Mid war- Dak vs Armoured Squadron

I managed a couple of play test games vs Dale last night, using DAK vs his 8th army.

I took a DAK schutzen company based around Gazala- 1st Alamein and Dale his infamous Armoured Squadron. This force used to be 32 Stuarts in two companies and was a real pain to face with infantry forces- it ran over them game after game after game. These days its a single company with grants and 25pdrs for smoke.

DAK Shutzen

• Company HQ
• DAK schutzen + 2x pak 36rs
• DAK shutzen + 2x pak 38s
• 2x Bison
• 2x 88s
• 5x Carri
• 2x 231 ACS

I've never taken 88s or Bison and so am trying to squeeze both into the list. The question is, am I trying to do too much?

Dales Light Armoured Squadron

• 15 Stuarts
• 6 Grants
• 4x 25 pdrs

The first game was a Hasty Assault. Dale raced his Stuarts in for the kill but failed to pin my platoons and was decimated 6-1.

In the second game we played a FFA and he won 4-3. I managed to kill 3 platoons of Stuarts in the end Dale's Grants destroyed a platoon on the far objective and my 6x 88 shots + pak 36Rr all missed and so he grabbed victory.

Both games were fun but threw up a few issues with my force. Recon wwas a bit hit and miss in the second gamer- I missed, Dale hit, and we were wondering whether or not to take something else instead. The bisons, the whole reason for the list were again of limited use (being used just as artillery). Dale suggested adding some air support which wouldn't be a bad option and I might try to squeeze some in- probably at the expense of a pak 38 and the recon.

A few pictures

Hasty Assault deployment




88s ambiush and knock out a single grant (range + gone to ground)


Grants advance to the next cover.


When using 88s expect them to be smoked!


Here come the Stuarts!


Pak 36Rs start to whittle them down.





The final assaults- Dale failed to pin the defending platoons and was stuck in no-man's land with not option but to assualt. Defensive fire accounted for each one.

Note: Dale had misplaced a couple of his Stuarts so pressed gained some 231 ACs to make up the numbers.


Free For All

Deployment


Dale fortifies his troops- with ale.


Trying to releive the pressure the carrri advance- and manage to take out 2 platoons of Stuarts before being lost.


Stuarts poised to stike- there 16" move is a real pain when you are playing infantry as they cans switch the point of attack very, very rapidly.


That's what I call a tank duel- Stuarts vs carri. The Stuka is an objective.


Although we have held off the Stuarts on the other flank the grants advance. I failed to dig in on turn 1 and lost a pak 38 as a result. The Grants then closed and nibbled away at the PG platoon. Eventually assaulting it and the survivors broke.


They can't kill us all! Th grants take objective holding formation. I shot at them with 88s, pak 36r and bison- the bison got 3 hits, all saved and everyone else missed. Had I broken one platoon Dale was under half strength and therefore would have needed a morale check before claiming the objective.



4-3 to Dale

Another fun game- FFa is my worst nightmare vs so many zippy Stuarts. Again Dale used smoke to minimise the effectiveness of the 88s and the Stuarts were a real pain. I wasn't expecting the PG to collapse and rout so quickly though and that cost me dearly.

Not sure about a couple of things in the list:
Bison and 231s.

Dale has suggested airpower. Ideally I'd like to keep the bison for flavour and stick to the Gazala theme but it does lack a bit of ommph. The pak 36rs were very handy and I'm considering another two for my second infantry platoon but if I take air support this is unlikely to happen.

Craig

Commandos

Yesterday I rebased my commandos. I've enough for 4 sections, each with a PIAT, and 2 HQ PIATS as well. I'm not sure if I'll take them though, I'm leaning towards the DAK force for the Worlds, or even the armoured PGs but we will see. They can be sued for both mid or late war.

IWF FoW World Champs

I've been invited to attend the IWF FoW World Champs in Wellington next February- which has led to an interesting dilemma, what the hell to take! It is Midwar and so far narrowed things down to five different lists, two British, three German.

Here are my ideas for the British. I am leaning towards the commandos but think the 8th Amy version is also pretty solid and would make for a resonably competitive force.

