Hasty Attack against Anders

This is a game I played against fellow conscript Anders at Battlefront UK back before the Italy compilations came out, a 'last hurrah' for my Dogs and Devils First Special Service Force. Anders had his DM Panzer Kampgruppe. My list was my Corrivalry list:

Fearless    Trained Special Service Force	USA Late-War
Infantry Company

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Special Service Force Company HQ  p.25	2 1	Cmd Carbine team Bazooka team	40
Combat Platoons
Special Service Force Platoon  p.25	1 6 1	Cmd Pioneer SMG team Pioneer Rifle/MG team M2 60mm mortar	245
Special Service Force Platoon  p.25	1 6 1	Cmd Pioneer SMG team Pioneer Rifle/MG team M2 60mm mortar	245
Weapons Platoon
SSF Cannon Platoon  p.26	1 1 4	Cmd Carbine team Jeep M3 75mm/81mm mortar GMC	210
Divisional Support
Light Tank Platoon  Confident  Veteran   p.31	4	M5A1 Stuart	250
Armored Recon Platoon  Confident  Veteran   p.33	2 1 1	M8 armored car Mortar Jeep Recon Jeep	140
Field Artillery Battery(with M2A1 105mm howitzers)  Confident  Veteran   p.28	1 1 1 1 4	Cmd Carbine team Staff team Observer Carbine team Jeep M2A1 105mm howitzer	190
Field Artillery Battery  Confident  Veteran   p.28	1 1 1 1 2	Cmd Carbine team Fire Direction Center Observer Carbine team Jeep M1 155mm howitzer	200
Air Support  p.27	5	Limited Air Support P-40 Warhawk	130
Company Points:			1650

www.EasyArmy.com

Source document: Dogs & Devils Book

Anders had Panzer IVs, Jagdpanthers, Ostwinds and Panzergrenadier Kampgruppe starting on the table. The scenario was Hasty Attack, and I elected to become Auto-attack with my preliminary bombardment.

The table, with lovely Italian buildings

My initial deployment, with my infantry headed towards his left hand objective

Panzer IVs cover one objective, and infantry the other

The preliminary bombardment ranges in on the Jagdpanthers

But does nothing but cover them in smoke

They move forward along with the 2iC Panzer IV

Panzer IVs mill around the objective

Infantry and the Cannon platoon moves up my left flank

The other infantry move up the middle

Artillery ranges in on the Jagdpanthers, but are ineffective

Jagdpanther advances

AA sneaks forward

Blurry Panzer IVs....

MG shots and AA shots pin the infantry in the centre, killing several teams

And again, down to the last stand

Stuarts arrive from reserve, and head down the right flank

The other infantry platoon moves up into the woods by the left hand objective

Recon arrive on my left flank

Artillery ranges in  on the Panzer IVs

Jagdpanthers and the 2iC redeploy to engage the Stuarts

The 2iC takes out a Stuart

Ostwinds move forward to harass the artillery

The cannon platoon tries to move round the flank of the Panzer IVs, but do no damage

Recon sneak forward and shoot their 37mm guns into the Ostwinds

I finally bail a Jagdpanther

I attempt an assault on the Panzer IVs holding the objectives, but am sent back by defensive fire

Stuarts get behind the 2iC

Panzer IVs make short work of the M3 GMCs

One Panzer IV is taken out in return fire

Jagdpanthers punish the Stuarts

Panthers come on from reserve to make sure the objective remains secure

The 2iC gets into an assault with a Panzer IV, I needed a 2+ to kill him, and rolled a one....

Panthers machine gun the infantry, and we called it there.

6-1 to Anders. On reflection, defending would have been more sensible, but I had hoped to put him on the back foot.

Breakout against Owen

In anticipation of Corrivalry, Owen and I tried out the Breakout mission, as this was a potential mission for the tournament. The details of it can be found here. We played the original version from WI, which had delayed reserves instead of reserves. I played with the more defensive of my two lists:

 

Fearless    Trained	Special Service Force Alex Billing Corrivalry B	USA Late-War
Infantry Company

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Special Service Force Company HQ  p.25	2 2	Cmd Carbine team Bazooka team	60
Combat Platoons
Special Service Force Platoon  p.25	1 6 1	Cmd Pioneer SMG team Pioneer Rifle/MG team M2 60mm mortar	245
Special Service Force Platoon  p.25	1 6 1	Cmd Pioneer SMG team Pioneer Rifle/MG team M2 60mm mortar	245
Weapons Platoon
SSF Cannon Platoon  p.26	1 1 4	Cmd Carbine team Jeep M3 75mm/81mm mortar GMC	210
Divisional Support
Light Tank Platoon  Confident  Veteran   p.31	4	M5A1 Stuart	250
Field Artillery Battery(with M2A1 105mm howitzers)  Confident  Veteran   p.28	1 1 1 1 4	Cmd Carbine team Staff team Observer Carbine team Jeep M2A1 105mm howitzer	190
Field Artillery Battery  Confident  Veteran   p.28	1 1 1 1 4	Cmd Carbine team Staff team Observer Carbine team Jeep M1 155mm howitzer	280
Heavy Anti-aircraft Artillery Platoon  Confident  Veteran   p.34	1 2	Cmd Carbine team M1 90mm gun (with 8 crew)	170
Company Points:			1650

www.EasyArmy.com

Source document: Dogs & Devils Book

 

The game:

 

Owen's Engineer Sapper force deploys in the middle of the table

Alex's trip to Corrivalry - game five and conclusions

The last game of the weekend for me was Encounter against Matt Haywood, who was also running Kampgruppe Pieper. Matt's list was very different to Laurence's.

 

He had only two platoons: 1iC King Tiger, 2iC King Tiger, Pieper in his Panther, Limited Sturmvogels, 2 Skozeny Commando teams and a platoon of Panzer IVs. The Panzer IVs were in reserve.

 

Initial deployment. As I had the first turn, I dug in my artillery and advanced my infantry up the flanks. As it was a meeting engagement, I could not bombard.

Turn two, I destroy the platoon King Tiger with artillery. At the start of his turn three Matt takes and fails a company morale test. 6-1 to me.

As we were barely 10 minutes into the round, we noted our result, and kept playing on. Matt's planes come in to harass the infantry heading for that objective.

The other infantry move up the other flank towards Pieper

105mm artillery arrives from reserve

The 155mm guns are pinned for the rest of the game

The infantry move up and takes the objective, but we keep going

The other infantry moves up and uses its flamethrower on Pieper

Whilst the 90mm guns try and open up on him too

Panzer IVs arrive from reserve..

...And take out the infantry on the objective

Stuarts and Cannons arrive from reserve

The infantry assault Pieper

Killing him, and we eventually call the game here.

This was unlucky for Matt, but part of the risk he takes with his version of the list. Only putting one tank on the right hand objective, but three on the left, and if it were me, I would have had the Panzer IVs on the table, as they would have been harder for me to kill, and probably caused me more problems.

So 2 big wins (both against KG Pieper it turns out), 2 minor losses and a blowout at the hands of the Canadians leaves me at the end of the weekend exactly where I was after day one, 38th out of 84, which I am very happy with.

Road to Rome should be out in March, and I am hoping the cost of the support platoons will come down to match the other Late War books. This could go some way to getting a third infantry platoon into the list, which I think I need if I am to attack with it properly.