Time for another Wednesday Wargaming battle report!
Still playing games in the early war desert. This time I thought it would be fun to try out a different scenario, namely Roadblock. This one is not in the main rules but you can get it on the FoW website:
http://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=4286
The idea is that one army is driving down the road and gets ambushed by the other. Since the idea of this one is really about trucks and such cruising down a road we agreed to both do mechanized lists. I went for Shutzen and the Brits had a Jock Column.
I had the following:
2x Infantry Platoons with full trucks
Full HMG Platoon
Small HMG Platoon
3x Pak 36
2x Armored Car Platoons
2x 88s
The Brits had something like:
3x Infantry Platoons
3x Scout Platoon
1x Armored Car Platoon
Crusaders
Portee Anti-Tank Guns
Portee AA
Sporadic Air (intercept only)
We rolled off to see who would be on the road and it was Serge. So I choose a motor platoon as my target and an infantry platoon for my ambuscade. Crusaders and armored cars were taken as the escorts. The British army was basically allot of smaller equal sized platoons so there was no obvious target. My thinking was that I could take the anti tank guns and kill the crusaders or the infantry and kill an infantry platoon. I figured that it would be allot easier to kill the anti tank guns which would be stuck un-supported for a bit so I went the infantry way. Also I figure 2 88s can kill some stupid crusaders!
So here we are after deployment just before the ambuscade is fired. The motor rifle platoon is in their trucks as required by the scenario, they all die.
The armored cars move up as a recon move and then again to get into position against my anti-tank guns. 2 platoons come in from reserve for the brits with the racing to the resuce rule and the portee AA comes to face my guns and a scout platoon hide behind the village on the other side. The armored cars can't do much but the guns are likewise ineffective as they moved. The crusaders moved up but are behind a ridge line so the 88s can't see them. On my turn I got in some armored cars and advanced up a HMG platoon.
Turn 2 the british race in some portee anti-tank guns and another scout platoon on the other side. The frist set of scouts join the crusaders cowering behind the ridge like cowards. The armored cars and AA guns all move forward and try to kill my anti-tank guns but don't manage to get past my gun shield. One crusader moved to get a hard shot on a 222 armored car and killed it. I got another reserve and choose the small HMG platoon. I move all the HMGs and along with a few shots from the infantry platoon all the AA trucks are killed. The anti-tank guns fire on the cars and get one kill, then storm trooper back so they can't get around to the side avoiding my gun shield. I moved my armored cars up hoping to tempt the crusaders into playing ball. The planes also showed up this turn and promptly got shot down by the 88s, this happened a few times before we realized they were air interception only hah. Explains why they are onlt 25 points!
Turn 3 the brits decide to become allot more conservative. So most things pull back, and get out of range of the 88s, but 1 crusader breaks down. I got 2 reserves again and bring in more armored cars and my other infantry platoon mounted. Most other stuff pushes forward, so time to start going for objectives. The brits are down to 1 platoon a turn for reserves now and put a motor rifle platoon in the town on the left.
The brits bring a scout platoon up the road and really cut up my first infantry platoon that had moved. I took my anti-tank guns up on the hill to counter this but they all miss sadly. Most other stuff advances, my armored cars are in a fight with 1 crusader which is not great. The scouts finally exposed them selves a tiny bit so the 88s murder one of them.
Next turn the brits keep up the pressure on my infantry. The scouts tuck in by the hill and fire another volley at my infantry but they are hanging in there. The one crusader moves into the open and tries to finish off my first armored car platoon, but promptly gets taken out by the 88s who are eager to shoot anything at all by this point, the rest of the crusaders cower behind rocks. My other armored cars follow suit. My guns take another crack at those scouts but only kill one. and are left badly exposed. The brits circle the wagons to defend the objectives with fire from outside the 88s range.
Final turn, the scouts by the green hill cross over and murder my guns from the side finally. Another set does a good number on my big HMG platoons, the small one had been killed by the cars awhile ago. The portee anti-tank guns blow up my armored cars by the green hill, leaving 1 alive. I moved everything onto the objective since time was out. My platoon of 3 armored cars fire into the motor rifles in trucks and got a few kills but nothering to serious, and all the infantry moved into range. I put the solitary 222 on the other objective. That is where we ended it.
I am on both the objectives but they can both easily be contested. So this is really a meat grinder to see who reaches and fails a company morale test first. So we decided it was a draw due to running out of time.
I enjoyed this scenario which feels a good bit different to some of the other ones. Has lots of movement which is really good. In retrospect I am not sure I made the right choice leaving the crusaders alive to run rampant. But even if I keep my choice to go for the infantry I should have put my platoon much closer to the objective. The 88s were cool but I really felt the loss of the Panzer 3s which are amazing so I don't think they are worth it personally.
Thanks;
MIke
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