1.	Commandos
	HQ + PIAT	60
2x	Commando Sections	390
1x	Commando Section	195
1x	Commando Section	195
4x	6pdrs	185
4x	Bishops + Op carriers	250
3x	ACs (1x humber IV)	115
	Sporadic Hurricane IIBs	105
		1495

2.	8th Army
	HQ	30
1x	Rifle Platoon-ATR, sticky Bombs	175
1x	Rifle Platoon- ATR	165
1x	Rifle Platoon	145
1x	Carrier Patrol (1 MG, 1 50Cal)	110
3x	Crusader (2x 6 pdr) (CT)	165
4x	6 pdrs	185
8x	Bishops	430
	Sporadic Hurricane IIBs	95
		1500

My German lists are as follows:

3.	Armoured PGs-
2x	HQ - P/Ks	80
7x	Armoured PGs + P/K	235
7x	Armoured PGs + P/K	235
3x	Pak 38s + HTs	160
3x	Panzer IIIIL	345
3x	Panzerwerfers	175
3x	Marder II	270
		1500

A fairly generic list based on my experiences at Southcon earlier this year. Armoured PGs are still fairly rare around here at comps but with the lower price totals in the latest mid war books are finally an almost viable option. Probably not the toughest force out there but it would be fun, and challenging, to play.

4.	DAK Pioneers
	HQ	45
1x	HMG	30
1x	Pioneers + 2 pak 38s	295
	supply truck	25
1x	Pioneers + pak 38	255
	supply truck	25
2x	Bison	180
5x	Carri	300
2x	88s	255
2x	231 8 Rads	85
		1495

I came up with this one this morning-0 it lacks artilerly and smoke but the idea was based on trying to fit a lsit round the two bisons I have but have never fielded. Again I think it would be fun to run and probably a challenge. The Bison points would probably be better spent trying to get an artilelry option but bisons look fantastic!

5. "Old Faithful" East Front FJ

	HQ + 2iC P/K	60
1x	2.8cm AT Rifle	20
1x	FJ Platoon (PK)	270
1x	FJ Platoon (PK)	270
3x	Pak 38s (FJ)	135
1x	Ferdinand	390
3x	Panzerwerfers	175
	1x pak 36	25
	Limited HS 129B	155
		1500

Over the years my FJ force has preformed well in a number of competitions- big platoons of fearless infantry makes for a solid base on attack or defence. A couple of twists to my usual FJ list- swapping my tiger for a ferdinand (mainly as I've never fielded one) my my recon for some air support, and the ubiquitous panzerwerfers rather than FJ 105 recoiless artillery (panzerwerfers being a bit of a nobrainer and the panzerwerfer + HS 129 being a very nasty combination when it works!). I've also added a couple of light AT guns at the expense of my HQ stummelwerfers which didn't really do much last time I ran them at a comp).

This force, or a varation of it, is probably the force I'm most comfortable using but is the least likely one to be taken, simply as I've done so at a number of comps in the past. Apart from the armoured PGs (which are a different version to the lists at Southcon) I've taken none of the other forces to a comp.

I'm leanign towards the commandos or armoured PGs at present but haven't totally discounted the DAK pioneers or even the 8th Army. Of those 4 the 8th Army proably fits my combined arms style best but I can see the commandos beng a soid force on attack or defence.

So anyone out there got any thoughts or suggestions on which I should take?

Cheers

Craig

Legends of the Old West

What a year- from War of the Ring (HoTT version), to 28mm 1066 Britain, Romans and Sassanid Persians, DBA, & Impetus to FoW and now Legends of the Old West! We are definitely suffering from too many rules, not enough time.

Kent has in recent weeks collected ALOT of cowboys as well as The Rules with No Name and GWs Legends of the Old West. I popped over last night to try out one of the rulesets, we decided to go with "Legends" and set up a bank robbery mission.

It was a lot of fun and played fast but I think what it was lacking was beers (well at least I was) as it seems to be a great beer and pretzel game. I've now ordered my own copy of the rules.

We were just trying to sort out the rules but they were pretty straight forward. There were a couple of things we didn't do (pluck IIRC) but we'll add those next time.

NZ Masters- thoughts on the paras

I was pleased with how the force went. I was hoping it would be reasonably solid, in attack or defence, but didn't feel it was an "uber" force by any stretch of the imagination. I was especially susceptible to lots of tanks, or lots of artillery (having only 1x trained battery was always going to put me on the back foot- but the typhoons helped make up for this short fall somewhat) )and was not looking forward to facing either of the US rifle companies (with their maxed out artillery) or the KVs but felt that I would be competitive vs most of the others as I had a bit of everything to ensure I had a few different options vs different army types. No recce meant I was also going to struggle (as this force has in the past) vs gone to ground infantry forces and again this proved to be the case. So how did I think the different units fared?

