Sunday, January 22, 2017

82nd Airborne Glider Engineers vs Kampgruppe Pieper in No Retreat


82nd Airborne Glider Engineers dug in around the objective

Lords of War ran a 1750 LW theme Battle of the Bulge event and it was one of the best run tournaments that I've played in. It was also the first time that I've played with the weather effects of ice, snow, blizzards and fog. My first game was against Rob who was rocking a King Tiger Pieper list. The mission was No Retreat and it used the rules for snow, and ice which didn't hurt me as the defender but would slow Rob's advance.

Big Willie's 82
OC and 2IC
Full Engineer platoon with cart and 'zooks
Full Engineer platoon with cart and 'zooks
Cav Recon platoon
4 x Sherman platoon with 8 Easy 8s and a Jumbo
3 x 105mm guns
3 x Priests
2 x 155 Long Toms
Limited Air support

Rob's Germans
OC in King Tiger
King Tiger Platoon
5 x Panzer IV platoon
Full Grenadier platoon
2 x Grilles
3 x Whrilbilwinds
4 x Cannon half-tracks

Set Up
Objectives are in the woods centre foreground and just in to the left of the woods behind the windmill


Cannon platoon along with Grenadiers supported by a King Tiger

Panzer IVs and the OC ready to advance under the support of Grilles and AA

Long Tom 155 dug in ready to shell the German advance

82nd Engineers dug in on the objective

Turn 1
The Germans advance quickly and the US guns reply knocking out a Panzer IV

105s arrive from reserve and dig in

King Tiger leads the advance of the cannon and grenadier platoon

Turn 2
Panzer IVs continue their adavance

Grilles and AA attempt to move around the hedgerows

US guns fire again, this time only bailing a Panzer IV

Turn 3
The 82nd reveals the other Engineer platoon hiding in ambush

The King Tiger attempts to move but hits a mine which causes no damage

Air support knocks out one the cannon platoon

Turn 4
Shermans arrive from reserve and immediately engage the Panzer IVs knocking another one out

US Arty drops on the grenadiers but the German armour protects them

Turn 5
Shermans continue to advance down the road taking out the remainder of Panzer IVs

Air support swoops down dropping a well placed bomb directly on the OC taking him out!

Turn 6
The Grenadier advances falters as US Arty continues to rain on them

The town intersection is littered with smoking German AFVs

The Shermans continue to advance taking out the Grilles, and AA guns

We called the game at this point with the attack of Piepers force stopped cold in a 6-1 defeat. Rob was a great opponent and I would love to play him without the Ice and Snow slowing down his advance. Given that most of us don't play with weather effects often when we are suddenly faced with them it can be a huge challenge. I hoped that I wouldn't have to attack in the next rounds.

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