Battle Report Tuesday 09/08/2011 Morpeth Gaming Club

Hi again everyone.

Its that time again for another battle report however this is going to be a quick fire one without many pictures.

Today myself and Nathan were invited to the Morpeth Gaming Club by Daniel, Nathans future brother in law.

The forces we choose for this game was Panzer Lehr Panzer Kompanie for myself and British 7th Armoured for Nathan

We began the setup of the board and rolled for the mission which was a straight up encounter nothing special. We then rolled for attacker/defender I lost like always and got stuck as defender.

We had to put at least half our platoons into reserves for the delayed reserve rule and scattered reserves which left me feeling quite naked with only four platoons in my force but none the less I put in what I considered the best units for holding down the coming tide.

Key:

Allies (Green)

1: Stuarts came on as reserves

2: Armoured Platoon 1, started on the table

3: TT Rifle platoon, started on the table

4: Armoured Platoon 3, reserves

5: Armoured platoon 2, started on table

6: Armoured Platoon 4, reserves

Axis (red)

1: Panthers, started on the board

2: Panzer IVs, reserves

3: Armoured Panzergrenadier Lehr Platoon, starting platoon

4: Armoured Artillery Battery, reserves

Turn 1

As Nathan was the attack he had the first turn to which he quickly moved his platoons up to engage my panthers. His platoon on the right flank positioned itself behind a hedgerow to provide itself cover and the platoon on the right moved down my left flank towards my panzer grenadiers. When the shooting started Nathan' tanks on the right flank opened on up my panther platoon scoring successful hits which were however saved by myself. His tank platoon on my left flank however weren't so unlucky. His Firefly fired on my command HQ panther scoring a successful hit but only managed to bail him.

On my turn I made a school boy error and forgot two things. To roll for my bailed out tank and to roll to dig in my grenadiers. However on this minor note I forwent my movement and headed straight into shooting. I fired my panther platoon on the right flank into Nathan' armour requiring fives to hit and scored a successful hit. Nathan failed his armour check and I passed my firepower check resulting in one of his Cromwell's being engulfed in flames. I decided against doing s storm trooper move at this time as I felt unsure with the current forces on the board for myself.

Turn 2

Seeing the command HQ panther bailed still Nathan pushed his left platoon of Cromwell's up on my panzer grenadiers. He then dug his Tyne Tees rifle platoon in on his objective.

Onto the shooting, Nathan tried again to deal with the Panthers using his Firefly which hit again but only managed to bail the Panther it targeted. His Cromwell's now in MG range of my panzer grenadiers opened up in a hail of lead. They managed five hits however I made four infantry saves but the team was pinned at this point. Nathan then ended his turn.

At the start of my turn I rolled for my bailed out command panther and successfully got him back in his tank, I then rolled for my second panther and also got him back in. I left my command panther alone to take advantage of full RoF onto Nathan' exposed Cromwell's on the left flank.

I began the shooting with the with my panther platoon firing on the right flank scoring a successful hit and kill against Nathan' forces. My command panther and 2iC now shifted thier focus across to the other side of the field. The 2iC took a shot at the Firefly hiding behind the trees which my command HQ couldn't see. He successfully hit and took out this tank leaving only three Cromwell's on the left flank with a full RoF from the Command panther on the remaining Cromwell's.

Turn 3

At the start of turn three Nathan began by rolling for reinforcements but rolled a 1.

At this point seeing the devastation wrought upon his tanks on the right Nathan decided to move his weaker Cromwell into some cover to save it from the Panthers 75mm main cannon. Nathan then moved his command tanks into position behind some trees where my 2iC couldn't see them

He proceeded again to try and kill a panther with his firefly, once again he hit but I saved them from the big gun. He then turned his attention to my command panther with his command Cromwell. He opened fire scoring a direct hit on side armour cocking my command team

For my movement I moved my 2iC panther up to engage the hiding Cromwell in case my panther platoon failed to kill the firefly. I opened up on the firefly hiding behind a hedge with full rof and scored successful hits and getting the kill Nathan was forced at this point to take a motivational check and being 7th armoured he failed forcing his remaining Cromwell to flee the battlefield. I then turned my 2iCs gun towards Nathans three Cromwell's across the board. He opened fire and scored the two successful hit he needed on side armour going straight to firepower checked and destroying the two desired targets. This forced Nathan to take a motivational test on the lone Cromwell which also fled field. I decided at this point the field was more open to storm trooper my forces forward. The panther platoon on the right passed the test and began to move toward to buildings, my 2iC however failed to pass the test and my HQ Panther passed and moved forward.

Turn 4

Nathan rolled two dice for reinforcements and managed to get one. He then rolled to see where they would come in and rolled a 5 placing them right in front of my panthers (oh how I cried at this point). Nathan moved these newly arrived tanks towards my panthers. He also moved his command Cromwell's out into the open to deal with my 2iC.

This is where it all started going south for me as Nathan opened up from shot range on my panthers. He hit with his Cromwell's and firefly however I managed to save my armour checks thankfully.

I rolled my dice for reinforcements and got one platoons. I had a tough choice to make (not really since I had two platoons left) I choose to bring on my Panzer IVs and rolled to see where they came on. I rolled a 3 and deployed them slap bang in the middle of the board. I moved this platoon forward slightly to help reinforce the panthers on the right flank.

