Saturday, July 21, 2012
Panzerschreck: The rest
Game 2: No Retreat vs Andrew and Stuart (German Armoured
cars with Panthers, German armoured cars with Panthers)
We get to defend this mission. It’s an easy matchup for
us as all their points spent in two platoons of two Panthers are wasted vs our
Staghounds. All we had to do is kill German armoured cars and win via company
morale. Its extremely unlikely they can push through an assault on our
objectives without taking crippling casualties.
It was a desert table with a village in the middle, area
terrain, roads and some hills.
We deploy the 17/25pdrs in cover with a Para rifle
platoon in front of them. We held the 6pdrs in ambush and deployed the bofors
guns back covering everyone as they had airsupport.
My 2IC and CnC deployed behind the village. If they could
kill the 17/25pdrs I would be testing company morale early.
They recce move then take their first turn. As they get
to their first shooting step they try to left gtg on the 17/25pdrs. Which they
cannot do as you must remain stationary. As they had gambled on killing the
17/25pdrs they has moved everything into the open to maximise shots. We let
them take back their deployment, recce and their first turn because we are nice
guys.
Their new 1st turn was a flanking move with
half the armoured cars while they hide the rest behind some area terrain.
Our first turn we fire our bofors, ambush the 6pdrs and
fire my independent Staghounds at the flanking armoured cars. That destroys the
8rad platoon and bail everyone in the 221/222 platoon. My 17/25s have no target
but they don’t need to. Staying alive while I get some Staghounds is the better
option.
The game progresses and they just can’t kill enough
quickly enough. My staghounds come on from reserve and basically mop up all the
lesser German Armoured cars. We kill 1 Panther via our Air Support and win via
failed German Company Morale.
6-1 to us!
It was a bad match up for them. They had no smoke or
infantry and only their Panthers to take an objective.
Man of the Match: Tim’s Para Rifle platoon who held those
nasty armoured cars off our forward objective.
Game 3:
Fighting Withdrawl vs Derek and Callum’s Panzergrenadiers and Panzers
Table was a
European village with a river cutting the table in two. We defend and choose
the side with the village.
Para
platoons spread across two of our objectives, 17/25pdrs cover our objective
that we placed with the 25pdrs, bofors covering the two objectives they placed.
6pdrs in ambush with 2 platoons of Staghounds on the road to cover all 3
objectives. I had another Staghound platoon across the river on our far left to
zip in behind and flank them.
They
deployed everything to our right. They move forward and do little with the
airsupport. They had two platoons of Panzergreanadiers, 2 platoons of German
tanks, armoured AA, Panzerwerfers and Pak40s.
Staghounds
zip down the road to MG up some panzergrenadiers, Tim ambushed the 6pdrs vs a
platoon of Panzer IIIs, sniper shoots at the Pak40s. The entire ambush does
nothing, not even a bail.
Return fire
kills all but 1 6pdr and the command team. Morale holds. Our next turn Tim
direct firs the 25pdrs and kills all the Panzer IVs. They actually move back
the Panzer III platoon to counter the sniper and team Staghound Sneak.
Staghounds
then shoot up infantry and we start to withdrawal not important things. Tim’s
infantry hold while Staghounds butcher the Panzergrenadiers then go hunting
Panzerwerfers. Their entire remain force turns around and tries to kill
Stahounds. Turn 8 arrives and we win.
6-1 to us.
Man of the
match: The entire Div Cav for forcing back the Panzers to their deployment
zone. Minor award for Tim’s sniper who tied up 4 tanks, 3 Pak40s and 2 Armoured
AA halftracks and did not die.
End of Day
1:
We are
looking pretty good. No one else has won all 3 games and we did so without
losing a platoon. The comp was adding +1 VP for a win so we were clearing a
head.
I think what
really set us apart was winning 6-1 in the FFA. A lot of games timed out even
when a 10 minute time extension was added. I think is due to players wanting to
confirm with each other over every single move and decision instead of just
moving their stuff.
Game 4: Dust
up vs Mike and Ken’s Italian infantry and Panzergrenadiers
This was
played on my table I brought along. It has a railway line running down the
middle with roads on either side which cross the tracks in the middle of the
table. Cornfields and hedges line the roads and there are several hills to
block LOS.
The big
problem with their lists is that they are extremely static and defensive
orientated. Itallians with 90mm guns, 100mm artillery and big blobs of infantry
were deployed along with German Schutzen with Paks and Semovente 75s.
Looking at
their list and deployment they wanted us to charge into their gun lines. We
decided not to as if they cannot get our objective we get more points if time
was called.
We deploy to
deny them good bombardment targets with their 100mms. They deployed first and
choose to deploy their artillery. We then deployed our 25pdrs so that they are
out of this range but within our range if we wanted to counter battery.
They then
deploy their stuff in big long lines and they get the first turn.
I recce on
the roads and space out. They move forward trying to block off our reserve
entry points with HMGs, AT guns and the Semoventes.
Our first
turn was a thing of beauty. Tim’s 25pdrs smash and kill a 90mm, platoon command
for the 90mm and pin the artillery. Next turn he kills the other 90mm for our
first platoon kill. My staghounds start killing gun teams with their main guns.
