Saturday, July 6, 2019

German Grenadiers vs Brit Tanks in Encounter


A target rich environment!

Game 3 of the Lords or War MW 109 pt tournament was against Craig and his Brits. As always the painting level for Craig's army was outstanding! It's always so much more fun playing against a well painted army. Plus Craig is such a gentleman in all games it's always a good time. He had spent a lot of points on cards just like Shawn, which was new for me. One of them was the lucky card (may not have been the lucky card) which said that the player can automatically pass a saving throw. My question is what if you don't get to make a saving throw? The specifics was his OC in a Lee getting hit by a Tiger's main gun. We rolled off and carried on but I have no idea if we played it right.

Big Willie's German Grenadiers
OC and 2IC
Full Grenadier platoon
Full Grenadier platoon
Full HMG platoon
3 x 2cm SP AA trucks
3 x Marder IIIs
3 x PaK 40s
2 x 8-Rads
2 x 10.5cm guns
Tiger
looted KV

Craig's Brits
OC and 2IC in Grants
4 x Grants
4 x Grants
3 x Stuarts
3 x 6 pdr AT guns
4 x 25 pdr guns
Armoured Car Recce platoon
Full Armoured Rifle platoon

Set Up
Objectives are bottom center guarded by PaK 40s and across from them guarded by 6-pdrs. Other objective is behind the train station top left and off camera middle left by the oil tanks.. The parking lot of Brit tanks to the right are Craig's reserves



6 pdrs AT guns guarding an objective

25 pdrs and Armoured Rifles guarding the other objective

Grenadiers ready to clear out the Tommies

Turn 1-3
The PaK 40s make an incredible shot from across the board needing 7's to hit and they take out 2 x 6 pdrs!

With the objective guarded by only a single gun the Grenadiers move out in an attempt to seize the objective

Half tracks are the only thing the Marders can hit and they knock out a few before the remainder are sent to the rear

Turn 4-6
Brit reserves begin to arrive all behind the hill feature on the right side of the table. The PaK 40s effectively have the area covered except for a small area behind the hill. That small area allows tanks to start MG the Grenadiers who are out in the open

The newly arrived Tiger opens fire from across the table to try and help out the Grenadiers. This is also where Craig wanted to play the "lucky" card to have his OC make the save against the Tigers main gun.

Turn 7-10
The Grenadiers are wiped out to a stand but the remaining Brit Armoured is effectively pinned behind the hill afraid of the PaK 40s and the Tiger. The Tiger advances to deny them this position of enfilade

Despite the direct fire smoke the blitzing Tiger quickly racks up may Grant kills

The 25 pdrs trade shots with the Marders eventually taking them and the 8-Rads out

Turn 11-13
The Stuarts having lost one of their number racing along the back of the table start to emerge now that the Marders are gone. The HMGs finally manage to knock out 3 of the 4 25 pdrs but the Brits stick around

Grants attempt to swarm the Tiger but to no avail, the big cat continues to take out 1 or 2 tanks a turn

Talk about an outstanding game that allowed all sorts of fire and movement! In the end the game was a 3-3 draw with heavy losses on both sides. In retrospect I would have been a little more careful with the Grenadier platoon to make sure they weren't hung out to dry. If I had waited a few turns they could have advanced with the Tiger and KV in support which would have made them much more dangerous.

What does everyone think about the saving throw question can you pass a saving throwing using a card that you can't actually pass with a successful dice roll? Leave a comment and let us know.

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