Project Panzer Lehr Part Four: Tournament Day Two

Day two, another fairly early morning drive up to the tournament venue from Rugby talking gaming and generally shooting the breeze with Al. Oh and lets not forget impromptu karaoke when certain songs came up through the iPod!

Getting into the venue and after grabbing a cup of tea I found out that'd I'd drawn another game against an elite Allied infantry force, this time British Paras. We'd be fighting for Saint-Lo, a historically vital strategic point so no pressure then!

I figured that on an entirely urban small table, more infantry would be better than less, so I went yet again with my defensive list. The mission was Domination, with objectives spread around the board, two each inside our deployment zones worth two points each and one in the centre worth four. First to eight points wins the game. So two tactics then really. One to hold the enemy off the centre objective and sweep round to take those in the enemy deployment zone. Or two, hit the centre hard,


push the enemy off and win through a direct assault. I've never been what Al refers to as the most "subtle" of gamers so naturally I opted for plan B. So did my opponent, it resulted in a blood bath.

Turn one saw both sides positioning for their respective advances towards the centre. Assault troops massing and screening forces moving up opposite flanks to block enemy reserves who would be arriving on the opposite sides to our deployment zones.

Turn two saw the first assault, with red platoon, the 2ic and Oic charging into the objective building in the centre of the town. The Paras put up some stiff resistance, but the size of my full Lehr platoon managed wipe them out to a man. My guys consolidated their position ready to receive the evitable counter attack.

The image left shows yellow platoon deploying in buildings on the T-junction opposite from the objective to cover my assault.

The image to the right shows his flank screening force. I kept my force close enough to threaten an attack on the flank objectives to keep these units from moving to properly support his assaults on the centre.

Turn three, assaults by another of his platoons who assaulted and all but broke red platoon. However the 2ic and Oic kept their men firm and held on beating back the Paras.

Mortar rounds from the Paras pounded he objective and destroyed the Oic's halftrack, left burning on a cross roads in the centre of town.
 












Turn four, another attack by the Paras on the tattered remains of red platoon. As you can see below they were in a bad way. Only one stand and the attached 2ic and Oic were left!

The Paras charged across the road towards the objective.

The Paras managed to kill a stand, but after several rounds of combat, my 2ic and Oic stubbornly held on and caused the Paras to fall back.

So far I'd passed every motivation test I had had to make and my opponent had failed each and every one of his! - To his credit he was amazingly good humoured about it!

I felt I was close to winning, but the battle was far from over. The next few turns involved both sides exchanging fire while reserves moved to attack and counter attack. Three stands of Paras were close enough to the objective to keep them in the game, however I couldn't risk moving the 2ic or Oic out to try to push them off. They were also tucked away out of sight of my covering force, so I couldn't bring my guns to bear on them.

Eventually however I decided to pull the trigger and raced the covering force across the street into the objective building, their half tracks racing down the road to fire upon the remaining Paras contesting the objective.

I ended up launching another assault to finally wipe them out. Taking the objective. However on the right armoured cars had arrived and moved past blue platoon who had moved up a bit too far on the right, allowing them to deploy behind them.

This allowed him to take one of my backfield objectives. So the score was 6 all. I had also wasted my Panthers coming on from reserve assaulting his flank force so was unable to counter them. We had however managed to play to time, so called it a hard fought draw! We had an absolute blast of a game, my opponent was brilliant fun to play against joking and chatting the whole time and a brilliant sport.I was a bit disappointed with missing out on the win, but two losses and two draws was definitely an upward trend going into the final game.

Final game of the weekend, I'd managed to keep the Allies from taking Saint Lo, so German high command decided to give me the vital town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise to defend, complete with US paratrooper suspended from the bell tower by his parachute!

Of course I'd be defending again with my defensive list as yet again I'd be up against Allied infantry. British Paratroopers again with some Sherman armoured support and Naval gunfire.

I can't remember what the mission was now, but I had two objectives to defend, one on a hill outside of town and another in the town itself near the church.

I would be starting with my entire force deployed, a bit of novelty. However the enemy could potentially come on from either side of the board, so deployed my force in a defensive formation in the town able to comfortably deal with an attack from either or both directions.