US Para Platoons
Both platoons were at reduced strength (only 9 teams including the bazooka and light mortar) which at 1500 pts I found hard not to do. Even so, they were both solid on attack and defence and withstood a lot of punishment. As long as they were used supporting each other, or with guards rifles in support, they performed well. I simply could not justify spending 90 pts on the extra teams although I’m sure they’d have been handy. The light mortars were very handy as always and helped to pin platoons with random one gun barrages (which when they came in on turn 1 were no less effective than a couple of trained mortars) and knocked out a few AT guns both in direct and indirect fire.

Guards Rifles
This unit I was less sure of going into the comp. To tell the truth it was a toss up between: Household Cav (Daimlers + dingos), Guards Rifles or CT US Glider troops. All had costs and benefits. In the end it was a choice between the guards and glider troops (still waiting for my dingos to arrive) and I went with less veteran troops (7) as opposed to 11 trained ones- mainly as I was worried that if I went for the latter that players would target the trained guys with artillery and then also pin my paras. As it turns out the glider boys would have performed okay- especially as a reserve unit, and so may look at using them instead in future.

The guards were an effective little unit and a good way to squeeze in a third infantry platoon- which with so many infantry heavy forces present was a good thing. Only 7 teams they were always a bit vulnerable to stood up in all games and were never lost- thanks a couple of times to the Guards re-roll.

57mm AT
Again one of my more useful units- when used to cover objectives, the 105s and/ or knock out HMG teams- when they could pass a firepower test that is! When used with the Guards rifles to cover an objective they worked well and really were a solid wee force. The 57mm + guards rifles made for a great defensive combo that allowed the paras freedom to move with the shermans.

105s
I don’t think I ever managed to lose the entire unit, which was a surprise! ToT helped now and then and the smoke template was always handy. Fortunately I never really had them targeted too much and when they were they managed to unpin themselves. Still, always a potential VP in the making but handy enough to warrant their continued inclusion.

Shermans
My only “real” AT and as a result rather susceptible to enemy attack. They did okay- except vs the KVs where one firefly died far too quickly! They worked best when used with the 105s which would smoke the enemy to reduce return fire- the few times I didn’t do that was when it went pear shaped.

A good reserve unit to respond to threats but needed to be husbanded and avoid dealing with enemy tanks as much as possible unless on their own terms.


Typhoons
Worked well in almost all games, taking out a tank or two, or destroying/pinning artillery. Their best role was at pinning artillery batteries- and were especially successful at this vs Phil and Mike’s forces. They claimed an AOP and even drove off a couple of flights of enemy aircraft. As usual they force opponents to spread out more and this limited their effectiveness at times but they were always a potential threat that needed to be considered.

Post Comp Changes?
At 1500 pt the only change I’d make would be to the guards rifles, next time I think I’d experiment with the glider troops or the Household Cav as a mobile recce option but other than that the rest of the force would stay as it is.

FoW Masters Day 2

Game 4 vs Paul Mounsey, Guards tanks (16x KV 1s!)

By snatching a couple of points from Mike I was still near the top so had to play Paul Mounsey on the same table, in a hasty assault. Not a match up I was looking forward to as his tankovy forces have run me over in our last 2 meetings at NATCONs and this proved to be no different.

I ambushed with my Shermans, only deploying the fireflies on a hill so they could fire as the regular shermans were of no use vs front armour 9. I managed to kill 1 and bail another with the fireflies and typhoons and then in return fire from 5 KVs he scored a hit at long range and I rolled a 1. Half my only decent AT evaporated!

Next turn I bailed another couple of KVs, killed one but by now 8 KVs were at close range and my 2^nd firefly bailed and refused to remount. Luckily though am airstrike bailed the company commander and killed another KV and the survivors form one platoon fled. Meanwhile the KV1S platoon had come on and double timed onto the board. Eventually I managed to kill 4 in an assault after my own 57mm At arrived behind them and with a bazooka. My assault killed all the bailed tanks and the commander retreated. I vainly tried to push the 57mm forward to finish it off but all future shots glanced off. Meanwhile 6 KVs slowly but surely ground my infantry into the dirt.

2-5 to Paul.

Man that was a tough force for infantry to face! Even with TA 3, vs TA 2 and rear MGs the task was nigh on impossible and with no terrain to hide in I as relying on typhoons and Sherman’s to have any chance. As it was the KVs got too close too quickly and my past couple airstrikes were vs his sappers who easily survived. I was not be be the last person that Paul ran over but was very close the snatching that 2^nd point off him!I did managed to knock out 9 KVs though!

