Gepanzerte-Schule, Teil Zwei...

... OK, getting clever with google-translate ;-)

Armoured School - Part Two...

After my previous post where my German mechanised force, had a reasonably successful go at having a crack at some damned dug in Paras, who were trying to steal back a portion of the greater Reich... it was now time to see how the same force would now fare against an Armoured Company...

My plan with my Mechanised force in this example being for the most part to 'hang on'..., but to still hopefully project some force, to blunt the attacking platoons. Tanks are big nasty scary things when they are rumbling towards your troops, but infantry can survive a lot of attention being dug in and gone to ground, and any half decent volley from the panthers can blunt one of these armoured prongs. Combine that with heavy artillery fire from the Hummels, and its possible to knock out a platoon at a time with this double tag team...

This still leaves the heavy platoon stummels and mortars to deal with the lighter armoured vehicles and recce and even the 37mm cannon on the platoon command half tracks can be pressed into service against these lighter armoured vehicles.

Last time we had played, Paul had discussed using his Soviet Forward detachment, a nasty mix of Tanks, Assault breakthrough guns and an Infantry horde... but a last minute change of mind had Paul bring his Canuks... His Canadian Armoured squadron from Market Garden.

So, once again my force was:

CHQ; 2 x SMG/P'faust + P'Schrek & 3 x 251 Halftracks
Full CBT, w/ SMG/P'Faust, 37mm Cmd Halftrack, plus 3 x  251's
Full CBT, w/ SMG/P'Faust, 37mm Cmd Halftrack, plus 3 x  251's
Heavy Platoon; Cmd 251 + 2 x Stummel + 2 x 8cm armoured mortars w/ obs
Recce; 1 x 250/1 + 2 x 250/9 Halftracks
Panzers; 3 x Panther
Artillery; 3 x Hummels w/ PzIII obs.

Whilst Paul brought:

CHQ – 2x Sherman V’s and a Sherman ARV

2 Armoured Platoons, each with 2x Sherman V and 2x Fireflys (Fireflys w/ .50 cal AA MG’s)

4x M10 3”

2 Universal Carrier patrols, each with 3x carriers

Rifle Platoon with 2 Squads and 3x Ram Kangaroo APC’s w/ .50cal AA MG’s

The Canadians bring with them upgunned 17pdr Fireflies @ AT15, which scares my Panthers. They're Confident Veterans, and have 'Woodsman' and 'Mission Tactics', but don't get British Bulldog...

The one thing I like about them is its all kill-able stuff - nothing greater than front armour 6. So my Panthers, Hummels and even Stummels are capable of 'having some fun' against this force...

So my ideal match-ups are going to be Panthers and Hummels to kill the Shermans, and Stummels can try taking out UCs & M10s, my Recce and 37mm halftracks can also target the UCs... Armoured mortars are mostly for smoke or infantry killing... That's my very general approach here...

So on to the mission, the dice roll and we get... Cauldron... no ones favourite mission... neither of us are keen so we re-roll... Fighting Withdrawal... not my favourite but it often comes up in tournies, and is good in that it has a finite conclusion fixed at 8 turns. Also there's no messing about with reserves... but the defender has to deal with Strategic Withdrawals...

On to deployment; I pick the side with the most general cover yet also decent LOS for shooting up Pauls tanks as he comes towards me.

I deploy a GPG on each flank objective, with halftracks also deployed, as I want them to shoot up Pauls infantry if they advance on me, and I want the 37mms available too. Hummels are central, recce behind small wood to my centre right, and heavy platoon with the mortars with the hummels, and stummels with the recce. Panthers... surprise surprise, are the ambush...

Paul decided to apply 'duckbills' to his tanks, giving them widetracks but also making them slow. He then deployed a Sherman platoon in his central and right flank woods. M10s and recce were in and beside the town, and infantry behind right flank woods. His 2ic Sherman was alone far on his left flank...

Deployment pic: sorry I couldnt find usual camera so these are crappy Ipod pics...

I moved my Recce across towards my centre sensing the bulk of Pauls attack to happen towards my centre and left. Paul pushed up his recce, fanning out towards my centre and left obviously looking to push back my Panther ambush... but as the bulk of my force was concealed at range and gone to ground he had no shooting...

My turn, and now the 'phoney war' begins...

Panther ambush... where to place it... I was sorely tempted to put it down on my right flank, knock out Pauls 2ic Sherman, and then to start rolling the flank, but was concerned at the distance my Panthers would then have to travel to get back into the action which was the mainly on the other side of the board... So instead I decided to place it where his recce had not been effective, my extreme left... I could pop it within 16" of Pauls right flank Sherman platoon... The hummels could also see this platoon and could get 4 tanks under the template and catch 2 infantry teams...

Recce would shoot up the UCs, Stummels moved to shoot up the m10s, Mortars would drop smoke on the centre Sherman platoon...

Smoke first, hit, great, that reduces their effectiveness, only one Sherman can still see the right side of board.

