Late War AAR - 21st Panzer Grenadiers vs Sherwood Armoured Brigade - Counter Attack

Hello All The other weekend I travelled up to Matt's place with the family, while the wife's and kids were out we got in two Normandy themed games.  Game one saw me running a CV Sherman company against Matt's 21st Panzer Grenadiers. We rolled up Counter Attack which is a mission I always enjoy playing. As I was a tank force I was the attacker. We decided to keep the terrain quite light for the first game as most of the British fighting in Normandy was away from the bocage that dominated the American sector of of the fighting.

21st Panzer Grenadiers (Confident Veteran) HQ + 2 Panzerfaust Full Grenadiers + Faust Full Grenadiers + Faust 3 7.5cm (Sf) 39H 4 Panzer IV's 4 10.5cm (Sf) 39H 3 Pak40's 3 Nebs 2 Luftwaffe 8.8cm FlaK36 (Reluctant Trained)

Sherwood Armoured Brigade (Confident Veteran) 2 HQ Shermans 3 Shermans 3 Shermans 3 Fireflies 3 Stuarts Full 51st Highlander Infantry + Defrocked Priests 4 51st Highlander 25pdrs AOP

SETUP AND DEPLOYMENT

The British are not going right... honest!

The British left flank

The German right flank

The German left flank.

The Stuarts recon move.

UNITS IN RESERVE
21st Panzer Grenadiers 4 10.5cm (Sf) 39H 3 7.5cm (Sf) 39H	Sherwood Armoured Brigade

TURN 1

The British advance using the wall to keep concealed.

A single Typhoon arrives.

The 25pdrs smoke the 8.8's

The Typhoon wiffs and only bails one tank...

In return the Panzer IV's blow up a Firefly.

The Nebs pin the artillery.

TURN 2

|The Stuarts keep advancing.

The Infantry and a platoon of Shermans advance.

A single Typhoon returns again.

The Fireflies miss but the Shermans by the 25pdrs bail two Panzer IV's

The 1IC then shoots and...

...shows the rest of his boys how it's done.

The Flank 8.8's bring down the Typhoon.

The 7.5cm (Sf) 39H arrive from reserve (sorry about the picture...)

The Panzer IV's advance

The remounted Panzer IV aims at the Defrocked Priests... 

...bailing one.

And the infantry dismount under fire.

TURN 3

The 25pdrs unpin.

As do the infantry.

The Stuart's move towards the far objective.

The Infantry remount in the Defrocked Priests and keep on the advance.

The Shermans re-position to shot at the Panzer IV's

The 25pdrs bombard the Panzer IV's and bail one.

The Shermans Bail another one.

The Fireflys bail a 3rd one, but the Panzer IV's pass their platoon morale test.

The Panzer IV's continue to spread out.

The 10.5cm (Sf) 39H arrive from reserve.

The Nebs shoot the Shermans pinning the 25pdrs but cause no damage to the
Shermans.

The 7.5cm (Sf) 39H shoots the Sherman's bailing 2, who fail to remount..

The 10.5cm (Sf) 39H take aim at the Defrocked Priests, They hit 3 times and
fail 3 2+ firepower tests!! 

One does double bail so it's not all bad for Matt!

And the other one runs off.

The German Storm Trooper moves.

TURN 4

The Stuarts pop out to have a shot at the 7.5cm (Sf) 39H, 

The Infantry fail to unpin.

The firefly's take out a Panzer IV and bail two of them.

After 4 Shermans shoot and miss at the 10.5cm (Sf) 39H, the 1IC once again
shows everyone how it's done and destroyers two!

The Typhoon returns and gets revenge on the Flak 8.8 and takes one out.

Thanks the the 1IC the Panzer IV's hold.

Seeing two bailed out Shermans the Grenadiers get aggressive and move
out from their foxholes.

The remaining Flak 8.8 takes out a Firefly.

The Infantry lose a base to the 10.5cm (Sf) 39H's.

The 7.5cm (Sf) 39H kill two Stuarts and bail a third one.

But the Stuarts hold.

The Grens charge blowing up the first one and then...

... capture the the second one this platoon also holds.

TURN 5

The infantry unpin and advance towards the grens.

The two IC moves forward to shot up the infantry.

The 1IC bails another 10.5cm (Sf) 39H

The British Infantry charges the Grens, and pushed them back.

10.5cm (Sf) 39H moves to see the British infantry.

The Grens final to unpin and dig in.

The 10.5 decides to shot the remaining Sherman and take out the last tank
in the platoon.

The remaining Flak 8.8 takes out another Firefly finishing off the platoon.

The Panzer IV's bail the 2IC.

The Nebs rain down on the British Infantry...

..killing three bases but they hold despite being Reluctant.

TURN 6

The remaining Stuart goes 10.5 hunting...

...and takes it out 10.5cm (Sf) 39H

The last Sherman platoon kills another Panzer IV and they finally break!

As do the 10.5cm (Sf) 39H.

The move up 7.5cm (Sf) 39H

and bail the 1IC

Now the British infantry has been whittled down the Grens come out to play.

The Nebs aim for the Shermans killing one.

The Flak 8.8's then destroy the 1IC...

The Grens charge the Infantry killing one base and force them to retreat.

But they pass their platoon morale test.

TURN 7

The Artillery unpins.

As does the infantry, but without a platoon commander who died in the assault
last turn it doesn't help them much.

The Typhoon returns and goes after the 7.5cm (Sf) 39H's.

The Stuart Bogs...

The Artillery pounds the Grens but causes no damage

The Typhoon only manages to bail a 7.5cm (Sf) 39H

The Grens unpin and move towards the British Infantry and Stuart.

They Assault

Killing one infantry team and capturing the Stuart.

The infantry runs off and on the next turn the company breaks.

4-3 to Matt. I made a few mistakes in that game, I for some reason completely forgot about direct fire smoke! I also probably should have attacked Matt straight on instead of running into his reserves going for the far objective. That's to take nothing away from Matt, he played very well. The moment he got aggressive and assaulted my bailed out tanks I knew I was going to struggle to win the game. A brave move some players wouldn't have done because of the risk factor. I'm not sure about the list I took, the three strong tank platoons didn't really do it for me and the plane was a waste of time! I want to like planes, but the more I use them the less they seem to do!  Still the game was fun and I enjoyed using a force I probably wouldn't normally use.  The second game of the weekend will appear in a few days and will see my 51st Highlanders take on a slightly different 21st Panzer Grenadier list, so keep your eyes pealed. Thanks for reading. Ben.

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