Achtung Panzer!

 Today it was back to Chain of Command and our Abbeville campaign, this is the second phase and now the Germans are attacking. This scenario was to be 'Blitzkrieg' as per the 1940's Handbook, Matt had twelve support points against my eight, at first this looked pretty good for my put upon BEF but it was not to be. The British support could not be brought on the field until they had gathered two Chain of Command dice, twelve rolls of five, this restriction severely curtailed what I could use against the enemy and was frankly really bad news. Matt as usual had a cunning plan and he turned up with a PzIV and a Pz35(t) against my Boys anti-tank rifle so I would at least cause them to repaint the scratches if I hit.

Matt could have simply ran his tanks along the road and off the table, but he preferred to make a game of it in true gentlemanly fashion. He brought a couple of squads on in the large wood which covered most of one side of the battlefield and I met him with two of mine, I played aggressively despite hearing the clank of tank tracks and shot up one of his squads and brought down a Senior Leader. The Panzer IV turned up to support the Jerry infantry and I tried a couple of times to catch it on the flank but missed each time, but no matter it was not dealing out a lot of hurt and my infantry continued to pick on the second enemy squad who had advanced while the other withdrew. My shooting was much better than Matt's and his morale fell.

The second panzer now turned up and tried to motor down the road but again luck was not with Matt and the driver was having trouble getting the best from his engine. A good volley now hit the remaining squad and I captured a Jump Off Point so German morale fell to three, despite having a double move Matt could do nothing to change the fortunes of war and he called his attack off.

I had got off very lightly in this combat having fought it with only two squads while the third remained off table and my support had no chance of turning up until about midnight. Matt played like a gent and suffered for it as his attack just couldn't get off the ground. We talked afterwards and with the likely hood of three German tanks or four armoured cars turning up in the next game there was no chance of the British stopping a run for the table edge, so we decided Matt would win the next game and we will move on to the next table. Another difficult one for the poor British but with its own problems for the Jerries. This Abbeville has at least given us better games than the previous one.

I finished my American support troops a day or so ago, one more squad to go.

Tomorrow I will be heading north of The Wall to Leith as I volunteered to help Yarkshire Gamer Ken Reilly out with his award winning Italian Wars game of the siege of Forli at Claymore on Saturday. I have to be there by 08 double oh so it will be a long day for yours truly. A couple of my Grognard friends are making an effort to pop by. I don't expect to buy much but if I can find some stuff for my Yanks then I might get rid of that fiver I always take to shows

Mate Robert has been viewing my blog rants over the past years while continuing to recuperate from his recent knee surgery and to help him sleep, He has chuckled at View From The Window and given me stick for not putting a label on my wargaming journey through life so that he can find them easier, if you have missed these they are now under Why Wargaming, I am hoping to update this series with number 9 at some point soon.

I suspect the next post will be all about the Italian Wars.