Date | Reporter | | Opponent | Bal. | Result | Comments |
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2024-02-28 | (A) Ruben Dario Silva | vs | Abastar | | German / Italian win | In Turn 1 the British went out with the mass of their force and leave only the MMG, the Mortars and 1 1/2 squads to stop the italian force, The Italians moves outside the LOS triing to flank at South and using the Woods to avoid be shooted.
At Turn 2 the majority of British forces were in the village, and splitted to the Nort and Center, the germans covered both exits, and tried to make progress slower.
At Turn 3 the germans took Height 610 with their armoured cars an tried to push the British to the North, and from this point start to punish every advance of the Red Devils.
From that point with some lucky the germans, they managed to slow their advance speed by creating a buffer to the north of the hill until the tanks arrived and overcame the Street Fighting of the forces that remained in the village. On turn 6 the british granted the game beeing bagged between forces. |
2023-06-10 | (A) fabrizio da pra | vs | Maurizio Grassi | | German / Italian win | |
2021-03-08 | (A) Ulric Schwela | vs | Erik Grande | | German / Italian win | The British made a strong bid for exit, with both the 10-2 and the 9-2 leaders each going for it together with 3 squads, and covered by a rear guard around the airfield. (so the same start as the earlier report, plus a further three squads with the 8-0!) Four squads, MMG and 8-1 remained as a protective screen for the mortar providing long range support.
Italians came in from southeast as the safer option, looking to put someone in a 1st floor position to help enforce FtR on the hill later; through the game the Italian commander (me!) was very confused and kept changing orders, one turn pushing at the British, then running west to join the hill fight, then pushing back to the airfield again, it tore the Italian force in two which turned out fine; the Italians were relatively lucky, one LMG squad getting KIAd in an olive grove, the rest never breaking despite cautiously pushing into the face of a Para HS skirmish line. In hindsight should have run all the MG units straight to the hills, looking to help interdict Para movement.
The big mortar managed to drop a well placed smoke round on the hill, but HE rounds could never find their mark. The 10-2 stack started well, vapourising the first 548 squad on the hilltop they came across, shooting Sten guns from the hips while running and still hitting every German between the eyes (1KIA), very cinematic. The 9-2 was less brave, apparently disgruntled with the quality of the tea that morning, and ran back to a house with his men to have a good moan. German 9-1 had his own problems trying to lead a 548+LMG squad who preferred to regroup in woods behind the crest line.
By turn 3 it looked dire on the hill for the Axis, with five strung out squads attempting to hold a line against the bulk of the bloodthirsty Red Devils: two in Crest positions in the northern gully, three in reverse slope positions on the hilltop, so as not to get slotted by Frost; the two AC put pedal to the metal up the hills and parked in enfilading positions out of sight of the mortar, the SPW getting troops as fast as possible to bolster the thin green FSJ line. Then it all fell apart for the British, they couldn't make headway. The two AC managed to get in 2MC and 1MC shots on the paras' progress, and with awful MC rolls the result was a Pinned Frost and four broken squads across several hexes, all past the enfilading line of PSW in the south and LMG in the far north. One squad was able to rout away, another eliminated for FtR, two had to rout forwards into the woods next to concealed Germans, which the German was able to surround and capture the next turn despite intensive fire from the mortar. With only seven Para squads left to punch through and over the hill, against six German squads and several vehicles, and with no safe rout paths, it was no longer a viable proposition and Frost folded, with only 2 CVP having been scored. A tough result, but it could easily have swung the other way during that pivotal turn, leaving the German to attempt a mad scramble to stop the exit. Definitely replayable with different exit and combat strategies. |
2021-03-01 | (D) Øyvind Jacobsen Bjørkås | vs | Eivind | | German / Italian win | The British made a strong bid for exit, with both the 10-2 and the 9-2 leaders each going for it together with 3 squads, and covered by a rear guard around the airfield. The rearguard easily held the Italians at bay. The big mortar however got killed by a sniper and never fired a shot. The 10-2 stack lost one squad on its way across the valley in the middle but picked up a hero, performed a heroic infantry OVR against Sgt Fritz (8-1) who tossed a DC on them while they approached, surviving and managing to be ready for exit, while the 9-2 together with two squads tried to move around to the north, but had to take a 17-2 shot which only one squad survived. So only 9 possible exit points after round 5 and a concession. Great game! |
2021-02-19 | (A) Andy Bagley | vs | Neil Brunger | | German / Italian win | Talk about close! The Brits failed to exit, but could have won had they achieved 30 CVPs. They managed 29! I probably made a mistake in over-committing the Italians, who had little effect on slowing the British movement west, and simply gave them some easy CVPs. I also lost a halftrack to a freak shot, but otherwise was able to defend the hill successfully to prevent a British escape.
