We played a big WW2 game using Rapid Fire rules yesterday. The scenario was set D-Day +3 with a US armored column pushing through to relieve US Paratroopers who were holding out in a town against a German counter attack. The German force consisted of Kampfgruppe consisting of two infantry battalions (one elite) several tank destroyers, quite a bit of AAA and a few light armored cars and half-tracks. The US had one Para Bn already in the town as well as moving onto the table one armored Bn, one armored infantry Bn, recon, artillery and tactical air. The Germans were also inside the town as well as dug in on the approaches to the town. German forces were mostly hidden. The US players knew what part of the town the Germans were already in and concentrated their
artillery on that part of town to begin with. As this
was happening the US recon was sent forward to scout and over a few turns they located most of the German
hidden positions which were then plastered with artillery. Eventually, as planned and hoped for, German losses from
the guns reached critical stage and one of their battalions failed its morale and routed from the
table while the other elite battalion just hung on. The US tanks then moved up, halted outside panzerfaust range and added to the artillery fire on the
German elite battalion with HE rounds from the Shermans - all of this pretty
well wiped out the Germans hiding in buildings and fox holes along the US axis of
advance. Each time the Germans attempted to deploy their anti-tank assets these were spotted and eliminated by artillery or mortar fire. It was in this way that a German Pzjager tried to spring an ambush but got itself destroyed by artillery fire. With the Germans removed from the pathway of the US tanks they surged forward and into the town to relieve the Paras. The Germans did manage to drive off most of the US aircraft with concentrated AAA fire but this did not have any real affect on how things developed overall. In
the end the US lost -apart from some Paras in the town- only one M8 armored car
and one Stuart from the relief column. The Germans were pretty well pulverized mostly by US artillery which was the real battle winner on the day. It was a good game that made us all think and try to do the best we could with what we had within the limits of what we had to achieve.
US Tac Air always overhead
US recon did a great job spotting the hidden Germans
US armor waiting in the safety of the rear area waiting for the chance top break out
The game in full swing
The town half held by US Paras
Elite German troops - dug in and blocking the way
Shermans line up to pound the Germans
The US Paras hand on
US armor arrives in town to relieve the Paras
Some of the battle winning US artillery
German armor rolls onto the table
German AAA kept the USAAF at bay!
