Breville Campaign - The defence of Breville - Surrounded

The Breville Campaign draws to conclusion...

In the last game, Paul and his Paras had attacked Breville, but the German defending force had been successful in performing a Fighting Withdrawal...

So although a 'win' for the Germans, the Paras still have the initiative, and press on with their attack, surrounding the town of Breville now. And thus the next logical battle to try is 'Surrounded' - Can the German defenders maintain a corridor to freedom and escape, or for resupply, to maintain their foothold on the town...

The scene is set...

Having read the terrain description, from the briefing, the town of Breville lies at the north end of the Bravent Ridge, located roughly NE of Caen... So I decided to run a long low ridge-like hill from one side of board to the centre, placed a crossroads there, and built the town around it.

The forces for this battle as follows...

German Defenders, Grenadierkompanie from Fortress Europe 1750pts.

I had tweaked the army list from last time... As much as I liked fielding the 5 PzIVs, which gives me a lot of mobile MG for killing infantry, they are still prone to Shermans, Fireflies and even PIATs. So I decided to drop them in favour of a pair of Tigers. It would mean less MG fire for infantry killing but hopefully more survivability, and enough firepower to deal with the enemy Shermans.
The mortars were brought back up to 4 tubes (from 2 last time), hopefully for a bit more strength, whether bombardment or direct fire for effect, or smoke. The Pak38s were trimmed back from three guns to two.


Paul, brought the same list, I believe, as he tried last time...

Airlanding Company from Turning Tide, 1750pts, I believe something like:

The forces are ready, the table beckons...

Paul puts one objective under front right building in below pic, and the other diagonally opposite, just outside the village perimeter, looking to spread my forces out as much as possible.

Deployment view from south looking north

The objectives placed, I must deploy my forces, holding back one platoon, as an 'immediate ambush', which is more like a delayed deployment in this scenario. Not knowing where Paul would mass his attack I had to defend the entire perimeter to both sides, which stretched my forces to the max.

I placed barbed wire from pioneers covering approach to the exposed objective, and pioneers behind the wire. Grenadiers covered the other objective from two sides, and the scouts covered the back of the pioneers. Guns and mortars were scattered about pointing in all directions covering, to a modest degree, all approaches. Tigers were immediate ambush, once I saw where the Shermans would approach from...

Deployment view from north looking south

Paul decided to deploy in such away it appeared his attack was coming in on both objectives from both sides... so I couldn't turn any platoon to face any strong threat as the threat was all round.

Being British Infantry on the attack, Paul again pulled night attack.

For the first two turns all went more or less quietly, as Paul approached and neither side had any fire due to cover or darkness, poor visibility at range and gone to ground troops.

Initial approaches from the north...

... and south...

However the calm was not to last...

Paul got three engineer teams up to my wire line, with a view to clearing it. Rather than let them achieve this I sent a flamethrower after two of them and shot the rest of the platoon at the third. All the engineers were killed at the wire, and this pinned the platoon down

Elsewhere, it was time to open up on the approaching Brits... I got a good round of visibility rolls, all coming up 4 or more, and let rip with everything. I had previously moved an HMG, Infantry gun and a Pak38 to better firing positions and sent the Tigers to aid the scouts, as they were staring down a para platoon and commando. I scored a load of hits, as you can imagine for all the firing, as none of my platoons were pinned and almost all the HMGs were firing at full effect, plus the scouts with their assault rifles backed up by the Tigers and pak38s, unleashed a hail of steel into the darkness...

That was fair enough, but to contrast with Pauls saving throws from the previous game, his troops started dropping like flies this time... the centre thrust along the hill  was cut down to half strength and pinned, the commando were almost destroyed, pinned but stuck around, other platoons took fire too, to lesser effect but most were pinned by the end of my shooting phase.

Although Paul passed morale for those the worst damaged, to rub salt in the wound, Paul then went on to fluff his subsequent unpinning rolls, meaning the troops would be stuck in same positions again to endure another round of fire!

Trying to mitigate some of this Paul fired a smoke barrage with his mortars. Also, those that now had wanted to advance with weight of numbers and couldn't, tried to dig in, and failed that too... it was a terrible round of dice rolling by Paul. However his troops now at least were gone to ground too, so would be a much harder target.

Since my Tigers had fired, this then opened them up to a long range shot from the Firefly with its semi indirect fire. He managed one hit which I just managed to save, Paul passed the firepower roll to bail the Tiger.

