Panzer Pioneers vs US Armored Rifles in Encounter

The river becomes a killing field for all attempting to cross

Game 2 of the Gametronics 1710 MW tournament was against Colin and his Armored Rifles. The mission was Encounter and he won the roll to be the attacker. Once again I would be defending but wouldn't have the defences that come from the supply vehicle.  I would be able to use it to help digging in. Again I had a water feature to hinge my defence.

Big Willie's Pioneers
OC and 2IC with knackers
Full Armored Pioneers platoon
Half trucked Pioneers platoon with supply vehicle
2 x mortars
2 x 8-Rads
2 x Panthers
4 x Marder III Ms
2 x 2 cm SP AA guns (1 x armoured)

Colin's Armoured Rifle Company
OC and 2IC
Full ARP with bazookas
Full ARP with bazookas
Recce platoon
HMG platoon
5 x Shermans
4 x 105mm platoon
Priority Air Support

Set Up

American objectives are bottom center and middle left, Germans objectives were centre right behind the houses and top right behind the small wood

US Steel ready to roll forward

105mm guarding one objective ready to cover the ARPs advance

Pioneers spread out to cover both objectives and take advantage of the supply vehicle

Marders ready to react to the US advance

Turn 1

A US plane arrives bombing the now dug in Pioneers and killing a stand

Mortars try and take advantage of the clustered US Armour with no luck

Turn 2

Mortars again drop on the advancing US troops

Marders open fire on the half tracks knocking out 3 of them and killing all but one of the stands inside

Marders storm trooper away to avoid the return fire from the Shermans

Turn 3

US Air swoops in again knocking out a half track while a Marder gets bogged in the woods

Shermans and half tracks advance knocking out another Pioneer stand

Marders attempt to engage the half tracks again but two get bogged down.  The other two knock out two more half tracks and all the troops inside

US casualties begin to mount as the forces attempt to cross the ford site under the hail of German fire

Turn 4

Panthers arrive from reserve and with the Marders knock out Shermans forcing them to flee* while the ARP now well below half loses its nerve and flees

Shermans knock out two Marders and bail another one before they leave the battlefield.

At the beginning of Colin's next turn he had 2 platoons destroyed and one on the table causing a Coy morale check which he fail.  It was a 6-1 win for the Pioneers with the water feature again proving to be the MVP.  Colin and I had rules discussion about when you have to take a morale test whether it is at 50% or below.  This is the first time I've argued with my opponent in favour of my opponent and in the end we agreed to play it the way the local store does and to check at the end of the game.  For clarification it is below 50% which means the Shermans would not have had to test, which in turn means the Coy would not have had to test. It was a great game and had Colin dismounted and gone through the town I think I would have been steam rolled.