Things are
going well for us. However they get reserves which are smashed by my staghounds
and Tims artillery. However we don’t get reserves till very late. When they do
come on they smash through the semoventes, infantry. We end up with a staghound
platoon on the objective with two Para rifle platoons supporting them. Only 1
Pak26(r) and 1 italian infantry team were there to stop us when time was
called. 1 more turn and we would have won 6-1.
In that last turn we had killed 2 more platoons of
Italians.
3-1 to us.
Man of the
match: Mikes 90mm guns for rolling 1s and 2s for their first 5 rolls.
Game 5:
Counter attack vs David and Tony German Pioneers x2
There was a
big lack of terrain on this table. There were gaps of 24” by 12” where they was
nothing. Not good at all. David and Tony has almost mirror lists. They had no tanks
and huge pioneers, Pak40s, Nebs and airsupport.
We could
take the objective easy as they didn’t have anything to move across the board
without being smashed via Staghounds. Also we had done some math and even if we
lost to them 6-1 we still tied with them on VPs. However it took over an hour
for them to understand the mission and then deploy. We simply didn’t have time
to get to turn 6 for us to take the objective.
We changed
up our plan. Attack with everything and get 2 platoons for an extra VP. It wasn’t
pretty as we assaulted and assaulted through 2 interlocked pioneer platoons. We
killed one. The Pak40 ambush of 8 Paks killed a staghound platoon outright as
it was trying to zip around the flank to kill some Nebs in the open. We killed
those Paks down to their platoon commander who passed all morale checks to not
cost them a VP.
Paras took
huge losses and fled the board. We only played to turn 4 before company morale
lost us the game 2 mins before time was called.
1-6 to them.
Man of the
match: Tim’s Para rifle platoon who fought till the last and killed a Pioneer
platoon.
So we were
tied on VPs. Score scores propelled Tim and Myself into first place.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Fracas: Blurry Pics
Its midnight and I have finished my tanks for Fracas. Pics have been taken with my cheap point and shoot without a tripod. Sorry for the poor quality. Will try to get a tripod tomorrow and get some more shots of the entire platoon up.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Game 1: FFA
Another great weekend in Palmerston North. As always the
panzerschreck doubles was one of the highlights of the gaming Calender. I will
try to briefly explain how all the games went and what my lessons were.
Here is what Tim and Myself took:
NZ Div Cav in Italy (NZ armoured car squadron)
HQ 2xStaghounds
Troop 1 2xStaghound I, 1xStaghound II CS
Troop 2 2xStaghound I, 1xStaghound II CS
Troop 3 2xStaghound I, 1xStaghound II CS
AT platoon 4x17/25 guns
Limited Kittyhawks
2nd Independent Para in Italy
HQ 2xPIAT 1xSniper
Para platoon
Para platoon
Para AT 4x6pdr
British artillery 4x25pdr
NZ AA 3xBofors
Game 1: Free for All vs Brian and Andre (Finn tanks, CT
Germans with Tiger)
I am going to just say it. I love me some free for all.
It's the type of mission I plan for. The only downside is time, some defensive
or slow players can time out causing a loss for both players. This wasn't the
case which was great!
They had a mixture of CT Germans, with 10 Tx26s. Their
main force to attack with was 2xKVs and a Tiger. To counter this I put the
17pdrs covering our right hand objective and had Tims Para Rifle platoon, Para
6pdrs and the 25pdrs protecting our left hand objective.
The Staghounds attacked the right hand objective while
Tim’s 2nd Para Rifle platoon attacked up the centre.
With the help of Tim’s sniper the Staghounds smashed the
88s defending the objective and pushed off the infantry protecting it. A last
ditch effort from 5xT26s killed a staghound but couldn’t withstand the mighty
firepower of the Staghound. We took the objective while threatening their
second objective. Tim’s Paras held onto the objective under attack from the
Heavy tanks.
6-1 to us!
Key part of the battle was deployment. We had good AT defence
on both objectives, the Staghounds Recce move concealed the objective I was
going to swarm. Brian and Andre deployed their 105s almost in the corner which
placed them too far to contest the objective. They deployed their tanks to
advance along that board edge. With their 8” move they could not move fast
enough to help out against my Staghound attack.
Man of the Match: Tim’s Sniper. Took out an 88mm gun all
by himself which allowed my staghounds to overwhelm the only other gun covering
that objective.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Panzerschreck 2012: Need more sleep
I has been a while since I updated the Blog. Mostly due to a hit in motivation when my camera and laptop got stolen. I have replaced my good camera with a cheap point and shoot, as you can tell from the previous entries its not very good at close ups.
This weekend Panzerschreck ran in Palmerston North. It has continued for its 3rd year as a doubles tournament. This year it was 2200pts per team Mid War.
I of course took Staghounds and Tim took British Paras.
We justified my Staghound fetish by winning best overall. Here are some pics. A full report will be up when I can get some sleep.
This weekend Panzerschreck ran in Palmerston North. It has continued for its 3rd year as a doubles tournament. This year it was 2200pts per team Mid War.
I of course took Staghounds and Tim took British Paras.
We justified my Staghound fetish by winning best overall. Here are some pics. A full report will be up when I can get some sleep.
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