Great scenario with lots of movement and decisions for both sides. My only reservation is that I can think of a British strategy that I reckon would be very hard for the Germans to stop. I'll have to try it sometime. |
2020-09-30 | (D) Richard Jenulis | vs | Mark Pandori | | British win | Very fun scenario with a lot of replay value. I would take either side. My opponent was very aggressive with the Italians early in the game. The British won of CVP on the last turn with a critical hit on an armored car. VASL 6.6.0 was a bit problematic. Some of the British units disappeared from my opponents view. This would be a big problem in a tournament game. |
2020-09-01 | (D) Chuck Dye | vs | kevin killeen | | British win | |
2020-01-30 | (D) Will Willow | vs | E. Denniston | | German / Italian win | VASL |
2019-03-30 | (D) Tom Kearney | vs | Dave Stevens | | British win | Played at the “Where the Iron Crosses Grow” tournament. I left a small British detachment to delay the Italians and sent the bulk of the force toward the German occupied hill. A fierce fight developed with the British coming out on top with the CVP victory condition. |
2017-12-17 | (A) Ron Garcia | vs | Darryl M. | | British win | |
2015-11-14 | (D) X von Marwitz | vs | Peter Hofland | | British win | An unusual scenario. The British set up around an airfield and have to make it off the board vs entering Germans with at least 10 VP. Alternately, they can inflict 30 CVP on the Germans/Italians.
The British force is extremely well led (10-2 and 9-2) among them, and it consists solely of 648s making it extremely tough. Italians enter from the back while small forces of Germans in the form of some infantry, some ht's and AC's and of a small tank force enter as reinforcements. The Axis moves first.
Obviously, the Axis will try to contain the breakout while the British will try to push through before the German restistance stiffens. The hilly terrain on the exit map edge is such, that it makes redeployment and shifting of German forces difficult. An interesing question is what to do with the 10 Italian squads. They can't even stand up to a fraction of the British force. So shall they try to harass the British when they evacuate the airfield and stay on their heels or should they just hunker down in force in some stone-buildings for mutual self-protection just in case the British decide to be cocky and try to slaughter them for the CVP.
In my game I had the British and I „ran“ for it with 3 leaders, 10 squads and almost all light SW. Two leaders the 76*MTR and the MMG stayed back to keep the Italians in check. The Italians tried to bypass the British in force on the board edge which could partly be delayed. A small force of Italians behind and in a tree-line was annihilated by the British. To the front, the Germans made a clever move by rushing some entering infantry reinforcements into the Gully which would be able to fire in my back when trying to move up the front slope. That unhinged my plan on where to move and I had to shift more into the middle. When doing so, my 10-2 was caught by an evil roll of 1.5 FP while dashing. RS got him and he became wounded... (The third scenario in a row where 10-2 supposedly King-Kongs weren't performing...)
The shift of the line of advance played into the German hands as the way for his reinforcements to block my was was shorter. My opponent did a very good job of covering the „plateaus“ with fire while staying out of LOS of my troops at lower level. It was to no avail, I had to brave it. Quite a cauldron of death developed with bitter fighting in which most of the British were slaughtered. I tried to dispatch an AC with no less than 3 DCs but without success. The thing had ROF from hell and killed everything that came close. Both ATRs could not penetrate even the thin-skinned vehicles except for one ht. As things stood, I would not be able to even reach the map edge. I realized that I had better taken a fourth leader towards the exit and the wound of the 10-2 was sorely felt.
