US 7th Armor vs German 88's in Counter Attack

Here comes the Shermans, everyone into cover!

Game 2 of Perkin's Hobby House and Petawawa Miniature Soldier's annual Battle Cry tournament (LW 1650) was against ThunderST from the Dice Devils and he was playing the super gun list of Doom.  12 x 88's!  The mission was counter attack where I was the attacker and ThunderST was going to have to keep the US Armor at bay.  Having gone aggressive for the first game I wanted keep that momentum going.

ThunderST's guns
OC and 2IC
4 x 88's
4 x 88's
4 x 88's
3 x Tigr Ie's
Full Infantry platoon
Full Infantry platoon
8 x 2 cm AA guns
3 x Nebs 


My 7th Armored
Patton
OC - E8 and 2IC - Jumbo
4 x Shermans (2 x E8, 1 x Jumbo, 1 x M4A3)
4 x Shermans (2 x E8, 1 x Jumbo, 1 x M4A1)
4 x Stuarts
2 x 81mm Half track Mortars
Div Recce Jeep and Half track
3 x Priests
AOP





Set Up

The objectives are in the bottom left and in the woods on the top left

88 platoon covering the advance of the infantry and the other blocking the gap in the woods

Turn 1

Sherman platoon lead by the tank Dixie stay in enfilade from the 88's

Turn 2

Tigers arrive from reserve and take out the platoon command tank "Dublin"

Stuarts are able to pick out a lone 88 once Recon lifted it's gone to ground, at the same time the AOP brings the 105mm of the Priests to bear on the other platoon

Turn 3

The US armor swings around and destroys the 3 Tigers!

Turn 4

The Stuarts aided by Recon and Mortars work their way along the flank of the 88 battery

German reinforcements quickly take cover in the ruined Tiger hulls

Turn 5

The other German infantry platoon has finally made it to the objective and starts digging in

Turn 6 

Half of the US tanks break off for the objective while the others stay to MG the troops making a run for it

An 88 battery arrives from reserve and tries to snipe Patton with no luck.  The return fire from the Shermans wipe them out

The Stuarts, Mortars and Recon continue their rampage taking out the rest of the 88's and the Nebs!

Turn 7

Stuarts, Recon and Mortars attempt to take out the old man with no luck

The AA guns arrive are equally quickly destroyed under the watchful eye of the 2IC in Dallas

The mission really hurt ThunderST and the board didn't help.  In training I have often been told that the seams of platoons and higher organizations are the weakest point and where you want to exploit.  I think that worked well in this case.  In the end it was a 6-1 win but there is no doubt in my mind that a more open table would have seen that score the other way given the firepower ThunderST had available.