WWPD Italian Campaign - NZ Infantry vs FJ's - Breakthrough

Hi everyone and welcome to the first of hopefully many Italian games.

There are many great rivalries in sports, Bath vs Gloucester, Man United vs Man City, and of course myself vs Winner Dave.

This time we knew Italy was at stake, and that we were both likely to try an bring our ‘A’ game – yeah not quite what happened. I arrived at Dave's to find a small village awaiting me

Set up

Having rolled breakthrough I opted to not night attack and still ended up attacking anyway.

Dave deployed an infantry blob in each half with the attached schrek. It appeared early on he was planning to hold one to keep me in place - opposite my deployment area, whilst deploying the other ready to move towards the objectives. He held one marder platoon in reserve. It ended up with the FJ's ready to move towards the objective supported by the marders and nebs only.

Seeing the above weakness I planned to exploit it. I deployed the. 76mm shermans, and 6 pdrs in a place to blast the FJ's opposite with the 25pdrs close by. The mortars were also in the mix for direct smoke after I fired, and the UC's available to lift GtG. I positioned my roos to try and drive into the nebs, keeping the other roo platoon and wasps in reserve to come straight to the objective.

Turn 1
Following a small recce move over the hedge with my carriers I got down to the serious moves. Sadly my air decides to stay away. The Roos start moving towards the nebs and my AOP flies to target them. The  carriers also advance.

The 25pdrs started the shooting, ranging in on the 5th attempt! And not hitting. The 6pdrs and 76mm hit 6 infantry teams killing 2 whilst the mortars fire some smoke

Dave starts moving 1 platoon towards the objectives. His mortars pin the 6pdrs and 25pdrs whilst the marders kill a carrier.

Turn 2

Once again my air support fails to show, the roos continue their advance towards the nebs. The 6pdrs fail to unpin, but thankfully the 25 pdrs do, and with the AoP returning to spot they aim at the hapless nebs, and roll snake eyes… The 76mm shermans don’t have much luck either as the carriers both fail to lift gone to ground leaving them no targets to shoot at.

Dave moves the Marders up to shoot at the roo’s, despite needing 5’s on all 3 shots, he hits twice, killing 4 infantry stands, meanwhile the nebs return fire on the 25pdrs killing one.
 

Turn 3

With things not going to plan, finally my air support arrives! I position it to go for the nebs, once again though snake eyes! The 6pdrs remain pinned, as do the 25pdrs. However the infantry a little miffed their rides were ruined charge into the marders shrugging off the defensive fire and destroying 2 before the third retreated to a safe distance. Once again the carriers don’t lift gone to ground, but the 76mm had already started moving forward.

Dave’s 2^nd Marder platoon arrives from reserve and moves with the remaining one from the other platoon to MG the remaining infantry, thankfully only killing one stand. The FJ’s now on the objective manage to dig in, whilst the rest od Dave’s nebs and mortars are about as effective as rain.
 

Turn 4

Once again my air support is lack, but the wasps arrive from reserve, positioning themselves for an attack the following turn on the dug in infantry. The Aop spots for the 25pdrs on Dave’s marders, but only ranges in on the 4^th attempt causing no damage, whilst the 76mm have a couple fo shots at long range and also miss. The infantry move to assault with the Piat bailing the remaining marder from the 1^st platoon, but my infantry fail their tank terror test. For a change the 6prs also unpin and in concert with the universal carriers take out a pak 40.

Dave uses his marders MG’s to punish my cowardly infantry reducing them to 2 stands. Meanwhile to counter my wasps he moves his light AA and paks to counter them. The Nebs and mortars pin the 6pdrs and kill one too.

Turn 5

The roo’s arrive from reserve, positioned with the wasps ready for the next turns change. My remaining infantry run away to avoid losing another stand, whilst the 76mm move to try and hunt marders – but fail. In daves turn he manages to bail a 76mm and move with the light AA and Paks towards the objective, a strangely quiet turn.

Turn 6

The wasps move forwards and flame the FJ’s pinning them, and the infantry jump from their roos to support them before charging the FJ’s off the objective. The 76mm shermans kill the last remaining marder claiming the 1^st platoon kill.

In an all or nothing move dave brings everything he can to bare on the infantry on the objective, FJ’s, AA, Pak 40’s, Marders – they pin the infantry but only kill one stand. Dave charges into the infantry with his FJ and after 5 round of combat all that remains are 2 infantry stands from the New Zealanders. As turn 7 rolls around the objective is mine.

Conclusion

Well that was an ineffective game! Air support for about my 3^rd game in a row was rubbish! Whilst neither of us could actually harm each other, both playing quite cautiously. I think my plan wasn’t atrocious but the templates I had just repeatedly failed, perhaps I should have left my IC in the deployment area to help with the pins? Dave on the other hand moved his reserves too late, he had enough stuff to not worry about a frontal attack from my deployment area, and I was slightly worried he might just charge me too!

Anyway the first blood for the Allies in Italy from Breakthrough Assault.