'Stolen Valour' Mid War 71pts Free-for-All Rats vs Germans

"I say, old chap, why would the Jerries make this 8-wheeled claptrap run on Benzine and not Petrol?"

In a flurry of Mid-War games over the holidays, we have another:   Free-For-All, 71 points, featuring Chris Caron's Eastern Front germans (Using Afrika Korps list for now) vs Andrew Buchan's new British force (not painted, no worries)     Here are some pictures but as usual, the Video at the end of this article does a much better job of describing the action!

Chris ran a Pzr III formation (2HQ + platoon of 3) supported by 3 x Marder's and had a small Grenadier formation supported by quad AA halftracks.    

Andrew ran a Honey Sqdn (4 HQ + 2 units of 3 Honeys) and a Motor Company w/ Carriers, Mortars, Vickers and 6lbrs supported by 17/25lbr 'Pheasant' guns plus a bunch of cards, 'Scout' 'Pip Roberts' and 'Captured Tank'

Initial lay-out is below:

German deployment in foreground, British at the far end.   The video explains it so much better.

Honeys spearheaded to within 16 inches thanks to the Universal Carriers

Motor platoon and Vickers ready to advance into Town

Chris' entire Pzr formation Spearheads into town, using the houses as cover against the 17lbr 'Pheasant' guns

Close-up glamour-shot of the hilarious "Bend Over and let me use your shoulder as a tripod" stance

Marders ready for the old Blitz-Shoot-Shoot & Scoot maneuver on this slope

Bird's Eye view of the town half of the board

Honeys rush towards the open objective, using the hill to mask from the Marders 

Vickers Dig-In while the Motor Platoon advances towards the church

Marders blitz around the slope and knock out 3 of 4 HQ Honeys.  Chris was holding a Command Card, +3 VP if HQ killed!

Chris' 8-Rads advance up into town to MG the infantry.   The infantry would decide to assault the Church 8-Rad and CAPTURE it (British Card) the light mortar crew deciding they are best qualified to read german!

Meanwhile, the remaining Honey's tackle the Marders as the dug-in infantry gets whittled down to no longer be In Good Spirits

The Captured 8-Rad gets bailed by the Quad AA's and the pbz-41 AT gun.  It would pass its Last Stand check on a 5+ next turn

Marders and infantry are dead, only the 2IC and HQ Pzr IIIs are left on this flank, though the Honey's would fail their Last Stand and that formation loses a platoon

Quad AA halftracks finally are able to finish off the Captured 8-Rad for the moral victory!

Game would end via the More Missions new Victory conditions:   Honey's win by starting the turn on the objective, and the HQ Pzr IIIs that were contesting were destroyed by Honeys and 6lbr fire for the British Win.

This was Chris' 2nd game using this exact list, and we found a few deficiencies, mainly the pzr III formation.    He has 2 HQ tanks and 3 platooned tanks.  Problem is, if he loses either unit, the whole formation is not In Good Spirits and is destroyed.  So he would be better off just taking the tanks as Support, 4 of them in one unit.    Quad AA tracks could be dropped for a 4th Marder. 

We discussed this further in the video, but overall, we saw Andrew use Universal Carriers perfectly, and the comedy value of the beefed up motor platoon capturing an 8-Rad was just awesome.   Thanks to Chris and Andrew for letting me document their game, and we will catch you guys next time!