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 .

Fall of the Reich, End of the Rat race

                                                "Right boys this way to Berlin"

With my new American armoured Platoon finished and with the recent arrival of Fall of the Riech mdf morale chits I ordered we played a scenario out the Fall of the Rich book called The end of the rat race. The objective of the game is for the attacker to destroy the German Rear guard. The defender has set up a road block in the middle of the table on the road. A destroyed vehicle is placed on the road to represent the ambush been sprung onto the attackers Vanguard. my force was to arrive in column which enters from the table edge, I managed to start with 6 units on the road, D6 reinforcements will enter The game at the start of each turn, the Germans defenders entered D6 at the start of turn 3. The game was played at approximately 600 points patoon level, my Dad played the Germans and choose (from memory) a Volksstrum Grenadier platoon with HMG and Pak 40, Senior HQ, Ammo supply truck, Platoon Panzer IV H, Tiger I, HMG Nest, a minefield, two Target points, off table 105mm Artillery support and a forward observer and also for good measure a 88mm A/A gun. My dad started with 5 units on the table in ambush fire. 

The table at set up

My American armoured force, Platoon of Infantry + M3 Half Tracks, HMG team, Forward HQ and Jeep and communication team, Reece team Jeep, 4 x M4 Shermans, Jumbo Sherman and a Greyhound armoured car and of table 81mm mortars. I also had a timed air strike set for turn 6 and a timed 105mm barrage for turn 4.

The head of my column enter the table, the Reece teams led the way followed by two Shermans and 2 M3 Halftracks and mounted Infantry squads.

A dug in 88 mm on the hill for a clear view readies itself on ambush to open fire onto the American armoured column.

As my Americans spread out off the road one the Shermans became a early victim to the Panzer IV in the field near the road block, the morale chit was a high one which added to the two I had to take for the Germans holding both objectives at the start of the game put my BR up to 11 already. A round of 105mm artillery also finds its mark and pins the is mounted infantry and Halftrack .

The Panzer IV after knocking out a Sherman becomes involved in a long distance fire fight with two other Shermans.

American infantry are given the order to dismount and run for the cover of the hedges across the field towards the German 88.

The HMG team takes position on the top floor of the building to give covering fire, I put it on ambush fire but over the next few turns I forgot about it! The recce Jeep team dismount and find a position in the building giving them a full view of the battlefield to call in the off table mortars.

My dismounted infantry ran through the ploughed field to get In bazooka range of the Panzer IV with the support of a Sherman. The troops had ran straight into a pre targeted register point (PTRP) and 105mm shells rained in killing a couple of infantry men and pinned the Sherman. The Panzer IV then fired and hit the Sherman, although it didn't penetrate the armour I was forced to take a morale test which resulted in a 1, my tank crew had decided that enough was enough and abandoned the vehicle and ran!

A much needed sight was the Thunderbolt dropping its bombs onto the German infantry in the wood, who suffered a direct hit and were destroyed meaning two morale chits to the Germans BR. The Panzer IV which had entered from reserve was lucky to be out of the blast radius.

With half my armour on fire the infantry teams closed to bazooka range, a side shot onto the panzer IV hit and blew it up, the second Panzer in support also suffered the same fate shortly after from the Sherman Leader tank. My other infantry squad took the roadblock objective back from the Germans.

 

After crossing two mine markers which proved to be dummy minefields I forgot about the third and final minefield marker next to the road beside the field. Obviously this was the main minefield, and I rather rashly sent my Jumbo tank top speed down the road after both the Panzers had been knocked out to take the German road block position. My dad some what surprised by my move informed me i had just past through the minefield, Sure enough I rolled badly and set the minefield off and blew my Jumbo to bits, not the greatest debut! I managed to pull a aircraft chit but it didn't turn up in my next turn.

My dad revealed a second PTRP in the second field down the road and a shell direct hit my Sherman making short work of its armour and destroying it. My infantry squad in the ruined house near the roadblock are forced to flee due to heavy casualties from MG38 and rifle fire becoming pinned while under 50%

On my right flank my remaining infantry squads dismount and enter into the woods waiting on reserve move for the pre programmed 105mm strike to come down on the wood opposite them where the HMG nest was housed.

Boom...a couple of direct hits destroys he HMG nest and the American infantry quickly take the position using their reserve move in the following German turn.

Seeing the danger to their flank the German Grenadiers take position behind the fields hedges with a LMG in support. The Pak 40 which had been quite over the last few turns was waiting on ambush keeping my one remaining Sherman hiding behind the wood.

after Knocking out the Panzer IV the infantry squad turns its attention to the 88mm and after pinning it with area fire for a couple of turns with area fire they open up with direct fire killing all the crew despite the fact they were dug in.

The Tiger 1 enters from reserve and perches itsself on the hill near the Forward observer team covering the wood in case the remaining Sherman command tank made a dash for it

 A Panzer IV moved down to the wood and opened up with MG fire on my infantry squad who had over run the HMG nest destroying them after they failed their morale test. I pulled a 5 for the  morale chit! I targeted the Tiger with mortar fire but my co ordinations were well off the mark and missed wildly.

The final turn,what was left of my infantry platoon were now in a position were they could not advance without coming into mg fire and my sole surviving Sherman was stuck behind the wood with a Tiger waiting for it to appear into view. My Dad also just consolidated his remaining troops and with time almost up we decided to call it a day. With no out right winner A quick tot up of the points saw the Germans take a tactical victory by a couple of points 26 to 24. The last chit I pulled had lost me a tactical victory and my Dad had managed to pull low chits all game and avoided all those nasty out of fuel markers and low on ammo chits etc which would make life even harder for the German defence. 

This day though the Germans had just about done enough to hold the American advance up for a little while longer.