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Noville Bastogne's Outpost Camaign Game 2 - Tigers in the Mist AAR

Joined
Sep 15, 2013
Messages
238
Points
28
Okay this is a big scenario, Due to post limits I'll put this over a couple!

First up I'll write up an outline of how it ran and then add more details with some pictures...

The Americans deployed covering their western flank completely and the two roads converging from the north with all their vehicles between these two areas. The eastern buildings of Noville were left undefended they were furthest from the German entry points so could be occupied later if the Germans ‘went for them’.

The Germans entering from the north manoeuvred to capture Noville’s eastern group of buildings whilst those on the ridge attacked the north west corner of the defences and those entering from the west edge tried to advance directly east into the town.

Things went wrong for the Germans from turn two, their Marder I was knocked out and a couple of their infantry squads were shaken, the US forces just kept passing until the Germans were done and then they opened up so suffered little as they hadn’t been spotted. A great defensive tactic where the attacker is on a timetable and can't risk three passes in a row, it basically continued for the whole game!

Turn three were the Germans lost a Tiger and a Panzer IV and several more of their infantry units were shaken whilst none that had been shaken had rallied. One Yank M4 was hit but not destroyed the crew abandoning the vehicle, the M7 crew was shaken too. Most of the American foot units were keeping up good fire on the Germans while four redeployed to cover the unoccupied buildings in the eastern end of town.

Turn four the Germans were stuffing as their infantry with only a 4 rally factor continued to fail their rally attempts and they were unable to advance without taking accurate American fire in the open, the armour was proving ineffective and the ‘Rocketman’ after destroying a Tiger hit the Sdkfz 251 shaking its crew. Their STUG support infantry were stuck and a few squads supported by the remaining tiger continued to head for the eastern end of Noville.

Turn five again the German shaken units failed to rally! They now had more shaken infantry units than Good order ones! Only a single squad rallied in their eastern assault group thanks to their Medic! But at last they had success both the American 57mm ATGs were knocked out and the M3 crew failed their morale a second time and abandoned their vehicle, in light of this the remaining foot soldiers pushed forward toward the western edge of Noville. The American defensive fire broke yet more German infantry all of those that started on the ridge line were now shaken! The STUGs fired ineffectively and the Panther withdrew slightly as the Yanks easy Eight advanced in a north westerly direction.

On turn six the German infantry again failed to rally! On the eastern edge of the town they were bogged down just a hex from their first objective they had; infantry in buildings to their front, a 50 cal WT on their flank and an M4 moving up behind them! To add to their woes they lost the last of their armour when an M4 took a rear armour shot and were successful, scratch Tiger two!

On the western edge of town the STUGS took out a Jeep (good MG platform) and the M7 (which caused a STUG to be shaken before it was destroyed) but without good order infantry these German successes couldn't be exploited, in fact the American infantry actually started to counter attack! The lowly M3 crew took out three shaken squads and a leader in a melee! In what turned out to be the last action of turn six the Panther advanced and took out the Yanks Easy Eight (surviving an opportunity fire shot from it as it moved into its LOS).
Turn seven was a non-event really the last German STUG (the other didn't rally!) covered the surviving infantry in the western attack group as they retreated while in the east now armed with a flamethrower a last albeit unsuccessful attack was launched on the buildings of Noville, none were captured.

The German scored no victory points and the Americans got six; 2 Tigers, 1 Pz IV and a Marder I KO’d!

Both players personal Heroes died in action so will be replaced next game. As the winners the Americans carried over a now hardened 1-6-5/5 with MG into the next game and as the one from game one survived this battle too they now will have a two squad bonus in game three!

Some pictures with descriptions these were generally taken at the end of the turn with markers removed…also you'll notice great variations in the picture quality this was played ver two sessions and one was part daylight part artifilcle light!

The game overall, Germas in blue Americans in green; the boxes are starting positions, full coloured arrows were turn 1 - 5 moves and the white outlined arrows were turns 5 - 7 moves. NSR base was four getting to a maximum of seven it didn't get below the base value.
Campaign%20Map_zpsl2pwdjfh.jpg