Paras destroy 3 bailed KVs in assault.

The end is nigh!

Game 5: Encounter vs Phil- 7^th Armoured Div Rifles

A couple of people had moved ahead of me after that round but I was still not completely out of the running for a place but all I really wanted at this stage was to turn my luck around and get the 3^rd win I hoped for for the weekend.

Phil ha a large reluctant trained British Rifle company

• 3x platoons
• HMGs
• Carriers
• 6 pdrs
• 17 pdrs
• Full 25 pdr battery.
• Limited typhoons.

We fought on the village table I had played Steve on. I deployed some paras, 105s and 57mm at guns, he deployed 2x rifle platoons, 15pdrs and HMG carriers.

I got to go first and made my way into the buildings. I didn’t want to push too far forward as I was war of his reserves. Phil sent his HMG carriers forward to MG my troops.

I eventually killed the HMGs when my shermans came on (took them 3 rounds as the reluctant HMGs refused to break) and Phils 17 pdrs came on where he didn’t want them!

I got lucky in that I had about 4 airstrikes, each time pining his artillery and some infantry, and he only got one flight in (which killed a firefly). I used artillery, 650mm mortars to pin his platoons and he found it difficult to move forward. With his 17 pdrs where he didn’t want them I was able to use my tanks to control things and pick off 25 pdrs and I slowly picked off platoons until he broke.

6-1 to the paras. I didn’t think it was going to end the way it did but by pinning his troops alot I really made it difficult for him to move forward and coordinate his attacks.

Here come the HMG carriers!

Paras start moving through the village.

Those are our tiffies, aren't they? No they aren't.

57mm AT and infantry prepare to defend the other objective- the British rifles are pinned by our artillery and refuse to move.

Phil tries to shoot my troops out of the woods.

Then tries one last assualt with his third platoon (which had managed to unpin)

Round 6 vs Bob (Welsh Guards rifles)- Fighting Withdrawal

I was a point or so behind Bede and Poochie who in turn were only a point or two behind Paul and Mike. In the final round Bede had to play Pau and P{oochie Mike and I got to play Bob who was about a point behind me so it was pretty tight at the top and anyone could still win it. I was very happy about playing Bob as I’d been looking forward to a game vs him all weekend as we’d never played before, I wasn't however looking forward to facing his Cromwell's.

Bob had a Welsh Guards infantry force with 2x Cromwell platoons and he rolled higher so got to attack me on the Italy table (a nightmare table for my force and the 3rd game on it- 2 losses on it so far could I avoid 3 losses from 3?)

• 2x guards rifles
• 2x Cromwell’s
• Carriers
• 2x 14.2” mortars

Bob used his comwells to switch the point of his attack (a lot). My ambush knocked out 3 cromwells (and forced lost of rifle teams to debuss for the loss of only 1 stand) and I got the final cormwell the next turn. His second Cromwell platoon had raced round the other flank and taken up position to roll me up.

From there things went a bit strange. I a managed to pin his infantry- and eventually my shermans killed his carriers but in sso doing had come within range of his other Cromwell platoon. 3x Challenger shots killed 3 of my Shermans! However, I managed to keep his infantry pinned, or more correctly bob kept failing to unpin which put paid to his infantry assaulting me off the objective for a couple of turns! By turn 6 I had 3x full strength infantry platoons on table while my Shermans, 57mm AT and artillery had all been withdrawn! In my last 3 turns I simply went to ground and tried to weather the coming storm. With time running out Bob launched his crowmells into the buildings trying to kill my guards infantry- who retreated to a cliff top and the last 3 teams refused to break.

In the final turn Bob launched 2x infantry assaults after pinning my platoon and I failed to stop either. My para platoons took a couple of casualties and the survivors retreated- so much for fearless vets, I simply gave ground to avoid losing a platoon.

6-1 to the paras.

A bit lucky, had Bob managed to unpin a round earlier and get those assaults in I would have been in big trouble- especially the way I failed to pin him when he did assault! A good game where playing possum worked! I was really impressed with how quickly he was able to switch the point of attack. In that game my 60mm mortars probably saved me by pining platoons at opportune times.

Intermixed infantry platoons.


The infantry are making use of their special debuss rules- which I learned how to use, thanks Bob!


The sherman ambush.


Shermans chase the carriers are about to fall into a trap! Rob S in the background looking engrossed in his own game!


