FoW game, 28/9/13

I'm not going to do a massive battle report this time round, mainly because the game went on for quite a while and I didn't take pics as regularly as I normally do.

A quick run down is that we decided to play a meeting engagement again, with YD using much the same force - with the addition this time round of a Machine Gun platoon and halftracks to tow his Pak40's. I went with the army list I posted on Friday night.

YD this time round made sure his Nebelwerfers and infantry were on the table at the start, brining his tanks on later. I did much the same, deploying my non mobile stuff first and bringing on the mobile units as reserves. This meant that other than a few nasty bombardments from my mortars and his Neb's, not much happened for the first few turns.

Eventually the tanks all came on, with my Shermans dying to Panzer IV fire before they could make any impact. This left me with only my 2 remaining 6 pounder anti tank guns (24" range vs his tanks 36" range) and my Typhoon - which became a problem as most of his tanks were within 16" of my forces.

The Typhoon proved useful in keeping the Nebs pinned for most of the game, and took out a couple of tanks. However I think either more Shermans or the 17 Pounders would have been of more use. I found my ability to deal with the Panzer IV's to be really lacking.

As the game went on both of our platoons started to vanish - I started to suffer from the reluctant status of my men, with several turns passing where most of my army was pinned and refused to unpin. My Defrocked priests attempted to deliver their infantry via the centre of the table, avoiding the Panzers. However YD's Pak40's and then command panzerfaust team had them bail and unload their troops (rules query - if the armored transport team is just bailed, do you still roll to see if the passengers are destroyed?). One of these platoons rallied magnificently and assaulted across the center of the table - destroying at least two platoons before the last surviving squad bottled it.

On the left YD's Panzers spent most of the game shooting up a pinned down infantry platoon and my MMG carriers/teams that had tried to zoom round the flank to reach the objective.

On the right I managed to use my Pioneers with Typhoon support to take out the Pak40 platoon (first use of a flame thrower, hurrah!). We both reached a point we had to take a company motivation test, with me failing first (although we then realised YD should have been taking them on a couple of previous turns...!) . A loss for me and a well deserved win for YD - him having a untouched platoon of Panzer IV's on the table and the other platoon at half strength.

Lessons learned for me were the need for more anti tank support and perhaps a better appreciation for having the 25 pounders. YD made great used of his tanks, keeping them working together and making brilliant use of the stormtrooper move.

One of our hardest fought games so far. Great fun and as ever with YD, brilliant sportsmanship.

Saturdays Army

Just a quick blog about my musings for the game tomorrow. Another 1500pt game versus Young David.

I'm in a bit of a quandary with this one as I want to use my Typhoon but I know it will be quite a variable on the table. I have also pre-warned YD to give him a chance to field some flak.

Sooooo.....

Command Squad (with Piper and Universal Carrier)     40pts

Infantry Platoon (3 squads with De-frocked Priests transport)    160pts

Infantry Platoon (3 squads with De-frocked Priests transport)    160pts

Infantry Platoon (3 squads) 140pts

Machine Gun Platoon (4 Vickers MMG squads with MMG Carriers)     155pts

Anti Tank Platoon (4 x 6 Pounder A/T guns with Loyds Carriers)     130pts

Tank Troop (3 x Sherman I's and 1 x Sherman Firefly)     275pts


Mortar Platoon (6 x 3" Mortars with carriers) 160pts

Pioneer Platoon  75pts

Priority Air Support  220pts

Total: 1515pts

I think I may regret not having the 17 pounders this time, but I want to play with my aeroplane! Still no recon units painted - they had been next on the list, but the flail tanks were closer so I've started on them.

Defrocked Priest Decals (Strike again)

So after painting my defrocked priests with formation badges from the British 3rd Infantry Division and the 11th Armored Division... I realised these were wrong!

"The first Kangaroos were converted from 102 M7 Priest self-propelled guns of three field artillery regiments of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division who were involved in the initial assault on 6 June 1944. These were no longer needed, as these regiments were re-equipped with towed 25 pounder guns in late July. At a field workshop (codenamed Kangaroo, hence the name) they were stripped of their 105mm guns, the front aperture welded over, then sent into service carrying twelve troops. They were first used on 8 August 1944 during Operation Totalize south of Caen to supplement the half-tracks available." - Wiki

And

"Four Canadian artillery units - the 12th, 13th and 14th Field Regiments of the 3rd Division and the 19th Army Field Regiment - had exchanged their 25-pounders for Priests in the fall of 1943 as part of their equipment for Overlord. The time was now ripe, with the 3rd Division withdrawn from the line for a well deserved rest, for the three divisional regiments to exchange their borrowed guns for towed 25-pounders as part of a program to re-equip the field regiments of 21st Army Group. (The 12th and 13th Field Regiments began to turn in their Priests on 1 August, followed by the 14th Field Regiment on 3 August...."

"On 31 July Crerar had anticipated that the Americans would agree and had directed Brigadier Grant to be prepared to convert the SP guns to armoured infantry carriers by 9 August, although this date was later moved forward to 6 August." - No Holding Back

So my vehicles should have the markings of 12th, 13th and 14th Field Regiments of the Canadian army - part of 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. I found the formation sign here.

Using a scalpel I carefully removed the formation signs from last night and attempted to match the color of the Divisional sign above.

Not a great picture, but I tried to match the color and used German camo beige to do the maple leaf shape.

The sad bit is my realization that the Canadian's used differed WD numbers than the British army. Basically the same numbers, but with the letter C in front of them. So....

Yeah. I may need help....