So, had a great game on Saturday.
Long and short of it, the mission was to capture the jump off point marked with a blue cross near the crossroads.
Not drawing this one out too much but the long and short….
The elite US glider infantry, moving swiftly toward the hamlet were able to place their jump off markers at the forward hedge rows, marked in the lozenge area. The right hand section, quickly moving out to cover the ground towards building 2.
German jump off markers can be seen clustered around the the junction and just behind building 2. A further jump off was established near building 1. Maybe a little too early, I deployed a section into building 1 and one into building 2. Angles of fire were tricky, with no building square on to the eastern edge (at the bottom of the table). The US deployed their forces quickly, including a support 50 cal (5) and I immediately started to feel the heat. I had intended to hold back my third section to defend in entrenchment sat the crossroads, but with the only bit of open ground now being crossed, I decided I should deploy it also into building 2.
Surely with 4 mg42’s firing at close range, I would quickly chop up the advancing Americans…….
And they brought up a Sherman which chose to sit at the back and start laying HE into the building, trying to destabilise it…..too far away from my jump off positions for me to ambush it with my panzerschrek unfortunately…..
The advancing US section, slowed and went tactical whilst the supporting section laid on covering fire from its rifle section, keeping the panzer grenadiers on the ground floor busy, whilst simultaneously hitting the top floor section with combined fire from the section 30cal and the supporting 50cal. The Americans also deployed a 60mm mortar, and bazooka which along with the tank, added their HE into the mix.
So with one section at reduced effectiveness (subjected to covering fire) and the top floor section being battered, I was still determined to try and break the advancing section. However, having never faced elite troops before, I soon realised how damned difficult they were to hit! I was loosing men at a far faster rate!
It had been predetermined there was a battery of 88’s on a hill across the valley to the south that overlooked the hamlet, and that a chain of command dice would be able to activate them to take a shot. The first opportunity I got, the 88’s took a shot at the stationery and exposed Sherman. A solid hit slammed into the side of the tank, and knocked out the tank.
The advancing US section, decided to stop hugging the ground, and started to add their firepower onto the building. The junior leader attached to the top section was killed and the senior leader moved upstairs to take personal command of the remains of the section. The US sensed a chance to eliminate or break the top section, and let up on their covering fire which had kept the lower section almost impotent. They star.ted hitting the top floor with everything they had, and the the senior leader was wounded and unable to hold sway over his men. However, the combined firepower from all those machine guns finally was able to chop up the advancing section and it broke, running back through the gap in the hedge…
Heartened by this, I decided to push the section still sitting in building 1 out to cover the back of the farm where the action was.
Before they could get t.ok far however, the amount of American fire pouring into the top floor broke the defending section which ran down out the back, dismaying their fellow section and leaving them alone to face the main force of infantry now moving towards them….
I now had a decision to make. If I stayed put and tried to hold back the yanks, the ground floor section would suffer the same fate. They were already down three men and were dazed. I needed to give ground, and give them a chance to recover their composure so they left the back of the building and entered the stable block the other side of the pigsty. The third section, along with the panzerschreck team now took positions to defend the crossroads…..whilst the American Platton leader ran his second section across to take the farmhouse. They did this despite Sniper fire from the roof. I had been trying to deploy him for a long time. The Americans had a pre game barrage in play and despite a lot of test rolls, I had been unable to deploy until now.
Fearing he would score another hit on the support elements and further drop his morale, the American commander ordered his men to go up and clear him out. The section moved up to the first, sending a scouting pair into the loft to flush him out. Meanwhile the commander rushed back to take charge of his support assets to get them moving.
The 50 cal had continued to chase fire after the broken section but had failed to finish them.
I used my final command dice and chose to end the turn….risky because we both had routing sections. In doing so, we both came perilously close to having no stomach for the fight.
I felt a minor reprieve as the Americans were concentrating on clearing out the sniper and not already dropping fire onto the crossroads.
I detached a team from the third section and tried to flank the stable block in order to try and get at the bazooka team. If I could break them…?
But I was worried this wouldn’t do it. The Americans were now bringing forward the hated 50cal and I knew once that was in position, I would suffer the loss.
I had one last desperate play left, it could go horribly wrong, but in desperation I moved the section back out from the stables, and thrust them into to ground floor of the farmhouse!
Unable to activate his section to counter then, in my next phase, I ordered them to storm the first floor. They duly chucked their potato mashers up the stairwell, stunning a couple obviously, then valiantly attacked……
Once we’d worked out just how many dice we would be throwing, the combination of elite defenders, both being aggressive troops, all that automatic fire etc….we both ended up throwing 21 dice each…….and we both literally wiped each other out! Lol
Checking on the bad things happen table, and by the skin of my teeth, ending up on one point of morale as the Americans lost their last, I was able to snatch a victory!
Wow! That was the closest game yet. It literally came down to a very aggressive bout of close combat which could have gone either way (as well as the rolls on the morale table), and the fact all participants in the melee fell made it more incredible!
Dammed good game, great scenario, great opposition! I enjoyed that. Cheers Jamie.
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June 23, 2007, 01:25:16 PM