AAR Greece #5: Outflanked /Mavropiye by Mark Luther

View from the Commonwealth entry corner

The Brits started out with an HQ troop of one A13, two A10 CS tanks, and one MkVIC; a troop of A13s; a troop of A10s; and two troops of MkVICs of the 3rd RTR; a RHA 25 pdr; and a platoon from the Rangers.

Brian brought the armour and 25 pdr in on the road and the infantry came in cross country along the rocky slope in the center of the picture.

View from the German entry area

Chris came in on the road towards the village. His initial units were; a Pz company HQ unit of one Pz I command tank, one Pz III, and two Pz IIs; and two platoons of Pz IIs and Pz Is; and two platoons of Pz IIIs. There was also a four-section platoon of infantry and the HQ section in trucks following the panzers.

Mavropiye

Small village at the foot of the mountains. This would turn out to be heavily fought over as the two sides met there.

Mavropiye again

The village was on a couple of levels, surrounded by olive groves, mountains and a small stream.

Another pic of the village

Most of the buildings came from Angel Barracks. Really nice models with some cool details.

Players sorting their units out

Chris arranges his blinds in order on the entry road while Brian deciphers his unit list. You can see how the terrain slopes down to the far corner. There are a couple of olive groves and some rocky outcrops scattered about. Not the best tank country.

First sightings

One of the light panzer platoons spots the Rangers moving towards the village and is spotted in return. Chris has some more panzers moving around to his left and Brian has his A10s and A13s moving cross country under blinds. We had one Stuka strike up to this point that missed the blinds on the road by a wide margin.

The German commander:  note to self, do not bunch up tanks. Never, ever, ever again.

The British commander:  British infantry along with some Anzac MG platoon and a sniper moving to occupy the town when the tanks crested the hill. Whoops!

Panzers in the village

Chris had a good run of cards and with the additional bonus movement cards he easily made it to the village before Brian. This is his lead light panzer platoon poking around the corner.

The British commander was mentally tendering his commission at this point, though the prospect of settling up his tab at the regimental mess all in one go was far more unnerving than the possibility of a tarnished reputation. But this situation would evolve in his favor ...

A10s and Light panzers trading shots

The first fire was between the A10 troop and Chris' Light tanks arrayed along a slight ridge. The panzers scored first and took one A10 out.

The British commander:  A10s proved to be more fragile than I'd hoped. Really got bogged down once they were off the road and the bloody huns managed some damnably good shooting. I say that grudgingly, of course.

Stray 25 pdr

As the A10s and panzers shoot it out, the 25 pdr headed into town. Fortunately the panzers in the village were spotted so Brian could reverse the gun and get out of trouble. Unfortunately, it was never to get deployed for the rest of the game.

The British commander:  The British concept had been to race the 25 pdr to the far edge of the village to control the road. Since the foothills to the north of the town weren't armor friendly, it was hoped that this move would force the Bosche off the road and onto the broken ground where my A10s and A13s would be waiting. Since the briefing stated that I was not to allow the Germans to cross to the far edge of the table, I thought this would slow them down.

The loss of the 25 pdr pretty much doomed the chance of any significant victory. Best I could hope for would be to stall the German advance long enough for the game to just end.

A13s and A10s

Two of the A10s are out of action at this point. The A13s begin to engage the panzers on the ridge and a few of the panzers in the village that they can see. The HQ troop is on the road outside of the village.

GHQ models in BEF camo. They did repaint the tanks green that went to Greece...so close enough.

The British commander:  Paint job or not, these were "tanks" only because they had treads...the paper-thin armor didn't help them much.

Sympathetic Damage

The Brits managed to KO two of the Pz IIs and when the middle one exploded, it caused shock to the other panzers. Lesson here is to keep some space between your tanks.

The German commander:  And here is why you never ever bunch up your tanks.

The British commander:  Luckiest shot of the game ... or so I thought.

Sending in the little guys

The HQ troop pulls to the side and lets the two troops of MkVICs charge into Mavropiye to challenge the light panzers. A platoon of grenadiers has also moved into the village and is occupying the row of houses along the back of the street.

Tank battle in a narrow place

Good thing that these are small vehicles that can find parking places. Pretty bold move by Brian but he thought he could swamp the panzers and at that range even the HMG could penetrate,

The German commander:  I figured out why this happened. Brian and I both drive I-285. We just assumed traffic like that is normal.

