At Last!

Having thrown the British out of Ranville Kampfgruppe von Luck has decided to seize the church outside the village to protect their right flank from possible counterattacks. So far the boys from 21st Panzer have had things all their own way and Para morale (mine) is low, this time once again support is lacking for the Paras albeit they have a full platoon. Considering they have no real choice other than to put men into the churchyard I had no real hope in this game either, my support amounted to a PIAT team with which I hoped to ambush the inevitable German self-propelled gun, a big ask but I was out of ideas. Matt surprised me and did not bring any armour, the usual flood of panzergrenadiers this time were supported by an extra squad, sniper and artillery observer, a good choice really as the Paras were bound to be set up in the church environs.

Matt wanted to blast the churchyard with mortars and advance two squads quickly while the others gave covering fire, I decided to hold my guys back where possible so only deployed a squad in the ruined house. The German forward observer must have missed a few lessons at school as it took three ranging shots to get on target, Matt wanted to cover two of my Jump Off Points, which he eventually managed albeit one was right on the edge of the barrage. Meanwhile despite the covering fire the Paras in the house managed to inflict quite a bit of shock on the grenadiers behind the hedge and smoke eventually nullified them. The barrage lasted a few phases and allowed the two right hand squads to run across the open terrain without interference, it looked like more than a walkover for the Jerries, but wait.

The Red Devils got a double phase and some nice command dice, so I stopped the barrage and deployed a second squad and then shot up the advancing troops. Soon after as one German squad almost got to the church I deployed my last squad with a double phase and poured fire into the lead grenadiers. To counter this the artillery observe once again put down a ranging shot and although off target managed to get a good position for the barrage, this left me with no choice but to assault the survivors of the previous volley before I was pinned. The attack was hugely successful and routed the few Germans left, enemy morale plummeted and the Paras chalked up their first win, just in the nick of time as the mortar shells whistled in.

The tables seem to have turned somewhat, Matt has three games in hand now to take two tables, I may be forced to launch a counterattack to blunt the advance and gain some time, this requires some thought.

I have been fairly quite for the last week or so, I have had grandchildren visiting and the heat has been debilitating so I had not picked up a paintbrush for a while and only just managed to play the game above, thankfully I have not had a great many customers and I also have air conditioning in the Post Office. I have been painting for the last couple of days though and the Kreigsmarine squad are being varnished today and based soon after. I also realised I needed more Paras so that I could call up a reserve squad if required, they were ordered and turned up the next day, they are based and awaiting priming. I usually use GW primers because I like them and mate Julian usually gets them for me, but he has gone dark recently so may be on holiday, I looked online and the postage is almost the same as the can itself, so I may just go back to car primer for now. Julian has just messaged me, how creepy is that.

My Panzer IIIs have also turned up from Rubicon, I have been uncharacteristically patient with these as they have been on the desk for nearly a week. With the sailors nearing completion I opened one up yesterday and got it prepared, there are about four different marks you can make so I have gone for the late war command tank, I am looking at replacing the aerials with wire to make them more robust. The second tank will simply be a late war type.

I am getting an urge to do more terrain, city ruins actually. There are several bundles out there you can get to cover a decent area, the best I have seen are the 4Ground Stalingrad kits, but they need a bit of work on them as they are very 'clean' for ruins. I have seen these weathered up and they look fantastic, but not so sure I could do them justice but it would be a nice project for the long, cold winter. Watch this space.

Guy comes in yesterday, bald, thuggish looking, asks me if I do Wiggle, never heard of it says I, really says he, yes really. Anyway we handle the package he puts it through, it is not taped up, I say you can't send it like that, he says I will have my receipt, that will not stop the contents ending up all over the floor says I, so what, put some tape on it then. Oh, oh, my foot nudges my four rolls of tape further under the counter, I have no tape, not my job mate. Small tantrum follows, then I give him the bag back and tell him to go away. Two hours later I am back to normal and my feet are back on the ground, customers, gotta love em, oh and guess what, he found tape at home.