First up – a Typhoon strike
Games have been a bit sparse of late, and the motivation to blog about them sparser still. However, I was in Belfast for the Ulster v Saracens game last week and David (artist in residence for BG rulebooks and PSC box art) kindly organised a Battlegroup Fall of the Reich game for me to join in with Gary and Adam. Gary has already given his account here – all Allied propaganda naturally…..
As the German escort force to 5 transports, I had to get the 3 real transports (the other 2 were dummies) across the table to the safety of the town which was held by David’s force of infantry and StuGs. I had 3 Panzer IVs with a Panzer Grenadier squad, an armoured car and a foot recce patrol. I also had some off-table mortars who were hard-of-hearing – it took me 3 attempts to contact them with spotters (needing 3+) on the one turn I had enough orders, but the spotting round deviated into my own troops so I didn’t order them to fire for effect.
As Gary had no recce units, nothing happened on my left flank initially, but some SAS bounders controlled by Adam started taking potshots at my troops on the left, while the rest of Adam’s recce hid in a wood. I advanced my single Panzer Grenadier squad into one wood and frog-marched my foot recce squad towards the other. Then a Typhoon strike arrived and took out a StuG in the town.
Gary’s force arrived on turn 2 – no infantry but 5 tanks including a Comet and 2 Fireflys – eek!! One of my Panzer IV on overwatch got a side shot at the Comet, and needing a 7 to penetrate it rolled…a 6. The Comet easily passed the resulting morale test.
Adam’s armoured infantry platoon arrived on my right flank, then immediately performed a Soviet-style human wave assault into woods containing my Panzer Grenadier squad. The squad were wiped out (they were outnumbered 3-1) and their half track destroyed, but they did inflict crippling losses on the attackers.
With my infantry and Adam’s neutralised, the game turned into an armoured conflict. One of my Panzer IVs was hit twice on its side armour by 17pdr shots and survived, though it was immobilised by the 2nd shot (a ‘3’ on 2D6 followed by a ‘2’ on 2D6 rolled by Gary). The third shot destroyed the lucky tank, with my battlegroup finally breaking from having to take 2 counters when the Senior officer was killed by a close assault. Two of the real trucks had reached the safety of the town by this stage, but David’s force were on the verge of breaking as well, so we concluded that the allies would have captured them in the next few hours and a narrow win was declared for the Allies.
German right flank
German left flank
SAS Jeeps
British recce take cover
Germans Panzer Grenadiers occupy one wood
British armour appears on my left flank
Human wave assault on the wood
Traffic jam of trucks trying to make it to the town
A very enjoyable game made better by the company and quality of the models and terrain – I look forward to the next time. The biggest shock of the day was reserved for lunch, with David serving stew for lunch instead of an Ulster fry – changed times indeed 🙂
This War without an Enemy 