The British commander:  I think my total disregard for the lives of my men was also a factor.

Clash of the Titans on a low budget

The MkVIs do a fair job of chewing up the Pz Is and IIs:  especially if they can hit the side armor, but they also receive damage. The HQ troop moves up also.

More Germans

More grenadiers arrive on the table. The Grenadier HQ section is in the lead followed by two Pz IIIs. Another platoon of Pz IIIs has moved well off to the left in the center of the table.

The British commander:  Seeing these guys come off their blinds, I knew defeat was just a matter of time.

Action across the table

On the left the platoon of Pz IIIs has come under fire from the A10/13s and lost one tank. The Ranger platoon has tried to make the cover of the gully but the HQ section was caught in the open and lost just about everyone but their CO.

The Panzer HQ platoon has also joined in and is firing at the cruiser tanks. The vehicles that brought up the grenadiers to Mavropiye are also shown on the back of the village. Looks like one has taken a tumble.

Picking off the Cruisers

The commander of the panzers tries his luck at hitting badly obscured targets and does incredibly well. The two cruiser troops are just about finished now after taking fire from four different units.

The British commander:  THAT was the luckiest shot of the game. The ref got an earful from the British commander for allowing this. All of it G-rated, of course.

High traffic area

We really needed a traffic cop here. The grenadiers rush some of the MkVIs and put a couple out of action. The CS tanks put the buildings that the grenadiers were in under fire. The light tanks trade shots. One of the grenadier sections is trying to work around the village to get at the CS tanks.

Cruiser junkyard

Two abandoned tanks, two burning tanks, and the remaining two are firing at panzers to the right and center.

Despite having 'broken down' cards in the deck for both sides we had no vehicles immobilised by the rocky Greek terrain.

The British commander:  I blame the commander!

Rangers in trouble

The main body of the infantry made it to cover in the gully. The HQ section with the light mortar and ATR was caught just outside of cover and was taken out.

The Big Man using the 'heroic commander' card was able to retrieve the ATR and took several shot at the Pz IIIs to no avail.

The remaining light panzers from the first group on the ridge line have moved down to spray the men scrambling for cover.

It will take some 'heroic' action to keep this unit from getting destroyed.

The British commander:  Poor movement role put the most valuable unit of this group pretty much out of action. Caught in the open and cut to ribbons. Only the Big Man and a few men would make it to safety with the gun.

The MKVIs prevail

The MGs on the light tanks cut down enough German infantry to force them back up the hill to where their command element has arrived. And the CS tanks shift their fire up there. The light panzers also have suffered a lot of damage. Lots of shock among the armor in town.

The British commander:  The fight for the town has turned into a quagmire for the Germans. I was surprised that Chris didn't make a made dash for the edge of the board -- less than 18" from the center of the town. But after those first two Pzs got knocked out, they bottle necked the road. Pretty soon, the only way to go was around the town.

Last turn

The light panzers make their way down to strafe the Brits in the gully. They still have some shock points from their exploding comrades.

This proved to be too big a game to get all the units on the table in a few hours. There was still a couple of panzer platoons coming on--total of five Pz IIIs and three Pz IVs. The RTR still had six more MkVIs, and another 25 pdr section and a New Zealand MG team along with another Ranger platoon was also awaiting their turn.

Overall casualties were one Pz III, two Pz 1, four Pz IIs and twelve grenadiers. The Commonwealth lost two A10s, two A13s and two MKVIs and six Rangers.

Point-wise according to the scenario that works out to 100 points to the Germans and 135 to the Commonwealth when the game was called. However, the Rangers in the gully were about to receive a hurtin'. The best panzers had not yet appeared and would have little trouble with light Brit armour. If the 25 pdrs could get set up they might help to even the odds but then the Luftwaffe had also been markedly absent, so if they started to make an appearance their best target would be the guns.

I would say that this is a tough one for the Commonwealth player to pull off if we were to continue.

The British commander:  Great game, and one more hour of play would've seen the British forces effectively swept aside. There was a massive wave of German armour that was just about to get into the fray when the game ended, and I don't think the Brits had enough reserves coming. The would've been no better than a speed bump. Or should I say "sleeping policeman?"

Note to self: when the author of a wargaming scenario quickly says, "I'll take the Germans" you're likely in for a tough day at the game table!