Great gaming a few weeks ago with my friends from VERMONT HISTORICAL GAMERS GROUP.
Jeff Egan and Steve Smith commanding the Germans vs Brent Coulthard, Elroy Davis and Brett McLay commanding the Brits. Figures are old Airfix and Matchbox along with 1/87 Roco tanks and AT guns.
Initial Narrative by Elroy Davis
Three of us took on the role the British in Sicily, tasked with clearing some woods and a village of German defenders, fielded by another two players.
Our plan of attack was to cross the open ground and sweep the woods with infantry. Our armor was restricted to the road, so we couldn't do much other than drive them toward the village. We decided to lay down as much smoke as possible to screen our advance.
Our troops moved slow, due to the terrain, including the tanks. While the smoke did obscure our advance, it also blocked our line of sight to the enemy. About a quarter of the way across the board, we started taking casualties from machine gun fire. Even worse, artillery started falling on our heads. The artillery pinned our troops in the center, who also suffered a couple of surprise aerial attacks from a German Stuka.
As we advanced our armor, a couple of anti-tank guns opened up from the ridgeline. We returned fire, and attempted to lay down more smoke. All troops, except the center kept creeping forward.
At a bend in the road, the terrain became particularly troublesome, with our tanks needing a full turn of movement to cross a short area. Unfortunately for us, a third AT gun was hiding within point blank range. He took out our lead tank, and immobilizes our second one. Still creeping up on both the right and left, we finally started inflicting some casualties on the Germans, taking out a couple of machine guns, and the AT gun that stopped us on the road.
Concluding narrative by Daniel Albrecht:
I finished the game playing solo. With the Shermans shelling the hills, the infantry was able to close and take out the AT guns.
The 2nd platoon of Shermans had to move slowly but eventually began navigating the hair-pin turn. Some British infantry then began to close in on the edge of the village and got into a firefight with Germans in the westernmost house.
The Shermans then shelled the house and set it on fire forcing the Germans to flee. As the infantry closed in the hill, the last squad of Germans, with the AT guns and MGs knocked out, pulled out as well. All in, the scenario played very close to history with the Germans only able to delay the British advance.
Daniel Albrecht