Chuck and I got together for a Monday post Easter game since we didn’t have a chance to game on Friday like we had originally planned. In my case I have a new company of Volksgrenadiers that I’ve been really wanting to give a try and in Chuck’s case he’s working up to some Arnhem themed battles.
We decided on 2000 points a piece.
Setting up the table, we set up a cross roads on a mostly flat terrain. We rolled up a fair fight meeting engagement. I’m the defender, starting on the near long edge in the picture and Chuck the attacker starting on the far side. We’d placed our objectives at this point. The panther body being one and the bright red AA squares Chucks. On the far side my objective is hidden by the church steeple.
On the setup with just 3 platoons to deploy and the other 3 in reserves, I choose to deploy my scout platoon, my sturm platoon and my Panthers. The Sturm in the light on the right and the scout the cluster on the left with the Panthers in support. Off table I had a platoon of HMGs, Hetzers and the Shutzen platoon. All my stuff was Conf Vet. Just didn’t want to try out Reluctant Trained even tho I’d been able to get another platoon or two!
Chuck with 8(!) platoons decided on Jacksons, his artillery of 105s and then two formations of airborne. Both Chuck and I had air, in his case dedicated P47s and in my case sporadic Me262s.
Turn 1 with Chuck starting, and no AA on my side his air came down and bailed a Panther. Alas I burned a die and tried to intercept but failed. Otherwise Chuck sprung his Jacksons and fired but missed. He also pushed his straight legs across the line and was easily able to start to get into the buildings. I figured at this point I’d have to hold and hope I received reinforcements or at least some good shooting so I could force a flank. I pretty much figured there was no reason to go through the town. Chuck also deployed a sniper you can just barely seem him by the wall on the near side of the buildings. Last Chuck also tried and failed to dig in his artillery saving me their affection this turn.
Bottom of turn 1, my Panthers brewed up both Jacksons which was great fortune on my part. They could now help out with this flank. I moved my scout platoon up so it could at least be able to engage instead of digging in. I did make my air roll but Chuck intercepted so that was that. My sturm platoon dug in and took a shot at the sniper. I put a hit on him, made the FP roll and made the roll to have him destroyed! Some good luck to start out.
With Turn 2 Chuck fully secured the church and the buildings in town, making it festooned with bazookas and LMGs. On my right flank a few stands pressed forward staying outside of my assault rifle range as well as out of line from were my MG teams could potentially bring to bear. Chuck made his air roll again but thankfully I also made my roll and thus intercepted the potential attack.
Beyond that we traded some small arms but otherwise mostly a turn of looking for position and cover.
With the bottom of turn 2 I adjusted my Panthers to help out as well dug in my scouts and fired where I could. Losses were pretty light at this point. I had lost one of my scout stands and Chuck from his formation on my left.
Top of turn 3, Chuck dug in successfully and ranged in with his artillery. He also made his air roll and I wasn’t able to intercept. But at least with the first turn for him rolling for reinforcements he failed the roll….
Again another turn of mostly ineffective fire but Chuck was able to pin my scouts. With his air he was just able to stay outside of the required 16″ of his own lines to be able to come down. Dern it! He brewed up a Panther with bomb.
Bottom of turn 3, I continued to hold, with small arms and my Panthers firing trying to root out the dug in Americans. Stand here, stand here, little effect.
On to turn 4. Again Chuck got air, but this time I was able to intercept again. Whew! Don’t need more bombs! Chuck also failed the reinforcement roll this time. The situation stayed fairly static, with small arms and artillery for the most part accomplishing little saving me losing one more stand from my scout platoon. One more loss and they’d be testing.
Bottom of turn 4, I did get my first set of delayed reinforcements. Rolling for entry they would come in on my right flank. I hummed and hawed and decided to bring on my Hetzers. I figured they could help either flank and was lucky that it would be my right flank. Since it was pretty wide open over there.
I decided to get a little aggressive on the left flank too and moved up the Panthers. Still trying to take on dug in Americans, not an easy chore. Little damage but they like me were both wearing.
We moved on to Turn 5 where Chuck rolled his reinforcement but failed. Given 3 dice in use, he picked his 57mm ATGs and with their entry roll, ended up on the same side as my Hetzers.
At this point we called it as Chuck had a hard stop and we needed a little time to clean things up. Much appreciated that Deaf Ear would let us play on a Monday morning.
I didn’t expect my Volks to do as well as they did. I expected the Hetzers to be under strength and the lack of artillery really hurt. Tepid air didn’t help but I can’t complain all the times I was extremely luck to get air to intercept. Had the P47s arrived on table more, the lack of AA could have been deadly.
Sounds like a fun game. Too bad you didn’t get to play it out. I’ve looked at similar lists for VGD and assault rifles. Haven’t gotten to play it yet. I always try to find a way to have some AA. Just so potentially deadly. Deaf Ear?
In LaCrosse there isn’t a dedicated hobby store. As it turns out however the owner of Deaf Ear Records is quite gamer friendly and as such a number of game groups play there. It’s gotten to be a really nice space with dedicated lockers, storage area of game table supplies and all.
One note, your opponent counldn’t have intercepted your Me 262 because of it is interceptable by other planes thanks to it being a jet fighter.
Otherwise a good AAR.