FoW Kiwis vs FJ + Panzers

The Staghounds and a company of (8) Shermans took on Nigel's panzers and Kent's FJ (2x platoons, 3x stugs, hummels)  in a No Retreat.

It was an interesting battle- Dale and I attacked at night and once dawn broke got into a world of hurt vs the panzers and stugs and in the end crumbled- but put up a pretty good fight.

One change I am considering for the comp is to add a 2nd objective for the attacker to force the defender to make a few more hard choices- given that there are four companie son table I don't see it as being game breaking..

 The kiws deploy- ready to race the ford. Fords? Bogging checks with staghounds? hmmm, this isn't going to go well...

 A single patrol probes the other road.

 The staghounds reach the ford.

 Meanwhile Shermans advnce under the cover of darkness.

 

 Nigel fired at the staghounds, knocking out one.

The priests respond, bailing a panzer IV- the first of many such events I'm afraid.

 Kent's second FJ platoon arrive and reinforce the rear objective.

 

 Traffic congestion on our right flank.

The panzer IIIs ambushed the Shermans and bailed one.

Tthe panzer platoon was destroyed in return fire. 

 Staghounds sneak out and take a pot shot at the panzers- bailing one.

 Smoke is used to prevent the stugs firing.

 Shermans square off vs Nigel's kamfgruppe- one panzer III is knocked out.

 Nigels other panzer platoon moves to counter the Shermans.

 How many dingos can one bog in a single round? All of them!

Shermans and panzers trade shots across the hedges.  At this point we are in serious trouble!

 Eventually the staghounds on the right advance. Dale's Shermans have been duking it out with multiple panzer platoons, the staghounds roar forward and knocked out two stugs with side shots! The last stug hangs round as does the last tank in the small KG that had been bailed by another staghound this round. The following round we lost about 3 Shermans and then the FJ assualted out of a building...

 End game- this exposes the staghounds to the FJ at the forward objective (the hummel). The FJ swarm out (no defensive fire) and in a couple of turns knock out the two staghounds and Dale's last two Shermans, its getting late so game is called.

Another fun game, it really see-sawed. Nigel's dice ran bad for a while but picked up near the end. The Shermans did well holding off so many tanks for so long but the staghounds were a bit hamstrung by the lack of bridges.

Edit: a few more pictures added. Yes, hese are part of my dersert collection of Shermans, I need to paint up a company for the kiwis too- I like the sand shields on the Mk IIIs but from looking at Cassino then and now it appears they should be M4A2s without sandskirts- which means I need more shermans! I might get the PSC ones, at about $6 each they are pretty good value!

Notes
We are all enjoying the doubles games, and small/fragile forces, mucch more than standarde 1 on 1 games. I also prefer the larger table, its only an extra foot of width but it just adds so much more room to manouvre.

Craig