Recently I’ve played an experimental game session with my son to check what elite mechanized infantry on armored personnel carriers is capable of in combat.
Usually, I’m not eager to use Hanomags in our games as their combat capabilities in the Art of Tactic system seem to me to be too massive. Judge for yourself: five units of armored vehicles in a company, roll 10 dice on infantry with accuracy 1,2,3 in close combat and on the first hex, only -1 dice when firing while moving—all this makes it an assault unit. Almost a breakthrough tank, and not just an armored personnel carrier.
So, on March 2, 2019, we conducted a game experiment—played an offensive of an elite infantry battalion on APCs against two Soviet infantry battalions, in order to test whether Hanomag is capable of easily breaking through defenses, or their stats are more or less realistic, after all.
So, the German commander (my 14-year old son) got an elite mechanized battalion from the Großdeutschland regiment:
- 1 elite infantry company
- 2 paratrooper companies (just as elite infantry, not airborne)
- 3 Hanomag units
- 1 mortar platoon + 1 machine-gun platoon on a motor transport column (Opel Blitz)
169 points according to official unit costs
This troops were opposed by two Red Army infantry battalions commanded by me:
- HQ
- 6 rifle companies
- 2 machine-gun platoons
- 2 mortar platoons
114 points according to official unit costs
The balance of combat power is 1.5 to 1 for the Germans. Notice the absence of anti-tank weapons on the Soviet side.
According to the game scenario, the Germans had two tasks: capture the village (20 victory points) and reach the last field hex (10 points). Also, the cost of every unit fully eliminated will be added to the victory points of each side.
TURNS 1-2
So, here we go. Here’s the order of battle and German movement for turns 1&2:
At the end of Turn 1, all Soviet units who could lie in ambush did that. But the 26th company in the village never got a chance to: on the very first turn two Hanomag units opened fire on it while moving, rolled 18 dice on 1,2 and had 9 hits! The entire infantry company was wiped out, even the +2 village defensive bonus didn’t help...
At the end of turn 2 the Germans reached their assault positions.
TURNS 3-4
Mortars and machine-guns disembarked from the trucks, while all the elite infantry is still in their personnel carriers.
On Turn 4, two Hanomags fired while moving on 1,2,3, and fully eliminated another infantry company that was on an open defensive position.
In the meantime, the German machine-gun platoon marched to the vicinity of the village to come into firing position, but ran into Soviet machine-gun ambush and was wiped out (the distance was three hexes, but the Soviets were shooting on 1,2 due to the ambush).
TURN 5
One of the Hanomag units (with paratroopers still inside) entered the village and ran into an ambush. Soviet infantrymen rolled 6 dice on 1,2,3,4 due to the bonuses for ambush and village, but managed to destroy only one Hanomag, and it was the one without infantry (as paratroopers have the quantity of 4, not 5). In return, the APCs wiped out 2/5 of the infantry and suppressed it.
29th company tried to come closer to the village, was fired at by one of the Hanomag companies, lost 2/5 of its men and was suppressed.
The camouflaged Hanomags with elite infantry still inside moved and fired on the 5th mortar platoon, destroyed half of it and suppressed the rest.
TURN 6
German mortars and two Hanomag units shoot at the hex with light woods, wipe out the entire machine-gun platoon, destroy another 2/5 of the already suppressed 29th company, and take off 1 defense point from the still ambushed 28th company.
After that, the 28th company joins the close combat in the village, but without luck. The Hanomags in the village finish off the suppressed 27th company.
Meanwhile, Soviet commander starts a bold sortie on the left flank—24th company comes out of ambush and is clearly aiming to reach the firing positions of German mortars.
TURN 7
The suppressed 29th company in light woods endured suppressive fire from German mortars without new losses!
Close combat in the village continues. Soviet infantry destroys one more Hanomag (plus 1/4 of the paratroopers inside), and suffers no losses itself—thanks to the +2 defensive bonus. Moreover, the Hanomags are suppressed, so they can’t disembark the infantry!
The camouflaged Hanomags are moving further to the Soviet rear finishing off the 5th mortar platoon on their way.
At least one German infantry company finally disembarks from personnel carriers.
And the 24th company on the Soviet left flank comes close to German mortars without entering their kill zone.
TURN 8
The 2nd Soviet machine-gun platoon finally has a suitable target. So it comes out of ambush and destroys 2/5 of the German elite infantry. HQ joins the feast and opens suppressive fire on the elite Germans too, having three hits on “1” and finishing them off!
24th company destroys 1/2 of German mortars, re-throws stray shots on the trucks and eliminates the entire motor transport column.
In the village, the second Hanomag unit joins the close combat. The defending Soviet infantrymen lose another 2/5 of personnel while destroying two more Hanomags from the suppressed unit (with paratroopers inside!) Moreover, Soviet infantry isn’t suppressed itself—it passes fortitude test, having only “4” of fortitude!
Meanwhile, the camouflaged Hanomags reach the last hex on the Red Army rear and earn 10 victory points for breaching Soviet defenses.
So, eight turns are over. The Soviet defense is obviously overrun, but the German commander didn’t manage to capture the village and suffered heavy casualties: entire elite company, 3/4 of a paratrooper company, four Hanomags, 1/2 of the mortar platoon, and the whole motor transport column.
All totaled, the German won on points 82:63.
But we wanted to see, how many turns would Germans need to finally mop up the village. So we continued playing.
TURN 9
The 29th company passed the fortitude test at the end of the previous turn and joined the close combat in the village. Together with the 28th they finish off the suppressed Hanomags, while the 28th loses 1/5 of its men.
On the southern flank, suppressed German mortars are holding their position in close combat! (we forgot that in the 3rd edition of the Game Rules suppressed units should retreat if being assaulted…)
The camouflaged Hanomags rejoin the battle.
TURNS 10-11
24th company finally finishes off the mortar crews and comes closer to the village.
Paratrooper company disembarks from APCs.
And the village hasn’t still been captured! 1/5 of infantry company and 3/4 of HQ are continuing the closed combat with the full Hanomag unit.
TURN 12
The camouflaged Hanomags attack the village and wipe out the Soviet HQ. But the 28th company is still there, having only 1/5 of its strength left!
TURN 13
It finally happened—the Germans have mopped up the village. The 24th company didn’t manage to go into combat there as it was fired at and suppressed by the paratroopers. End of game.
MY CONCLUSIONS
1) In Art of Tactic, Hanomags can really be used as assault vehicles against infantry defenses, and not only as personnel carriers. Especially, if the opponent is weak in anti-tank weapons.
2) Key to success when using Hanomags is in choosing the optimal time and place to disembark infantry.
My son had some troubles with the latter: one paratrooper company was just traveling inside Hanomags until the 11th turn, while another one was destroyed while sitting inside APCs and never got a chance to fight. On the other hand, his elite company had disembarked in the wrong place, at the wrong time—when the last machine-gun ambush wasn’t uncovered yet.
The game lasted 1.5 hours, and we both enjoyed every minute of it!
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