Poland...or Bust

This was my 3rd go at Rommel this time I went back to 1939 and a blitzkrieg attack with a German panzer division into Poland , the pols held a strong defensive terrain supported by some artillery and some tanks

The Germans roared onto the table

and did a road order on the first turn

The pols dug in and waited for the onslaught but the germans went around their strong points

And proceeded onto the objectives allowing the german infantry to keep the pol's occupied

A few Pols pulled back to keep their supplies healthy but the germans pushed on

In the end it was just too much and the pols lost the objectives and their supply point

Aftermath

I actually played this game twice , the first had me charge the panzers into the infantry in the woods , this resulted in the german armour being some what dented and having a hard time , so the panzer divisional commander was sacked ( couldn't send him to the eastern front as that had not happened yet ) the replacement commander thought about things and re read the rulebook and came up with a new strategy.

I used my GHQ mini's for this battle which was a nice change as i hadn't got them out in a while. For tipping I used a 1 base in front 2 behind and for normal it was 2 in front 1 behind.

On the whole a very interesting game , i do think the pols may have deployed too far forward but that was where the terrain was so a difficult choice for them.

Rommel... in the back garden

Well not really the back garden but a winter game in '44 so you could say it was modelled on a battle of the bulge engagement

The forces were as follows :-
german 116th panzer (7 units) 3 hv tanks, 3 infantry 1 sp Art all motorised
german 2nd panzer (7 units)  3 hv tanks, 3 infantry 1 sp Art all motorised

US 84th Infantry division (8 units) 7 infantry 1 artillery
US 4th Cavalry (2 unit) 1 infantry 1 lt tank  all motorised
US 3rd Armour (2 unit) 2 med tank all motorised

I thought that the Germans would over run the Americans on the first turn but dug in and defending towns and forests proved quite a tough nut to crack

also this was a dawn attack ,  well the light from the window changed though the day changing the picture i took so it made sense

The germans have 3 objectives to take , the town in the centre is worth 2 points , the others 1 point , the germans open the first move

Table setup

First Turn for both sides

The initial attack stalled but did proceed around the top of the table

The Germans have finally taken the town and pushed the Americans back leaving a few isolated US units to be mopped up over the following turns

I decided to end the battle here as the Americans now had the opportunity to carpet bomb the area if the weather cleared , if it did not the Germans would be all over the Yanks like a rash

Aftermath

Another fun game and defiantly thought provoking for both sides , again the ops were not reset for either side. I am also sitting on the fence as to wether it is better to mass your tanks and go for a open area push of give the infantry support in the bad terrain.I will have to do some bocage boards to see how those work and have penny packets of germans defending that terrain

Rommel..... on paper

Having just got the new Rommel rules and pondering on hoe i wanted this to look i had a splash of inspiration , not sure how well the rules will play solo so i have made a board and counter set to see how it all works , will pose a report on how well they work solo later in the week

Had my first "Rommel" game using the scenario from the book

Setup with the Allied Force at the top and the Axis forces at the bottom

I have also made my own ops sheets which combine the early , middle and late sheets into one for all sides. The pictures were taken at the end of a pair of turns. the white disks represent one hit , yellow two hits and red three hits

Since the Axis started the game i took the bull by the horns and did an off road event allowing the germans to do a rapid advance and try to smash and take the right most VP

The British try a counter attack to try and break the german supply route but due to the poorer British armour the germans nearly always got the armour advantage when attacking and nullified any advantage when they were defending

Both sides scored a few hits both the Germans and the British push on with losses about even

Both sides cut each others supply lines in various places

but by the end of turn 8 ( 4 turns for both sides ) the Germans have captured the British supply point and managed to get their supply lines back in some sort of order.

Aftermath

When i first read the rules i did have some concerns as to how they would play solo , i can now confirm that they do play solo very well the only foible is the event item " Intercepted Signals" which i ignored for this game. Also i found that once a plan had been put into action and the forces committed i found that i wanted to continue with this plan and didn't want to reset the ops sheet.

I also decided to end the battle here as i think with the British losing their supply point they would have to withdraw.