Tonight we played a test game of
Fall of the Reich (FotR), the next supplement due for
Battlegroup. We used the 'Defence Line' scenario with the German force defending the outskirts of a German town from the advancing British forces. One thing that is quickly apparent with FotR, is that playing Germans in this supplement is very different to playing them in others. A whole new style of play was required to how I usually play my German forces. I took the Germans and Garry rolled out his British forces.
Looking towards the German defence line...
From the German lines towards the British...
With 400 points we played on a 6' x 6' table to give us some room for movement and to make it a little harder for the defence to cover all approaches to the town. In this scenario, the defender places some units in a forward defence line, and the attacker has a 'probing force' arriving before the main force. My German reinforcements would not arrive till turn 5 so my main aim was to just try and hold on until they arrived! That in itself looked to be a challenge as my force wasnt exactly well equipped...
My 400 point FotR force;
Forward Headquarters
Comms Relay
Volkssturm Platoon with Panzerfausts and LMGs (one section equipped with SMGs)
Volkssturm HMG + Loader Team
Volkssturm Panzerschreck Team
Feldgendarmes
Volksgrenadier Foot Patrol with Assault Rifles
Jagdpanzer IV L/70
Off-table 120mm Mortar Battery
3 x 81mm Timed Mortar Strikes
With this force, I was able to deploy six units on table and basically went with all the support weapons and the platoon command, dug-in among the forward buildings on my right flank covering the open ground and the road into the town. On my left flank the Volksgrenadiers occupied the ruined Brickworks on the outskirts of town. This gave me a heavily defended right flank, and a lightly defended left. To bolster the left flank, I scheduled all three mortar strikes to hit around the church and road on turn 3. This would give me a good mortar stonk if any units came that way, and with the right heavily defended (well if you call Volkssturm 'heavy') I was hoping the British would walk into the mortar strike. The initial deployment also gave me two spotters for my off-board mortars, one on each flank.
Against me the British came with a good strong force, well balanced and with lots of firepower;
Forward Headquarters
Radio truck
Infantry Platoon
Recce Foot Patrol
Churchill Troop
Off-table 4.2" Mortar Battery
So I was outnumbered in both men and tanks and my Battle Rating was significantly lower than the British... I wasnt expecting to hold out for long...
Volkssturm Platoon HQ holding a ruin on the edge of town;
The British attack began well, with Garry bringing on all his infantry first as the probing force and placing it all on my left flank. His entire attack would focus on my left flank, rendering the troops on my right and well dug-in rather useless for now. This however was where all my timed mortar attacks were placed... The British attack began with the mortars dropping in shells all over the Volksgrenadiers in the Brickworks. My most well equipped infantry units was first pinned down, and as the British advance continued over the next turn, they were shelled and shot to pieces. In response my mortar fire was woeful and then the Churchills arrived and headed up the road.
Volkssturm HMG team in a fortified ruin;
But as the British advanced the German mortar salvo came in and a deluge of mortar rounds landed among the infantry and tanks. While it managed to pin down some units few casualties were inflicted and once more it looked rather ineffective. Once again the British advance continued and they pushed forward towards the now empty Brickworks, the first objective. As they moved up, more British mortar bombs came in and one landed amongst my Volkssturm HQ killing two of the men. By some miracle, the remaining two held firm. By this time, my reinforcements arrived and the first one was the Jagdpanzer IV, who came on the road to face off against the three advancing Churchills, lead by the troop commanders tank who had been doing a rather fine job of directing the British mortar fire from his forward position. The Jagdpanzer IV let off two rounds at very long range at the Churchill. One missed, the second hit home and the tank caught fire...
"Good Kill!"
With one Churchill despatched, things looked a bit better but it still looked pretty poor... The British took the Brickworks and having lost two units, I was well over halfway on morale. I began to funnel more units to the right flank, expecting to have to give up the left flank, though I brought in the SMG armed Volkssturm to provide the Jagdpanzer IV with some infantry support. The British now pushed forward once more, but the mortar fire from them seemed to be getting less effective and although pinning a couple of units, did little. As things progressed, and with both armies fully deployed, my left flank looked in poor shape, and with no way of reinforcing it. The remaining two Churchills sulked behind the Brickworks, avoiding my Jagdpanzer and putting long range fire onto my Volkssturm, which suceeded in killing the platoon MG team. Another chit...
The Feldgendarmes wave at passing Volkssturm...
With the British now entering the outskirts of the town in force, I had to do something. I threw forward my SMG armed Volkssturm into a attempt to close assault the enemy, and miraculously they managed it! The eventual outcome saw them wiped out, after another unit fired at them, but they gutted one British section in the process and bought me time to bring over the Volkssturm HMG to give long range fire onto the British infantry. This managed to pin some down and force them to take cover. Then in a typical piece of pure luck, my mortar rounds scattered and landed next to the british Forward Headquarters... When the smoke cleared they had been wiped out! To add insult to injury, my Jagdpanzer had managed to use a Reserve Move to get a shot off at a Churchill and yet again he scored a hit and destroyed his second tank of the day.
The British response was now to hunker down, and for a few turns I was subjected to more mortar stonks. Over a few turns my poor little tank took three direct hits from mortar bombs but all bounced, and the crew were unfazed. But once again I had time to move troops around and another squad of Volkssturm threaded their way through the ruins and over to the left flank, while my mortars and HMGs kept causing casualties among the British and pinning them down, forcing Garry to take chits to unpin units to get them moving. Sadly I couldnt unpin anything as for several turns since the loss of my SMG armed unit, I had only 3 morale points left... The end was inevitable, but I could still make those British pay dear for invading the Fatherland!
But the British had been piling up casualties and morale chits, and my Volkssturm unit managed to engage and finish off another British rifle section among the town ruins. With this done, I had a window of opportunity. A salvo from my mortars landed among another rifle squad, killing several and causing the rest to retire from the field. Then, my Jagdpanzer IV pushed forward to secure the Brickworks with the Volkssturm in support. Having retaken this objective, the British pulled a chit and finally their Battle Rating was gone and they retired from the battlefield leaving the motley collection of Volkssturm the unlikely victors!
The man in charge of the defence...
So a real see-saw of a game and a very surprising result! I had expected to be stonked into the ground, but somehow I held on and with a bit of luck, and a few dodgy rolls from Garry for his mortars, I managed to fight off the enemy and hold onto a piece of the Fatherland for a few more hours!
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April 27, 2024, 01:34:45 PM
August 28, 2007, 03:16:21 AM