A BRIDGE TOO FAR
CGIII
JP playing German
19PM
Remnants
Block V
– 11 squad equivalents (varying types)
– 3 leaders
– 2 MTRs, 3 MGs, assorted LMGs, PSKs
– 1 50L AT gun
– 2 halftracks
– 2 heavy weapons half tracks
– 4 different tanks/sp guns
Block W
– 6 squads (all 1st line)
– 2 leaders
– Assorted LMGs and a PSK
– 1 Tiger
Block X
– 3 squads (all 1st line – one is engineer)
– 1 leader
– LMG and DC
– Halftrack
Block Y
– 1½ squads
– 1 PSK
– 1 Tiger tank
Block Z
– 1 engineer squad
– 1 FT
– 1 leader
Block Q
– 1 engineer squad
– 1 DC
Misc
– 1 off-board observer with 120 mm and a pre-registered hex
Buys
Having rolled a 5 in the 19AM and then an 8 in the 19PM I was able to buy lots of goodies, these were (in total)
KG Harder
– 6 658
– 3 348
– 3 leaders
– LMG and MTR
– 6 halftracks
– 1 37mm halftrack
– 1 StuG IIIG(l)
– 1 StuH 42
KG Knaust
– 3 658
– 1 leader
– LMG and PSK
– 2 Tiger (one with leader)
– 2 Panzer MkIV
KG Brinkman
– 3 838
– 3 658
– 2 DC, LMG, MTR and a FT
– 2 leaders
– 3 crew, 2 MMG, 1 HMG
– 2 Tiger (one with leader)
Misc
– 80 mm MTR fire mission
– 40 fortification points
Scenario given
– 3 838
– 3 658
– 2 DC, LMG, PSK and a FT
– 2 leaders
Objectives
My objectives for this game are to take blocks A, C, D and R using an attack into block N as a diversion to keep him busy defending this vital block.
Setup
Nearly everybody I bought for Harder and Knaust, as well as the scenario given platoons will be attacking Blocks A and C in the first turn. I will use armoured-assault to get close and I hope to overwhelm his defenders with the sheer firepower. In all, there will be a total of 4 tanks, 2 SPG guns, 5 halftracks and 15 squads hitting his line across the 9 hex wide corner (A4 to F0) and I am hoping to put an AFV and squad in every hex on the road behind block A (A3 to F0).
Meanwhile Brinkman’s troops in Blocks X, Y and Z along with all his bought troops and the 80mm arty mission will attack block R.
The rest of the troops left in Block V will try to eliminate his troops hiding in Block U, I have placed my HMG halftrack, 2 half squads, a MMG and a HMG in a 2S fox hole in II1 to cover the road U1 –DD1 thus stopping him from entering Block N. Meanwhile the squads from Block W will enter Block N and pretend to take it.
Nifty tricks
– I have fortified the ground, 1st and 2nd floors of II6 and have put the HIP 50L AT gun in the second floor.
– I also have MMGs in the 1st floor of both JJ10 and JJ11 – once again these are HIP and are hoping to catch his men in the open as they cross the road into Block N (most of this block is rubble so they have a good field of fire.)
– My last HIPs are in level two of HH21 and they consist of a 9-1 leader (with the 80mm arty phone) 2 crews, a HMG and a MMG. Once again, their job is to take out re-enforcements as they cross open ground in the rear of Block R.
– I also have my 120mm OBA and an off-board observer at Q1 with my pre-reg hex at O4 (an obvious spot for those pesky roof mounted mortars).
THE GAME
Turn 1
I Prep Fired my mortars and 50L AT gun at an exposed mortar on a roof and I successfully missed with everything as well as breaking down the AT gun!!! Glad to see that the dice still love me!!! During my movement I threw nearly everybody into the assault on Block A using armoured-assault, I have effectively surrounded the Block as I not only want the territory I also want dead Brits. (I only have 1.5 squads and two halftracks as my reserve in that area). Meanwhile I moved carefully into Block N (I know he has OBA and I know it will be aimed somewhere here). Down at Block R things were going well with some audacious movement and liberal use of armoured-assault.
In his Defensive Fire he killed about 2 squads, 2 half tracks and both StuGs near Block A but it was a fairly small price to pay for gaining entry and in my Advance Fire/Close Combat I killed or captured 3 squad equivalents and a 9-1 leader for the loss of one squad so I consider it a fair trade given the fact that I have entered the board in force and taken a Block. I now want to take Blocks C and D with F as a possibility; although he did expose an AT Gun in D8 and I have decided to make them priorities for my infantry. So an attack through Blocks C and D culminating in the capture of the AT Gun would be considered a great win for me this scenario.
In his Prep Fire he exposed another AT Gun and killed my Tiger and Armour Leader! This AT Gun is in Block D so he is now my biggest priority. His other AT Gun killed a halftrack near Block A but, generally his fire was pretty ineffective including his 80mm OBA – we Germans use 80mm arty for fireworks shows!!! He will find out what real arty is soon!!! I scored a moral victory during movement when a 9-2 leader and squad tried to dash across the road U1-DD1 using a smoke grenade as cover. My 3x 548 and their 3MG fired and scored a 1MC and the 9-2 leader rolled a 6,6 and died, the squad broke in the +2MC, so he is currently sitting in the middle of the road with 3MG and a Panther waiting for the British smoke grenade to clear so they can kill him in Defensive Fire. (I always get a sense of satisfaction when I kill a –2 leader) so far he has only got 3 squads into Block N which has surprised me but, his men are so close that he can always throw more into it later. I was able to break 2 more of his squads during movement at the cost of exposing one of my HIP MMGs.
