Lorraine Campaign - club day

Howdy folks,

We had the first turn of our latest campaign down at the club a couple of weeks ago...we're trying out the Firestorm Lorraine Campaign.  I know I'm a little late on posting as Mike's battle report and Duncan's report are already online.  We'll call it fashionably late...

Anyhow, turn 1 came upon us and I was assigned one of the battle zones...all I knew was that my foe was my buddy Bernhard and that I would not be defending against a river crossing.  Kind of wish I was because of all the cool extra kit that would have come with it...HMG nests, fortified positions, minefields...you know cool stuff.

As it was, Bernhard arrived with a new force that he had done up solely for this campaign...I was not nearly as decisive as I had upwards of a dozen lists made up to "help" me decide.  In the end I chose an SS Pioneercompany with MG-42's in the headquarters element (chopped those out as a Kampgruppe to the 2ic), 2 pioneer combat platoons, 1 SS tank platoon (4 x PzIV) in support, and 1 SS assault gun platoon (3 x Stug) also in support.  For my firestorm reinforcement I received a tank hunter platoon.  I knew that my opponent was going to have infantry and artillery for his Firestorm and thought that Pioneer troops would be a good fit for their numbers and tank assault ability...I was kind of expecting a horde of Shermans to appear.  The platoon of PzIV's and Stug's were because I really really like heavy metal...and I thought I would need the anti tank as well as the PzIV's machine guns would have made nice work out of infantry assaults.

Bernhard on the other hand was very decisive and chose an American Tank Destroyer company with Blood and Guts Patton himself leading the charge.  This is a very daring force...great anti-tank ability, little to no armour, and Patton!! Patton allows any platoon within line of sight to make a spearhead movement after deployment, before first turn up to the full distance that platoon can move...for the TD's this meant that they were able to move another 16 inches closer to me...ouch!!

It was a very good game, Bernhard played well, I did not...and I also had sewered dice (observation, not an excuse)...the TD's did a great job and Patton worked them like dogs...by the end of their second turn the objective was in hand and I could not contest...game very well played to the Americans.

As we had time, we followed up with a quick battle...Bernhard's TD's and I pulled out a Tiger Company...this was fun, different flow as Bernhard was much more conservative, but in the end he still had 2-3 platoons of AT 13 against 5 tanks...next time I'll see if my dice rolling is better.

Anyhow, here are the pics...enjoy.

First game...for the Lorraine Campaign

View from 2nd German objective...Pioneers and Stugs

 

Deployment from the German view...

Deployment overview...US on the top, Germans on the bottom...

US spearhead moves...TD's get to move up to the centreline 

 

The enemy...

US gets first turn to shoot...Panzers gutted...not feeling very fearless, the remaining PzIV leaves the field...this would be a common trend amongst my troops

Turn 2...you can see the TD's at the top of the pic...objective in hand...Stug's taking hits...they would also fail their motivation to hang around

 

Game 2 was just a pickup game to see how the TD's would do against the very threat they were created to combat...

Deployment overview

View from the US side...damn good looking Tigers...I'm glad to get them on the table again, its been a while for them.

View of the US troops...speaking of looking good...there's Patton...

Tigers prowling...

Couple of turns in...Tigers went on the prowl...Bernhard did a great job of keeping out of line of sight...middle of the field would prove epic for one of my platoons.

Scouts racing in to the objective...I kinda knew that I was throwing them away at this point...but went with this nonetheless

Good job of keeping TD's out of line of sight...

View towards the right flank...

Exchanging shots...

Tiger gambit...3 M18 TD's bearing down, they take out one tank...during my turn, I have the choice to move out of view and shoot OR stay, use full ROF, in this case 3 shots when stationary (thank you Tiger Ace)...I chose to stay stationary and scored 2 kills for 3 shots...this platoon would fail motivation and leave the field...

 

Just before the Tiger gambit...M18's move to the Tigers, Stuarts move to counter the scouts...

Right flank does not improve...game ended with Bernhard winning (lost 1 platoon) and I ended up losing 2 platoons (Tiger and scouts)