Smoke to lessen the German firing

Shermans approach the eastern side of town

In the following German turn, the Tigers, having remounted their bailed tank, now feeling the situation for the scouts was somewhat under control, did some nifty driving in the cramped confines of the town, turned and fired back at the firefly, destroying it.  They had tried to remain stationary and just turn their turrets round but encountered that classic situation from "Kelly's Heroes" ... no space to turn the turret in the town... Having seen to the firefly they passed their storm trooper move to head back over to the scouts position.

More fire was spat out at the now gone to ground Brits with predictably lesser effects...

Paul now sensed he had to press on with the attack. This time he unpinned and went after the scouts leading with the remains of the commando and the supporting para platoon. Advancing with 2 flamethrower teams to kill and pin the defending scouts, Paul rolled a 1+2 for one team and a 2+2 for the second team. All missed! Neither of us could believe it!

Paul tried the assault anyway as he had little choice now, being committed, and was predictably thrown back by defensive fire...

At this point I probably would have called it, had I been Paul, but Paul has a strength of character when it comes to playing FoW, that he just keeps battling away, and certainly lives by the saying, "it aint over till the fat lady sings"...

The firefly burns...

Paul battled on, continuing to advance the Shermans, though I now had my panzerschrek team scampering towards them... elsewhere infantry tried dig in, unpin, and his 6pdrs and mortars tried to fire enough to get a pin somewhere on the German positions, but he just couldn't manage it, invariably getting 4 hits when he needed 5 for the pin...

Shermans continue to pressure the eastern objective.

Engineers and mortars approach the wire

The remaining para platoon facing the scouts, the commando are gone

Tanks get closer

Tanks continue their advance, but the grenadiers are now tucked up in the building and a panzerschrek and cmd panzerfaust team are just tucked behind the large doored barn, and an infantry gun has turned to face them too. Its not great but could get lucky with a side shot if the tanks assault.

Paul continues, he has little to gain now by sitting still, as he'll either lose the game by time out default or get shot up. So his assault still tries to get in but are again thrown back...

However he does find a way into the town centre. The engineers and pioneers have been going at each other, and the engineers had some help from the mortars. Although the pioneers eventually broke and fled, the tigers had turned once again, covering the approach to the now exposed objective, so the engineers went through the town hoping to swing down on to the eastern objective to aid the Shermans.

Remaining engineers approach the town centre

The engineers make it to the town centre, but at this point are effectively surrounded themselves, its too little too late. One of the Shermans is bailed by the panzerschrek and refuses to remount...

Finally after a regulation 2.5hrs play, and the situation Paul finds himself in, he calls it. I quite honestly applauded his tenacity.

But in the end the German defenders prevail, and maintain their escape route / resupply line...

I had lost the pioneers only, though came close to losing the small unattached  HMG platoon, and my mortars who all passed morale tests. Since I started with 9 platoons, I score a 6-1 win.

Paul had only actually lost one platoon, the commando, though nearly all his remaining infantry were at or below half strength.

I think in this game it seemed like Paul was playing against me, and the dice...

We have decided to call the campaign at this point. We have proved over the campaign, that infantry can for the most part hold up against other infantry in a defensive situation, with a decent deployment and a little luck.

At this point, I am sure 'Monty' will call in another 'special' and carpet bomb the defenders here, much as he did against Caen ...

I am not sure what the final campaign VPs are, I did miserably in the early campaign games, but clawed some back in the last two games, and Paul spent 5pts at the mid point to tweak his force, so I am not sure where that puts us now...

Paul said we should just call the campaign a draw... I'd be happy to do this, though feel he still probably has more points than I do.

So whats next, well, we need some practice for the Panzerschrek doubles tournie coming up, in Palmy, and and after that its Call to Arms in Wello... so some practice no doubt needed for that too.

Plus we'd also like to try our hands at the Firestorm campaign...

I hope you have enjoyed reading of our exploits during the Breville Axis of Attack campaign.

Surrounded in Italy, or "who spoilt my pizza"!

Friday night saw Paul and I square up for another game. We had previously decided to have another go at MidWar again, and set the scene in the Mediterranean theatre.

Prior to the game we had agreed to have a simple tank battle, but I was still keen to try out my mechanised infantry; Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier force, in the MidWar setting... so I created a Tank list and a Mech list, packed both armies and set off for Pauls.. Paul didn't mind me playing mech instead of tank, and stuck with his tank list.

We rolled off a random mission, and came up with Surrounded.

