A Tale of Two Battles

Games for me lately have been hit or miss due to work and reenacting.  So I was happy to get to play in our regularly scheduled game at Fire for Effect (now Adventure Games) in Oshkosh, WI.  Our Battlefront Rangers came prepared to offer demo games with our travelling kit, as well as both sides of a 1000 and 1500 point game.  Decorated with Battlefront buildings and terrain we had an attractive table.

With no new players we went for the 1500 point game with the "Sardinien" panzergrenadiers against US armored infantry.  The random Pincer (defensive) mission had half the Americans in delayed reserve, meaning they only had self-propelled artillery and an ambush platoon available.

Looking at the table and starting positions.

MkIVh with SPAA support are our maneuver element

Thunderbolts show up a lot to attack our 12 cm. mortars and guns

With the inevitable result

Stuarts spring an ambush but pay the price

With only two platoons on table the Germans advance unopposed

Getting too close, the Stuarts are assaulted from cover

Racing back to defend the objective they are too late

As it turned out the respective force compositions coupled with the mission did not match up well.  The American armored infantry only had one chance to even get on table and it ended after three turns. 

So since we had time and extra hands, we set up the other 1500 point game using the same table.  This time 1945 Gebirgsjagers heavy with panzerfausts against Churchills and no infantry.  The mission rolled was Counterattack (mobile battle).  With only one mobile platoon the Germans got to have everything available with an ambushing element.  I wanted to give my Churchills some table time so had them plus recon, SPAT, some 25 pdrs. and limited air support.

Limited Spitfires keep the artillery pinned throughout

Moving cautiously against the dug in Germans

Swinging wide to the left

Knowing the Germans have an ambush element, the Brens sneak

Sturmvogel strikes!

Effective strike, but the ambushing Hetzers burn

Ranger Paul says, "my poor Hetzers..."

The end

Once again the charmed-life recon Bren section win a game.  This is something like #4 for them.  It was well that the attackers and defenders matched up as they did.  The Gebirgsjagers were well suited for defense but would have had a difficult time attacking the armor-heavy British.

Thanks to all that played.  Good times and good sports.