Panzer Pioneers vs British Infantry in Encounter

Utter devastation around the objectives as the Brits Keep Calm and Carry On!

My final game of Op HUSKY 2016 (180 MW) was against Carsten and his British 8th Army, Infantry. We were placed on the desert table which is awesome, because I have a soft spot for fighting in the desert. I always find that in encounter I often try and push to hard, ie before the reserves arrive. Something I think I'm going to need to do more is wait for reserves and then push hard.

Big Willie's Pioneers
OC and 2IC
Full armored pioneers
Full trucked pioneers with supply cart
Weapons pl with 2 x MG42 and Mortars
2 x Panthers
4 x Marders
2 x SP AA guns

Carsten's Brits
OC and 2IC
Infantry platoon
Infantry platoon
3 x UCs
HMG platoon
AA platoon
4 x 25 pdrs
3 x Shermans


Set Up

Objectives are far right above the house, top  right by the hill, mid left behind the houses and bottom centre by the hill

Pioneers guard both objectives while the Panthers are ready to roll out

AA guns and infantry protect an objective

25 pdrs guard the hill side and an objective

Turn 1-3

Panthers move quickly flanking the objective

Marders and HMGs trade long range shots with no real effect

British infantry mass in preparation for a Panther assault

Newly arrived Armoured Pioneers move up to provide support to the Panthers

A Marder is bailed out by HMG fire

Turn 4

The Pioneers assault and kill the AA guns only to have Shermans show up and press the attack. The a massive unlucky turn of shooting in defensive fire! 18 dice rolled and only 3 hits! The British infantry show Jerry who's boss

When the dust finally clears the Pioneers and Panthers are no more!

Turn 5

Shermans push hard on the flank while the Marders move to intercept the 8-Rads attempt to sneak through

Armoured mortars arrive from reserve and in a single volley devastate an infantry platoon mounted in their trucks

The Shermans lose of of their number and attempt to avoid any more fire from the Marders

Turn 6

8-Rads move up and take out the final elements of the infantry platoon holding the objective and the Marders knock out the Shermans

HMGs move up under the protection of the 25 pdrs to find a new target

In the end I managed to pull out a 4-3 win against Carsten. I couldn't believe that his assault had worked, goes to show that you can never count on anything and it would have made an amazing scene watching the stout British infantry hold the line and then not just defend by take the fight to and kick the back side of the Germans! The only thing I would likely to next time is waiting for his tanks to arrive from reserve first and then take them out before getting to close like I did.