Saturday 31 January 2015

AAR: 51st HD vs Hermann Göring Fallschirmpanzerdivision - Part 1

I had the chance to get along to the Carluke and Law Wargames club on Saturday for the first time in a few months. I've been slowly chipping away painting wise (slow progress is still progress!) but feel I sometimes need to play some games to get me actually going. We agreed on 1750pts.

One issue I had was building an army that included unpainted mini's (to spur me on to paint them) - mainly because I've very few things that are assembled and unpainted. I didn't feel I had the time to properly prepare and assemble anything else. As such, I decided to use stand in's - with YD's permission.


I used two Churchill AVsRE to represent two Churchill Crocodiles and 4 x 25-pdrs to represent some 4.2" Mortars. I also cracked open the Forged in Battle Loyds Carriers that are next in the painting queue and a blister pack of Wasp Universal Carriers. 

My army list ended up looking like this:

PlatoonQtyUnitPoints
Headquarters
Rifle Company HQ (51st) p.143
1
1
1
Cmd Rifle team
Cmd Rifle Bagpiper team
Troop Carrier
40
Combat Platoons
Rifle Platoon (51st) p.144
1
1
1
6
2
Cmd Rifle/MG team
PIAT team
Light Mortar team
Rifle/MG team
Defrocked Priest APC
160
Rifle Platoon (51st) p.144
1
1
1
6
2
Cmd Rifle/MG team
PIAT team
Light Mortar team
Rifle/MG team
Defrocked Priest APC
160
Rifle Platoon (51st) p.144
1
1
1
6
2
Cmd Rifle/MG team
PIAT team
Light Mortar team
Rifle/MG team
Defrocked Priest APC
160
Warrior
Captain John Treleaven (51st) Fearless  Veteran   p.58
1Captain John Treleaven80
Weapons Platoons
Carrier Platoon (51st) p.145
3Wasp Carrier105
Pioneer Platoon (51st) p.146
1
1
3
2
Cmd Pioneer Rifle team
15 cwt truck
Pioneer Rifle team
Jeep with trailer
80
Mortar Platoon (51st) p.147
1
1
3
6
6
Cmd Rifle team
Troop Carrier
Observer Rifle team
ML 3" Mk II Mortar
Mortar Carrier
160
Brigade Support
Machine-gun Platoon (51st) p.149
1
1
4
4
Cmd Rifle team
Troop Carrier
Vickers HMG
MMG Carrier
155
Heavy Mortar Platoon (51st) p.149
1
1
2
4
4
Cmd Rifle team
Observer Rifle team
Troop Carrier
ML 4.2" Mortar
Loyd Carrier
140
Support Platoons
Crocodile Tank Platoon Confident  Trained   p.157
2Churchill Crocodile265
Infantry Anti-tank Platoon, Royal Artillery (51st) p.154
1
1
4
4
Cmd Rifle team
Troop Carrier
OQF 17 pdr gun
M5 half-track
230

A very flamey list! I really did try to go for an assault list to try and get out of my usual play style. I figured the inclusion of Captain John Treleaven would let me have a platoon that passed motivation on a 3+ - a useful inclusion for my Reluctant Vet Jocks.

The three infantry platoons would give me staying power. The mortars to provide smoke and pinning. Pioneers for extra assault oomph (and another flamethrower!!!). Machine guns because I like the dinky little MG carriers (and their pinning bombardment ability) and 17-pdrs because the only other anti tank capability on the list consisted of some PIAT's and the 75mm guns on the Crocodiles. I included the half-tracks and transports for all the platoons as I didn't know what mission we would be playing. And the mobility element has been part of the Operation Totalize theme for my Jocks from the beginning.

Young David went for a list from Fortress Italy:


From memory this included 2 artillery guns (105's?) + spotter and command, 2 PaK 40's, 4 Panzer IV's (2 long and 2 short barreled). a Tiger, two SPG half tracks, three Infantry platoons and a 2 gun MG42 platoon. Half-tracks for the HQ platoon and for one of the infantry platoons were also included but not in the pictures.  




Apologies for the picture quality - they don't don YD's figures justice! I was taking the pics on my Ipad for the first time and from a funny angle - resulting in them being upside down and with my shadow on them.

We set up a quick table and rolled for a mission. We ended up with Fighting Withdrawal, and as I had the Crocodiles in my list I was on 'Always Attacks' and YD was defending.

YD set up first and elected not to have anything in ambush. I deployed second - feeling a little cramped and aware that the dreaded FoW parking lot game table was becoming apparent.

My plan was to aim for the objective on my right, using the hill and other cover to close before flaming my troops in. Using the mortars for pinning and smoke are required. On the left I would keep the pressure on with an infantry platoon and the MG platoon, hold the center with an infantry platoon that could also go right should I need them... and generally use the 17-pdrs to screen as much of my force as possible while dealing with the dreaded big cat!




And the plan (sorry, it's just using MS paint and isn't very clear):


But as part 2 will reveal... no plan survives first contact with the enemy!


8 comments:

  1. Hmmm, I'm predicting some heavy casualties with open ground in key areas and your need to get to close quarters with another tough looking infantry company. Looking forward to hearing how it all went down!

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  2. Looks spectacular J,
    I like the new overdrawn plan info!

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  3. Thanks guys, part 2 coming shortly!

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  4. He has a lot of minimum platoons there. I hope you focused fire on them to force them out of the game? Two gun arti batteries are pretty much just smoke machines. Looking forward to the next part!

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    Replies
    1. Dai, I think we both have issues with the bulk of most FoW German lists. Especially in late war where things are always full strength and come in 4's without the option for only 1 or 2 tank platoons. It's part of the cornyness of the FoW rules. You just have to look at all the AAR's out there where the Germans can field as much armour late war as the western allies. Of better quality and with better morale and special rules. No breakdowns or battle losses in these German lists, they all have perfect ToE's! Anyway, the only small platoon I was determined to get rid of was that bloody tiger!!!

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    2. Ach! I'm glad it's not just me thinking that. To see LW FoW on the table you'd never think the Allies could have won...

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  5. just about to read part 2.

    Rather pleasingly, on the blogrolls of others, this appears simply as "AAR: 51st HD vs Hermann Göring". Nice.

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