Nachtjager AAR - 15th/19th Hussars vs Von Benningsen - Break Out

With the new book in hand (well iPad) myself and Adam wanted to try out the new lists in a game. We'd have loved to have used the Comets but not having any the new 15th/19th Hussars would have to do (not a problem as it looks like a fun list!).  For the Germans we wanted to use the new night fighting auto attacking Germans and made the choice of Von Benningsen to fit Adam's German collection. We chose to play Break Out (you can check out the mission here) as it seemed like a nice themed mission (and something different). After making the two lists we rolled off to see who would play which army, I ended up with the British and Adam the Germans.

15th/19th Hussars (Confident Veteran) HQ Cromwell + 2 CS Cromwells 4 Cromwells 4 Cromwells 3 Challengers 3 Carriers 4 25 Pdrs AOP

Von Benningsen (Reluctant Veteran) HQ Panther 3 Panthers + Infra Red + Uhu Halftrack (proxied by the 250) 2 Panzer IV/70's + 1 StuG 2 Panzer IV/70's + 1 StuG 1 Kfz 234/1 + 1 Kfz 234/4 (Pak40) 1 Kfz 234/1 + 1 Kfz 234/4 (Pak40) 2 Pak 40's

The Armies

The British Army

The German army.

Set-up & Deployment

The British deploy the 25pdrs, a platoon of Cromwell's and a platoon of
Challengers.

The Cromwell platoon holds the medium objective.

The Challengers and the 25Pdrs hold the right hand objective.

The German middle.

The German Left flank.

The German far right.

Spearhead and recon moves done.

TURN 1

Adam rushes his Panzers forward.

The Panzer IV/70's move up to flank the British right hand objective.

The recon flanks around.

The Uhu spots a challenger.

The whole of the German army fires at the Challengers and manage to
destroy one.

Adam then Stormtroopers forward.

Ben gets a platoon on the first time of asking and brings on the second
Cromwell platoon, they risk bogging but pass all of the tests.

The 1IC gets brave and moves up to target a StuG, but misses.

The two remaining Challengers open up and score 5 hits on the Panthers,
destroying one and bailing the other two and the Uhu. The Panthers pass their
morale test.

The artillery ranges in on a StuG but can only bail him.

TURN 2

The situation at the start of turn 2.

The Panzer IV/70's move towards the objective.

The second platoon does like wise.

The Recon turns to face the new danger.

The Panthers all remount (They don't seem very Reluctant) and take revenge
on the Challengers, destroying one and bailing the other,

The last challenge goes down to the Panzer IV/70's.

And the 1IC to the StuG.

Adam then Storm Troopers towards the objectives.

The other platoon moves back  to make sure the Cromwells can't get flank
shots.

The Cromwell CS platoon arrives from reserve.

A third Cromwell risks going through the woods and again does bog.

The Cromwells move up to target the Recon platoon, they destroy the 8-Rad
(sorry didn't get a photo of that...)

The other half of the platoon tries to target a StuG

The artillery ranges in on the StuG but cause no damage.

The Cromwells open up on the rear of the Panthers Destroying one, breaking
the platoon.

TURN 3

The Panzer IV/70's move up to engage the Cromwells.

A pak 40 gets out of it's fox hole to attack the rear Cromwell's.

The combined fire of the Pak 40 and 234/4 destroys a Cromwell.

One Cromwell goes up in smoke.

The Panzers Strom Trooper away but with that day breaks.

The last of the British reserve arrive.

The CS Cromwells spot the exposed Pak 40, but fail to hit...

The Cromwells use their speed to out flank the Panzer IV/70's.

They manage to bail one and kill another.

The rear Cromwells snip out a StuG.

The Panzer IV/70 platoon fails their morale test.

TURN 4

The Pak 40's turn to focus on the CS Cromwells but like the CS tanks they
also miss.

The HQ Panther turns to face the thorn in his side.

The Panzer IV/70's move up to attack the Cromwells.

Taking another one out.

The 1IC Panther bails a Cromwell.

The Panzer Iv/70's storm trooper back to not make the same mistake as the
first platoon.

Having failed to do any damage to the CS Cromwells the Pak 40's were 

The Cromwells target the recon platoon, wreaking the 234/4 finishing off the
platoon.

The rear Cromwells shot at the other recon platoon, destroying one and bailing
the other one.

The CS Cromwells shot up the Pak 40's.

The recon fail their platoon morale test.

As does the Pak 40 commander.

TURN 5

Down to one platoon Adam has to take a Company Morale test and passes.

The remaining Panzer IV/70's move up and destroys another Cromwell.

The Platoon holds.

Looking to end the game quickly the CS Cromwells move up to get rear shots
on the Panzer IV/70's.

The remaining Cromwell moves up to flank the tank contesting the objective.

and takes it out.

The Artillery and CS tanks aim for the last Panzer IV/70 but fail to do any
damage.

Adam passes the platoon morale test.

TURN 6

And again Adam passes the company morale test.

Adam moves in for the kill.

And with that kills the last Cromwell and holds the objective with no platoons
able to contest the objective.

The 1IC Panther destroys a CS Cromwell.

The rear Cromwell take aim at the 1IC but can only bail him.

The 25pdrs fail to cause any damage...

But Adam fails his company morale test to give the game to the British.

4-3 to the British. Man that was close! Adam was one company morale away from winning the game. We both felt the Von Benningsen list looked a lot of fun, this mission might have hurt them a fair bit, as the weak rear armour of the Panthers was exposed. It does seem like a win big or lose big army. I also have a lot of hope for the Cromwell list (this might be the Cromwell list Alex has been looking for!), the match up hurt them though as they lost their speed for the first few turns until night lifted and they are not tough enough to shot it out with the Panthers, but once it was day light the speed really came into it. Why not head over to the WWPD forum and chat about the game

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