Mission critical (FOW); Tanks for the memories, France 1944

Intro:

Somewhere in France in 1944. British Armour pierced the German lines and are racing to cut off the retreating Germans. In response the Germans have hastily put together a panzer kampfgruppe with orders to stop there advance.  As day breaks both sides confront each other.

Design note

One of the strength of FOW is tank combat. At 15mm you get more bang for the buck without losing too much individuality.  The random strength of force means the mission be played a few times before it gets repetitive.  Also, players have less control over what is in their force and so can spend more time trying to figure out what to do with what they have, rather figuring out what they want to have.

Terrain:

The ground is open.

Woods counts as very difficult terrain.
Buidlings are impassable

Forces (and special rules):

Panzer company (Defender)

1 command platoon (random strength)

1 panzer platoon of Panthers (random strength)

1 panzer platoon of PiV (random strength)

1 Schwere panzer platoon (random strength, call that a heavy tank)

British tank company (Attacker)

1 command platoon (random strength)

3 Sherman (75s) platoon (random strength)

1 Sherman (76s) platoon (random strength. attachment)

1 Stuart platoon (random strength)

1 M10 tank destroy platoon (random strength)

Deployment and initiative:

The entire British force arrives on turn 1 entering the table from the Northern road.

The entire German force arrives on turn 1 entering the table from the Southern road.

The British get the first turn.

Special rules;

1)      Random strength.          

The British have been pushing long and hard. The company has not yet have had time to replace all its loss with some platoons under strength. Similarly the Germans have been in prolong combat  and platoons have also taken losses. All units in the is mission have random strength determined at the start of the game before deployment.

For each PiV, Panthers, Shermans (75s and 76s), Stuarts and M10s platoon roll two D4 dice and pick the highest, That is the strength the platoon.

For the Tiger platoon roll two D3 dice and pick the highest. That is the strength the platoon.

For the german command platoon roll D6 and see below

1 CnC in PiV

2-3 CnC + 2nd CnC in PiVs

4-5 CnC in Panther

6 Cnc + 2nd CnC in Panthers

For the Britsh command platoon roll D6 and see below

1 CnC in Sherman

2-3 CnC + 2nd CnC in Shermans

4-5  CnC, 2nd CnC + 1 tank team in Shermans

6  CnC, 2nd CnC + 2 tank teams in Shermans

2)      Call that a heavy tank (optional)*

 In the late war production problems, lack of material and constant bombing hampered the formation of the heavy tank units*. The actual strength varied greatly with some units getting PII tanks to make up the short fall and other units getting  King tigers that missed the last shipment.  If the German player wants he can opted to test for heavy tank platoon. Roll a D6 and compare the result below.

1. LOW SUPPLIES. Replace the Tiger platoon with the same number of PIII tanks.

2-5 Situation normal. No effect

6. OVER SUPPLIED.  Replace the Tiger platoon with the same number of Tiger II tanks.

3)      Attachment (optional)

The Sherman 76s platoon can be broken up and form combat attachment to any of the other sherman platoons.

Victory conditions

There is only one objective that is the point where the road leaves the eastern table edge. After turn six. If there are no British platoons in the German half of the table the Germans win. After turn twelve if both sides are still fighting the game is a draw.

References

*Tigers in Combat by Wolfgang Schneider (bit of gold mine if you are interested in tanks in WW2).

Eye candy from the battle of battle of Ogledow mission

Deployment 

German King Tigers prepare to cover the advance of Ogledow

Which is defended by two tank companies with infantry support

Opening shots destroy a T34-85

And a T34-76

German high command considers its options

A PiV platoon tries to infiltrate the town.

While being covered by a Gun platoon

The only time both  King Tigers tried to move (a 3+ is safe)  

Russian reinforcement start to arrive 

 IS2 tried to go to toe with the king tigers (bad idea)

With time running out the Germans tried to storm the town. (amazingly the observe team in kubelwagon surrounded bz tanks, half tracks and infantry survived the game).

Overall a good game the Germans failed to take the town and fell back after losing over half their platoons but the Russians were only one platoon away from doing the same thing.