US 7th Armored Division vs Finn Infantry in Breakthrough

A future tank ace draws first blood!

Game 1 of the tournament Games of Remembrance (1800 LW) was against Nick and his Finn infantry.  This was going to be round two for us playing almost the same armies (now 1800 vs 1650) and the exact same mission.  The big difference was I had a secret weapon my son Xander and his kid luck.

US 7th Armored
Patton
OC in E8, 2IC in Jumbo
4 x Shermans (2 x E8, Jumbo and M4A1)
4 x Shermans (2 x E8, Jumbo and M4A1)
4 x Stuarts
Recce Jeep and Half track
2 x Armored mortars
3 x Priests
AOP
Limited P-47s

Finn Infantry
OC and 2IC
Infantry platoon
Infantry platoon
Pioneer platoon
HMG platoon
HMG platoon
AA gun platoon
Heavy Mortar platoon
2 x PaK 40 platoon with hero
2 x PaK 40 platoon
2 x PaK 40 platoon
2 x Armoured Car Recce

Set Up

The US is in the right hand corner with both objectives in the left hand with the Finns spread out in between them

US Steel lined up and ready to roll out

Finn minefield closing off a key line of advance

PaK 40s and infantry guard the centre of the board

Finn infantry read to move back and close the hole in their lines

Turn 1

The US tanks advance and destroy an armoured car

Finn mortars drop smoke on the US tanks

Finn infantry double from their starting positions under the watchful eye of the AOP

Finn planes swoop in but fail to hit there mark

Turn 2

US armour continues to advance knocking out the other armoured car

AOP directed arty knock out a stand of infantry

Turn 3

The minefield works at slowing the advance of the US tanks forcing them to loop around the woods

Stuarts arrive from reserves and immediately open fire on the doubling Finn infantry

AOP continues to look for targets while avoiding the AA guns, while Avenger swoops in attempting to range in

Only to be taken down by Finn AA

Stuart MG fire devastates the Finn infantry

Turn 4

The AOP continues to find soft targets for the priests following the Stuarts assault

Arty and Avenger continue to target the AA knocking out a gun

The Shermans assault through the teams in the open around the church and use the opportunity to sweep around the outside

The Stuarts start engaging the HMGs but with no effect only to have the return fire from the PaK 40s wipe out the platoon

Turn 5

The PaK 40s open fire knocking out the 2IC and bailing an Easy Eight

Turn 6

The Shermans continue to swing around attempting to dig out the Finn infantry with their guns

Following the breakthrough in the Finn lines the other platoons follow the tanks 

Turn 7

The Finn infantry continue to pass their saves while hugging the craters.  A lone HMG stand advances to ensure the game continues

The PaK 40s search for a softer target and find it in the mortar platoon

In the end we ran out of time and Nick had won a hard 4-3 win.  This was an outstanding game and Xander had a ton of fun and Nick was a great sport about letting him play with me. Had there been a few more turns I think the Shermans would have turned the tide.  Stay tuned for the 2 other games from Games of Remembrance.