GI's do well

Another run at WWII this week in the Bunker, we had decided on Chain of Command and Matt mentioned he wanted panzergrenadiers with lots of machine guns, instead I gave him my Fallschirmjager which just happened to have the same number of MG42's, I would take my new US Infantry. These guys fight rather different from all the other platoons and I hadn't a clue how to get the best out of them, the rules however, all rules in my opinion, tend to give the Yanks an easy time of it. They get to move and shoot without an accuracy penalty, they also get the Storm of Steel mechanic which in this instance is over egging their abilities and they get to use Scouts as Jump Off Points.

Why did you bother with them I hear from the back. I never intended to build an American platoon but I needed to take my mind off other things for a while and what better than to build up another platoon before I stopped, yes I hear more grumbling in the back. This all pertains to playing with wee sojers, I have the utmost respect for those men who fought through Europe unlike some of the ungratefully liberated.

I introduced a few little changes, both sides got a 'Red Dice' to help with orders, I also changed the Force Morale so that 10, 11 or 12 replaced 8, 9, 10 or 11, the table was also set up with what I hoped would be less open ground. I put down a village straddling a river with two bridges, the northern part of the village had been hit by artillery and was mainly ruins but a few buildings had survived including the station, hotel and a boozer. The Yanks had to capture the bridges to win, two bridges would be a major victory and one a minor victory. Matt supported his Para's with a Pz IVG, I on the other hand took a 75mm Sherman, a 60mm mortar and an extra squad.

I wanted to pressure the Germans in the centre and on their left flank while planning to use a Scout team to get further up the table if the opportunity presented itself, Matt just wanted to hold me up. I managed to get three squads into decent positions but somehow began to take mounting casualties on my troops in the wood which were targetted by the Panzer and quite a few machine guns, so much so that I had to withdraw them. Matt had a run of double phases to help with this, although I must admit my boys weathered it well, It was time to bring on the Sherman.

I deploy.

The remaining civvies beat a hasty retreat.

My tank and and a nearby squad turned on the ruins just north of the hotel while I pushed another squad up to sneak into the large building, it was Matt's time to withdraw. I now did the same to another set of ruins near the rail bridge and the Jerries again retreated, the tank however was still being a real pain. I had now sent a Scout team out to flank the German right as the Panzer was now busy firing on my right. I better mention this but I too now managed a good run of double turns and used them to reorganise. then I saw my chance, my men in the hotel broke the enemy opposite them, I deployed from the scouts into the station where the last of the Jerry squads had deployed but were beginning to suffer, one good phase and I would be on them.

These poor guys got caught out later.

The annoying panzer.

Matt now got a double turn, my boys in the open field were routed and fled, the survivors that is, around this time I also had two of my Junior Leaders hit which meant I had to put my Senior Leaders into harms way to keep up the pressure. Once I got t he initiative back and despite losing a squad I broke the Para's in the ruins and stunned both a SL and their JL. This sealed the deal for the Americans as two enemy leaders and an enemy Jump Off Point now lay within touching distance of my boys in the Station and Matt's morale plummeted. Game over.

Help is at hand.

Forward boys.

I think the higher morale worked, you could at least throw a bit of caution to the wind to try something different and recover if it went south, the extra dice for orders also worked well although I think the double turn mechanic should lose a dice after the first one, both Matt and I suffered a bit from our opponent having several in a row, and it is quite frustrating to sit for a couple of phases doing nothing but dying. Cutting down the lines of sight, it helps, we had a bit of a conversation about this and might have to up linear obstacles to medium, you cannot really see through a decent hedge.

I have not done a lot of painting in the last couple of weeks, one set of four halberdiers and 50% of a sword and buckler base, I am home alone next week so expect to get a move on with these. My wargamers ADHD is kicking in as I realised setting up the game I do not have American Jump Off Points so I am going to 'need' those at some point and of course some US Patrol Marker's. I also noticed that my 2nd Panzer markers had been painted white on black, so naturally I had to change them to yellow on black, phew. Who will notice, I will.

Matt is back next week and wants to do an ACW cavalry battle, so it looks like Brandy Station, I have eight cavalry brigades most of whom have never seen action in my 30+ years of Johnny Reb. Yeehaa. 

The worst night of the year coming up, although most of the little darlings gave up knocking on my door years ago, it also helps there are no young families in my part of the village. I think it must be a nightmare in America, I could not take that.