An interesting mission this - defender gets to set up in the middle strip across narrow width of board, and the attacker hits him from both sides; he must have at least one platoon on each flank. One nice thing about the scenario is that there is no messing about with reserves, both players have 'all their cards on the table'.

Reserves do add an interesting dimension to the FoW game, but they can make it a bit of a lottery, especially if you are waiting to see who's reserves come on first, and where.

Thankfully we didn't have to worry about that today. I took a German Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier force, themed Tunisia/Italy, from North Africa.

 Paul took a British Canadian Tank company, again from North Africa.

Thanks to EasyArmy.

The battlefield before deployment. I apologise ahead of the rest of the report, some of my photography was not at its best as it turned out - a few blurry shots, sorry!

I deployed through centre band of board, objectives are the smoking tank in centre of village in foreground and the marker just to front left of ruined abbey.

The small dismounted GPg hold top objective, covered by PaK38s in the ruin and assisted by the Tiger, (proxied by Panther) which had better areas of open ground here to dominate. SPAA in the centre wood. Large GPg is in the village supported by 8Rads, and Marders spring their immediate ambush behind the tree line (sorry for shiny tanks - I had only just got the gloss varnished, they still need matt varnish and decals to finish them off.)

Paul has two tank platoons coming at me from the right...

... and one tank platoon plus HQ tanks, and the Humbers (hiding behind top woods) on my left...

After recce moves, Paul sets off. Fearing the Marders looking at his command tanks over open ground, he moves the HQ into the wood, to get some cover and still have a chance of some shots at the Marders. Both the CO and 2iC bog down entering the wood!

Paul advanced his other tank platoon from left in single file behind hill, staying out of line of sight of Tiger and looking to get shots off at the Marders too. Recce moved up to crest of hill to start shooting up GPgs on objective...

Right side Shermans advance too, the top platoon is angling to get shots up the road at the Marders whilst the lower platoon heads toward village to pressure the Germans there...

All shots at the Marders miss... range, cover, gone to ground etc, mean Pauls moving tanks were getting one shot each needing 6's.

In my turn I called up the Luftwaffe who obliged with a flight of Stukas that came screaming in and raked the single file sherman column hiding behind the hill. (sorry again for glossy stuka, it just needs its final matt varnish)

The stuka cannon fire rips along the tank column, but only results in a bunch of bailed tanks, curses! The marders now have a choice, hit the bogged HQ tanks, or try and finish off the bailed tank column. I decided it was better to try and destroy a platoon, so fired at these, but the 4 shots only resulted in one further bail result, forcing Paul to take a morale check for that tank which he passed. Curses again, the Marder 'ambush' has whiffed!

Next turn Paul frees his stuck HQ tanks and advances...

... and predictably the Canadians remount most of their tanks (Canadian special rules effectively gives them 'protected ammo', so they re-roll motivation to remount tanks) once stuka has flown off...

This time Paul closes in on the Marders and has a better round of shooting, destroying both Marders...Elsewhere the Recce shoot up the GPgs but to little effect, and same for tanks targeting village.

In my turn I called up the stukas again who obliged once more in showing up...

... and this time wrecking one Sherman, and bailing the other... Paul passes platoon morale check...

Elsewhere at the village, I am starting to get a little worried at the approaching armour... My 8 rads are useless against them so they skedaddle out of there and head off to attack the only thing they can hurt, the Humbers... In MidWar, my poor Germans don't have any ranged infantry AT weapons - no panzerfaust or panzershrecks, only panzerknackers, so I am very aware I have no chance of stopping his tank assault from happening, as I wont be able to destroy/bail 2 tanks as they charge in, with my 'defensive fire'. So I come up with an idea of blocking his entry into the village area with my halftacks. Sure he can blow them up, and I wont really care (they no longer count as platoon losses in V3). So I drive the halftracks into the open between the buildings. He can destroy them, then they give me more cover from their burning wrecks, and would need bog checks to cross them... so that was the plan. The only AT shot I have is with my Puppchen... so I let rip, and the rocket charge roars out clanging hard against the Sherman, sending their crew out the tank in case it explodes (bailed). The Tiger (having remembered to roll Tiger Ace skills, gets "EveryShotCounts" increasing his ROF to 3 - me likee! :-), looks for targets and sees one of  the Sherman platoons through cover and range, pressing on to village.

The Tiger's gun roars out three times and wrecks a Sherman, leaving a burning hulk...

The 8Rads, predictably miss their shots, and in subsequent return fire from humbers, suffer multiple bail results and quit the field... you see that empty stretch of road?... That's where the 8Rads used to be...

