FoW 3E- Surrounded

Well Kent and I got our first run at 3E game of FoW. I took the lorried kiwi's and Kent a FJ company with:
2x FJ platoons
3x pak 38s
1x tiger + PanzerIIIL
3x marder II

I've been busy painting up stuff over the last few days but am still shy a couple of command teams but had almost assembled the whole force ready for battle.

Since the best way to figure out the how to use an army is to use it on the attack I chose to launch a night attack- alas the terrain which I had donated to the club last week wasn't there,Tony had taken it home to put club property on it and didn't bring it with him so Kent and I scrambled round to find some terrain we could use- luckily I'd bought a box of lichen with me which we used to denote areas of wood.

Kent deployed his marders in immediate ambush but we didn't get the point- he immedialtey ambushes before the game but I get the first turn- not quite the ambushcade of Roadblock (2E) in that as far as we could tell it doesn't get to fire as the attacker gets the first turn- hmm?

Turn 1- I deploy most of my stuff at one end of the table- leaving carriers and 17 pdrs at the other to prevent Kent totally ignoring protecting the second objective.

 Portees and staghounds go to counter the ambushing marders- nothing fires in my turn so as not to reveal GtG.

 The marders approach but can't see much in the dark- maybe this was a job for the tiger...

 ...which remains hidden in a treeline.

 A view looking froom Kent's positions towards my two infiltrating infantry platoons- I do like these new night attack rules.

 Turn 2: The marders open fire but miss.

 Return fire from staghounds, priests (50 cals from 2 and main guns from the ones that hadn't moved) kills two marders- the third was triple bailed and managed to stay on the table (passing 3 successive morale checks!)

 Meanhile I managed ot bog both 17 pdrs on a hill.

 Turn 3: The tiger comes out and starts hunting the recce carriers!

 Meanwile the portees, staghounds and the marder manage to completely miss each other

 

 Turn 4: Dawn breaks and a nice juicy target is on the open for the RAF- of course they miss. I do like automatically spotting in the open though!

 The panzer III and portees trade ineffectual blows- Kent's to hit dice were woeful up to this point.
I do like the new portee rules!  At last these things are useful. 

 The tiger wanders over to help out and slowly the battle swings towards the Germans.

 A portee is knocked out-by the marder maybe? Still we miss far more frequently than we hit, although  he panzer III saves 3-4 long range 6 pdr shots.over two turns.

 The panzer III gets a staghound. But the tiger fails to destroy two portees (failed firepower tests)

 Turn 6 or 7: Enough of this, time to launch an assault vs non pinned FJ- I hope this new 8" assault rule can save us!

 At least the priests ranged in first. I managed to survive the defensive fire (11 or so dice- mostly hitting on 5s) and killed a team, only to lose 3 in the counter attack  and fail my British bulldog. The survivors retreated back to the woods.

 Then there were 3!  the survivors of A platoon. (I'd already lost a light mortar after fialing to knock out the pak 38s- Kent kept rolling 5s for guns saves).

 In the same  turn the  marder and panzer III were both knocked out. In my next turn aportee raced in for a flank shot, two more fired directly from the front. Two hits, one from the side shot, two ones for saves! 

 Nervously I roll my firepower test... a five!  The tiger is knocked out by a portee! Oh the embarassement!

 My artillery meanwehile had ranged in on the pak 38s- which had just amanged to kill my last two staghounds by rolling 2 sixesto hit. These paks kept rollings 5s for saves so took a long, long time to die.  But now without mobile  tank support the FJ were at my mercy...

 Never say die- Kent starts sendding his other J round to take out my portees- eventually knocking out two more- no gun shield saves if behind the gunshield.  The survivor retreated and hid.

 With two paks now destroyed the priests move up to use their 50 cals on the last one, destroying it too.

In the fianl yurn I lost the recce carriers trying to take out the last pak (they were assaulted by FJ emerging from terrain) but the priest 50 cas knocked out the pak- reducing Kent to 2 platoons. He failed his 2nd stay on the board test.

4-3 to the Kiwis.

Notes
An interesting mission- we both liked it except for the immediate ambush that wasn't. The kiwis are a bit fragile (what do you expect with a best front armour rating of 3?) but I like the overall synergy of the list and will continue to experiment with it. An extra infantry platoon could have been handy- every infantry team counts and can't afford to be lost). 


We enjoyed the new misison, new rules and the forces we fielded.


Next Week
Next week though a game of Impetus- 300  pts- Crusaders vs Armenians. Dave is keen to join us so we will have 2 commands per side.

Saga?
Finally, Kent and I were talking of getting into Trojan Wars Saga! For which I blame Poochie and Jamie! Afterall, Jamie has invented the forces for it. If we like it I'll see if Kent will also build a small Dark Ages force too to use vs some of my Dark Ages armies. Not sure when we will get to try it though.

Finally- not wargame related

Over the weekend almost 200 wargraves of British, Australian and New Zealand troops who died in the war in the desert were vandalised at Benghazi. I don't really care what ones political or religious beliefs are. The graves of the dead, and especially the war dead, are, and should always be, sacred. I hope that they find those responsible and they are prosecuted- though given recent events in Libya I would assume that this is highly unlikely.
 

 Craig