The Cat Killer’s Ninth Life

The Cat Killer’s Ninth Life The Cat Killer’s Ninth Life:
Fielding The Hero Medium Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment From Desperate Measures
with Russell Briant

This is the second Soviet Medium Self-propelled Artillery Regiment to feature in Desperate Measures; representing the survivors of the unnatural selection of the Eastern Front. The Hero version has access to both the Cat Killers special rule and the Heroes of the Soviet Union rules package.

Read Russell's Hello Kitty article here...
Cat Killers
The medium self-propelled guns were used as long-range anti-tank weapons to support tanks and infantry against German tanks.


Assault guns from a Hero Medium Assault Gun Company do not use the Volley Fire special rule. Instead, assault guns from a Hero Medium Assault Gun Company that did not move in the Movement Step may re-roll failed rolls To Hit when shooting their main guns at platoons with all teams more than 16”/40cm away.
The Heroes of the Soviet Union special rules are written to evoke particular skills of those soldiers who had survived the perils of the Eastern Front that had accounted for so many of their comrades.

Heroes Of The Soviet Union
Luckier

Your men have come through the cauldron of war. Most have been in action non-stop since Operation Bagration, nearly a year ago. They have learned to survive, and the luckiest, smartest, sharpest of these have become Heroes of the Soviet Union.


If the Company or 2iC Command team is Destroyed, your opponent must roll a 5+, rather than the normal 4+, when rolling for Warrior Team Casualties (see page 106 of the rulebook).

Smarter
Many years of war have made the Soviet soldiers veterans. Once in combat, they know what to do and how best to do it. They persevere, though still plagued by incompetent leadership and an influx of poorly trained or ill-prepared replacements.


Teams from Hero platoons and companies pass all Skill Tests on a result of 3+. In addition, when firing bombardments, Hero companies roll to hit as though they were rated as Veteran.


Sharper
Years of training on the job means that tank crews have become familiar with their tanks and they know how to get the most out of them.


Hero platoons and companies do not use the Hen and Chicks special rule.

I like building 1750 point list for Late-war companies and in this case I struggled to find lists I liked at lower points totals. I’ve worked up a couple of variations at that force size.

Again I have chosen to use the Confident Trained version. Partly this is to get more numbers for the points but also because that seems to fit better with the back story of these survivors of the battles in Mother Russia. A degree of circumspection probably correlated with surviving.

The Cat Killer’s Ninth Life
The Objective Is The Objective
This Regiment’s HQ is a single T-34/85 obr 1994 for 85 points. Simple. There is the option to add SMG Tank Escorts for 10 points but I’d only take that if there is a spare 10 points lying around at the end. To be able take advantage of the Luckier special rule it will need to stay near an Armoured Company.

The Combat Platoons are a minimum of two and a maximum of four Hero Medium Assault Gun Companies.  Like the standard version the Hero version has the same three assault gun type. The nimble SU-85 and more heavily protected but overloaded SU-85M and SU-100. The companies have three assault guns each. No more, no less.

Given the constrained number of vehicles I think survivability is an important characteristic so I discard the SU-85 as an option; just too many weapons that can easily penetrate Front Armour 5. The Confident Trained SU-85M company costs 270 points (305 if I was building a Fearless Trained list) and the SU-100 company costs 320 points (360 if Fearless Trained).


In this list I have taken one of each. The SU-100s to counter Panthers and Tigers, and the SU-85M to exploit the higher rate of fire with the Cat Killers re-roll misses at long range special rule. The SU-85M is also better able to take advantage of the Sharper rule because it can move and get one shot off without further penalty, providing a manoeuvre option. The intended role of these two companies is to take advantage of the Cat Killers rule and sit back at long range and cover the other units performing their tasks. The Assault Guns companies aren’t really set up to take advantage of the Hero of the Soviet Union special rules because they shouldn’t have many Skill Tests to take.

There are no Weapons platoons in this list and the Support platoons are an even more limited pallet than the other Medium Self-propelled Artillery Regiment list. The Smarter rule effects Skill Tests. Skill Tests are used in particular To Hit in assaults and bombardments. To take best advantage of being a Hero Regiment this list need units that assault or bombard or both.
 
This variant is built to be able to assault.

