The only axis of attack available to the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division was through the villages of Speldrop and Bienen. Speldrop was taken by the end of 24 March but at a high cost in both men and material, providing a taste of things to come. The attack on Bienen began in the fading light of the 24th but was easily repulsed by the Germans. Following a relatively quiet night, the task of attacking the village on 25 March fell to the North Nova Scotia Highlanders. To support this attack, the British command released its remaining armor reserves. Among the Shermans of the 4/7 Dragoon Guards was a section of Wasp flamethrowers.
Attacker: Canadian (C and D Companies, North Nova Scotia Highlanders and B Squadron, 4/7 Dragoon Guards)
Defender: German (Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 24, Fallschirmjäger-Division 8, Panzergrenadier-Regiment 115 and Panzerjäger-Abteilung 33, Panzergrenadier-Division 15)
6.5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: German Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:21.0 D:15.5
AFVs: A:7
Wasp x 2 Sherman III(a) x 2 Sherman III DD(a) x 3
AFVs: D:3
PzKpfw IVJ JgdPz IV x 2
Guns: A:0
OML 2-in. Mortar x 3
D:0
Misc Rules:
Treat Grain as Plowed Ground. All buildings ground level only (Exc: Overlay X27)
Lost too much to German fire on the approach. Lost all my Shermans to German tank fire without a single kill to my credit. The wasps were deadly but not enough to turn the tide.
2014-03-10
(A) Paolo Cariolato
vs
Blind Sniper
German win
2013-11-27
(D) Davide Bendazzi
vs
Daniel Takai
German win
Won at the last Close Combat
2013-11-11
(D) Lee Bray
vs
German win
As the Germans I was facing a pretty strong Canadian force although I had a fairly elite force and a few toys of my own, while the Canadians had to cross a lot of open ground to get to the Victory buildings. I decided to use a fall back defence,into the strong church in the centre of the village, using this as a sort of speed bump to bleed time away from the enemy and slow him sufficently to stop him getting into the NE buildings in time for the win. For the first couple of turns, all went fairly well, with the exception of an AG malfunctioned MA (it never recoevered despite rolling). Then, I made the mistake of trying to hang on to the stone single storey buildings on the west edge of the village and got into trouble losing a couple of squads as prisoners. Simultaneously, one of those evil little wasps took out another AG leaving me with just a one healthy AFV. Things were a bit desperate for a while especially when I realized my OBA observer was illegally placed and we removed him. However he did put some harrassing fire down on the village edge woods (which he would have been able to do had I put him in the church tower as I'd originally planned, so there wasn't too great an illegal impact on the game). This managed to slow the Canadians enough for me to stabilize some sort of defence in the church and get a couple of untis into the NE buildings. In the end the final Canadian rush was blunted by the destruction of all the Shermans and he ran out of time to sieze the required buildings. Another turn or so and it might have been a different story!
2013-11-09
(A) X von Marwitz
vs
Florian Mentl
German win
I wanted to play this one again, this time as the attacking Canadian. As my opponent wanted the same, he got the balance after rolling for sides with took away one PIAT and one MTR of my on-board force. Things weren't going well from the start. I managed to get only a single SMOKE round out of all the three tanks and the (remaining) MTR from the onboard force which surely did not help on the approach to the village. The German used his dummy counters to create two "fake" tanks. I got rid of one of these fakes and was pretty sure about the nature of the other. Alas, I was sorely mistaken: What appeared to be a reasonable risk for my Wasps (one 8+2 attack by infantry) turned out to be not only that but the "fake" tank became real. That was not all of it, though - his 9-2 popped up stacked with a 5-4-8+HMG. End of the story was that both Wasps were recalled to to Stun in turn 2 after having only been able to fire one long range fire shot. The lack of SMOKE and early recall of both Wasps foreshadowed the outcome which was a German win. One highlight for me was the following situation: A Sherman ended up in an unenviable position threatened by one of the German Jagdpanzers. Chances of harming him were very low frontally, so I decided to try to pull out. I managed to have infantry throw smoke in my tank's location first. Before starting in reverse, I went CE to improve the Sherman's chances for a successful sD roll which failed anyway. On my start point, the Jagdpanzer intended to fire. Quite desparate, I came up with the idea of declaring a Gun Duel against his shot. After some referring to the tome, it turned out that his and my modifiers were the same. I rolled lower than him getting of my shot first - to no effect. But I did get away, as he rolled boxcars to malf his gun and managing to miss me despite acquisition. Hehe...
