British Yanks vs, American GIs

Welcome back! I'm running a tad late on creating this post. This is an encounter that took place two weeks ago and can be described as a War Game's Exercise: British Tank Company vs an American Rifle Company.

I painted several Cromwell/ Firefly platoons a year ago and was eager to play them. I'm not too versed on tank vs. infantry tactics and Stephen is good at using his infantry. I knew this would be fun.

This is the table. The British are set to charge on the right and the Americans have dug in on the left side.

Here's a detailed pic of how the table looks from the American right flank. Great table Stephen!

What makes this table so exciting and challenging is the town on the American right flank, the river in the middle and effectively dividing the flanks and the British right flank that seemed a dream-come-true for a tank charge!

Follow the pics if you can!


Here's a close-up of what the field of battle looked like from the British Right Flank: Tanks set to charge.... And folks... these a 'fast' tanks. 16 inches cross-country. that's a lot faster than the normal 12 inch or heavy tank 8 inch crawl...



Here's a better, bird's eye view:

Do you see the 3 tank platoons? Each has a Firefly Sherman to support the charge of 3 Cromwell fast tanks. With the artillery to pin the infantry I was hoping for some carnage to be had!

Here's the view from an American Sherman (the American left flank)


And yes... do you see that Damn-Pesky Observation plane!!?? Trust me, it didn't last long: Stephen left it exposed and in range of my Mobile Bofors 40mm AA guns. Thank you Stephen!

IN the pic below Stephen is moving his White Company up and into the hill in the middle of his line. Look carefully and you can see that they advanced.
I have started advancing with the Cromwells and took some shots at the Shermans... mostly missing them. Boo! And the trucks on the bottom are carrying a lone platoon of British infantry meant to hold my vulnerable left flank. I mean... what else can I expect them to do!!?? They can hunker down in bullet proof cover for 6 turns... can't they last that long? I just needed them to last 6 turns while my tanks SMASHED the Yankee left flank!

Well that was the plan. I'm going to drop a few pics here and because it's late and I want to get this out there tonight I'll skip most of the blow-by-blow and let the pics speak for themselves.
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Well looks like the Cromwells got there.... behind the Yank left flank! But not without taking a few casualties. That's OK, I just needed to get to the objective, clear it and I'm a winner!



Ahhhh .... musn't forget... the PBI, well they ditched the trucks and hunkered down behind the bocage: the buildings, woods and fields in front of them crawling with Yankee GIs. THey were in defensive mode! Just Hold the Line boys!




WTF! WTF!! I said, "Hold the Line Boys." WTF ..... who gave the order to advance!? Those damn British tommies advanced into the Yankee town after several successful assaults! They literally wiped out a platoon without taking any casualties.



Oh Dear God! How did they get further!? Not dug in and another American platoon is advancing toward them. I guess my left flank will fail, ......



Ummm ... OK, this is one of those , "Holy Shit" moments. How did the lone British Infantry Platoon get to within contested area of an objective BEFORE the 3 tank companies on the other flank? The three tank companies who also had Bofors 40mm AA and 25 Pndr Artillery support!?

How does that happen? Stephen was a good sport as he watched wave after wave of American GIs assault the British Tommie and die under a hail of English lead and steel. I wonder what is happening with the tanks!?


What's happened is that they are lined up behind Yank lines and .... bogged down at a river crossing! They can't do much... if they separate those left behind will get decimated by an infantry charge. If I stay I'll get shot. ouch.

Lesson learned ... NEVER move tank companies into enemy lines without some infantry support.
And yes, my Company Commander is in that mess... so close but so far. Like Operation Market Garden at the start.



Somehow my Desert Rats Veterans are still holding out close to the objective although they are really taking a pounding at this point from the machine guns and point blank artillery fire. It's just a matter of time before the breath their last, and the way this game went... it's not the infantry who will support a tank assault, but the tanks who will support an infantry assault!


At this point I had set up the Bofors 40mm AA guns to come in and wipe out that pesky Yank heavy arms team holding my boys down.

But.. after moving and rolling the dice: they didn't get the kills and were shot to pieces by the yanks: well, they are just trucks....



And this is where it ended...... my tanks made a mad dash (tank assault) to the artillery, smashed a few aside and were on top of the objective!

I had to leave my Tank Company Commander stuck, bogged down in the river but if I could just clear away a few yankees I would win the game.

Unfortunately you can se in the above pic that the yankee infantry were ranged in to assault my vulnerable tanks, and since one of them was the Company Commander... well, that is pretty much the game when you play Desert Rats.

Stephen, great game. Awesome table, too.

I was stoked to play those tanks. I think I can get a feel for them and play them a lot better, but that's going to take a few games. In the meantime I'll be painting up some more infantry. ; )

SGT!

PBI

PBI = 'Poor Bloody Infantry' is what the British fighting man of World War 2 was known as. I was invited to bring a 1750 point Late War list to help my friend Stephen flesh out a new German company he's been building. I usually play Germans but it was nice to bust out some Brits for a change. These guys haven't seen some action in a eyar or two.

