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!