Battlegroup Normandy Test - 600 Point 6th Airborne versus Ersatz Panzer

[V]

Well... Garry and I played a basic encounter battle between two of the new lists. He used the 6th Airborne list and I took a force built from the Ersatz Panzer list. Both armies looked quite comparable but the pesky Paras had a big edge in morale terms. That said though, I had some bigger artillery to call on...






Didnt help me though... I took a pounding for most of the game and everything just went wrong! Coupled with Garry having his annual 'roll six for everything' evening and it was fun but painful! Firstly my cunning fast striking mechanised list bogged down in the hedgerows and towns and got peppered by mortar fire, directed by a recce patrol that were the bane of my existance. I lost on of my half-tracks early on and my observer in his little armoured sewing machine spent the first few turns running away from an over amourous Tetrarch. It wasnt a good start and with Garry quickly taking three of the four objectives, I had a pile of morale chits by turn four... Typically not one was under 4!









Then, it all changed! I pulled an aircraft chit, and low and behold, the bleeding Luftwaffe actually turned up with a roll of six! We both thought this was gonna be the kicker and set my Germans up for a win. Oh how wrong I was... The pilots attack run was perfect. He dropped his bombs right in amongst some infantry and the three Shermans. The large bomb of course rolled a one and missed entirely, I presume it was a dud sabotaged by a slave worker back in the Reich, and the smaller bombs managed to kill one British para. Nevermind I thought, next turn some strafing with the MGs.









Trouble was a Para with a Bren had other ideas... A string of sixes saw not only a 'pin' but also a damaged aircraft and my morale roll of one, saw the pilot turn tail and head for home. Pretty much par for the course for the Luftwaffe in Normandy really...









After that it all went from bad to worse. One British mortar stonk landed among my command vehicles and with a huge pile of sixes managed to put my command H/T out of action along with my HQ and my forward observer. Then two of my tanks died in balls of flames and in return all I managed to do was shell and mortar some more paratroopers. While my infantry dug in, with their vehicles all burning wrecks, the last of my tanks met a grisly end thanks to the Shermans. It was all over at this point, my morale well and truly broken before the British had even reached the halfway point on their rating.









But it was a cracker of a game and great fun... and the moral of the story is not to attack British Airborne with mechanised forces in close Normandy terrain... You would have thought I would have known that. My infantry left the field in good shape, but minus all their commanders (and I dont think they were too bothered about that) and all the vehicles except a half-track and the radio truck... The British lost a few men, a Sherman (that took a lucky hit from a falling 105mm shell) but were in fine shape at the end. A very convincing British victory!

[forrester]

Lovely photos as usual... and its helpful to see modest forces in use rather than colossal armies-impressive but beyond some of us.