Well for the second battle of the day we decided to fight across the table and fight a free for all. I deployed my British with most of my strength on the right flank as this was where i wanted to launch my attack and kept a cruiser and light tank platoon & 2ic on the left flank both hidden away behind hills from the 88s and the recce platoon as support. The Germans had a 38t platoon with c/c and the 2 88s on his right flank and the motor cycle and 2nd 38t platoon on his left with the panzer II c hull down on the middle hill of his deployment zone.
The German player got first turn but with it being a mobile battle did not roll for the stukas in his first turn. A round of shooting from the 38t platoon on the German left bailed one of my cruisers. In my move i advanced with the right flank attack, using the fast tank rule on my light tanks to move up the road at 16", a shot from these destroyed a 38t behind the church, the tank which was bailed refused to remount the tank despite the best effort of the nearby c/c and i moved a light platoon behind a hill in the middle of the board to stay out of sight of the 88s. The cruiser shots on my right flank managed to only bail a 38t.
The stukas were intercepted at the start of the turn so the Germans stayed in there current positions. The 88s had a long range shot at my c/c on the hill, so i attached myself to a near by cruiser platoon. However some of these tanks were out of line of sight to the 88s so i had to share the hits on the bailed tank, the c/c and the bailed tank were destroyed however the cc passed his warrior save and mounted a near by cruiser. The 38ts on the German left destroyed a couple of cruisers and the light tanks took a destroyed and bailed from the panzer II c tanks.
Panzer 38t and c/c ( model is Rommel's tank but in this game it was not him ) and the 88s guard the ambulance objective.
After taking a bit of punishment from the Germans over the last turn i made a big push over the next couple of my turns for the right flank objective behind the church yard on the hill. My cruisers pushed into the 38t lines and the light tanks went around the wood to flank the motor cycle platoon. The french in their lorries backed up this assault. I managed to KO all but one of the panzer 38t which was bailed, however this remaining tank passed its below half morale check. My remaining light tanks on the road which was down to one now managed to KO a panzer II on the hill. In the Germans next turn the panzer II finished off my light platoon, however after twice passing his warrior save my c/c became a causality of the remounted lone panzer 38t and the cruiser platoon it had attached itself to was now under strength and failed its morale test.
The light tanks behind the hill in the middle of the table made a dash for the 88s, with machine guns blazing i destroyed both guns ( hurray ) this opened up the left flank so my cruiser platoons over there finally stopped hiding behind the hill and advanced into the open as did my scout cars to put pressure on the remaing 38t platoon on the hill.
The left flank as the British tanks advance towards the objective on the hill now the 88s are destroyed. The Germans managed to destroy a scout vehicle in return for a 38t been bailed.
On the right flank i pushed home my advantage, the light tanks which had come round the german flank finished off the panzer II platoon on the hill and the cruisers finished off the remaing 38t. In the Church yard the German motorbikes had dismounted to make one last stand on the objective. Despite taking numerous hits in my shooting phase they passed all but 2 of there saves, however becoming pinned by receiving more than 5 hits my dismounted french infantry charged them confident of beating them and taking the objective. Alas if you want a job doing don't leave it to the french, i scored no hits and the countering attacking Germans killed two french stands pushing the french back out of the church yard. For now the games was still not over but it was only a matter of time before the British claimed the victory.
The only real chance the German player could win was by destroying 3 more of my platoons and taking my regiment under half strength ( i would lose at the start of my turn as my c/c was dead ). However this was a tall order as most of the German fire power had been destroyed. However the stukas showed up again after a long absence and destroyed a lone cruiser and the 38ts destroyed and bailed a cruiser also. The c/c finished off my scout platoon ( they failed a under half strength test ), The German infantry killed another french stand but were limited as they had remained pinned after last turns combat. I managed to pass my cruisers morale so only 1 more platoon had been destroyed. With a sigh of relief i moved into my next turn sure that i would get the victory.
In my next turn i failed to unpin my french infantry so it was up to the remaining light tanks and cruisers to finish the job. The German infantry were cut down by the light tank mg fire leaving the objective unguarded. At the start of the German turn the c/c rolled a company morale check which was failed and the remaining panzer 38t platoon retreated from the field leaving the British victorious and free to claim their objectives although British casualties had been high 4 platoons to 3. ( the British really lost 4 platoons but they don't count there first destroyed platoon )
Conclusion : Well the game went alot better with the British this time. Playing across the board allowed me to close ranks with the Germans alot quicker than the previous game so the German air force had less impact in this game. Also i managed to stay out of sight of those dreaded 88s and only lost a couple of tanks to them. This time i was able to move into mg range and destroy them. Also getting up close to the German tanks allowed me to utilise the tally ho rule to good effect, and with concentrating most of my force onto one objective i was able to bring my greater numbers to overpower and out flank the German tanks. Although the French infantry seemed very reluctant to follow the orders of their British commanders!!
Both games were good fun again but next time ill be back with my Germans and hopefully i might have a few new models to bolster its size.
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