Here's the list:

(25) HQ

(135) Infantry Platoon

(135) Infantry Platoon

(165) Machine Gun sections (w/ piat and Universal Carriers)

(95) 3 Universal Carriers converted to Wasps

(275) 4 Gun section Royal Artillery 25 pndrs (this just seems so damn cheap!)

from Division support I chose:

(280) 3 Shermans w/ Firefly

(400) 3 Churchill Crocodiles

and

(220) Priority Air Support (Typhoons)

total is 1730. 20 points short, not bad. The British Infantry Company get a fair selection of tanks. Granted: the Sherman is only as good as the player, but I chose some Crocs. I've never used them: they're flamethrowing punch will roast some tanks or any kraut infantry hiding out in cover. As a plus, they have a decent gun (if I can get alongside a tank) and a wicked front armor of 13..... unstoppable except with a very good hit at close range! Add a few Wasps and I figured, more flamethrowing punch will cause concern for my opponent.

Another new addition to my normal list is air support. And I chose Priority: I can roll more dice for a better chance of some planes showing up: I figure that if I'm spending the points I might as well spend enough to make the planes show up and see what they can do.

The Sherman Platoon was a throw-in. I was happy with the list and added it up to just under 1500... I still had 250 points! So, more tanks! Woo hoo!

When I looked up: Stephen had some infantry in trucks, and a couple of Tiger tanks... big deal ... and some rockets .. OK, no problem so far ... and 5 Panthers. F-i-v-e .... P-a-n-t-h-e-r-s.

I had to ask him, "Uh, are those Panthers?" Because I couldn't believe so many would be put out on the table at once (When I play German tanks I start to cringe at using 3... those puppies are expensive). Stephen responded with a too-smug, "Yupp!" and I swear there was a smirk....

Here's how the board looked at Game Start:

Stephen anchored his Tigers on his left flank. With an observer for his rockets. His right flank looked exposed .... but it would be a long run to get there and I'd have to battle my way across some rockets to get to the first objective. That second objective was nestled between some Tigers and Panthers ... with a platoon of Mobile Infantry for kicks... how to crack this nut?

Not sure why my edits aren't working. Anyway: I moved my armor up my right flank to challenge the Tigers. As it turns out I was too hasty moving my Shermans out: the Tigers and Panthers soon moved in to make quick work of them.... 3 burning wrecks on the field. But, my Crocs were moving in on the Tigers. And my Ifantry was moving toward the Hedgerow, hopefully to dig in and defend any German assaults... (against Panthers and rockets and infantry???!!)

I didn't want to make it too easy for the krauts... so i moved my Universal Carrier MMG platoon up some cover to threaten Stephen's right flank... and his rockets. Those puppies can unload a LOT of dice!

As you can see in the background, Stephen's Panthers are getting ready to help support an infantry assault to crush that PBI platoon defending my middle from behind their flimsy hedgerow..... oh the brave British infantry.

While the German infantry was digging into their new defensive position along the forest edge across from my PBI platoon the Panthers were suddenly pulled back to defend the exposed German right flank from the MMG carriers. One Panther was left, bailed out with the Infantry while the Company Commander, in his own Panther, charged over to the struggling German left flank: My flamethrowers had done their work: the Wasps had bailed out a Panther and the Crocs had burnt a Tiger, the other getting lucky to still be running.

THis is when things got really interesting: my planes were coming in and managed to knock out one of the 3 Panthers that had pulled back to defend the German objective which is not visible in the pic below (sorry).

Here is where the PBI really showed themselves to be the true heroes of the British armed forces. A piat team bailed the Panther who was left with the Infantry, a Croc flanked the defending German infantry and flamed out one rifle team (leaving 6) add some artilery and they are pinned: ripe for Infantry assault: Not only did they survive the 3 hits of defensive fire but they effectively wiped out the German infantry, swept over the injured Panther (adding the to their score) but had set themselves up to move left, center or right from the woods....! The British crocs were showing the Germans that good tank engineering could be had across the Channel, too by outflanking the Tiger and Panther and giving them a whollop.

This left the Germans with 3 Panthers, some rockets and a Tiger.

The German company commander had his Panther exact revenge on the brave croc and knocked it out with a shot to his side armor...... a brave sacrifice, he did manage to pin the German infantry down which enabled the PBI to successfully assault the German held forest... and now, led by their own Company Commander they would exact their own revenge......

The Croc platoon commander moved to flank the German Company Commander, he will take a shot and bail the tank.... the PBI had moved to the right and was in position to assault the lone and vulnerable Panther (Stephen ... tsk tsk .... those Panthers look so good from the backside when looked at from the scope of a PIAT). Stephen moved his lone Tiger back toward the objective.

My second PBI platoon (unpainted ... I apologize) had abandoned their left flank and double timed it to move into the center for support in case something went horribly wrong, as you can see above.

