1000 pt game British airborne vs SS

[Corver]

Had a game vs Dutch Grenadier last night and we took loads of pics. But first i thought i would list the armies as they are both mine.

Brits from armies of Britain book
2nd lt + 2men
Medic +1 man
Free obs
8 para, 3 smg, bren
8 para, 3 smg, Bren
9 para, 4 smg, bren
Vickers MMG
piat
Medium mortar + spotter
Light arty + spotter
Recce jeep
Sniper
Light mortar

13 dice!

SS from rukebook as someone borrowed my germany book
2nd lt + 2men
7 ss men, lmg, 2 assault rifles, smg and panzerfaust
7 ss men 2smg, 2 panzerfausts
8 regular germans, lmg 3 assault rifles, 2 smg
Medium mortar and spotter
Sniper
Mg42 mmg
Flame thrower and last but not least
pz iv.

9 dice.

More to follow with pics.

[Dutch Grenadier]

Ik zal je ff nog wat foto's doorsturen.

En vwb het Armybook of Germany... Wie bedoel je daarmee???

[Corver]

We Chose the Point Defence mission and the brits won the die and decided to be the attacker (mainly to make use of the brit special rule)

Table was setup as below:


Germans defended right hand side, the 3 objectives were the nearest woods the middle woods and the far ruins.

The germans deployed SS in the near woods, Heer in middle woods with mortar spotter and mortar behind woods. 2nd SS squad and HMG were in ruins:

[Corver]

The British only had 3 spotters on the table with Artillery spotter on top of ruined church:


The bombardment began, dishing out pins and killing a heer rifleman.

The germans spent their first turn removing pins where they could and lying in wait . The ss in ruins ran behind some sandbags for cover while the MMG lie in ambush waiting for a target.

The paras advanced on to the table ,leaving only the jeep in reserve.


Para squad 1:

Para squad 2:

Para squad 3:

[Corver]

Turn 2 begins and the british go first, as the MG42 was lying in ambush the para squads didnt feel safe running into the open.
The para mortar thought he would try and soften up the MMG.



He scored a lucky hit! killing two of the crew, and now was ranged in:



The Last remaining crewman decided to redeploy facing his MG out the window. The british infantry ran en-mass towards the bridges and the river.
Para squad 1 took some fire from the sandbagged SS but no casualties fell:



Para squad 2 advanced on the right flank but came under fire from the SS in the woods loosing a man:


Para squad 3 advamced towards the wooden bridge gaining cover from the wizzing bullets fired at them from the heer in the centre. They thought they would be ok, but just then there was a rumble and a Pz IV appeared in thier flank and started pouring mg fire into them.

The paras forward observer could see the beast and called the co-ordinates for an artillery barrage:

[Corver]

The message doesnt get through and the barrage is delayed a turn:



The SS squad, flamethrower and Pz IV carry on unknowing that thier position could be bombarded any moment
The british Vickers and inf squad in the river see a flamethrower unit moving up through the corn.
They decide to let him have it and they are obliterated in flame and red mist!



The british try to advance everything where they can but all 3 para squads fail ld rolls to move due to the pinnning they have suffered. The Para sniper pin points the MG42 and kills the last crewman.

[Corver]

Turn 4 and the barrage still hasnt come, the spotter adjusts the aiming point slightly. On the far flank para squd 1 take fire from the SS Lt who has moved to a bunker and from the ss squad, pinning them heavily.

At the start of turn 5 the bombardment finnaly arrives! Unfortunatley there has been a terrible miscalulation as shells start falling in the middle of the british right flank!




Para squad 2 take a direct hit killing all 6 men in the ruins. The british commander, medic, inf squad and spotter are all heavily pinned and shell shocked from thier own artillery. Thankfully the area wasnt so bag and the MMG and PIAT escape.

Things go from bad to worse as the paras attempting to storm the stone bridge have a FUBAR moment and look like they will shoot thier own spotter, common sense previals and they hit the ground in confusion all the while mortar shells are getting closer...

[Corver]

The para light mortar manages to kill the SS Lt. squad mates then before he can move repeats his bombardment killing the Lt. The german sniper picks off the vickers with 1 well aimed shot, rvenge for the flamethrower.

The british recce jeeps storms accross the bridge only to turn around and scoot back down the road when the tank tries to fire at it!

The heer unit take alot of fire and are wiped out. The piat runns forward in a brave dash to hit the PzIV in the rear, and misses!
Its too little to late for the paras who cannot get close enough to any objective apart from the centre one, then we realised jeeps cant claim.


The forward obs nearly contested the ruins:


The pz IV guards the bridge:


On the far side the Para Lt stands alone in the river. If there had of been a next turn he would have tried a one man SMG charge, but it wanst to be.


Total victory for the Krauts!

[Corver]

Lessons learnt:

Its tough for the attacker. have to cover the whole table in 6 turns, if you are footslogging ypu cant afford to stop and if you are pinned for a turn its then a really hard slog. The pzIV was good as a fire brigade to shore up threats but not so powerful as to overbalance the game.

The para mortars killed most of the german infantry that died. theywere lucky.

[Dutch Grenadier]

Geweldige AAR Mark! Till we meet again