DAK vs 8th Army Rifle Company

I managed a game vs my mate Ian the other day. We've been playing wargames for a long, long time but rarely get to game vs each other these days. Ian made up an 8th army force to test my DAK and agreed to defend in a fighting withdrawal. As he had more infantry than me this was not going to be easy. I had one more DAK list I wanted to try out.

8th Army

• 3x Rifles platoons
• 4x 6pdr portees (in ambush)
• 8x 25 pdrs
• 3x carriers
• 3x valentines
  
• Limited Hurricanes

DAK Pioneers

• 2x Pioneer Platoons
• 2x Bison
• 2x 25 pdrs+ panzer II
• 3x Marder III
• 3x Marder III
• 4x Carri

Ian deployed and then I weighed my right flank and hoped to overwhelm him before his reserves could react.


And from another angle.


My infantry double time towards the village.


And are caught in a 25pdr barrage. Only a couple of casualties but one platoon refused to unpin for a couple of turns.


Turn 2- we've assaulted the rifles off the objective and the carriers have already scarped. Time to head for Alex boys...hang on what's behind the hill? (My gamble t win the war by Christmas- any Chrsitmas!) All I need now is to survive 4x ambushing 6pdrs. I did all I could t deny close range ambush sites but not quite good enough...


Our placement was not quite good enough to deny the ambush site- gulp!


Meanwhile a Bison barrage had destroyed a valentine!


Carnage! A cvouple of turns later- the machis (I couldn't find any hurricane models) have taken out a marder. The 50cal armed carriers are also taking them on. Captured DAK 25pdrs are denying LoS to the 6 pdrs via a smoke barrage- and Ian still keeps the objective contested. Lots of pressure form both sides.


Bison rumble forward and knock out another valentine- this time with direct fire- and the commander flees. My infantry have driven the British back from the building but my few survivors are hidden out of camera sight.


Now we contest 2 objectives- but so do a lot of British infantry!


Another assault goes in, this time supported by a panzer II. The British retreat but have held long enough to be able to remove the objective. With 7x 25 pdrs and a full platoon left on the immobile objective my only hope now is to break Ian's company.



Alas I didn't get any photos of the final turn or so. I switched my attack back to my original objective and in my last urn (turn 8) broke the infantry on that objective, forcing Ian to pass a stay on the board check (3 platoons dead, 2 let on table) to decide the game- 50/50 is better than no chance at all :) He passed.

4-3 to Ian.

A fun game, I nearly snuck a quick victory and it was worth the gamble, but lacked number (as so often is the case) to deal with the large infantry platoons and their support. A good game though.

Craig