Here's the last pic and in it you can see that the PBI of the 1st Platoon had overun the German company commander swept up and overran the lone Tiger and was in position to hold the German left objective. Stephen is measuring the move of his 2 remaining Panthers to shortly discover that they are out of range and cannot contest the objective..... Game goes to the British.

Afterthoughts: One thing I can say about Stephen as an opponent: he's a good sport, challenging opponent and he takes a few minutes to reflect on the game afterward. Yes, he might have pulled his infantry back with his Panthers and deny me an assault, and yes, charging into battle with Panthers is risky business. I worked hard at putting as many pressure points on him as I could. With 5 Panthers and 2 Tigers he was putting a lot of eggs into 2 baskets. So, I took a risk and ran a pincer offensive moving light MMG carriers into his lightly defended right flank and the armor around his left flank. My middle stayed hunkered down and I prayed he wouldn't ignore my flanking for a push through the Middle. First of all my right flank attack didn't start out too well: he knocked out my Sherman tank platoon right away. On reflection: weak tanks like Shermans can be better utilized in reserve: when his Panthers and Tigers pounce on my Slow Moving Crocs ... I bring out my fast moving Shermans and hard hitting Firefly. Ah well. Next time! But still: the heroes were definitely the PBI of that 1st platoon. COmbined with flamethrowers their assault was awesome.... it helped to make some nice rolls shooting with the PIAT team, too.

If I had to change the list I'd drop the Sherman platoon for a 3rd infantry platoon and a line of 4 six pounders... they are a lot of gun for the points!

Thanks for the game Stephen! I'll paint up these Brits and maybe buy some Hurricanes to replace the Typhoons so I can knock out more Kraut Tanks!

SGT

My First eBay

I know no one is reading this and that's OK with me! But, so I can remember when I started all of this sometime in the future I will remember that today I started my first eBay item ... and Ms. Deluxe created a monster!

Just to test the water I'm selling some Old School Warhammer Fantasy Trolls. Metal. I painted them to be part of small skirmish games ... but these days they just sit around and collect dust. Since I want to downsize my model collection I'm gonna start selling. The trolls are often the first into the fray!

Here they are:

Until I can create a link to eBay you'll have to go to look for them under 'River Trolls'.

Wait.. no one is reading this! HAHA! I'll just pretend for now.

Item number: 290505834549

OK... next post ... MAYBE will be about re-organizing the Hobby Cave.

SGT

Posting Back in TIme

THIS IS A TEST OF THE EMERGENCY BLOG CASTING SYSTEM

Welcome to my Blog.

"Bleeeeh." (*sound of me throwing up my inner-geek*)

What is this blog going to be about? Miniatures Gaming. Yup. Miniatures..... not the doll house type of miniatures, noy the little ceramic 'pin-types' I see when my gal scrolls through Etsy (not that she's buying that kind of stuff either)... nope... this is all about small scale pewter and plastic miniatures.

Canadian Infantry Company from 2010 Historican's Flames of War Tournament

(note: this is not my work, just a pic from Historicon)

Some of my best memories as a kid are of arranging plastic and metal figures around the floor of my bedroom or creating battlefields outside in the yard. When I entered the Geek-transforming Wonder years of teenage-dom I came across some RPGs.... and that was when I saw some oldschool Warhammer. I still have the first edition.... but I never played.

Soon after, I went off to college. And I left behind my childhood passion.

Almost 2 decades later I was sitting upstairs in the my newly finished second floor attic, alone, and sick with a fever. This was the first time in a few years that I was doing ... nothing. I had survived the financial trials of a divorce and was on my third year of holding down 3 jobs (teaching, milking cows, and handy-man on a large property). I did treat myself to a 'video-night' every Friday night (the one night I wasn't milking till 7PM)... woo hoo.

I realized I didn't ... have... any ... hobbies. In short.. I was a hard worker, but I had no life outside of work.

I needed a life.

To make a long story short: I trekked into Somerville, NJ only to find the old game store out of business and replaced with an antique shop .. but there was a new store down the block: The Only Game in Town.

And while there, I bought my first batch of Warhammer figures, glue, paint, .... the rest is history.

OK.... so some of you are asking, "Ummmm you really think that getting into Miniatures is getting a LIFE?!!?"

Well, "Yes." And if you don't get it, then this isn't the blog for you, huh?

Over the past 10 years I've moved from Warhammer into the various Historical games, card games, board games and the like. (I love zombie games... by the way... when and how DID zombies get to be so 'In'?)

But my real passion is miniatures. And this is where I'm going to write about the ideas and experiences I want to share while I navigate this hobby.

In the next post I'm going to write about re-organizing the Hobby room.... pics to follow as soon as my lovely assistant, my lovely fiance Mary Deluxe, helps me organize a photobucket account (yup ... there is hope out there for all you geeks!). I guess that means that I'm geek enough to paint 15 mm miniatures but not to create my own photobucket....

See you soon.

SGT