Saturday was event day and 5 of us were able to make it in the end. Due to the odd number, we decided 1 person would have a bye. The first bye was decided by dice off, the second was the host volunteering so he could organise lunch and the last by dice off again.
Mission's were rolled for with a defensive battle up first, followed by a mobile battle and last would be a fair fight.
The forces:
Lee - 11th Armoured (Market Garden)
HQ - 2 Sherman V
2 Sherman + 2 Firefly
3 Sherman + 1 Firefly
2 M10
4 25pdr
3 Stuart Jalopy
Paul - British Para's (Overlord)
HQ + 3 Piat
Full Rifle Platoon
Full Rifle Platoon
Full Rifle Platoon
4 6pdr
3 Armoured Recce (Cromwell)
4 25pdr
Mark D - Hungarian Rohamagyus (Grey Wolf)
HQ - Stug
3 Zrinyi II
3 Zrinyi II
3 Stug
3 Panther A
3 Csaba 39M
Andrew - Panzer Company (Bridge by Bridge)
HQ - 2 Panther
3 Panther
3 Panther
Full Grenadier Platoon
Full Grenadier Platoon
Me - 2nd Household Cavalry (Market Garden)
HQ - 2 Staghound
2 Daimler + 1 Dingo
2 Daimler + 1 Dingo
2 Sherman V + 2 Firefly
2 Sherman V + 1 Firefly
4 25pdr + AOP
Full Rifle Platoon
Here's a picture of my force...
On to game 1 - Fighting Withdrawal was rolled up. The games would be:
Paul vs. Me
Mark vs. Lee
Andrew - Bye
I'll start with my game. Rather than play Allies vs. Allies, Paul agreed to use one of Andrew's spare German armies for an Allies vs. Axis match up.
(Realised late in the day that I had my camera settings wrong... whoops. Too caught up in the games, so not my best photo work unfortunately)
His list for this game would be a Schwere Panzer Company from Bridge by Bridge:
HQ - 2 Jagdpanther
1 Jagdpanther
3 Stug
3 Stug
Full Grenadier Platoon
Fair play and thanks to Paul for agreeing to play the German's as they were a pretty unfamiliar force for him.
The timer was started (2hrs per game) and we were underway.
Deployment began and I would be the defender being Mechanised. My AOP immediately identifies where the German schwerpunkt will be!
Early success though... good ole British artillery quickly range in pinning the German infantry (who fail to unpin for some time), bail a few Stugs (disappointing), but kill the German CiC Jagdpanther! Nothing wrong with 5+ firepower :-)
My ambushing Sherman's deal to the single Jagdpanther leaving only the 2iC Jagdpanther alive.
Not a bad start!
The Stug platoon (who all remount) and remaining Jagdpanther move up to engage my Sherman platoon, whilst the second platoon of Stug's nervously loiter around the hill. This is because I have another armoured car platoon hiding around the buildings waiting patiently for some side armour shots.....
German return fire hardly scratches the paint on my Shermans, but British return fire devastates the Stug platoon that is engaging them. But the Germans refuse to run! Most unfair, I must say!
We both decide to get up close and personal to end things quickly.
But that doesn't work for either of us. So I do what British are best at. Charge!
I race my Sherman's around to get a good shot at the Stug and Jagdpanther.
I miss with everything and get blown to bits in return.
My armoured cars and artillery have a go at the infantry who are moving now and get them down to 2 stands. They also refuse to run away!
But, time is running out. The nearest objective to the Germans is gone and they're too far away from the defenders objective to be able to grab it.
Game over. A British victory.
Paul was unlucky to not get a second platoon off me with my platoon of armoured cars sticking around after a taking a number of hits. Gotta love Guards re-rolls.
I don't have any commentary on Mark & Lee's game and only a couple of pics.
At the end of game 1 the results are -
Will vs. Paul: 5 - 2 to Will
Mark vs. Lee: 5 - 2 to Mark
(Andrew - Bye)
Since Mark and I both won our game, we would face each other next. Paul (now running his Para's) would face Andrew. The mission - Counterattack.
The Hungarian Zyrini have breakthrough gun. Yay, I think. I can't hide my guns or infantry anywhere.... well lets see what happens.
We deploy -
I lose 1 25pdr and a couple of infantry stands to the first round of Zyrini shooting. Not so bad.... until the Hungarian Stug's open up. They kill 2 more 25pdrs leaving me with one gun! That neutralised my artillery support for the rest of the game.
There a bright spot though. That first 25pdr killed.... that left me a great spot to ambush my Sherman's.
Semi-indirect fire destroys one of the Zyrini platoons.
Since we are Guards, we advance on the enemy with the intent to destroy the second Zyrini platoon. Which I would have done if I could hit it.... The Zyrini's bring in Panther support and the war of attrition begins as neither side is really able to hit. The few hits we do get a are saved. I do start to loose Sherman's though....
The other objective is where all the action is now. The Stugs make a run for the objective and end up facing off against my armoured cars as they arrive from reserve...
The armoured cars don't even slow as shooting (with some support from the Sherman's who arrived a little earlier) destroy the Stugs (side armour shots).
The Zyrini finally blow big holes in my ambushing Sherman's (yeap the Zyrini and not the Panthers), so it's up to my armoured cars. Again, I manage to get onto the side armour and destroy the second Zyrini platoon. My remaining Sherman platoon take out the Hungarian CiC ensuring auto fail of company morale.
Another victory to the British.
On the other table, the British Para's were very slooooowly trying to beat some trained German Panthers... which provided a great deal of amusement to the rest of us onlookers :-) Gave me plenty of time to take some photos though.
Results:
Will vs. Mark: 5 - 2 to Will
Andrew vs. Paul: 2 - 2 due to timeout. Too slow lads :-)
(Lee - Bye)
I ended up with the bye for the 3rd game which was Dust-Up.
Hardcore gaming...
Lee vs. Andrew:
Not too sure what happened in this game, but Andrew got both platoons of Panthers on early which Lee simply couldn't counter.
Paul vs. Mark:
Aggressive use of Para's resulted in victory here. Helped by Cromwell's arriving from reserve on time to threaten the far objective and forcing Mark to turn to counter. Not getting any reserves didn't help the Hungarian's much either.
But I'm sure the guys will comment more about their games. Both of these last games were 6 - 1 victories.
The final result at the end of the day:
As I had 2 victories and a bye, I was nominated as the winner.(I think it was 10 vp for a bye Lee? :-) )
A game of Wings of War with a beer or two finished the day off nicely.
A great day. Great games, great opponents and great fun. Thanks again for hosting Lee. Looking forward to the next one.
Thanks for reading.
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