WWPD Italian Campaign - Schwere Panzerjager Abteilung 653 vs Dismounted Cav - Breakthrough

Hello All  My first WWPD Italy campaign AAR, I was facing Paul W's Dismounted Cav. I turned up at his place and was first taken aback by how lovely the board was! Paul as always out doing himself with the terrain.  Paul was using Dismounted Cav, a personal favorite list as you can swap your platoons around when you know what your facing, a massive advantage. Paul unsurprisingly turned 3 guys from each platoon into Bazookas! We rolled up Breakthrough so I was the attacker and we got going.

Schwere Panzerjäger Abteilung 653 HQ Elefant Elefant Elefant Elefant 2 Panzer IV + 2 Panzer III N 1 Sd Kfz 223 + 2 Sd Kfz 222 3 Nebs

US Dismounted Cavalry HQ 2 Sections of Dismounted Recon (3 teams turned into Bazookas) 2 Sections of Dismounted Recon (3 teams turned into Bazookas) 2 Sections of Dismounted Recon (3 teams turned into Bazookas) 2 M4A3 Sherman 76mm + 3 M4A3 Sherman (Late) - Please note that the 76mm's were played by Easy 8's and the A3's by 76mm's. 4 Stuarts 2 T19 105mm HMC 4 105mm Artillery AOP

SETUP AND DEPLOYMENT

The table

I put an Elefant in reserve, thought about the Panzers, but then decided that
the Panzers would be better for clearing the way.

The Panzer's get ready to assault.

The US right flank, the Stuarts and T19's are in reserve 

The US right flank.

The US left flank

The US left flank

TURN 1

The Panzer's move out and get ready to assault the US infantry

The Elefants go hunting

The Nebs range in on the infantry pinning them but they cause no damage

The Panzer's assault the infantry, one is bailed on the way in

The first swing kills two infantry bases.

The US infantry fall back from the assault.

The Stuarts arrive from reserve.

The infantry begin the long move towards the objectives.

The central infantry unpin and move to counter attack the Panzer's.

The artillery ranges in on the Elefants bailing one.

The infantry try going back into assault after missing with their bazookas,
but are obliterated by the defensive fire.  

TURN 2

The Elefants keep on coming. The Recon moves up to support the attack.

The Panzer's again get ready to assault the infantry.

Again the nebs range in on the infantry but cause no damage.

A lucky machine gun burst from the Elefant kills to bases of infantry!

After failing to kill any with there MG's the Panzers assault to try and finish
off the last infantry from the platoon.

They kill one on the first swing

And the last one runs off.

To increase their mobility Paul pulls the Shermans out of the woods. 

The Stuarts zoom past the Elefants and head for the Guns.

The infantry arrives at the objective.

The Artillery ranges in again and destroys an armoured car.

TURN 3

Now free the Pazners move towards the objective keeping themselves
concealed from the Shermans

The Elefants also arrive at the objective.

The recon positions itself to see the infantry. 

The nebs range in again and pin the infantry but again cause no damage.

The Stuarts drive up to the Nebs.

The Shermans move to out flank the Elefants.

The final reserve platoon turns up.

The Stuarts shoot up the Nebs, killing one.

The Artillery again picks on the Elefants but had no effect.

The stuarts assault but to bog on the way in...

The other two take 3 rounds of combat to kill a neb.... 

The two unbogged Stuarts chance the Nebs commander as he runs away.

TURN 4

The Germans close the noose

After a very poor shooting phase the Panzers assault

The Bazookas bail a Panzer IV on the way in, the three remaining tanks only
kill one guy

Paul counter attacks thanks to his 1IC...

...and blows up two Panzers! The rest of the platoon falls back.

The Stuarts continue to hunt the Nebs.

Having a chance at a flank shot at the Elefant the Shermans move in to attack

The M19s pop over the kill to shot the Panzers but miss.

The Shermans have there moment of glory at the Elefant... but miss...

Again the Artillery ranges in first time but causes no damage

The Stuarts make short work of the Neb and the commander runs off.

The Stuarts consolidate to get back to the objective.

TURN 5

The Elefant arrives from reserve

The other Elefants turn to focus on the Shermans 

The Panzers go back in for round two with the infantry.

All three Elefants shot the Shermans and bail one... why do you pay all
those points for the big gun?

This time the panzers get in unhurt and drive over another base of infantry

Pushing them back off the objective.

Here comes the Cavalry!

The Shermans move out to attack the panzer platoon

The far infantry platoon moves out to contest the objective, but can't get
there this turn

Even with ToT and two Elefants the artillery still manages to cause no
damage

It's all down to the Shermans, can they stop the Panzer platoon for winning
the game? They kill one and bail the other, the Panzers hold thanks to being
Hermann Goering panzers but they can't take the objective...

TURN 6

The Elefants move in to get make up for the previous turn

The Elefants on the hill miss but the reserve Elefant kills two Shermans.

And then the Panzer IV kills a 3rd one.

The Panzer IV then charged in and killed another infantry team.

After consolidation and Storm Trooper moves.

The remains of the US Infantry go big game hunting.

The far infantry are able to contest the objective.

The Stuarts move up to shoot the recon but miss

The Artillery again targets the Elefants but causes no damage

The infantry get the assault off,

but cause no damage and the Elefant runs off.

The other infantry platoon tries to charge the Panzer IV, but with 8 shoots
I get 5 hits and stop them dead.

TURN 7

The Panzer IV moves around to the gate to get ready to asault again.

The Elefant focus on the Stuarts killing one.

The other tanks shoot at the infantry but cause no damage.

The infantry unpin and dig in.

The artillery bails the panzer IV but thanks to the near by Elefant the
infantry fail their tank terror test.

The Stuarts and the M19's focus in on the recon bailing one...

TURN 8

The Panzer IV fails to un bail so the recon moves up to protect it.

The 1IC joins one of the Elefants to make an assault platoon.

The other Elefants focus on the M19's destroying both of them.

The Assault platoon goes in and

...wipes the platoon out.

Paul is on a company test and he fails.

So 5-2 to me.  That was a close game, far closer than the scoreline would make you think! The turn my Panzer platoon lost two tanks in assault could have turned it in Paul's favour, if the infantry could have destroyed the last Panzer IV and the Shermans could have hit the Elefant in the flank I could have been spent and would have had almost no chance of taking the objectives.  Paul also failed a load of morale tests and no matter how many times his artillery got time on target over the course of the game they couldn't cause any damage to my Elefants bar a bail!  My choice to put the Panzer's on the board was the right move, they really did all the real work until the end when the Elefants were able to clear up what was left. But good game as always with Paul and I'm sure he'll want revenge at some point soon!

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