2013-11-01
(D) X von Marwitz
vs
Chris Hofland
German win
A good scenario. One of the challenges for the Canadians is surely the approach across open ground and plowed fields. Thus he has to make good use of the SMOKE making assets at his disposal as to minimize the time lost on the advance to cover. Although the German has 15.5 squad equivalents for his defence, it "feels" like being short on infantry. One of the difficulties for the German is that he has to buy as much time as possible for the end game by delaying the Canadian advance. Unfortunately, TEM for doing this on the outskirts of town is not very good. The Z9 building provides +3 protection but it is exposed and will inevitably fall. Still I think it has to be contested and not yielded for free. The treeline in the west of the town cannot be yielded either. The difficulty here is holding out as long as possible but not getting stuck there being unable to fall back into the town. There is one obvious spot for the German observer of course - the only one with a very good LOS, too. So the German is in a pinch to decide wether to select it and being able to bring down his 80mm MTR OBA quickly to good effect provided that fickle mistress who is OBA plays along... Harrassing Fire can be a good way to plug one "gap" in the frontline or advance path against the Canadians. Since the OBA is directed by Field Phone, there's no moving it. That said, it might not work well for long as the Canadians should surely try to break the observer as soon as possible whereever he might be. Those Wasps are a true pain. If the Germans decide to make a stand somewhere, they can break it in a blink - or at least threaten to which is oftentimes quite as well. When the Canadians reach the town, things will get tougher for the Germans as now the elite troops will be supported by good TEM which makes them hard to harm as long as they are in buildings. While falling back, the German has to be careful not to be caught on the streets. If some of his AFVs survive until this point, the sN can be a valuable asset. In my game I was able to take out the attacking tank force except the Wasps and to delay the attackers for a good while before he could enter the buildings of the town. My observer was unharmed, but I drew to red chits after the OBA did a good job of blocking advances for a while. Within the town, I managed a fall back defense, so my opponent ran out of time to capture enough buildings.
2013-06-14
(D) Chuck Dye
vs
Mark Pingley
Canadian win
2012-12-29
(A) Fred Ingram
vs
Rick Nieznanski
Canadian win
I am fresh back from an ASL day at Steve Etzelmueller's house up in Cedarburg WI. I let my opponent Rick Nieznanski pick the scenario and the side. He wanted to defend in J160 Bienen Burnout, as he would be bringing his kit and could set up before I arrived. Although I looked at the scenario, it was difficult to prepare much without actually seeing his setup.
The first thing I noticed was that the plowed fields make the approach very open and also very slow. Luckily, the Canadians have some smoke assets with the onboard units, which I used to hinder the LOS of his units in 48Z9 victory building. I was then able to armored assault a leader led group of 3 squads up to the building and actually enter it on turn 2. Unfortunately, close combat is unpredictable and I was stuck in melee in that building until turn 5. The remainder of the forces tried to pick their way through the buildings on the extreme southeast flank. They ran into the OBA called in by the field phone in the steeple in 49Y5.
On turn 3, a tank in 48W8 declared an ATT shot against a large concealed stack in 49S4. Before dropping the dice, I casually mentioned that a 2 would be a critical hit. And of course SNAKES was the result. This tank also allows multiple hits with doubles, so my results rolls were 1, 1 and 1, 3. I picked the 1, 1 for a 5KIA. Rick yahtzeed the random selection so the entire stack vaporized.
The off board units entering on board Y also had it slow going. One Sherman was immobilized, and the other infantry units worked their way through the orchards and stone buildings in the middle of the entry area. Any German infantry which decided to fire were then brought to bear under the bounding fire of the two Wasps. As the game was probably designed, these units were able to clear much infantry, allowing the follow up units a way to gain ground quickly. The Wasps are not totally immune to fire (although at 2 hex range a PF shot is pretty tough). The more immediate problem would be the fire against the unbuttoned crew. I suffered 2 pins and a stun throughout the scenario.
So the off board units concentrated on gaining building 49DD8 and closing on the major building (worth 2 VP) with the steeple. The on board at start units concentrated on the melee building previously mentioned as well as closing on 49R6.
The game boiled down to a close combat in the steeple (again for 4 CC rounds) until the 9-2 leader and a squad finally found the fortitude to kill Bob Newhart manning the phone.