A Clash of Iron

The Germans while heavily outnumbered made their troop quality and superior firepower count. The high velocity armament out ranged the approaching Sherman's with only the Firefly's in the opening hours able to dual at a distance with the Panther Battalion on the left, the Jadgpanthers supported by Tigers in the centre and the probing advance on the right by a Panzer IV battalion.

The British outnumbered the Germans by at lest 3 to one but had to close the range to give the Sherman's a chance to make their guns tell. Meanwhile the British infantry battalion debussed and occupied the town of Borouex where they dug in and managed to repel an attempt by German infantry to dislodge them from the North East part of town. This was thanks to the close bombardment called in which supressed the assaulting Germans.

The jadgpanthers and tigers were knocking out Sherman's consistently in the centre where the weight of numbers of the Shermans meant a few shells found their marks. The British advanced their reserves to the ridge line in the form of a company of Achilles and the lended weight of their 17pdrs quickly saw a couple of platoons of Jagdpanthers brewing up.

The threat of German air power was ever present but failed to materialise.

Over on the left the Panther Battalion wiped the 2nd tank battalion out to a vehicle and nothing was opposing them other than some dug in infantry within a wood. Other than them the Panthers could quickly roll up the British flank.

As night fell, the British still held the town and the volumes of British vehicles now had the range closed on the centre and right which meant that the German losses were starting to be felt harder than the British ones. However, with the Panthers soon able to bring their guns to the centre would have meant that the outcome would have been difficult to guess.


Conclusion

A very enjoyable game and a number of times the command and control rules meant that we couldn't just do what we wanted to do. For example, I wanted to change my orders on the infantry on the left to support the Sherman's facing the Panthers. However, I gave them orders at the beginning to occupy the Woods and then take up defence positions. I failed on two turns to issue orders which meant that my Shermans were outgunned by the panthers and quickly destroyed.

The Germans had the best of the early part of the game as their initiative bonus and better quality of troops very often meant a hard earned suppression in a panther was recovered. Their superior guns meant that they ruled the long/mid range engagement, but only when the Sherman's swallowed hard and moved to close the gap with the fireflies and Achilles in the rear to provide support did the British get the kills.

Artillery was effective, even though you are rolling to suppress tanks. However, because they fired first the effect of artillery is effective, but subtle. The Brits having 12 x 25pdrs (admittedly half couldn't range in for most of the game) meant that they had superiority over the Germans in this respect.

Germans had a chance of Air support, but it never materialised (relief) which showed it to be quite an expensive resources with minimal chance of turning up....

A very enjoyable game... roll on the next one.