Clever Hans, eh??
Round 2 I was pitted against Matt Varnish from Table Top Tacticians whom I've been gaming with for years. He surprise everyone by rocking up to the event with a KING TIGER LIST!!!! He had something like this:
HQ King Tiger with BergPanther recovery vehicle
2 x King Tiger (1 per platoon)
3 x Panzerwerfers with extra crew
Pioneer platoon
So a small but crazy lethal list, and like all of Matt Varnishes stuff they looked awesome. We played Domination (again you can find it at the WWPD downloads page) and it was the first time that either of us had played this mission. I have to admit I was really intimidated by the King Tiger and I think that made me forget some basics which in turn hurt me. The game hung on a knife edge for the last 3 or 4 turns with massive amounts of importance on single die rolls. Here's how it went....
GROUND ORIENTATION
Objectives are on the 2 high features, the 3 crossing points and the t-intersection. There was very little terrain on the board that I could hide behind to get in close against the KT's so I should have been using smoke (d'oh) to force him to keep moving and keep his rate of fire down.
HQ KT with BergPanther and a KT Platoon on the right flank
Panzerwerfers in the centre
Pioneers in the wheat on the left flank
Achilles using the hill as cover from the KT and the guns ready to try and smash the Germans
Crocs, Infantry and 6 pdrs hiding in the wheat fields
TURN 1
Bogged KT on the left flank, this could be the start of something wonderful!
Recce platoon is destroyed by KTs as they prepared to cross the obstacle
Achilles see the chance to sneak past the KT (will it be far enough?)
25 pdrs bail a Werfer but nothing else
Casualties
German
Nil
Tyne and Tees
UC platoon
TURN 2
Tigers move to claim the objective (turns out that BergPanthers are transport teams and can't claim objectives who knew!) and fire again this time to smash the Crocs, first one goes down to the mighty cannon (afterwards I remembered that when over 16" I get +1 to armour so potentially this Croc wouldn't have died). The 25 pdrs have no luck against the thick top armour of the KTs
The AOP moves off to find a soft target
The KT on the left flank remounts and destroys an Achilles from silly long range!
The 6 pdrs have made a daring dash towards the Panzerwerfers but machine gun fire destroys one and bails the other on the bridge
Casualties
German
Nil
Tyne and Tees
UC platoon
1 x 6 pdr
1 x Croc
1 x Achilles
TURN 3
The Infantry continue to advance using every scrap of terrain they can find. The Crocs are getting close!
The KT on the left again opens fire this time bailing and destroying the Achilles. Meanwhile the infantry make a break for it across the river
The Achilles are finally able to take out a Panzerwerfer
Casualties
German
1 x Panzerwerfer
Tyne and Tees
UC platoon
1 x 6 pdr
1 x Croc
2 x Achilles
TURN 4
The KT kill another Croc at close range only to be destroyed by the Pl Comd's flame thrower. First KT kill for me!
The KT on the left finishes off the Achilles to a man!
The AOP moves to try and help out the infantry in any way it can
The infantry platoon his hit with a bombardment from the Panzerwerfer that guts the platoon and they retire from the field. Meanwhile the Pioneers begin advaning on the objective. The 50th is getting dangerously close to having to take a Coy moral check!
Casualties
German
1 x Panzerwerfer
1 x KT
1 x Bergpanther
Tyne and Tees
UC platoon
1 x 6 pdr
2 x Croc
Achilles platoon
Infantry platoon
TURN 5
The Bergpanther finally goes down to massed Arty fire and the OC of the KTs is bailed. It's only the fast thinking of the Panzerwerfers that move to contest the winning objective!
The left flank KT begins his advance with nothing between him and the Arty park!
Seeing no other chance the old man orders the platoon to assault. The veteran infantry take out the Panzerwerfer and the OC!!!!
But while they were busy those sneak Germans came in the back door and stole the main objective! Even the harassing fire from the 25 pdrs they remain stead fast
Casualties
German
2 x Panzerwerfer
1 x KT (Command tank) with Bergpanther
1 x KT
1 x Pioneer stand
Tyne and Tees
UC platoon
6 pdr platoon
Croc platoon
Achilles platoon
Infantry platoon
TURN 6
The Pioneers remain undauted and hold the bridge while the Brit Infantry tries to close the distance
The KT sweeps around the flank and starts destroying 25 pdrs!
The MGs on the Panzerwerfer start to whittle the Brit Infantry down
A glourious charge from the Brits....
But in the end the Germans hold the objective. The two dice you can see are my Coy moral checks the 50th can ignore their first fail Coy moral check (didn't help me this time)
This was an awesome game that went back and forth many times. In the end Matt Varnish won 5-2 and I like to think it was a hard earned victory :). I'm kicking myself for not using smoke, I had all the tools I just didn't use them properly. I also learned about transport teams and platoons (I have some trucks that are going to be traded in as they are no where near as useful as I thought they would be). I can't wait to have a rematch and apply by lessons learned!
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