FoW – EW French vs Germans

Super bowl Sunday here in the USA? Erm, let’s have a game instead, and have a super boom!

Ian and I setup a 1500 point early war action with the French vs the Germans. Ian wanted to be Germans and I played with my French. I knew Ian wanted to play with his recently completed Rommel hero so that pretty much meant tank formation on tank formation.

As the French it’s tough being a tanker at least for dealing damage. The 1 man turrets are killer and due to special rules like you’re not able to move and fire.

We rolled up a counter attack mission with Germans on the attack and French on the defense. How historical! With the counter attack the table is split into 4 boxes. There is one objective placed by the attacker in the box in the upper left of the picture below. The French get to setup in the box that is in the upper right in this picture. I placed my objective next to the house in the upper center of the picture. My reserves arrive from the box that in the near left of the picture and the German attacker sets up in the near box on the right.

For their force the Germans picked a Czech panzer company with 2 35ts in the HQ, 3 38t, 5 Pz IIC, Rommel in his 38t, a platoon of Panzergrenadiers in 251/1, a 4 gun battery of 105s and last limited air support.

On the French side, for my Tank company a R35 for the company HQ, with a platoon of Char 1bis, 3 R35s, another platoon of 3 R35s, 3 S35s, a platoon of infantry and that’s it.

For this scenario as French on the defensive I only get 1 motorized platoon on table to start and then non-motorized. For me that meant I could have 1 formation of tanks I choose the S35s and then my infantry, while the Germans get everything.

My reinforcement rolls were going to be critical.

 

Ian rolled forward with turn 1 bringing his 251/1 down the road and his Pz IICs forward through the field. He decided to pick on my S35s but with a frontal of 4 the antitank of 5 from the 20mm on the PzIICs isn’t going to do much.

 

Bottom of turn 1, I quickly realized I have a major tactical blunder on my hands. I had nothing to cover the objective on my right flank and I’d placed my S35s on my left flank, unless I received reserves pretty quick, I was in for a short game.

Reserve roll …… notta.  So I started to shift my S35s over. This is also when the joys of 1 man turrets also come out. Every time pretty much any French tank moves, you can’t fire because of this special rule.

 

Top of turn 2. Ian received his air and decided to pick on my dug in infantry and my company commander in his R35.

Ian decided to roll the rest of his tankers forward into the field and kept the 251/1 heading towards the objective.

 

With air and artillery aiming for my infantry I lucked out with a hit on my company command tank since the Stuka scored a hit on him, I failed my armor save and then Ian rolled for his 2+ firepower roll and got a 1. Whew!

Bailed out but no damage.

Bottom of turn 2, I again rolled for reinforcements…. and …. nothing. Gar!

I weighed a double move with the S35s but decided against it since that was a lot of armor that might gain free double hits. I figured that was a bad idea. Still with the S35 moving, again no ability to fire from them.

I recovered from my bailed out status with my company commander and promptly moved him towards my right flank and more out of the way but still reasonably close by the objective on the left flank.

Ian again made his roll for air and unsurprisingly went after the infantry again. He moved his armor up shifting the basis for attack to his 38t with their better guns.

Lots of shells bounced off my S35 or whizzed by but thankfully no effects.

 

Between the air and the artillery tho, they were able to eliminate two stands, one of which being the infantry platoon commander. as well as my VB team. Getting 3 planes and being able to reroll misses with no AA to contest is pretty effective. Thankfully I had moved my company commander the turn prior.

Bottom of turn 3 I rolled for reinforcements and o-rah! success, only one platoon but better than nothing. I decided on the Char platoon. Still, between the awkward layout for the main 75 and the 1 man turret for the 47mm gun, it means anytime the tank moves, no firing.

 

I moved as far as I could to counter the 251/1s heading for the undefended objective. Turn 4 would be pivotal as the Chars would have to take out as many 251/1 as possible to have a chance to keep them off the objective.

I decided to halt the S35s and take a few shots instead at the German armor.

Success! I brewed up a single 38t. A good start but I’m outnumbered. Not much else to do so on to turn 4.

Ian once again made his air roll. He decided to not move his tanks and take advance of the full rate of fire. Lots of shooting but only a bail out result for one of the S35s.

He moved his 251/1s up and onto the objective so my Char tanks would have to have some great shooting.

Another air attack but thankfully no further hits on my infantry and on to the bottom of Turn 4.

I rolled for reserves again and fail. I also fail to recover from the bail status on my S35. I fire my S35s at the 38t tanks with a bail result.

The Char tanks open up with their 75 and with their 47s at the 251/1 halftracks and ….

Two brews but not enough to cause a motivation roll and with nothing else to throw them off the objective it’s game with a German victory. They’ve successfully encircled the French and there’s nothing I can do about it.