It was time for another World War II Wednesday and we decided it would be a good time to set up a standard FOW scenario. In this game, I opted for the rear guard scenario, as it is less of a mash up than some of the others. We had two new players joining (along with two veterans) to help them learn the V4 rules. This scenario makes the roles clear, with once side fighting agianst time to win and the other trying to manage their shrinking forces.
We set the scenario size at 100 points each, with both sides dividing there forces between players. The Americans took a D-Day US Tank Company and an Infantry Company. The Germans selected a large Fallschirmjager company. The Germans were on defense and the Americans were the attackers.
The Germans set up their forces by deploying one infantry platoon around each objective. The third platoon was deployed stretched out in the center, so it could support either side and shift as necessary. 88s were on the one hill, with Grilles and Mortars on the right flank. A battery of Pak40s were in ambush and the four mine counters were set up across the board in obvious movement paths.
Seeing the German deployment, the Americans set up most of their infantry on their own left flank with most of their armor in support. Their artillery was set up in the center and a small pinning force of Stuarts and a small infantry platoon deployed on the American right to pin and maybe steel a victory.
The game opened up with the Americans moving forward cautiously and using their artillery to soften up the German AT defenses, while the Germans tried to take out some of the artillery (the Americans had three templates!). The Americans also used up their three smoke bombardments on the first three turns to limit the amount of return fire from the Germans. The Germans came out the worst on this fight and ended up pulling their reduces 88s as the first withdrawal. The US kept up its careful advance and shifted artillery to the German right flank infantry to weaken it before the main assault. The Germans just kept to ground and held on with their forward forces, while redeploying the center infantry to support the defense against the main US assault. It was time for another withdrawal and the Germans opted for the Grilles (that had done nothing all game).
The end game finally arrived and the US forces started their assaults, with poor results. The both the infantry and armor was thrown back with minimal losses. The Germans continued to take losses from the artillery fire, but held on. The arrival of the center infantry platoon shored up the flank. It was time to spring the ambush and shore up the defense! The three Pak40s popped, got five hits on a Sherman platoon, killing two and bailing the rest. The platoon did not remount, but passed its morale test. Seeing the array of forces, the US tried to work around the flank and take out the German mortars and pick off more German infantry. They were able to kill one mortar and silence most of the Pak40s with tank fire, as the German supporting platoon dug in. The remaining ATGs killed another Sherman at the same time. The US failed the Sherman morale check and fled. The night was running long and we had to stop the game there on turn seven. The remaining Pak40 would have been pulled for the Germans, who know had two Panzerschreks, two Panzerfausts and 2 HMGs to defend the objective. It looked likely the Germans would be able to just hold!
- Manteuffel