I made 1 change to the list, last night I converted up 2x Quad AA which I just had to use- for the cost of a stug. Only problem is that they are immobile gun teams and come without transport!
Chris fielded a Cobra Armoured Rifles force (lots of veteran infantry)
- 2x Armoured Rifle Platoons
- 4x Shermans
- 3x preists
- Armoured Recon
- Armoured Mortars
- Limited thunderbolt
I was tempted to do an uber Kampgruppe of 3x mortars, a pak 40, a quad AA, a panzershrek and 6 infantry but decided against it :( As Chris has the Spearhead rule I defended and decided to place my infantry in ambush and deployed my stugs and pak 40s. Chris decided to only use 1 ft of the table!
I deployed my ambushing infantry to cover my objective and my first turn was a bombardment (no casulties) and my stugs moving onto the road.
My stugs survived an air attack- thanks to woeful rolling to range in by the thunderblots then it was my turn 2. With Chris' armour advancing to the bocage I spied and gap and double timed my stugs into it! My aim- to take out the priests! (In a comp practice game I like to try hair brained schemes!)
It looks good so far!
The Shermans advance into the woods without bogging and take 8 shots for no hits! This might just work...
Turn 3- I return fire and take out a single Sherman- hitting on 5s is not working out for either of
us!
Hey no fair! On his next turn the surviving shermans miss or their shots were saved by the stugs armour but the priests rolled forward. 3 shots needing 6s- 2 hits= 2 dead stugs! What the...?
Meanwhile airpower had been whittling away at my pak 40s. I did manage to kill the company commander and his half track though! Along with an observer sherman.
My FJ panzershrek assaulted the Shermans killing one but the other two broke off out of the woods. As you can see one stug had made it to the objective before it died!
By now the rest of the armoured rifles and mortars had arrived to shore things up- I still had seen no reserves! The second armoured rifle platoon advances to capture my last stug which had bogged as it tried to retreat to my main line.
And from another angle- in the distance the other AR platoon is using its 50 cals to whittle away at my FJ platoon. Where are my reinforcements? The infantry in the foreground are mopping up my company commander and last paks.
And the armoured rifles assault my remaining FJ- who are also under half strength, the survivors retreat but alas my stug and pak 40s both were destroyed along with my company commander so with nobody left to take a company morale check I lose. 6-1 to Chris! Alas the Quad AA and jagdpanther were not deployed!
7 turns and no reserves! Chris' dice were running cold early on and he failed almost all attempts to range in, or it could have been a lot worse. The double timing stug trick didn't work- but I did briefly capture his objective but Chris managed to contest with the command stand from the priests.
The paks was probably the wrong deployment but I was worried about giving too much freedom to the US half tracks and tanks- they did however kill a half track and the observer sherman so it wasn't all bad.
Even though my jagdpanthers and quad AA didn't arrive- or did my other FJ for that matter (and Chris' recon almost had the other undefended objective too)- I liked the list, a bit quirky and jagdpanthers were serious overkill- and probably would better as tigers (in a FE II force). It was not a good start for them or the quads as they didn't even arrive! I'm not sure about the Quad AA, being immobile limits their usefulness but they looked good!
Two more reports to come
Craig
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