Another playtest for my new micro armor rules. This time, we have the US vs the Germans. My buddy brought his US armored units, so I set up a US attack in late 44 around Metz. This would give me the chance to see how a force with a lot of half-track mounted infantry would work in the attack.
For the Germans, they had a three battalion infantry regiment. The regiment was on defense and started entrenched, camouflaged and with registered artillery. The regiment was reinforced with some PanzerJager IV (lang) tank destroyers. Of board, the regiment had one battalion of 105s in direct support and a battalion of 150s in general support.
The US came on across the entire front. One Combat command (CCA) on the right, the TDs in the center and the other combat command (CCB) on the left. The plan was the TD would pin the center of the German lines, while CCA and CCB would attacked along the flanks to break the German forward battalions.
The US had two combat commands with a single tank battalion and infantry battalion each. They were supported by a operate tank destroyer battalion (we had three US players, so I needed three forces).
The mission was to control the most towns by the end of the game. There were a total of seven towns. The Germans could set up anywhere on the table. they decided to defend the back five towns and leave the two forward towns to the Americans.
The German plan was to hold forward and then collapse on town number four while attriting the US attack.
The US started their attack, but had issues with their deployment. As such, they chose to dismount the infantry to clear the forward woods, while the tanks moved forward. The Germans seeing an opportunity, piled their artillery onto the advancing infantry while they were exposed, causing severe casualties. CCB tried to break through the Germans using only their tanks (as the infantry was pinned in the woods). This did not go well, with the Americans taking having losses. They continued to press, but had to break off to reorganize their exposed forces.
CCA moved forward more slowly and engaged the defense by massing fires. The exposed infantry took it on the chin, but with the effect for wrecking the defending German flank battalion. This unhinged the German left flank, forcing a fall back. The Germans had to commit their regimental reserves and attachments to counter attack and blunt the breakthrough. This temporarily stalled the attack, but the numbers started to tell.
The TD battalion continued to push forward and engage the German center to keep it pinned. This allowed CCA to regroup and move forward for the next assault.
This proved to be too much for the Germans and caused them to fall back. With this, the US achieved its won the next town fight, guaranteeing the victory. We stopped the game at this point, as the outcome was clear and we ran out of time!
Things went OK, but I did not quite get my full desired practice with the halftracks, as they dismounted early. I am still getting a little too much affect at range, so I need a little more tweaking. I also need to simplify the unit organization a bit more. Some changes to try in the next game!
- Manteuffel