The British Paras opted for a night attack, fairly sensible as they had a large area of open ground to cross to get to either objective.

Turn one, most of his force committed to one point of attack towards the objective on the hill outside of town. Brave stuff, his assault would have to go off as soon as he could as the cover of night could lift from my turn three onwards. Spreadhead deployment would help that though!

He got an assault off on turn one. Luckily I'd deployed well enough, so was set to receive the assault and pushed them back. In my turn one I opted to counter attack and red platoon charged out of the foxholes as the attacking Brits. It was a brutal assault, but eventually I managed to break the back of his assault force. With enough of red platoon left to consolidate back towards the objective ready to set up defences again for the next wave.

Pictured right you can see my forces on the opposite side to the hill objective redeploying in reaction to the enemies movements.

After his initial assault had failed, turn two and three saw the Paras digging in around the farmhouse as my opponent organised for another attack on the hill objective.

My turn three saw dawn break and the cover of night lift leaving the British Paras even more exposed and my 88s and Panthers open up at long range.

Turn four saw another assault, which pushed red platoon off the objective just as yellow platoon moved up to reinforce them. The Oic and the small 2ic platoon, both mounted in their halftracks kept me in the game and swept the open ground with their machine guns keeping the Brits pinned.

Turn five and turn six saw the Paras hanging on and my Panzer Lehr brought their firepower to bear, trying to eliminate the small isolated group of Paras that were contesting the hill objective.

Eventually my fire began to find it's mark and after a last ditched charge from the Paras to try to finally take the Hill objective I managed to force a company moral check which despite being rated as fearless, my opponent failed. I'd finally won a game!

 

Above is the campaign map at the end of day two. Only small isolated pockets of Germans were left, but we had finally got our act together and begun to take the fight to the Allies a bit more than on day one!

It had been yet another excellent tournament from the Reluctant Conscripts (http://www.reluctantconscripts.co.uk/gaming) and a great weekend's gaming! I'll definitely be back for one of their future events and I can't recommend giving one a go, especially if you have not played in a tournament before as their a great bunch of guys and more than willing to help out newer players. On top of all of this the event was raising money for the Royal British Legion. A worthy gaming based commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

Project Panzer Lehr Part 3: The Tournament Day One

There is nothing quite like being greeted by Al's face at your door at 6am. But to get to the tournament on time we needed to get on the road early. Al had already driven up from Bristol that morning, so had been up since 4am! The true D-Day experience so to speak! After grabbing the tradition pastry based breakfast at the local Co-op, we headed to the venue.

Walking round the halls you couldn't help but notice effort that had already been put into the event, the boards were brilliant. Loads of Normandy themed boards - many of them full bocage tables! Each one named after a real place in Normandy.







The event would work like this, all Axis vs Allied games with attacker and defender for each game based on which side had won overall in the previous round. the first round would start with the Allies attacking - we were fighting the Overlord campaign after all!

Most of the time you would be playing a mission from the rule book determined for the round, however the bocage tables would be restricted to missions suitable for those tables and a couple of other tables would be playing the domination missions of I-95 fame. Domination is a lot of fun and well worth the download if you haven't tried them for yourself already: http://www.wwpd.net/p/downloads.html

The pre-painted 15mm version of Pegasus Bridge as produced by 4ground. There was plenty of their buildings on various tables and I can't recommend them highly enough. It is expensive, but you get what you pay for with them!


So to kick off properly, below is the map at "H Hour" on D-day.....

And here is my glorious Panzer Lehr force ready to go! One massive tip for tournament play, buy a tray! Packing and unpacking armies between games during the day is a lot of hassle and can damage your miniatures - the wonders of the dinner tray gets rid of all that hassle. (Al - Your welcome.)

It is tradition that to warm up properly in a tournament I get absolutely trounced in the first round and true to form I got beaten well and truly in my first game. Not an auspicious start.

I opted to field my defensive list and put all three Lehr platoons on the table, as I was defending I thought this made sense, have the Panthers come on from reserve and save the day, all that jazz....

I set up in an orchard and in and around the small hamlet in the top corner of the map. He deployed opposite with spotters for his Naval gunfire support with a commanding position up on the hill.