The Cat Killer’s Ninth Life
There are only three company options that can be considered assault platoons; a Guards Hero Heavy Tank company, a Hero Motostrelkovy Company and a Hero Tankovy Company. Unfortunately the latter is paired with the Regiment’s only reconnaissance unit. Reconnaissance is pretty fundamental to ensuring the Cat Killers rule can be exploited so the Tankovy Company isn’t an option for me.

The Hero Light Armoured Car platoon has three, Fearless Trained, BA-64 armoured cars for 90 points. This platoon benefits from the Smarter rule to improve the chance when attempting Eyes and Ears and when trying to disengage.

The Guards Hero Heavy Tank Company is Fearless Trained and can be two or three IS-2 obr 1943 or the up-armoured IS-2 obr 1944. In this list I’ll take three IS-2 obr 1944 for 450 points. The only performance difference between the Hero and standard versions of the Heavy Tank Company is the 3+ rather than 4+ To Hit in assaults. It makes sense to add SMG Tank Escorts for a total of 30 points to double that hit potential. The .50 cal AA MG is also usually useful on an IS-2 for when the single shot 122mm can’t hit or a volume of hits is important. 15 points mounts one on each tank.

To support the Heavy Tanks I’ve added the full strength Hero Motostrelkovy company with thirteen SMG teams for 200 points upgrading three to Panzerfaust SMG teams, one per platoon, for 30 points giving a tank hunting capability. There is a further option add up to two HMGs for 25 points each, bringing the company up to the minimum teams to qualify for Quality of Quantity.

1570 points used; 180 points remaining.

A Hero Heavy Mortar Company with six 120mm heavy mortars and its optional observer costs 175 points. The Heavy Mortar Bombard so will roll To Hit as veterans. They are useful to pin targets ahead of assaults and taking out defending gun and infantry teams.

1745 points. Close enough.

1750 point Hero Medium Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment (Confident Trained)
Hero Srednly Samokhodno-Artillyerskly Polk HQ
 
with one Company Command T-34/85 obr 1944. 85 points
Combat Companies  
Hero Medium Assault Gun Company  
with three SU-100 Assault Guns. 320 points
Hero Medium Assault Gun Company  
with three SU-85M Assault Guns. 270 points
Support Companies
 
Guards Hero Heavy Tank Company
 
with three IS-2 obr 1944 upgraded with SMG Tank Escorts & .50 cal AA MGs.
495 points
Hero Light Armoured Car Platoon
 
with three BA-64.
90 points
Hero Motostrelkovy Company
 
with HQ section, three Motor Rifle Platoons, one Machine-gun Platoon & three Panzerfaust SMG team upgrades. 310 points
Hero Heavy Mortar Company
 
with HQ section, Observer Rifle team & three Mortar Platoons.
175 points
Total Points: 1745 points
Fire From The Sky
One of the opportunities that appealed from the Heroes lists is the Guard Hero Rocket Mortar Battalion with the super heavy rocket BM-31-12 Katyusha because it particularly benefits from the Smarter special rule.

• Rockets that range in always have a To Hit roll of their skill rating so Hero Katyushas will always have a 3+ To Hit roll.

• Guards Hero Rocket Mortar Battalions also get the Mobile Rockets rule which removes the incriminating Smoke Trails on a successful Skill Test. Smarter makes this more likely.

• Super Heavy Rockets require a Skill Test to be reloaded. Smarter helps here as well. More launchers firing with a better To Hit roll probably doubles the effectiveness over the standard version (I’ll do the math some time).

The BM-31-12 Katyusha is an impressive weapon. Its range of 48”/120cm is long enough to reach most parts of the table. Anti-tank 3, which is a modest threat to most armour, but the Firepower of 1+ will destroy anything that fails its save. The Battalion is Fearless Trained so it recovers well from being pinned as well.

You can take one, two or four platoons of a pair of truck mounted launchers in the Battalion for 120, 225 and 375 points respectively. Taking additional loaders for 10 points a platoon effectively doubles the number of launchers.

In this list I have gone the whole hog and taken eight launchers with extra crew for 415 points. Every time five or more launchers reload a Devastating Bombardment template is used which is a reasonable chance while there are eight launchers.

Around this key idea I have taken the same Hero HQ T-34, two medium assault gun companies, Light Armoured Car and Motostrelkovy Companies as the previous list.