Panthers... 6 shots needing a 5, nothing... Hummels, three chances to range in on a 5, nothing... stummels 3 shots on a 6, nothing... recce shoot up the recce who failed to disengage, but I still could achieve little... and this appeared to set the tone for my shooting for most of the game, I couldn't hit a barn door...

Paul now started to gradually apply pressure... he returned fire at the Panthers but he too missed, or the one hit I got I saved. But I lost 2 hummels in the centre as Paul started to find his dice rhythm and the sixes started to tumble across the felt... I even suffered the ignominy of  that 1 in 36 chance kill; a UC vehicle MG hit the side of my recce command half track, I rolled a 1 for a save and Paul a 6 to kill it... mutter mutter mutter...

For the next several turns things continued this way, the Panthers and Sherman platoon exchanging foul language but that was about all... I withdrew my lone hummel into cover to try and preserve it. Paul decided to try a bold thrust with a lone m10 through towards the panthers flank but missed. The m10 being subsequently caught in a cross fire from a 'faust, 'shreck, and 37mm... the 37mm claiming the scalp and my first kill of the game...

Time came to withdraw my first platoon, and I had picked up a sneaky tip from seeing other German players; kampfgrupping a lone infantry stand with my 2ic, so these two teams quit the field leaving me still quite well positioned, no gaps yet...

By this time, Paul had started snaking his 2 UC patrols to my right to threaten that end objective, teaming up with the 2ic Sherman and other shermans who had started to edge out from the centre woods.

I had got a little bold previously with my right flank infantry... sensing a possible assault against a UC patrol, as it took a load of fire, if I could simply get 3 bails and or a kill here or there, they would be easy meat... one thing to remember for beginning players, if all the tanks you are assaulting are bailed out, then there is no tank terror test and no defensive fire. I thought I saw a chance but it wasn't to be, I bailed only two of the three UCs and then failed tank terror. I had now scampered infantry out of their foxholes so they were ripe for MGing, which Paul duly started... and teams started falling on my right...

Paul also knocked out 2 Panthers on my left over the next couple of turns, for the loss of a further m10..., the rot had set in and I was starting to crumble... The centre recce took another hit and the remaining 2cm halftrack quite the field...

The hummels were withdrawn next... making the centre looking more vulnerable too. So I managed to get my CO across from my left to the centre farmhouse, to keep the centre objective covered. The sensation of 'hanging on by ones fingers nails' had certainly commenced.

The stummels and Pltn Cmd were sent to reinforce the crumbling right ... the air was sporadically turning blue, as I continued to fail to be able to kill anything, and then kept failing infantry saves...

However, the one thing my dice were doing, despite letting me steadily die, was that I kept passing 4+ platoon morale checks, and the Panthers had hung on for quite some time with some decent armour saves, although as previously noted, had eventually been reduced to one tank... under weight of fire...

I hung on just long enough on my right, contesting with the Stummels, to whip that objective away... Paul started pressuring the left flank, now that I was down to 1 Panther, and since the centre was looking thin I had had to start moving the left side Grens over to the centre, everything was getting perilously thin... Paul also pushed up on the centre too, with Shermans and m10s..

Another platoon, had to be withdrawn, and I withdrew the shattered remnant of my right flank infantry, passing a skill test to do so... Sensing it was getting close to the point that all I had to do was stay alive, I backed my last panther off into the woods to keep it out of LOS and alive.

Paul now realised it was now or never... too late to grab the left objective, this got pulled too... so it boiled down to could he kill enough of my teams/platoons that were remaining, to force me to take a company morale check and quit the field.

Paul massed all the fire he could; sent 4 tanks into the wood to kill the last panther, positioned enough tanks to shoot up the remnants of the heavy platoon... and tried to get some shots on my CO in the farmhouse...

One Firefly got a hit on the Panther, but only bailed it, and I passed morale! I lost two more heavy platoon vehicles, but they passed morale... and shooting at the CO was ineffective... and that was it... game over, I had hung on, with a final score of 5-2, as I had lost the halftrack recce platoon mid game, to give Paul a point for his efforts.

A win, but it really didn't feel like it, and was another of those pressure cooker games, that has one pondering... and I do this for fun!?...

I had managed to destroy 2 m10s and 2 UCs and that was it. I had lost 2 hummels, 2 panthers, the 3 recce halftracks, an armoured mortar, stummel and their pltn cmd, and several infantry teams. My efforts felt rather pathetic. If I had managed at least a little better dice earlier and some effective co-ordination between the panthers and hummels, reducing Pauls Sherman platoons, I could have put him on the back foot... but it wasn't to be and thus a slow grinding capitulation ensues, that was quite literally saved by the bell and some lucky platoon morale checks...

A tough game for Paul to lose, be he continued to keep the pressure on throughout, and was so close to victory at several times.

Despite failing to kill much, I think my troops performed, or at least had the potential to perform, adequately, had I managed to hit some targets,... so I feel its has rather proved the point that this overall force has the potential to be effective in a 'take on all comers' tournament...

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.