A meeting Engagement Overlord Game

It has been some months since our last WW2 game so I decided on a Battle Group Overlord game.

The main objective of the game would be to take and hold the area at the crossroads until the game ended. We fought a 550point game with me fighting with the Germans and my Dad taking control ofthe  Americans. Our recce units stated the game and entered on the road at opposite ends of the table, after two turns we would start to roll for reinforcements, these would enter anywhere along your own table edge.

The battlefield before the start, the church is where the crossroads objective is situated.

The first few moves of the game saw our reccee units push ahead, my command reccee jeep took a objective but was hit by a long range shot from the Puma which was rushing towards the crossroads. Luckily only one of the crew was a casualty and they remained although pinned next to the objective.

When the reserves started to arrive I rolled high on the dice and got most of my remaining troops on in very quick time. My dad suffered some poor rolling and his German reinforcements arrived very slowly. However I was unable to take full advantage of this as my command dice rolling was pants and a lot of my troops were unable to be activated. However a Sherman entering down the road took revenge onthe  Puma and a well placed AP round sees the Puma go up in flames. With no German unit contesting the Crossroads I moved what troops I could to secure this area.

My second Recee unit take the Church and start to try and call in some mortar support from the 60mm platoon mortar.

German reserves start to make a appearance as a Panzer IV starts a fire fight with the lead Sherman and they secure the objective in the German deployment zone.

With more German armour arriving a Sherman takes cover in the ruined farm area and engages in a long range fire fight with a Panzer IV, I manage a couple of hits but I was unable to penetrate the Panzers armour and the crew shook off the effects of the hit with ease.

American troops dash up the road behind the Sherman's making a beeline for the crossroads.

The Panzer IV takes up position behind the field and engages the lead Sherman also.

The result of a penetrating hit by the Panzer IV as the Sherman blows up! My armour is now getting thin on the ground and all the Panzers remained. With this situation deployed my a/t gun just behind the church walls so I could cover the junction.

As a result of having to pick a chit I managed to draw a break down which I played on a Panzer  IV, the  targeted panzer became immobilised (tank crew pictured below attempting to fix the mechanical problem)

with the panzer iv immobilised the German Grenadiers started to arrive and took refuge in the destroyed building near the German objective. This concentration of troops would make it extremely difficult for the Americans to take the German objective and claiming a all objective victory.

With the German infantry opening fire on my troops as i advanced my troops towards the building I decided to call on my mortar support to at least hopefully pin the defenders. However I slightly over shot the mortar and a direct hit saw the ammunition truck behind the house go up with an almighty bang. Thus was the third time the mortar had succeeded in hitting its target directly although the two previous hits had been on a Panzer IV and were unable to cause any significant damage.

After hiding away behind the farm buildings I activated my reserve move on the Stuart tank once all the Panzer IV's had shot and moved into point blank MG range of a Grenadier squad who had sneaked into the ruined building along from the crossroads and were pinning my infantry in that area. Some devasting shooting saw the squad wiped out.

A German 80mm mortar round lands in the church yard but only manages direct hit on  the parked up recce jeep, though the resulting chit was a very expensive 5 pushing me nervously close towards my break point. My anti tank gun is firing round after round but it continuously misses its targets.

The American high command and the remaining recce command squad hold the objectiveon the   American side of the table though it isn't under threat from tne German troops.

A second Verman squad and LMG occupy the building in the final moves of the game and manage to cause enough casualties on an already shot up American infantry squad for them to fail their morale test and rout. My break point was now within 2 of been broken!

The second line of American infantry take cover behind the hedgerow of a field. 

American infantry make towards the garden hedgerows past the smouldering wreck of a Sherman and lend their fire against the building heavly occupied by German infantry. I used area fire to at least try and pin tne German troops who were well protected by the buildings walls but my dad has an unbelievable knack of rolling a one on the dice when he rolls to try and stop the effects of area fire. Twice in two moves a roll of one saw the LMG squad take two casualties and fall below 50% while becoming pinned and rout..thankyou dad

Still though the Germans had enough troops to secure the German held objective as more 60mm mortar rounds drop on tne building.

With the last move my dad moved a Panzer IV up to contest tne junction objective to deny me claiming  victory. I was powerless to stop this as I rolled a poor command roll on my final turn and was unable to put my troops on reserve fire, oh how I would have loved to put a bazooka round into that Panzer IV!

So the game came to a close with both of us holding a objective each and contesting the primary objective at the junction. However my force was on the brink of collapse been only two points away from going over my battle group rating thanks to some rather large numbered chits I had managed to draw were as my dad was still someway away from his total. With this we awarded the Germans a tactical victory on the day. I can't help but feel I managed to let victory slip through my fingers today, still a good game and it was nice to get my WW2 forces back on the table again after abit of a absence .