Stephen picked the Stavelot scenario from Western scenarios book fielding his Yanks against my Germans of KG Peiper.
Tough scenario for Krauts as all cross-country movement by vehicles is subject to Bog Tests due to soft ground and the Ambleve is an unfordable river except at bridge (which is of course primary objective).
Germans do have 4 Schwimwagens but the Bog Tests make them hard to utilise effectively.
With hindsight we have come to conclusion that we are a tad sparse on the amount of fields/copses etc we use in these games as too much open terrain leads to very heavy Infantry casualties.
Artillery (of which the Yanks have copious amounts) can be deadly in PzGr especially if Infantry bunch up too much.
Germans had awful Initiative rolls (wining initiative once out of 7 turns played) and in early turns failed to activate several Platoons.
A 57mm anti-gun (Ambush Hidden) caused mayhem on my Recce units and I failed to Spot it all game (or get anywhere near close enough to auto-spot).
Hidden M10s traded blows with 2 Hetzers and 2 PzIVHs I had.
One Hetzer was unlucky as Stephen rolled a 12 (minimum Damage result) then I rolled a 2 for Morale test and Hetzer destroyed (likely abandoned).
The other Hetzer suffered a Damage and Fall Back.
However my single King Tiger (once the fecker actually activated) destroyed one M10 outright whilst the other was hit and damaged by other Hetzer and Fell Back and it also failed its Morale with 'snake eyes' and Routed off-table.
The hidden 57mm and another M10 Suppressed my PzIVs one of which later went Low on Ammo.
However my Infantry which I had split onto left and right flanks (as only place with any cover) suffered from accurate US artillery stonks (Stephen just seemed to roll 10+ for his Artillery on all but one occasion) and my Grenadiers fairly melted away as I managed to roll consistently low seeing them therefore Disperse rather than be Suppressed and Disengaged.
We both had a Force Morale of 32 so suffering a Force Morale Tests at 9 losses and Defeat at 17 losses.
I only had one turn of Force Morale Testing as the next turns losses saw my force Defeated.
Yanks had at most 4 losses (?)
I do like PzGr as it ticks a lot of WW2 boxes for me without too much complexity and has no 'WTF !!' moments like......oh let me think......BG.
Some things are minor in nature such as individual guns types having differing ranges (maybe only by 4" or so) but it makes a difference on table and in my tiny mind.
AFVs stalled on road
I've stood on that bridge. For reals like!!
ReplyDelete(There's a 1/2 track parked there now)
Does it not block the bridge ? :-)
DeleteOk, so it's actually beside the bridge ;)
Delete