Hello gents, played some Battlegroup yesterday and took some pretty pictures to show you all. Played my Grenadier division list against my buddy's US Armored and had a great time of it. We played the Attack/Counter-Attack mission from the rulebook. The board looked like this:
I won the roll-off for deployment zones, and decided to take the corner in the bottom right of the picture above. The US player then had to take the opposite corner in the top left on the approach to the town. My plans going into the game were to hold the Americans off right at the line of the road, the one that cuts across the whole board in the center of the table. Unfortunately for me, this would prove a goal too ambitious for my troops!
My reconnaissance section consisted of a recon platoon commander and two Fusilier patrols. The two patrols can be seen below. I chose to deploy them right behind the line I was going to try to hold, with the intention of moving into the forward buildings on my first turn.
My recon platoon commander was positioned at the end of the road with a good sight line across the field to drop artillery.
The US commander's recon section was made up of no less than three mechanized infantry patrols. These were deployed forward, ready to contest the area I wanted to establish my line of defense in.
The first couple of turns ended up being pretty painful for me. The US commander won the roll off for first turn and he quickly disgorged his troops into the heart of the town, right in the midst of my men. The rifle section of one of my patrols was pinned down by fire from the shop window in the background of the picture below,
One of the US patrols decided to make a break for my recon platoon commander. The squad came out right in front of the armored car, but the dice gods looked favourably on me and the bazooka shot went wide. Even worse was that my reinforcements were about to come on from the very nearby table edge, sealing the fate of the American squad.
On the second turn reinforcements started to filter in. The Americans brought on a Sherman and an armoured rifle squad.
I rolled much higher on my reserve roll and was able to bring on 6 units. 2 StuG III assault guns, my forward
HQ, a comms relay team, and 2 trucks from my Grenadier platoon arrived to the battlefield carrying my Grenadier platoon command team, the first Grenadier squad, and an MG42 with loader team.
On the third turn, my timed strike went off and I could not have asked for better results. The US commander had a half track almost right on top of the target area, and the squad had disembarked the turn prior so they were in the open. The half track was destroyed, and the squad took a few casualties before getting pinned down.
Because the US player was so aggressive in the first couple of turns, my troops rolling on from reserve ended up having targets right out of the gate. The US recon patrols had dug themselves in like ticks in the buildings nearby my table edge. The StuGs let loose with a withering hail of machinegun fire on the red-roofed building below and the US rifle squad stranded in the middle of the road beside it.
My Grenadiers were put into action quickly, and they too were tasked with clearing the Allied recon troops from my doorstep.
A combination of artillery fire and some accurate Panzerfaust shooting saw to the destruction of the half tracks carting around the Allied recon units.
Something particularly spectacular happened in the fifth or sixth round. The US player decided to chance sending his recon troops out of the house they were hiding in to destroy one of my trucks. He scored two hits, not quite enough to destroy it. I rolled my morale test and got a beyond the call of duty, and used the bonus order to move the truck at top speed from just inside my mobilization zone to right behind one of the American half tracks making their way into the town. I managed to go from here:
To here!
The squad let loose with the Panzerfaust and I scored a hit. The half track was destroyed and the rifle squad inside spilled out onto the street. I lost the truck shortly after this daring maneuver, but felt it was well worth the effort.
Shortly after the heroic efforts of this squad, I started to get a little worried about the disparity in manpower between our forces. My Fusilier patrols were completely destroyed, and nI was losing men very quickly while the Americans always seemed to have more. Their reserves quickly charged across the open ground on the other end of the field and drew ever closer to the outskirts of the town.
The situation closer to home gradually started to improve. My newly arriving Grenadier squads made short work of the exposed US recon infantry. At long last, the red-roofed building was mine!
My heroic Grenadier squad met a grisly end at the hands of this US infantry squad. I was sad to see them go.
The game was ended by the glorious destruction of this Sherman. My off-table 105mm guns scored a direct hit, and I rolled a whopping 11 for the armour penetration roll. This chit took the Americans over their total BR rating. The US drew 38 against a BR of 37, and I drew 33 against a BR of 37. It was a fantastic game, and I hope to play again soon.