Bob's carriers are named after his father and two uncles all of whom were carrier drivers. I'm happy to report in this battle the carrier driven by his father survived (although the platoon was forced to retreat), but his uncles' carriers weren't so lucky.

[note after this point things were too tense so I forgot to take more photos!]

Final Results

So after 6 games I had 27 pts vs 6 very, very good opponents. I was surprised to come 2^nd, just pipping Mike Haycock (Surfboard) by a point and about 3 points behind “Mounsey” and his KV1 horde from hell which all infantry forces struggled to deal with and even Bede’s 4x panthers couldn’t stop in the final game (Bede- missing with 14 out of 16 shots not helping his chances if I recall correctly!). Bede was a point behind Surfboard, then Poochie and Bob were tied on 5^th another point further back so the results in the last round were critical to the final placings.

Paul deserved his win, he played those tanks aggressively and well (as always) but going into the last round the comp was still wide open with 4-5 players potentially in the running so it was a very, very close comp.

I really enjoyed it and hope I can qualify next year.

Many thanks to Pete Dunn, Russell Briant and John Hutton for organising and running a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.

Craig

FoW NZ Masters 2010

New Zealand Masters 2010

Twelve players from around the country were invited to this event. I managed to get an invited although not in the FoW ranked top 20 (I think I’m about 22 at present) thanks to some support from North Island gamers who vouched for me and was happy to accept “wildcard” entry (or as I prefer to consider it affirmative action for the us poor cousins in the South Island to ensure it was a NZ wide event). I was happy not to repay their faith with the wooden spoon!

Some good tables and 6 good, hard games were had and the event was wide open until the very end- with 4 people (not me except as a very slim outsider- I needed results to go my way big time!) in contention going into the final round.

I took my US para list I’d been playing lately but at 1500 pts felt it had a few weaknesses but I hoped would be reasonably competitive.

Hell's Highway US paras

1x	Para HQ + 2x bazookas	70
9x	Paras	255
9x	Paras	255
3x	57mm AT guns + jeep	125
3x	105mm Artillery (CT)	90
7x	Guards infantry	145
4x	Shermans (2x fireflies)	390
	Limited Typhoons	170
		1500

Game 1 FFA vs Andrew Stanton with Romanians

A terrain heavy table to face a horde from hell. Lots of CV troops (as it turned out). My first clash with Stalins Europe- 2-3 big lots of infanry, a big battery of light guns (8x 75mm?), katys, 81mm mortars, Zis 3s on steroids (AT 13), 6x 45mm AT guns and some more stuff I forget.

Andrew rushed me and I was forced to dig in. We sparred for a while but in the end a big CV platoon (22 stands!) failed to unpin a few turns and stopped him in his tracks. My tanks avoided his heavy AT and ran round machine gunning infantry. In the end my paras saw off a pioneer assault- thank to my 2iC rushing forward to create a “no go zone” and thus stop the flamethrowers reaching my infantry then pinned the infantry in assault and they failed most saves and disappeared. I traded a para platoon to break the big CV platoon and they ran (as did my sole survivor). On the other flank my dug in guards, 57mm and a tank strategically left behind stopped the CT Romanians pushing too far forward and managed ot thin them out with artillery.

With the large CV platoon halted my paras made an end run as Andrew’s 45mm AT guns back peddled and I grabbed an objective with only a couple of minutes on the clock

5-2 to the paras!

A hell of a lot of infantry to wade through and the failure of the CV platoon to unpin for 4 turns really messed up Andrews attack- which was about to come in with pioneers + 22 stands of troops! A lucky break for me!

The final end run!

Game 2: No Retreat vs Steve “Sonic” Hill KG Kastner, No Retreat.

I played Steve at NATCON and really enjoyed the game so was looking forward to this one. He had auto attack and carried on his tournament form of attacking at night- he attacked 6 times at night!)

• 2x infantry platoons (1 with SMGs)
• Scout platoon
• Pioneers- 3x flamethrowers
• 3x pak 40s
• 2x 88s
• 3x marders!

The table was another good one with lots of hedges to disrupt LoS and a village running diagonally across the board which made nice lines of advance for attackers and a real pain to sort out a defence.

I deployed a para platoon + guards intermixed on the front objective and my other para platoon with attached bazookas in ambush.

As it was night there was little action early on as Steve advanced past my force and towards the rear objective and neither of us really shot. My artillery came on early (turn 1) but had nothing to shoot at for ages.

