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In this scenario the German force has launched a counter-attack with the aim of re-taking a French village. The Brits have placed mines on both of the roads leading to the centre of the village including directly in front of the stone bridge crossing the small river. Two German commands, Callum in charge of one and I the other advanced on either side of the river. The British defenders under the control of Micky and Tony had carefully positioned 6pdr anti-tank guns and infantry units with ‘ambush’ orders. Dave had the role of game coordinator.
It was with a fair degree of caution that both German forces advanced with sdkfzs taking the lead with units of 3 panzer IV’s following on in close support. It wasn’t long before the lead sdkfz attempting to cross the stone bridge was blown-up by an anti-vehicle mine. With the road blocked the following panzers spread out to engage in a long distance shooting match with a 6pdr gun position which opened-up on them. Meanwhile, on the other side of the river my 3 panzer IV’s were soon reduced to 2 as one was shot at and failed a morale test which resulted in the crew abandoning their tank. These cowardly unfortunates were soon cut down by small arms fire from the concealed British infantry leaving me with a perfectly functioning tank but no crew. Having quickly lost 2 vehicles, Callum and I decided to disembark our infantry sections from their transports and advance them on foot taking advantage of any available cover. Unfortunately, my infantry attempting to capture the wooded area adjacent to the village church received a very severe mauling from British infantry waiting in ambush both within the woodland and occupying the church.
Off-board artillery was called in by both sides with limited effect, however, one salvo did manage to destroy the pontoon bridge which effectively prevented the two German forces from sending support units to each other across the river. The 6pdr was gradually picking off Callum’s tanks but his sdkfzs gave effective fire support to my infantry on the other side of the river which did eventually enable me to capture all of the woodland hexes adjacent to the church but not without sustaining very heavy losses.
A second 6pdr gun took up position to fire along the road towards my column of vehicles and my 2 remaining panzer IV’s were dispatched to try and eliminate this pest! At this point reinforcements started to arrive for both sides in the form of additional units of infantry and tanks. The resulting long range artillery duel certainly went in favour of the British armour as Callum and I were busy perfecting the art of scoring as low as was statistically possible with D12 dice!
A Tiger I and a Panther tank slowly moved towards a shooting position from which they could bring their considerable firepower into play, but by this point in the game, the warm glow of a multitude of burning German tanks pointed to a clear and decisive British victory. There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that the German attackers could make any further progress into what was a very strongly held village with more British armour flowing to it and then around it. The game conclude with the German units needing to retreat in order to avoid obliteration! Game Analysis
Callum and I never really got close to dislodging the well positioned British defenders. With the stone bridge blocked by a burning sdkfz no German panzer IV surviving long enough to try and push it out of the way, Callum’s only point of entry into the village was blocked early in the game and he lost the resulting long range shooting match. Our shooting throughout was very poor and my infantry assault was efficiently snuffed out by accurate and well coordinated British shooting resulting in an impressive German body count for no territorial gain!

What rules were you using for this?

We use 'The Command Decision' WWII rules adapted to hexes for all movement and weapon ranges which makes the game system quicker to play.