I've backed the Germans into a corner and that might not have been the best idea....

Three games of Flames at the club yesterday. Let's see if I have enough pictures to put together a coherent battle report.... 

Mid War Guastatori vs Panzers

Clubmate BB is running a 100 point MW event in the new year with the Panzer Buns points and while the changes in the Italian section aren't super significant, they're enough that I went off and had a look at alternative options for playing MW Italians and came up with something that I think might be really really good fun - Guastatori! Without the points changes, the list looks like this: 

• HQ
• 2x Guastatori platoons
• Mortar platoon
• 47mm Elefantino Platoon
• 5x L6/40 Platoon
• 5x M14/41 Platoon with the Iron Men Command Card
• 6x Semovente 75/18 Platoon 
• 100/17 Artillery Battery with the (no-brainer) Captured 25pdr Command Card
  

With the points changes, the list is *identical* with the reduced price for the 47mm and 100mm guns offsetting the increase in the L6/40s and Captured 25pdr upgrade. 

So how did it go? Well, it definitely gave Clubmate Pat's Panzers a really rough handling.

 I deployed one of my Guastatori platoons on the objective in my deployment zone and the other in column to run to the other objective alongside the L6/40s. I put the 25pdrs facing Pat's deployment zone. Pat went first and his 10.5cm howizers and the combined fire of some Panzer IIIJ (late) and Panzer IV F2s destroyed two of the 25pdrs but didn't do a lot else.

Apparently I didn't remember to take a photo until the third turn which was where my massive platoon of Semoventes had arrived and removed some StuG Gs and I was busy trying to chase down Pat's IVF2s with my Guastatori like this was Version 3. :)

In the next photo, you can see the hero Italian 25pdr crew that passed every single morale test it needed to and at this point had just shot the IVF2s into fleeing the board! I'd popped the ambushing 47mm guns to deal with the 251s and to reinforce that objective from the impending assault from the IIIJs:

Pat realised he had to go and give it a blat and he did. The Panzer IIIs had a bad time when one was destroyed by a 47mm gun in defensive fire and they didn't stay past the first round of combat. Then Pat decided that he should launch a Mounted Assault:

And boy did he ever. I missed with all the defensive fire and so he got to do a bunch of fighting from his halftracks. It was AWESOME. Eventually the Italian morale failed and they retreated before coming back the following turn and wiping out the Panzergrenadiers and the Panzer IIIs and breaking the Germans.

Pat noted afterwards, he faffed a bit too long trying to decide which objective to chase and by the time he'd decided, the insane 25pdr crew had basically ruined his plans.

Late War Volksgrenadiers vs Cromwells

Blogger Pel and I managed two games - the first was a short and brutal Breakthrough. I offer you this one picture taken at the end of Pel's first turn: 

 

Let's just say that the 75mm ambush, the arrival of Panthers from Reserve and a couple of horrible rounds of shooting broke the Cromwell Company. The second was Cornered and was a much more intriguing proposition. Here you can see our deployments. Me holding my corner and Pel making very efficient use of his Spearhead to shove all his armour forward and down one side of the board.

 

 

Turns 2 and 3were fairly uneventful aside from one thing. Pel sensibly hid his tanks behind the forest and hill on that side of the board, especially as I had Panthers come on from reserve and still had my 75s in ambush. What was interesting? I got one of my Volks assault platoons out of it's trenches and advanced, hoping to sneak through the central forest and accost the M10s. Pel brought up the Daimlers and Paras and over two rounds we had some solid fisticuffs where I pinned his incoming assault and then he didn't pin mine, but I failed EVERY save for the charging unit. He finally landed an assault and in the end, the Paras were wiped out and Siegfried Moldenhauer raced off at the end of the combat after the remnant of the Volks platoon fled the park. Why? See below:

 

 This is turn 4 I think - Pel baited out the PaK40 Ambush with a platoon of Cromwells and advanced the M10s. You can see Moldenhauer on the right of shot going to get the other Volks platoon that had decided to go sack the Sextons to stop them killing my PaK 40s. They spent two turns pinned and by the time Moldenhauer got there, they rallied without him.

This is the last dramatic photo. Over the last two turns, Pel had to get his M10s into the forest to get within 8" of the front objective to keep the game going. The Volksgrenadiers who unpinned turned back and charged into the forest to destroy the M10s in close combat. Moldenhauer made three assaults and rolled 1s in two of them. 6 points y'say? Actually, having Panzerschrecks hit on 4+ in assault is worth it, let alone anything else. 

It was a tough match for Pel - AT10 on the Cromwells means the Brigade Panthers are basically the best assault gun there is and the Cromwells are struggling against StuGs and even Panzer IVs - I'm definitely easier to hit, but I can make a goodly number of saves against the 75s and when I hit, the Cromwell's chance of saving is not anywhere near as good. In the end, Pel responded to an enquiry as to how the game was going with "I've backed the Germans into a corner and that might not have been the best idea...."

I *really* like this Volksgrenadier list. I've decided I really want to get rid of the "transform your leFH howitzers into pretend PaK40s Command Card" for actual PaK40s in the core because when you're all Reluctant / Trained / Aggressive, the core is very brittle. I'm also prepared to pay the extra points for not being a Large Gun and having a 3+ save because hot damn, I lost a lot of models to Sextons and me rolling less than 4+. I think to fit that in, I probably wind up having to downgrade the Volks StuGs to Volks Hetzers but as I'm a huge Hetzer fan, that's probably okay...

More Underworlds

I've finished up the Shadeborn and they are just fun. I really really enjoyed painting these and while I persist in hating edge highlights, I think I'm getting better at using them on some small occasions when they really do something I want. In a game with Bloggers Pooch, Scotty and Pelarel yesterday they did sterling work although I didn't once manage to do a Shadow Charge with Slythael Shadestalker - I had to walk like a peasant.

I've also knocked these two little horrors out of the pile:

They're a leftover from a couple of bases in my Ghosties Kings of War army and I'm planning to find a home for them in DnD somewhere. Not sure where yet, but they'll be good ones to have in the DMs box methinks. 

Next Time

The Gorechosen of Dromm! I've started on the next Underworlds warband and am making slow progress on them and I'm hoping to have them done by next weekend!