Turn 3 I was forced to deploy my ambush to prevent Steve grabbing a wood and then leaping though into the rear objective!- I deployed 4.1” away from his SMG platoon and then rolled a 1 for visibility so failed to see them in the dark, doh! Stee had just joked how he could here the paras mess tins rattling and that that would give away their position!

On his turn Steve lifted GtG and charged home with 8 SMG teams. I failed to pin in the dark (surprise surprise) and he killed 6 teams! I countered and killed 4 (out of 5 rolls!). Steve’s next round with 5 teams only hit once ! I then killed 3 more teams and the survivor and Kastner retreated! What a crazy round that was!

In my next turn daylight arrived, my Sherman’s and a couple of bazookas killed or bailed the marders, my infantry shot up Kaster and my other paras took care of the scouts knocking them below half (Steve then rolled 4 1s in a row for moral tests o lost the lat marder, the scouts and SMG platoon!) My artillery smoked the pak 40s to deny shots in his next turn.

Steve still had a full pioneer platoon and grenadier platoon in the town and over the next 2-3 turns several assaults in the village were launched. In the end my dice proved luckier and I managed to destroy/break both platoons with my guards and 2^nd para platoon- although in the end the paras decided enough was enough and legged it. This left Steve with 4 platoons from 7 dead and he failed his morale test.

The initial advance under the cover of darkness.

The Germans move round our defences and towards the deep objective.

The situation just after Steve failed all his morale checks!

House to house fighting has worn us both down.

Game 5-2.

What can I say the dice swung one way then the other but when they turned against Steve they really turned. A hard fought win but I felt like Steve was cheated out of victory by the 3 atrocious morale rolls- he was about to get stuck into the rear objective with very little to stop him. Even though the dice hated him Steve played in the same good spirits that he had in our previous game and I thoroughly enjoyed the game as I had losing to him in our last game

It was the first time I can remember putting 3 infantry platoons down defending a NR and afterwards Steve told me he was hoping I wouldn’t so he could run through my force- I was sweating for a while but decided I needed every infantry team I could muster vs his force and in the end it paid off, just!

Game 3: Breakthough vs Mike "Surfboard" Haycock US 3^rd infantry Div

Two good wins had put me near the top so I got to play Mike and his US Rifles:

• 2x rifle platoons
• 1x 105mm cannon platoon
• 1x 105 battery
• 1x 155 battery
• 1x 2 57mm ?AT guns
• 1x 3 57mm AT guns
• 1x 2 HMGs
• Limited Kittyhawks
• AOP

When I saw the table and got to attack I knew I was in trouble. An Italy inspired table with two big hills, each with buildings, both of which were in HIS deployment area. No area terrain to speak of and an advance under major artillery! Oh goodie. I was aiming to try to get 2 platoons before I died but thought even this would be a big ask!.

Mike deployed his artillery out of sight behind a hill, covered by a big platoon of infantry. He left the other quarter more open with 2x HMGs in the village- overlooking my deployment zone and 57mm AT guns tucked in behind- but it was still a perfect enfilade position.

I deployed paras, guards infantry, 57mm at and 105 artillery leaving my tanks and 2^nd platoon in the flank march and hoped to survive long enough to see my reserves!

For most of the game I was staring down the barrel of a 1-6. My guards infantry were pinned for 3-4 turns , my 57mm couldn’t knock out the 2HMGs and my para platoon advanced a turn, got hammered by multiple ToT barrages as well as rifle fire but for minimal loss so I unpinned and dug in to await the reserves (and to not be broken too quickly!)

About turn 4 my last 57mm (the others falling to the HMGs) destroyed both HMGs and my guards infantry assaulted and killed the commander (they had finally unpinned) and so grabbed a point. My Shermans arrived and managed to knock out the 155s over 2 turns but the other artillery took care of 3 Shermans and the last one legged it- leaving my 2^nd para platoon trying to assault a full strength infantry platoon- and the result was predictable. With my force in tatters the guards rifles carried on their merry way and managed to assault and kill a 57mm from the small platoon but the survivor then retreated. In my next turn my small para platoon charged out and knocked it out from behind the gun shield and the commander fled to give me a 2^nd (unlikely) point. Mike then assaulted my troops near the objective and destroyed them winning the game.

Result: 3-4 but really should have been 1-6

Holding all the high ground, Mike's artillery was ready to dominate from turn 1.

I have to deploy under the gaze of the HMG teams in that village!

The Americans move to cover the objectives.

I dig in to try to avoid losing too early!

Day 2 to follow

Craig