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Down on the Farm

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years, 12 months ago

26th October 2006

 

Had a surprisingly quiet couple of hours at home yesterday and managed to fight a solo 1500ish point battle - the inaugural outing of my Brit paras [which reminds me I really ought to take some pics of them...I'll do that this weekend]

Played on my nice new gaming table - 5.5ft x 4 ft, lots of terrain - hills, woods, wooded hills, ploughed fields, cornfields, roads, hedges, BUA [farms]

Anyway - basic scenario premise: Germans defending two farmsteads to their right flank. Game to be 8 turns - allied objective to seize both farmsteads & establish HQs [so occupy uncontested for 2 turns]

 

 

Germans deployed first - force consisting [from memory]:
CO / HQ / FAO
Nebelwerfer artillery
Wespe artillery
8 infantry
1 mortar
2 MG [with trucks]
88mm & truck
3 x STUG III
3 x PZ IV
1 x Tiger

 

 

I deployed them to reflect defended positions at rest - this was to be a battle behind enemy lines. So this would mean some time spent reacting before engaging the enemy. Oh yes, and it was night [so reduced visibility etc]

Paras were split into 3 forces & randomised deployment used [paper & cup method of airdrop - anything dropping within 20 cm of Germans had to roll d6 for visibility - which was on a 1-2: this allowing Germans to fire on initiative - as well as wake everyone up!]

Paras [again from memory]:
CO / 2 x HQ / FAO
4 x Pack howitzers 75mm artillery
15 Para infantry
3 Para engineers
4 MG
2 Mortar
4 x 6pdr ATG & jeep transport
2 x 17pdr ATG & jeep transport

 

 

So three randomised drops meant that:

Left Brit flank had 5 infantry, 1 MG, 1 mortar, 2 6pdrs & a 17pdr - in FUBAR order
Right Brit flank had 5 infantry, 2 MG, 2 6pdrs & a 17pdr - in close order
Centre had 5 infantry, 1 MG & 1 mortar

Nothing dropped too near the German positions, the weighting of the drop was verging to the right Brit flank. First turn was spent trying to get the left flank into a semblance of order & failing dismally. The remainder of the force consolidated its lines and began to advance, using cover, in a sweeping manoeuvre on the right flank through a valley and behind a wooded series of hills. The right flank force gained the road and moved quickly on. By turn 2 the Germans had not spotted anything & the ATG were all deployed into covering fire positions.

Start of turn 3 the Germans spotted the advancing Paras & sprung into action. The 88mm fired at one of the 6 pdrs as it deployed into the corner of a ploughed field, suppressing it. The STUGs and the PZIVs began to manoeuvre out of the BUA of the farms and head towards the road [which meandered N-S across the table, ending at the first farm]. Infantry & support units legged it into position and scrambled for best fire positions in the corners of the fields jsut outside the farmbuildings. The Tiger casually moved to the farmyard gate & looked for its first victim. Um, target...

From this point things got interesting & started to heat up - the Paras tried to force themselves into advancing quickly- they clearly didn't want to get bogged down in a protracted firefight with all that armour: so infantry & mortars & MGs advanced to contact ASAP. The ATGs managed to deploy into good fire positions - and the crews quickly managed to reap the benefits of good Larkhill training, taking out 2 of the STUGs & 2 of the PZIVs in their first turn of firing [supported by the howitzers from the rear]. They also managed to suppress the 88mm for a turn.

German fire was largely ineffective - suppressing a couple of infantry sections - it quickly became apparent that their officers had been consuming their schnapps ration vigorously the previous evening as no less than THREE blunders were rolled - all having the effect of making their troops advance like bewildered rabbits into the headlights of the nearest Paras...

The Para Gunners continued to harrass - with one of the 17pdrs displaying nothing short of textbook targetted fire and notching up the remaining STUG and silencing the German MGs [which had been largely ineffective]. German artillery had some success, knocking out some ATG & some infantry. Once the forces began to close there was lots of initiative firing & evading...

The battle was pretty much over by this point - and the fast advance of the Paras continued. Rapid redeployment of the remaining British guns allowed for better fire arcs which were able to supperss the threat of the remaining armour, and allowed the Paras to sweep in and mop up the infantry units - with classic suppressing fire followed by swift and deadly assault. The farms were held, and the surrender was taken...the boys swapped their helmets for their red berets and brewed up while waiting for the relief forces to arrive...

So, final reckoning [again, from memory - note-to-self: write this as you go along...muppet Blush ]:

German casualties:
8 infantry
MGs & mortar
3 STUGs
2 PZIV
88mm

Para casualties:
2 6pdrs
1 17pdr
5 infantry
1 MG
1 mortar

Cracking stuff - for their first outing, I wasn't expecting the Paras to do quite so well...the amazingly bad command rolling of the German commanders certainly made an enormous difference - even without the blunders, they were only averaging about 1 successful command per turn - simply not enough to get their forces into coherent positions or do enough firing. By contrast, the Brit commanders, with their higher CVs, were able to co-ordinate their actions and use their commands coherently and wisely. It didn't hurt that their one blunder was the one about opening up on everyone within sight either!

Anyway, a cracking game - took about 2.5 hours including set-up. I'm tempted to refight this one over the weekend to see if I can get the Wehrmacht to make a better account of themselves!!!

Damn, I love this game - just need to play more!

 

 

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