Fort Floriet Tuesday 29/08/06

Game 1: Jim's Carri (1505pts) attacking Rodney's Kiwis (1600pts) in HTL.

From page 1 of the Gazzetta di Roma:
"The gallant Compania d'Angelo's adacious attack by just 2 Carri platoons over-ran a British 25 pounder battery and seized the objective. They then withstood a feeble counterattack and the enemy fled like a flock of sheep."

From page 13 of the Wellington Post:
"The Desert Fox himself launched a surpise attack on our position with overwhelming numbers of his crack Afrika Corps including several platoons of the lastest model Panzers. Our troops made a brilliant strategic withdrawal. We lost a few guns, but left the field littered with burning Panzers."

The truth:
The inexperienced Kiwi general didn't protect the forward objective well enough. The Ities exploited the terrain to leapfrog 2 Carri platoons onto the objective in 2 turns. The 25pdrs on the objective were pinned by artillery and smothered by 11 M14s - which then consolidated about the objective. A Sherman ambush plus a timely reserve Sherman platoon tried to blow them off it - but 3 Carri killed & a bail was nowhere near enough. A Maori infantry platoon had no hope of attacking the remaining tanks so it was game over at the start of Turn 3.

Game 2: Rodney's Kiwis (1600pts) v. Agro's Grenadiers (1600pts) in FFA.

On turn 1 Agro got 3 Messersmits They caught a Kiwi Sherman platoon bunched up & destroyed it. That was 1/4 of the Kiwi army gone on turn 1 and they never recovered. Two 88's dominated the field & the Kiwi 25pdrs spent the whole battle failing miserably to hurt them. The Kiwi force melted away under continual pounding from an omnipresent Luftwaffe, a 105 battery, a mortar battery & 2 HMGs. Spirited counterattacks by Maori infantry & the surviving Shermans failed to stop the Grenadiers who eventually climbed over the bodies to take an objective.

Game 3: Chris's Marschkompanie (1500pts) v. Doug's Free Frogs (1500pts) in a FFA.

Both sides farted about for a couple of hours before agreeing on a draw.