With exit seeming more difficult, I looked at the chances for the CVP win. Some Italians had been despatched. One ht was destroyed and a few German unit killed. I resolved to try to push towards the board-edge nevertheless but to actively seek out some broken Italians scattered in the rear and to hunt those trying to reinforce the Germans. When going for the CVP cap, British casualties would be less of an issue nor would be the necessity to move.
Now the high morale of the British began to tell. With even the German tanks moving in from the rear, things looked grim. But killing the Brits was no easy business and they kept shooting back. Maybe a bit unthinking, the Germans presented stationary tanks in the 76 MTR LOS. Still hard to get them that way, but I had it on my mind while the German probably did not think of the threat. While the killing of the Italians took up speed, I got a CH with the MTR on one of the tanks (after missing anohter) for a Shock. How my hope was rising. The Shock turned into a UK and calculating my CVP inflicted, I concluded I would have it pretty safely in the bag if, well, if the UK tank would die. My opponent did begin to become more aware of the threat of losing Italians but did not realize how acute his potential problem already was.
Meanwhile, my exit force was mostly slaughtered with various SW strewn about. Only the 9-2 and three 648s with one LMG were still alive and kicking. The Germans moved ADJACENT from four hexes, I could inflict some casualties before the whole stack broke but was able to rout away through the gully and to reach a woods gully hex out of LOS. There, those die hards all rallied...
Now the most important roll for me... The UK tank died! A DC placed on a broken Italian squad in the back area did not kill it but it would be chased to the upper level of a rowhouse location with adjacent British moving in for the capture. The British rear-guard of one 8-1, a 648+MMG had chased another Italian squad and moved in for CC to kill it.
Calculating CVP, it turned out I had made it past 30 for the win.
It was an extremely tense and exciting game. The overall situation is unusual. It differed quit a bit from a previous playing in which I had the defending Germans/Italians. In that game hardly a shot was fired for the first 4.5 turns. This playing had a lot more action. |
2015-10-30 | (A) X von Marwitz | vs | Chris Hofland | | German / Italian win | I had the Germans/Italians in this one. Our game was mostly one of positioning. Hardly a shot was fired before turn 5. In turn 6, the sides clashed and it became apparent, that the British would not have enough VPs for exiting in time. |
2014-04-05 | (D) Rich Weiley | vs | Dave Wilson | | British win | Paddington Bearz - April 2014. |
2014-03-08 | (D) Ian Morris | vs | Sam Prior | | German / Italian win | |
2013-10-28 | (D) Paolo Cariolato | vs | Bruno Nitrosso | | British win | |
2013-06-15 | (A) fabrizio da pra | vs | Enrico Catanzaro | | German / Italian win | |
2013-06-15 | (D) Davide Bendazzi | vs | Alessandro Demichelis | | German / Italian win | |
2013-04-08 | (D) Davide Bendazzi | vs | Rick Carter | | British win | |
2013-04-08 | (A) Richard Carter | vs | Davide Bendazzi | | British win | We had a great time playing this one. He actually won by CVP. I had to get very aggressive w/ my tanks at the end and he got one w/ a thrown DC and another w/ the ATR. The thrown DC got my 9-1 armor leader. He still might have been able to exit but if those guys had survived those relatively low odds shot it would have made it tough. Great Game |
2013-02-22 | (D) Gordon Jupp | vs | Derek Cox | | German / Italian win | A really interesting scenario with lots of 'replay' potential. Unfortunately I led Lt.Col Frost to an early demise - he broke upon receiving fire first time and was then surrounded by German Armoured cars and eliminated - along with three squads who also all broke at the same time! An ignominious end..still it was good fun! |