Turn one. Error one. I forgot that the mission was a meeting engagement meaning my guys were effectively out in the open. Damn.

His M8 Scotts raced up, .50 cals blazing and his Shermans moved along the road. His spotters ranged in on one of my platoons but the Navy's gunfire was ineffective.

The .50 cals took a terrible toll on their target platoon leaving me with little option but to fall back during my turn one. Both platoons dug in and I started to feed one objective with unlucky volunteers to keep my in the game.

The half-track mounted platoon moved up from the hamlet towards the orchard. None of my weapons in range were in range, so my shooting phase was brief, though in the assault phase the mounted platoon dismounted onto the road and sent their half-track to the rear out of danger.

His turn two saw the M8s continue to blaze away with their .50cals and the Shermans advance to the cross roads. His tank destroyers came up from reserve and spying my platoon out in the open opened up with their...you guessed it, .50 cals.

My turn two saw all platoons unable to unpin or dig in.

Turn three saw the platoon in the orchard finally whittled away, the platoon on the road were assaulted by the Shermans, managed to destroy one and kill off his 2ic, so at least I managed to kill something! However come his turn four I had nothing contesting the objective in the orchard, so a win to him.

Ours was the first game to end, I think we were done in under an hour!

So picture on the left, see that little Allied star on that map there, oh yes, I did that!

Meanwhile Al's Tyne and Tees Allied list didn't quit manage to shift his opponent's force of their objectives.


So end of round one and the Allies were breaking through deep into Normandy. The invasion was going better than anyone expect and was exceeding their historical counterparts. So the Germans would be defending again in round 2.

So who did I draw? Well who else..... Al. I picked my defensive orientated list and set up my defenses. the missions was Cauldron, so random deployment for Al with my guys surrounded and my reserves coming in from the opposite table edge from my starting force. The 88s deployed from immediate ambush in the middle, once I had some idea of where Al's armour would be turning up, the two unmounted Lehr platoons dug in around an objective each.

My guys sat tight until turn to where everyone in range opened up, luckily for me bad reserves rolling from Al gave me much needed breathing space. I managed to really start to whittle down his infantry force by the top of turn three with the help of the arrival of my Panthers.

Al's bad luck with reserves rolls was not to last with his M10Cs and a Churchill tank platoon rolling onto the board on turn four.

Al had managed to started pushing my left hand Lehr platoon off their objective, but in doing so his own infantry platoon was dangerous close to breaking point with my guys still contesting.

Alas two of my Panthers were taken out in sort order by the arriving M10Cs.

My turn four saw the arrival of the mounted Lehr platoon. I opted to head toward his right hand 25 pounder artillery battery hoping to be able to take them out on my way to helping secure my objectives.

Al's contesting infantry platoon was eventually destroyed by 88 fire from the hill across from them, however by now his churchills were closing in on the objective. The Panther continued it's duel with the M10Cs and my mounted Lehr platoon assaulted and destroyed their target 25 pounder battery.

The last of Al's reserves show up, wasp carriers and a 6 pounder AT gun platoon. the wasps were taken out in short order by the 88s.

The last couple of turns saw my CiC charge his remaining infantry in the wood, but bogging on the way in and being destroyed in the process, death of glory! With that the way was clear for his Churchills, down to one platoon now to try for the objective and end the game.

My surviving Panther lost it's duel with the M10Cs and wit my mounted Lehr platoon out of range to contest, the game came down to shot from my 88s a his Churchills. If I could destroy or rout them, Al had very little left to try to take either objective with, if not Al would win. The 88s fired, took out one Churchill, bailed another, but didn't force a motivation check, Al won the game! Very close and a lot of fun, we turned in our result for round two.

Oh dear, it wasn't looking good for the Germans, with the Allies controlling most of the board and only pockets of Axis resistance left in their seemingly unstoppable wake.

Game three was a fair fight game, the first none defensive battle for me, this time against a Royal Marine Cammandos list being run my a genuine ex- Royal Marine.

More bocage, lets see if I could do any better this time....

