Camp Cromwell Tuesday 24/10/06

Festung Europa 1

SteveJ's Panzergrenadiers v. Jim's British Rifles
2000 pts FFA on a West Europe table (last week's East Europe with 2 hills, 3 woods & 2 fields added).
Steve had 2 King Tigers, 3 Hummels, 37mm AA, 2 P/gren, 3 Luchs, Limited Air.
Jim had Churchills, M10/17s, 17pdrs, 6pdrs, HMG, Mortars, RA, 3 Inf, Priority Air.

The Luchs advanced on the Hun right and blasted away at a Rifle & the HMGs. The Brits protected the flank with artillery smoke when they had nothing better to shoot at. Nothing decisive happened on the flank - the action was on the German left.

On their right, the Brits advanced under cover of a ridge, a wood & a village. 2 Rifles, the 6pdrs, Churchills & M10s advanced. The 17pdrs & mortars deployed to cover the centre.

The Germans waited on the other side of the ridge. The Germans did a half track shuffle onto the ridgeline & decimated a rifle platoon. But then Steve made a big error in not noticing how far the M10s had been snuck forward. Suddenly over the ridge came 4 6pdrs, 3 Churchills, 4 M10s & a few infantry. On their left another Rifle platoon stormed out of the village . The M10s were just able to get onto the King's flanks. Hot shooting & bad saves killed one & bailed the other. The Rifles passed tank terror and got the bailed one. Suddenly there were no Uberweapons & the Germans were in Big Trouble.

The Hummels & AA didn't kill enough in retaliation - they got 3 M10s, but next turn were annihilated by a storm of 6pdrs. The Rifles from the village attacked the objective under smoke and killed the defending P/grens. The Germans passed army morale but couldn't contest the objective.

Airpower was interesting. Both sides often didn't throw for them - keeping their dice in reserve. Steve mainly used his as interception - suceeding in stopping most attacks. When he didn't intercept the Hurricanes got shot down by the AA anyway. The most memorable waste of dice was my 6 sixes in 6 dice for air on turn 2. I followed that with a 6 to get 3 planes. Steve then threw a 6 in 4 dice to intercept. What a waste! Later when Air would have been really handy to support the big attack I managed 3 1's in 3 dice for air. The Gods are fickle creatures.

But the lesson of the night was: You just have to be so carefull with your Big Pussies. One mistake can be very, very costly.