I decided my panthers to not move to maintain full rof on these new tanks. With only one Panther able to see them and being point blank I knew I had a chance to score at least one kill. However the dice gods decided better to mock me as I rolled two's. I then turned my Panzer IVs focus on the Cromwell command teams out in the open and took my shots. Only one hit but it was enough to light up the Cromwell. My 2iC eyed up the other command tank and fired at full rof into it once again I hit it and it went up in smoke At this point I decided the best bet would to to high tail it back to the other Panthers so there was more guns on target. I rolled for Storm Trooper on my panthers and began to push them back and passed so moved the panther back behind the hedge for extra protection with my guns on target. Once again my 2iC refused to storm trooper as did the Panzer IVs.

Turn 5

Nathan began his turn by rolling three dice this time for his remaining two platoons which he got. He choose to bring his Stuarts on first and rolled for scattered reserved and got five putting them on a direct line with my Panzer Grenadiers, he then rolled for his remaining tank platoon and got a four putting them smack in the middle of the board facing my 2iC and Panzer IVs.

He moved his newly arrived tank up onto a hill to provided semi indirect fire onto my Panzer IVs and his Firefly into a position to light up my 2iC. He then moved the tanks on the right flank to surround my retreating panthers and sent the Stuarts screaming down the left flank towards my Panzer Grenadiers.

He opened fire with his Cromwell's from the hill onto my Panzer IVs and scored direct hit killing one tank, his tanks which surrounded my panther opened fire hitting two but only managed to kill one of them. His firefly then decided to shoot my Panther hiding behind a hedge and scored a direct hit killing it out right forcing me to take a motivation check which I passed thankfully.

On my turn I rolled my three dice and got my last reinforcements. On the scatter roll I hit a 2 and my Wespes came in exactly where I didn't want them. Right in front of the Stuarts........

I decided at this point moving would be a moot point as it would lower my rof and I had a few more tanks to deal with. I rotated my panthers turret to face the Cromwell's who just took point blank shots at them. I rolled my two dice and scored one hit against them but I only managed to bail the one. I fired my remaining Panzer IVs against the Cromwell's surrounding my Panther. Scoring once again only one hit but it managed to cook off the Cromwell.

At this point I decided to storm trooper my remaining panther back towards to objective in an attempt to hold it. I rolled for my panther and managed to start pulling him back. However like always bother my 2iC and PzIVs decided against it as I failed my rolls.

Turn 6

Nathan began this turn by pushing everything he had forward. His Tyne Tees infantry who had sat behind a hill holding his objective now marched towards my 2iC. He then moved his Cromwell and firefly on the right flank after my lone panther desperate to end it. Next he pushed his Cromwell's from the hill top towards my panzer grenadiers.

The Cromwell and firefly on the right flank opened up on my panther again but luckily it survived to fight another day. However my panzer IVs were not so lucky has the Cromwell's fresh from thier hill climb bombarded them into oblivion. One was bailed and the other killed. His firefly focused its gun on my 2iC and fired. Once again it seemed the dice gods favoured Nathan today as my 2iC when up in a pillar of smoke and fire. Next on Nathan' agenda was these wespes which turned up at the wrong place at the wrong time. His Stuarts aimed thier guns and fired scoring one kill and bailing one. They then focused thier MGs on the panzer grenadiers and opened up killing three stands.

With the start of my turn I knew it was a lost cause but I wanted to take as much as I could with me. I moved my panther back onto the objective in the vain attempt to hold back the coming tide. Although in hind sight this proved fruitless but it was fun regardless. I attempted to range my one gun wespe team in on the Stuarts in front for a bombardment which I did on the second attempt meaning I needed fives to hit but would need to re roll successful hit. Didn't matter as I failed my rolls to hit anyway lol. My panther then turned its MGs on the approaching Tyne Tees rifles wanting to at least kill them but missed with all four shots.

I decided against storm trooper moving anything.

Turn 7

The last turn for both myself and Nathan. With most of my forces as burning wrecks he pushed his tanks closer on my objectives. His Cromwell and firefly on the right flank pushed up on the lone panther for a side armour shot and his three Cromwell's in the centre moved up to hose my panzer grenadiers with MGs.

As with before his Cromwell and firefly fired on the panther this time scoring a direct hit I was unable to save so the last panther finally died. His centre Cromwell's fired on my grenadiers and hit five times pinning them but I was able to make 4 infantry saves. The wespes didn't far so well from the Stuarts. Loosing one more to the little bastards (I learned to hate Stuarts after this game) after which they fired on my panzer grenadiers scoring another stand killed.

At this point there wasn't much left for me to do but die a warriors death. I moved my panzer grenadiers into assault range of the Cromwell's with my panzerschreck teams to one side able to fire upon the tanks. They opened fire with two rockets of which one hit but only bailed the tank. My lone wespe tried to bombard the already ranged in Stuarts but once again failed to hit. So I began my assault on the tanks with my remaining Panzer grenadiers which died under a fail of defensive fire from the other tank. I lost pretty much all of them and this left me with only one wespe and the command team on the board. With no HQ I instantly failed the company moral check and lost the game.

Conclusions

While I had the smaller force on the board I feel I had the superior fire power and armour but when I started killing tanks I got to cocky and moved forward before I could see where and when Nathan' reinforcements were coming from. I feel that if I had decided to hang back a turn or two more my loses wouldn't have been as great as they were.