The USA set up the most of the vehicles were placed centrally so they could move to either end of the town
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Turn 2 Germans northern units taking a long detour to the eastern end of the town, their Marder I has already been KO’d. Also note one of the Yanks M4s has been abandon by its crew after a tiger shell hit it but failed to destroy it!
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Turn 3 The Germans have lost their Pz IV to a 57mm ATG and the Panther now shares it hex the panther has acquired one of the ATGs and the US M7 has been shaken by infantry fire! The German infantry are stuck behind the hedges for the moment and the number of shaken units is starting to mount! The STUGs attempted spotting rolls unsuccessfully!
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Turn 3 Scratch one Tiger! Private Wayne’s bazooka scored a hull hit with 7 and the rolled 4 (4+3=7) and the tiger rolled a 1 91+4=5) ouch the crew did not survive. He survived the turn as the German halftrack and squad fired on the other US hero with a Satchel Charge in T6, the squad under the Medic was broken and he survived the fire from the German Hero in W6 who didn’t advance as just off the ‘south’ edge of this picture there was a 50cal team just itching for him to do just that!
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Turn 4 The Americans got the initiative so Private Wayne hit the Sdkfz 251 with his trusty bazooka but just shook the crew, It retired (blue arrow) so Kelly couldn’t take it out he instead took on the Germans in U4 in a melee! The other two blue arrows show the movements taken by the German flanking force and the Americans redeploying in the town…
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Turn 4 Kelly takes out a German squad easily but they rolled ‘Box Cars’ Kelly goes down but with the bodies of 10 Krauts surrounding him…
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Turn 4 on the western side of Noville the German infantry Low crawl forward while the STUGs duel with the M7 and the ATG. The fear American small arms fire is keeping the krauts on their belies and slowing them down!
06%20TitM%20DG2_zpsehbxosdw.jpg
 
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Joined
Sep 15, 2013
Messages
238
Points
28
Turn 5 to the northwest of town it’s a disaster for the Germans ALL their squads have been shaken now! The panther is now feeling very lonely! The German units pummelled the M3 causing its crew to bail out but then revealed the Yanks hosed them! Sorry about the occasional blurry picture the gloss board rules out flashes or bright lights!
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Turn 5 east Noville the Germans edge forward and a hero tries to capture a victory building but a wound stops him in his tracks! Due to infantry losses there just aren’t enough bodies available to the Germans! The ‘4’ morale of these troops when shaken isn’t helping their position!
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Turn 5 on the west side of Noville the German infantry were roundly ‘beaten up’ while the STUGs duelled with the American M7!
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Turn 5 and in the north east sector the shaken Germans flee as the Americans counter attack!
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Turn 6 the M3 crew catches up with the fleeing and demoralised German’s it’s a bloodbath I suspect there were many prisoners taken!
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Turn 6 the last of the German armour supporting the attack on eastern Noville loses the second Tiger is taken out with a hit on its side hull armour! BOOM! This is while Private Wayne takes out the shaken half track crew and its passengers.
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Turn 6 and the Panther scores a kill! The East Eight had an opportunity shot but it missed the mark!
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Turn 6 to the northeast of Noville the Germans flee as the Americans emerge from the town!
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Turn 7 the final positions in the east the Germans there too fail to enter the town.
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The next game 'Here Comes the Sun' looks even bigger than this! The German's have some real kick ass equipment in it but the Americans have 'God with them'!!!!!!
 
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Rydo

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Wow! A lot of work was put into this.

Great AAR and nice detailed pictures.

Now gaming time: How the hell were the germans so bad? They were basically butchered, not a single success. Probably they stayed too much in the open and not used the armours as cover. Also they stacked too much squads into a single hex, three squads and a leader stacked togeter in the open when they were frontal assaulting defended positions? Madness. The best way for the germans is to spread but stay close to each other.

The german player was not an expert or played to let the US win, no way.

BTW thank you for this and I'll wait for the next one! Let's just hope this time the german player use his forces better.

RIP Kelly :(
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2013
Messages
238
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Hey Rydo,

Thanks! I think I went overboard with this AAR I need to get somewhere between the Roadblock one and this, I don't usually do AAR's for board games I do it all the time when I play miniatures games though, odd that!

No favouritism here it's FtF and Dave tried but it wasn't his day. I think his plan wasn't the best he spread his forces too thin, plus I won the initiative turns 2 to 4 and got the NSR up to 7 early in the game leaving his infantry in view and ripe for the picking by my MGs. Once they were shaken he found rallying these '4' morale squads with average leaders and little plus modifier terrain was pretty hard.

I can't remember the actual name of the infantry/armour moving together rule (think its in the HotB Module Rules hopefully now in 4.1 Standard Rules) and we went through that before starting but with bog down checks for this situation its really only good along roads and there's so few of them and so much open ground. Anyway he has promised to avenge this loss next game...actually I think he's probably fearing another failure means a transfer to the Russian Front :woot:...

The German character Hero died too, Trenkwitz so both of us start with new guys next game, incidentally the scenario USA Hero i.e. the Rocketman came through the battle unscathed pity I can't carry him over to the next game!

Cheers!
 
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