Flames of war - Late war mini tournament

After a series of battles capturing the Romanian spring offensive of 1944, both sides had reached a stalemate. The German and the Soviet forces both lost numbers though while the soviets had some success in taking territory, the Germans stubbornly held the line. Read more here and here.

To give the summer of battles a decisive result, we decided to throw down a mini-tournament over a day, with 8 players and 3 battles each. Points are 1350 and forces are limited to early 1944 technology.

Axis

Grenadiers (A)

Grenadiers (M)

SS-Panzergrenadierkampfgruppe 

Panzerspah 

Soviet

Heavy assault guns (ISUs)

Gavardyskiy Thazhelyy Tankovy 

Stelkovy

Rota Razvedki

First round

The first round of battles is a random meeting engagement scenario.

SS-Panzergrenadierkampfgruppe - Rota Razvedki

The Red army sends their forward detachment to prone the enemy lines. The resistance seems fierce and many soviet tanks are destroyed in the open field. A German victory.

Heavy assault gun - Grenadiers (A)
The Heavy ISU assault guns are slowly lumbering forward towards the German positions. The German grenadiers fails to penetrate their thick armor, resulting in only a couple of destroyed ISU:s. A solid soviet victory.

Panzerspah - Gavardyskiy Thazhelyy Tankovy 

The Soviets heavy tanks are cached with their pants down as the fast pumas swarms the objectives. The battle ends quickly in a German victory. 

Stelkovy - Grenadiers (M)
The soviets dig in to the forest while their close air support devastates the German lines, unit by unit. A brave attempt to end the game quick is made by my Panzer IV:s but their weak Armour and the raging aircraft ends their attempt quickly.

Result: Soviet (2) Axis (2)

Second round

The second round in the tournament is a random defensive battle.

Grenadiers (M) - Gavardyskiy Thazhelyy Tankovy 

My Grenadiers fair better in the defensive setup, where they defend against the Heavy IS-2 tanks. But the game is a close call, after 5 round of intense firefight with Nashorns and Flak 8.8 only 2 IS-2 are destroyed. While the Panzer IV:s are watching their rounds bounce of the heavy tanks armour, a brave infantry assault finally breaks the Heavy tanks for a German victory.

Rota Razvedki - Grenadiers (A)

The Soviet forward detachment fares better against the German grenadiers, where they quickly rush forward towards the objective. Stalin will be proud of this Soviet victory.

Heavy assault gun - SS-Panzergrenadierkampfgruppe 

The SS dig in to protect their objectives while their Panthers are massacring the ISU assault guns in a crossfire with the heavy Pak43:s. But the Assault guns sees an opportunity to seize a unprotected objective and miraculously scores a Soviet victory.

Panzerspah - Stelkovy

The Puma Aufklärung company continue their success with some aid of their HS-129 air support. The Strelkovy are blown apart, piece by piece, into a solid German victory.

Result: Soviet (4) Axis (4)

Third round

The last round of battles is played as a random mobile battle.

Grenadiers (M) - Heavy assault gun

My grenadiers once again face the Heavy armor of the red army. This time, with no ambushes and random reserves the ISU:s are free to line up and obliterate the grenadier positions. The Panzer IVs attempts a flanking maneuver but lose half their tanks in a failed attempt. It looks terribly bad for the Germans, but somehow, the soviet assault to push the infantry off the objective fails and the ISU:s ends up leaderless. A minor German victor

Gavardyskiy Thazhelyy Tankovy - Grenadiers (A)

The Heavy IS-2 tanks prove how hard it can be to penetrate their thick armor. After a close skirmish with the German grenadiers, the IS-2 tanks bring the Red army another victory.

Panzerspah - Rota Razvedki 

Two fast armies clash down the streets of a Romanian village. The better training of the Pumas and their ability to use the terrain for protection give the German side yet another victory.

Stelkovy - SS-Panzergrenadierkampfgruppe 

The SS grenadiers are facing off against the dug in soviet Strelkovy. With soviet reserves being able to flank the panthers while avoiding the immobile Pak43 guns return fire, the battle ends in a Soviet victory.

Result: Soviet (6) Axis (6)

So the final result of the tournament is a stunning draw with 6 victories on each side. But as this tournament was an extension of the campaign it was ruled out that in case of a draw the previous efforts of the Soviet side would give a Soviet victory. Still it was an even tournament, with only the Panzerspah remaining undefeated in all games.