infantry and a Komissar
               3 (smallish) platoons of infantry and a Komissar
Weapons: 1 squad of shock scouts
                 2 platoons of Shock SMG and a Komissar
                 4 Regimental Guns and limbers
Support: 3 SU-122s
               4 SU-76s
               1 Guards flamethrower squad

Mission:
The mission was Surrounded, which has one player defending objective down the middle of the table  with the other attacking him from both sides. There are no reserves.

Terrain:

I actually got pictures of the terrain this time!

Hills in the middle flanked by forests, with a town off to one side and more forests in the corners.

Deployment

Dave put his huge infantry company in the corner, poised  to march through the forest. There are SUs in the forest to try and get the drop on any armor I may have.

On the other side, more Soviet infantry, along with more SUs and some regimental guns, lines up as far forward as it can to come spill some German blood.

I put infantry on each objective, along with three machine guns each, with PaKs facing the one side, artillery on each set of hills, and more infantry and the Stugs in between the two objectives.

A general overview of deployment.

Now it comes time for recon moves, and by golly, Dave actually has one! He attached the scouts and flamethrowers to this company, and now everybody moves forward a long way thanks to the scouts.

 Meanwhile, my German defenders  are sadly oblivious to this, as the Soviets were clever and they stayed in the deep woods.

Turn 1

All the Soviets moved forward towards their objective except the SU-76s in the back corner, who sat back and shot my Stugs for no effect.

 They got one of my PaK guns with their blasted SU-122s. First blood to the Soviets!

Now on to the German turn. With artillery, I lay smoke on the SUs and kill and pin the regimental guns. My infantry reserve moved to counter the huge infantry company.

The wind is not in my favor so I miss one SU with the smoke. Oh well.

Meanwhile, the Stugs have moved to present their much better front armor to the SU-76s and to shoot at the SUs themselves. A direct hit and a bail (yellow chicken) are scored, evening the playing field a little.

Turn 2

The Soviets partake in a general advance and generally ineffective shooting, but then they launch a massive assault.

15 teams died, 8 Soviet  teams and 7 German teams. The Soviets took greater casualties, but the Germans lost a platoon and were ousted from their fortifications.

My turn came, and not much happened. The mortars shot well, in contrast with the infantry guns, who missed. My machine guns pivoted just off camera to face the oncoming threat behind me.

The fire from the Stugs was also underwhelming. One bail was inflicted, the other one having been retained from last time.

Turn 3

Massive carnage is caused by another huge Soviet assault phase, leaving another 15 teams dead and the objective in Soviet hands.

I have been pushed off of the objective  and things look rather bleak for me. Soviet human wave tactics have been yet again proven to be effective.

My turn rolled around, and my movement phase was, for the first time, interesting. I "piecemealed" a mortar team to within 4 inches of the objective, thus enabling me to hold the objective for another turn at the loss of only one mortar ream.

I also sent the Stugs over to help recapture the objective. Shooting kind of sucked, netting only 2 dead Soviets.

Turn 4

 One final assault kills the Stugs, the last machine gun having been shot to pieces.

After the remaining Soviet infantry consolidates, I have no hope of holding the objective.

Soviet Victory!

At  the heels of my concession, or you can imagine a useless turn here if you like, the Soviet infantry holds the objective unopposed.

Conclusions

 

Dave is still experimenting, as the shock infantry is also unconventional for him. But he's still better than me. I was kind of experimenting as well, trying infantry to beat his infantry with my own.

What could I have done better?

List composition- wise, I could have taken Panzer IVs rather than Stugs, as the panzer is more flexible.

In deployment, I should have anticipated the recon move, because that's what really got me. I could have dealt with one company of infantry, but having two, and the flamethrowers, hitting my platoon at the same time just messed me up.

In gameplay, I should not have been so fixated on the SU-76s. They ended up doing me almost no harm, and having the Stugs down at the objective that was getting overrun a turn earlier could have made a significant difference.

Oh, well. At least it was closer fought than last time. Maybe next week I'll win.

See you next week!