Alright so the first game that was played today was my Panzer division against my buddy Roger's British armored division list. We played the attack/counter-attack scenario from the rulebook, and the battlefield looked like this:
As it turned out, the point of entry for my forces was the upper left corner while the British chose the bottom right corner. After determining deployment zones, we went to placing objectives. Chessex beads were used for this so that they could be easily identified in the photos for this battle report. Here is the first one just outside of my mobilization zone.
The second objective was nestled into a corner of the church.
The third objective was a corner building by the crossroads in the town.
The fourth and final objective was placed behind a house in the corner immediately opposite my mobilization zone.
When it came time to begin deploying our reconnaissance units, the British had more units than I did which forced me into a very defensive posture. In the image below you can see my recon platoon commander's half track on the left, hiding behind a small cabin. In the center is the half track of a mounted a panzergrenadier patrol hugging the side of the step hill for cover, and on the right is an armoured car deployed close to my board edge.
The British, by contrast, were very aggressive with their deployment. The halftrack in the bottom left of this photo disembarked the infantry patrol into the cabin immediately beside it. The Stuart, deployed on the road, advanced forward in the opening turn and took up position next to the cabin. The half track in the background deployed troops into the church, giving them excellent firing lines into my mobilization zone.
The first turn didn't see too much action. I did my best to stay out of sight of the British recon units, but still ended up losing the panzergrenadier patrol in a very one-sided exchange with the British troops. On the second turn things started to look much better for me as a number of reinforcements arrived to bolster my beleaguered scouts. A Tiger tank, rocking out with the Panzer Ace upgrade for +1 hit rolls, arrived and took up a good sniper position (bottom left). My forward
HQ also arrived and quickly dug himself in to one of the little huts close to my corner, you can see his half track between the two little shacks close to the Tiger. I also brought in two Panzergrenadier squads, a Nebelwerfer, and a supply truck to keep it going.
The opening volley of the Nebelwerfer proved to be very painful for the British scouts. I knocked out the Stuart and pinned the infantry patrol hiding in the cabin.
In the third turn, my timed mortar barrage went off and this was possibly one of the deadliest timed strikes I've ever pulled off in Battlegroup. I managed to pin a Firefly and a halftrack, and scored a direct hit on the British Forward
HQ hiding out in the corner building (bottom right). The senior officer clearly had too much and quit the field after taking two casualties and failing the morale check.
It wasn't all just Axis wins though. The pinned Firefly got back in the fight double time and managed an incredible shot across the board to knock out one of my half tracks. In the distance you can see a blurry orange glow next to the cabin marking the wreck.
My reinforcements were coming on faster than the Allied troops, and I tried to push the advantage early on. One of the British infantry patrols, still holed up in the church, came under direct attack from my Panzergrenadiers. My armoured car managed to pin them down, letting me follow up with a close assault from the squad pictured below. They managed to wipe out the British troops and occupy the church, but in the following turn they took a great deal of enemy fire and just couldn't hold their position. I sadly had to move them to the casualty pile!
Additional reinforcements were sent in. With the British massing from the far side, the church became a pivotal battleground for the following turns.
The British were also flooding this area with troops.
The very considerable British armour (4 Shermans and 2 Firefly tanks) was well on their way into the fight at this point, and some of the tanks started to break off in an attempt to flank me around the other side of the church. I decided to protect my half tracks by hugging the building to deny them shots, while engaging with my Panzer IVs.
Little did I know I was driving right into a trap. On the 8th turn, the British timed strike went off and a Typhoon descended onto the battlefield to drop its payload. I was practically right on top of the target area.
Luckily for me, the Typhoon scored no hits but managed to pin down two of my half tracks and a Panzer IV. I counted my blessings and continued to fight, but casualties really started to mount. In the following turn I lost a Panzer IV and a half track as I tried to consolidate my position around the church.
As the game wore on, I lost yet another Panzer IV. My Tiger, after booking it over to the supply truck for a refill, moved at the double to get himself back into the fight. After parking himself on the middle of the dirt road, the British commander played a breakdown counter on my veteran big cat and immobilized her right there in the middle of hell. Over the next couple of turns my Tiger was trading shots with a Firefly on the far side of the field, and the game surprisingly ended with both tanks intact.
The game ended shortly after this point. The British had taken more than they could handle from a combination of casualties and bad chits from rallying. The carnage around the church was extreme.
This was what was trying to flank me on the other side of the board at the end of the game. They weren't able to get any closer than this.
The game ended with the British commander having drawn 46 in chits against a BR rating of 45 for his battle group. I had drawn 35 against a BR rating of 43, so I wasn't too far off but not particularly close either. The chits were VERY kind to me, I drew no fewer than 3 air support counters, a breakdown, and an ammo low over the course of the match. The British had drawn only an air support and breakdown for their trouble, but all in all it was a very good game and a total slug fest.