I picked my defensive list, thinking more infantry would be better bet on such a dense board. The unmounted Lehr platoons deployed on each flank with half track mounted platoon poised to rush down the central road to the junction in the middle of the board. The 88 platoon and Panthers remained in reserve along with the 2ic's small platoon of two half tracks and a couple of panzerschrek teams.

My plan was to advance the mounted half track platoon into the middle to open up on the advancing marines and the fall back into a defensive line and counter attack once the enemy had sustained losses to make my assault tenable.

The marines got the first turn and advanced their whole force towards my lines, his typhoon air support strafed the infantry on my left flank but did no damage. My first turn saw the half tracks race down the road to the junction, both infantry platoons advanced on the flanks to take up better firing positions. None of my guys could see the enemy so no shooting this round.

Marine turn two saw his infantry advance further towards my lines on a board front (one marine infantry unit on each side, with attached paratroopers in the middle), his air support arrived and opened up on two of the half tracks that had made it into the junction.

The planes ranged in, self defense AA whiffed and the two half tracks and their passengers all perished. Dang.

My second turn, decision to make, I didn't think the mounted platoon now had enough strength to really inflict many losses on the advancing Marines. I decided to start pulling the platoon back and use them as reserve to help strengthen my lines as needed. The infantry platoons on each flank dug in.

Marine turn three. His planes showed up again and blew another half track away along with its passengers. His infantry continued their slog across the board.

My turn three saw the last surviving half track guys dismount and head for the cover of the ruined building in an attempt not to lose the platoon outright, their half track sent to the rear (off the board).




Marine turn four saw his infantry continue their long walk, Bocage rules make advances take double the time they usually do. They had however made it into engagement range.

My turn four. Reinforcements have arrived! The Panthers rolled on down the road and opened up on the marine infantry platoon infront of them.

The lehr platoon opened up on the right, causing a few casualties and pinning the target platoon.

My infantry on the left moved to counter attack the paras in the centre.

 

The paras defensive fire failed to stop the assault or to do any damage, the Lehr platoon left them with only three stands left and they broke off, I opted to consolidate back into my original defensive positions.

Turn four saw his assault falter still further on his turn, his infantry unable to unpin. He did however receive reinforcements in the form of a Sherman tank platoon arriving down the road opposite my Panthers. His air support came round for another pass and took out one of the Panthers in short order.

It is at this point that I remember that he had Naval gunfire support and have forgotten to mention it or the Air Observation Post directing it until now. The naval gunfire so far ad only claimed a few stands of infantry if I remember rightly, with the AOP buzzing around directing the heavy cruisers artillery fire.

My turn four saw my infantry on the left starting to advance towards his objective, the 88mm gun platoon arrived and start to take up firing positions on the remaining  marines on the right flank. In addition the 2ic and two panzerschrek teams in their own little two half track platoon also arrived and moved down the left flank also looking to move in on the enemy objective. One Panther moved along to the left flank and the other opened fire on the Shermans moving down the road towards them. Both shots missed.

Turn five saw his platoon of six pounder AT guns arrive and immediately make a move towards his objective. The remains of the para platoon fell back further into a ruined house near his objective as well. His Typhoons decided to make another pass and destroyed the Panther that was engaging the Shermans. The remaining Panther failed his moral check and fled the field.

My turn five saw one of the 88s take a pot shot at the AOP directing the naval gunfire resulting in the image you see to the right.... One shot one kill! Boom! (Also a bonus point for downing an Allied aircraft.) More MG fire poured into the Marines pinned down on the right and found their mark on more than one occasion.

Turns 6 to 8 went like this, more trading of fire, with losses on both sides. I attempted an assault on the right but was thrown back with both platoons on either side on that flank now too weak to try closing on each other. Both then sat down to trade fire with no real affect. On the left the 2ic's platoon took up firing positions opposite the enemy objective.

We then played on until turn 16, it was getting late and neither force now had the strength to be able to take either objective. It had now dissolved into a dice rolling contest as both sides tried for the company break by shooting each other out of their entrenched positions. We decided to called it a well deserved draw.

So this is what the campaign map looked like at the end of day one. The Allies had driven deep into Normandy, leaving only pockets of German territory left. It had been an excellent days gaming.... now if only day two would bring me a couple of wins!