During my Defensive Fire I killed the squad in the street as well as a crew manning a 50mm MTR on a roof (my sniper had broken them earlier). The rest of my defensive fire was lame with the notable heroic exception of one of his broken walking wounded, I fired everything at him including the new secret weapon – kitchen sinkenwerfer – and 2 big (16FP+) fire groups as well as scoring hits with two tiger tanks but the squad passed all 4 morale checks. Military crosses all round (nobody wins a VC by hiding above and beyond the call of duty).
Turn 2
I started my turn with my arty missing his men again – it is now on FFE:C and has only rolled against MMC twice; how it manages to never be accurate and always error to an open section of the board amazes me. I did not do much more Prep other than breaking a crew manning a 76mm mortar on a roof top, and firing WP at a HS and LMG in a 2nd level building hex- more to create a fire than to cause damage. My last Prep Fire was a CH on a factory in Block R with one of my Tigers, which killed another of his squads. In movement I searched a hex containing a concealment counter to find that it was a dummy stack but that there was also a set DC in same hex – interesting tactic and after reading the set DC rules I started moving into every building within the required 2-6 hex range that had LOS Just to make sure that he doesn’t have a HIP anywhere to detonate it (I would!!).
I have used the search rules a lot, for instance, I moved a half squad adjacent a concealed but real stack of his troops, and then searched to rid him of his concealment so that the rest of my men can fire in Advance Fire with out having their fire power reduced a 2nd time.
In Block N I have advanced my troops reluctantly, I want to give him the impression that I am actually after it. I had thought that his front line in Block R was crumbling but it showed some teeth when I found his HIP engineer and had two squads break, I also lost a Tiger to street fighting when it tried to overrun his squad in a factory and then lost an 8-1 to a HIP mortar. (Of course, now I have someone exposed for my arty to drop on and I will expose and fire my HMG & MMG in level 2 of HH21 so they should die soon as they are sitting in an orchard hex – no foxhole!! – he will regret that).
In Advance Fire I killed an 8-1 and reduced a 4-5-8 while the Rout Phase reduced a walking wounded through interdiction and a 648 surrendered to my all-conquering units, so far he has lost 3 leaders and 8.5 squad equivalents (about 3 of them were crew counters though) my losses have been large but acceptable so far and my attack has broken through his front line so I am hoping to keep the pressure on him and achieve my objectives. I fired my MGs at a man in the open and started getting my second arty module into play at the rear of Block N aimed at the mortar in the open. My other arty mission broke 2 of his crews stationed on roof tops near n4. His mortars have been a pain for me with their constant smoke and possible fires from WP. And I am giving them the same priority as any AT Guns.
Turn 3
This is where everything turned ugly, his mortars rained an unending stream of WP on my troops. My attacks in Block R were rewarded with two dead engineer squads and in Block C my FGs were covered in SMOKE and I was unable to lay down any good suppression fire thus stopping me from being able to take D.
Turns 4-6
At this point I am only having half-hearted attacks across the board as my troops are spread out and in disarray, with an ELR of 1 I can not afford to throw troops around stupidly as every time they break they go down a level. We spent the next few turns firing OBA at each other and the game ended with all but 1 building in Block C on fire and most of the factories in the south and east of Block R on fire too. As my OBA pulled red chits his arty finally started doing some damage by chasing my troops in Block N across the rubble and causing some losses and, more importantly, stopping them from reaching their desired fall back position. (3 squads and a ldr had to take escape rolls to go to Block Q instead of walking into Block W during movement, which cost me a half squad and 2 squads and a leader replaced.
One highlight was his chance to re-take Block C from me: hexes C3 and D4 were both blazes thus cutting off C4 from any re-enforcements, he broke the 2 HS in the hex and in his turn moved a man to C5 (I had placed a couple of men under a wreck at E4 to stop him but they both were broken in Prep) my broken guy became his prisoner and then in advance he advanced back into Block D!!! I couldn’t believe how lucky I was, Legion had forgotten the block control rules and hadn’t realized that he could have made my entire attack retreat into Block A during the refit phase.
Conclusion
Overall I call this a marginal win for Legion, I lost a lot of tanks and troops but he lost over 10% of his force putting me on track to eliminate him by the end of the game (9 more turns). I also took 2 Blocks but the important point was the troops he lost.
Yellow – No Control Points
Blue – Water
Black – German Controlled
Red – British Controlled
Purple – Uncontrolled
Lessons Learnt
– His mortars are a pain and I shall detail troops to suppress them every game from now onwards.
– Killing squads is more important than taking Blocks; the Blocks will fall easily enough if I can keep making him take these sorts of losses.
– Spread troops out!! Admittedly due to lack of space in Block C I had no choice but to have big kill stacks but these are easily negated with his mortar smoke so in future I will spread my troops out.