Mid War 71 points Desert Rats vs Panzer IV Ko. Breakthrough

Tally Ho, Chaps!

Matt and I had another set of Mid War tester games.   This is game 1.   We played 71 points, as that is what Cdn Nationals will be Sept 2018.    Matt is waiting for Eastern Front lists, but is just using the DAK Panzer Ko. for now until that comes out.   I went with my trusty Desert Rats, we rolled Breakthrough, with me defending, as I had an Inf. Formation in my Force    As always, Video Batrep at the end.

His list:

HQ Panzer III

3 x Panzer IV 'Long'

2 x Panzer IV 'Long'   (in Flanking Reserves)

2 x 8 Rads

3 x Marders

My list:

Crusader HQ 2x CS, 2 x Crusader II

Crusader 2 x II, 1 x III (I completely forgot these were IIIs in game!)

Crusader 2 x II, 1 x III (reserves)

Grants x 3  (reserves)

Motor Co HQ

Motor Co

4x 6lbrs

3 x Bren Gun Carriers

2 Hurricanes (reserves)

Deployment, I Spearhead'ed the Carriers and deployed on both objectives

Another shot at Deployment, those 2 Pzr IVs in the corner are his Flanking Reserves

I put a unit of Crusaders in the 'empty quarter' of Breakthrough, and the rest closer to where his reserves would come in.  In hindsight, I should have kept all my tanks out of LOS to his AT10 guns and reacted to his first moves.

Matt's Marders in the one good Woods on his side.

Crusader unit, way too close to the enemy DZ...

Matt on turn one would Blitz then Tactical his Panzer IVs and vaporise 2 of 3 Crusaders.  AT10 vs FA 3.   This unit would fail its Morale test and the survivors would flee.

"Panzers Angreif!"

My turn 1, I roll reserves, and opt for the RAF.   They come on, and I try and remove a 30pt platoon right off the bat:  4 AT7 shots into Side Armour 3!

3 ones rolled!  At least I killed one tank though!

Elsewhere, I move my Carriers up to try and threaten the Marder flanks.

Turn 2, Matt advances using my wrecks as cover.. 

..he would bail one Carrier on the move with his 8 Rads.   Matt in background, checking for Marder shots!

My turn 2 had no RAF, no reserves, so I moved tanks into cover... Matt on turn 3 gets his 2 Panzers!!  He would only kill one Crusader though.

My Turn 3, the RAF comes on and reduces the Marders to one Bailed out tank.   He would remount and pass morale..

I move my Crusaders to his Panzer's rear.  At this point, I was firmly in V3 mode, thinking Tally Ho netted me 2 shots on the move if my targets were within 16.   No, it gives them 1 pip of extra skill or some garbage.

I tried for side shots with the Crusader CSs, but AT5 on Side Armour 3... on his turn, Matt killed the rest of my Crusader Command element..

At this point, Matt is pushing on the central objective, but I have Grants to come on, and my Ambush still.

3 AT7 hits on a FA2 Marder.  He of course rolls triple sixes for his armour saves!!!!!!

   

However my reserve Grants would clean up his main Pzr IV platoon, and my Ambush 6lbrs would clean up his flanking Pzrs.  While Matt would make his Formation test, and kill off the last Crusader unit, forcing the Grants to test for formation morale, (and fail) the new Mission Objective rules state that on turn 6, if the attacker has no models within range of the objective I win. 

I think while Matt chose a very elite low-model-count list, the fact that spearhead on Breakthrough is limited means he should have put his 8rads in Flanking Reserves and had all 5 Pzr IVs on board to vaporize my tanks, then advance.   I forgot about the higher AT Crusader IIIs but also thought Tally Ho was still useful.. need to play more Mid War I guess!

Hope you enjoyed this battle report, below is the full video of it, and stay tuned for Game 2 that we played.