Operation break out WW2 Desert action

A British armoured division had been tasked to lead a break out from the town which had become in danger of been completely cut off by the Germans. The out skirts of the town can be seen in the British deployment zone (played by my Dad). I took command of the German armoured division which was to repel the British counter attack and destroy as much of the British armour as possible. I set my forces into three commands and after winning the roll off I managed to get partial superiority of the air which was to come in very handy keeping them Spitfires from strafing my Panzers! Here is how the table looked at the start, the game was played using Blitzkrieg commander rules.

British infantry man the outer town buildings as the Matilda's ready to move out

More British armour in the form of Grants, these tanks proved to be quite deadly when firing as a command when in range with both guns (5 attack dice each)

The early turns saw my tiger 1 get the first of many kills as it ok'd a distant crusader, easily out ranging the British tank. First blood to the Germans

One of my commands made up of a 20mm A/A gun, 3 x panzer 1V and a Pak 38 moves toward at a steady pace.

A couple of British 6 pounders lie in wait on the cover of the palm trees 

After knocking another Crusader out my Tiger gets a rush of blood and leaves the cover of the Palm trees to rush towards the nearest enemy unit after I rolled a blunder. (Unsurprising I managed to roll 4 blunders in this game) All British guns would now be targeting the heavy weight German tank. However in my dads turn some rather poor shooting saw the tiger scratched here and there before it was forced to retreat back away from the British tanks. A big let off for my prized tiger.

My dads Sherman troop had real trouble getting around in this game as he constantly failed command rolls. In actuall fact my dad managed to fail every command roll in his turn one move so literally nothing moved or shot...not the greatest plan for a break  out :)

However when the Shermans did get to move and shoot they made short work of the Panzer IV's

I managed to get a couple of stukkas to arrive during the game but their bombing runs where a little of target and apart from suppressing the British Matilda's little damage was done.

A very costly move saw my dad blunder and two crusader tanks dashed from their cover towards the German Panzer III's. This put my Panzers into initiative range so they moved around the crusaders flanks.

Having now out manovered the crusaders the Panzers k coked out both tanks opening up the British right flank.

Another crusader is knocked out by the tiger but somehow the Mitilda manages to survive turn after turn of intense fire from the tiger tank which by this stage was starting to annoy my dad....which was a shame 

So to counter this after rolling a double 1 for his air observer and getting to choose a target without having to roll for deviation my dad targeted the problem tiger and managed to miss with all the attack dice...this tiger was living a very charmed life

With the British right flank destroyed the panzer III's started to push towards the British centre and flank them. 

The RAF turned up again but once again the bombs missed their target despite the panzer III's been open targets. My dad had trouble passing his roll for Air support as with me winning the air superiority roll his command roll was on a minus 1 for the game.

A Sherman blundered its command roll and moved towards my Pak 38 which had been a nuisance to the Grants and Shermans all game suppressing them frequently. The Sherman quickly turned into a ball of flames. 

The end of the game, I had managed to stop the British counter attack and had inflicted a telling amount of casualties in doing so. I had lost a fair few Panzers myself in the battle and didn't quite manage to press home the advantage I had on the British right flank which I had turned. I became a little cautious after feeling the wrath of the grants at short range! However my dad who had suffered due to some very poor command rolling had started to retreat away from my remaining force and in particular the tiger which proved to be a major player in a German Victory.

The battered British armour retreats back to the town under the cover of darkness after its failure to breakout and destroy the attacking German Panzers.