Over the next couple of turns (sorry forgot to take pictures) ... Paul being a clever player makes use of my exposed halftracks, as they now give away my platoons position, so he can roll to hit the platoon, who now don't get any cover or gone to ground penalty to hit BUT he can prioritise shots against my infantry AND manpacked gun team, the Puppchen, they only thing really that has a chance of hurting him, if he assaults with his tanks. In a hail of fire the Puppchen predictably pays dearly for its audacious rocket shot, and dies to a flurry of 75mm rounds...

Seeing the stupidity of my 'halftrack screen' I send them to the rear, and my remaining infantry, hunker down in the buildings and foxholes and go to ground. Paul now needs 6's to hit them... which he fails to do repeatedly over the next two turns...

Meanwhile the HQ tanks are trying to consider their options; threaten the other objective and what to do about the Tiger... They go for a shot on the Tiger, which suffers a bailed result. Thanks to their protected ammo, the Tiger crew happily get back in their tank next turn. The Humber recce, pleased with itself for dealing with the 8Rads, now turns its attention to the PaK38s in the abbey, they let fly with a load of fire, but fail to get any hits.

The stukas return once more, third time in a row and once again bail a Sherman...

The Pak38s, rather indignant at being shaken up by the humbers, return fire, and blow away all three humbers, who cannot recce disengage because they had fired previously...

My SPAA who had moved previously to gets shots at the Humbers in case the PaKs missed both get caught up in the tree roots...

Paul continues to shoot up the village with little affect, I roll forward with Tiger towards the village as this is the crisis point now. The stukas arrive again and destroy one Sherman, as the Tiger turns its turret to kill the remaining platoon tank...

Paul knows he has to do something before the Tiger rolls into the village, so launches a tank assault... I have no defensive fire, but do have a platoon commander, CO and 2iC all with panzerknackers. Paul targets these with his assaulting tanks where possible. But his CO bogs down trying to assault the left hand twin cottage. The other tanks roll forward and kill the platoon commander, who cunningly uses his German mission tactics to switch out for an infantry team, keeping the panzerknacker active... I must motivate against tank terror to charge the tanks now with my panzerkanckers, and do so thanks to the COs re-roll....

But once in combat, I miss all attacks with the panzerknacker teams; needing 3's I roll three 2's ... argh! but the infantryman smacks one of the tanks indignantly with his rifle butt in frustration. Whilst not damaging to the Sherman, it counts as a hit. Paul needs to motivate, to squish my now exposed panzerknacker teams, and with British bulldog gets to re-roll any failed attempt... and fails with both dice, needing a 4! He is forced to break off, leaving the CO bogged tank to be captured, which the plucky Germans defenders do, setting it ablaze...

A little desperate now, Paul swings in with the two remaining Shermans from the other platoon into top of village, hoping to attack the 2iC and infantry in the top central building... and one tank bogs again trying to crash through the building wall! The second tank, attacks and misses! Once again the brave Panzerknacker teams leap out of their buildings and attack the Shermans, and hit with two of the panzerknackers, but Paul saves one and gets a bailed result on the second.

But that is enough for the Germans, with one bogged and one bailed the Shermans can do nothing more and are captured and set ablaze!

Paul is now down, 3 platoons and his CO is dead! If I can kill his his 2iC, he wont be able to take a company morale check, and will quit the field! Now where is the 2iC tank, ah ha, thats him hiding in the trees over there. With a belt and braces approach, the Luftwaffe are called upon once more and arrive, as the Tigers turret swings round once more...

Sadly the Stuka cannons failed to find their mark on the Sherman hiding on the tree line, but the Tigers 88mm finds its mark, blowing the 2iC tank skywards, and handing victory to the Germans.

Paul's remaining tanks shelter behind village hill before quitting the field...

A great game with much camaraderie and banter, and for me a long awaited for victory ( I have lost the last 6-7 games I have played). Credit to Paul too, as he played on with his preselected force. Had he known I was playing Mechanised, he would have taken a much different force...

End result 4-3 to me, I think, as I lost the Marders and 8Rads...

Man of the the match has to be the Stukas, which turned up on 6 consecutive turns, bailing and killing tanks each turn, and of course the Tiger, with its thick hide and big gun. It was nice fielding something that could dominate the battlefield. I think Tigers will be a regular feature of my forces from now on, even if they have to be proxied by panthers in the meantime.

Thanks for reading, comments welcome as always.