1750 point Hero Medium Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment (Confident Trained)
Hero Srednly Samokhodno-Artillyerskly Polk HQ
 
with one Company Command T-34/85 obr 1944. 85 points
Combat Companies  
Hero Medium Assault Gun Company  
with three SU-100 Assault Guns. 320 points
Hero Medium Assault Gun Company  
with three SU-85M Assault Guns. 270 points
Support Companies
 
Guards Hero Rocket Mortar Battalion (Fearless Trained)  
with HQ Section, Observer Rifle team, four Rocket Mortar Platoons with Extra crew.
415 points
Hero Light Armoured Car Platoon
 
with three BA-64.
90 points
Hero Motostrelkovy Company
 
with HQ section, three Motor Rifle Platoons, one Machine-gun Platoon & three Panzerfaust SMG team upgrades. 310 points
Hero Anti-Aircraft Company
 
with HQ Section & two Anti-Aircraft Platoons. 110 points
Hero Tank Destruction Company
 
with HQ section & two Anti-tank Platoons (57mm ZIS-2).
150 points
Total Points: 1750 points
The remaining Companies are:

A Hero Anti-aircraft Company with a Command Rifle team and four 37mm obr 1939 guns for 110 points. Anti-aircraft fire is a Skill Test so this is another Hero company that benefit from the Smarter rule. This company can help hold off infantry and light armour from the central components of this list; the Katyushas and Assault Gun Companies. Without a gun shield, they need to be dug in promptly.

My last platoon is a Hero Tank Destruction Company. There are 150 points left which happens to be the exact cost of a company armed with four 57mm ZIS-2 guns. There aren’t many Skill Tests that a Tank Destruction Company needs to take and they don’t benefit from not using Hen and Chicks so they aren’t particularly advantaged from being a Hero company. But they are a useful support choice none the less.

They beef up the anti-tank capability of the list, with good range, a respectable Anti-tank rating of 11. They also have a high rate of fire making them useful for engaging infantry and their supports, with the option of doing that out of direct, return fire range of many of those.

Being Soviet Medium guns they move as Light guns so are a good option to go forward with the Armoured Cars and Motostrelkovy to support them.
 
To complete their bag of tricks, they get access to the Volley Fire rule at close range, enabling them to re-roll To Hit misses. So a valuable support choice.

This list has seven Companies, which is a little inefficient in half-off missions but as a Tank Company they will miss some of those and the points combinations available to massage this list is somewhat constrained.
The Cat Killer’s Ninth Life
Combination
This list mixes the IS-2s from list one and BS-31-12 Katyushas from list two. The Hero and HQ, Assault Guns and Armoured Cars are unchanged and the IS-2s lose their .50 cal AA MG.

The Motostrelkovy lose their HMGs; this does remove the potential of Quality of Quantity but a platoon of thirteen is still a good size for taking into an assault. The Guard Hero Rocket Mortar Battalion is halved to two platoons totalling four launchers with extra crew. This is still enough to have a double width template if three launchers reload, which, with the Smarter rule and its 3+ Skill Test is possible.

1750 point Hero Medium Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment (Confident Trained)
Hero Srednly Samokhodno-Artillyerskly Polk HQ
 
with one Company Command T-34/85 obr 1944. 85 points
Combat Companies  
Hero Medium Assault Gun Company  
with three SU-100 Assault Guns. 320 points
Hero Medium Assault Gun Company  
with three SU-85M Assault Guns. 270 points
Support Companies
 
Guards Hero Heavy Tank Company
 
with three IS-2 obr 1944 with SMG Tank Escorts.
480 points
Guards Hero Rocket Mortar Battalion (Fearless Trained)  
with HQ Section, Observer Rifle team, two Rocket Mortar Platoons with Extra crew.
245 points
Hero Light Armoured Car Platoon
 
with three BA-64.
90 points
Hero Motostrelkovy Company
 
with HQ section, three Motor Rifle Platoons & three Panzerfaust SMG team upgrades. 260 points
Total Points: 1750 points
So there are some options for Hero version of Medium Self-propelled Artillery Regiment looking to take advantage of the special rules. The Assault Guns sit back and prep the target area or deny ground to the enemy. The IS-2s and Motostrelkovy advance to capture objectives covered by the HMGs and ZIS-2s. The Armoured Car deny any ambush points ahead of the main assault and use Eyes and Ears to lift Gone To Ground for the Assault Guns and artillery targets. The Heavy mortars or Katyushas pound the objective defenders ahead of the assaults going in; simple plan that might just work.

Keep on surviving and taking out big cats on the table top Eastern Front.

~ Russell.