Monday, September 01, 2008

Gaming Garage 29/08/08

Jim's Grenadiers v. Renfrey's US Armour. 1500 pts Late War Breakthrough.

Renfrey used one of Nick's lists - Super Shermans + Shermans + 2xStuarts + Priests + Scouts.
Jim had 2xGrenadiers, Pioneers, 2xHMG(2), Pak40s(3), StuGs(4), 105's.
Nick umpired & provided technical assistance to the US.

Renfey put both Sherman platoons & the scouts in the flanking force. The Stuarts pounced on the forward grenadier platoon & all but destroyed it on turn 1. But the Priests had failed to lay a smoke screen & the StuGs, Paks & 105s wrecked terrible revenge. Only failed tank terror prevented the 2nd Grenadiers finishing off the Stuarts immediately. It took the Germans until turn 3 to finish the Stuarts off & by then the cavalry had arrived - the Shermans came on with the first reserve roll & had caught the Pioneers on the rear objective before they could dig in & destroyed them. A bunch of hills prevented the German antitank guns covering this objective so suddenly things looked dangerous for the Krauts. It got worse when the Super Shermans came on next turn. The Stugs were outgunned & were soon destroyed, but with the help of the 105's they took the standard Shermans with them forcing a Coy Morale Test on the US (3 platoons destroyed & only 2 left on the table). The US survived the test but the 105s hammered the Super Shermans. Once again the 2nd grenadiers failed tank terror & missed a chance to finish them off. But the Scouts failed to arrive on turn 6, missing the chance to occupy the vacant rear objective & requiring another 2nd Coy Morale Test. This time they failed, handing the Krauts victory.

This was battle of wildely fluctuating fortunes. Both sides made some good moves & the Dice Gods could have given victory either way. The big tactical difference was the effectiveness of the artillery - the Priests did little while the 105's did most of the killing for the Krauts.

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