Nipped back out to Garvald this evening in spite of snow flurries and a wrong turning for a rerun of last weeks game but 26 years later.It involved another German invasion of Belgium but this time it involved German forces taking hold of Ursel airport and holding off the Belgians until reinforced.
I reverted to the norm and took control of the Germans.Colin took the part of the Belgian defenders with the aid of some nifty Belgian armour.
The plan as stated was for Germans to land by Ju 52 and to take and hold the airport building.
I had at my disposal for the task an infantry squad backed up by a machine gun armed S.S assault squad. The "Tante Ju"(Ju 52) couldn't be put on the table but was replaced by a Henschel 123 for show purposes,so we had the assault squads coming from the edge of the table.They hurried towards the control tower.The defenders done some damage to my infantry but this just made them more determined to fire at and pin the defenders giving time for the assault squad to clear the building.
Once this was done it left Colin with nothing to do until he could bring in some random reinforcements.This was be done as per last week with a roll of 5 or 6 but yet again they were nowhere to be found.
This gave me a chance to bring on some reinforcements which consisted of infantry squads supported by a couple of Panzer 38s and an armoured car.
King Leopold inspecting Colin's forces |
Finally Colin's reinforcements arrived with King Leopold in tow,in the form of a T15 tank with some infantry in the form of Chausser Ardennais.The tank proceeded to inflict damage on the defenders of the control tower before I could bring up a Pz38 to deal with this T15,which it did after a couple of shots.This gave time for Colin to bring in more reinforcements in the form of an anti-tank team which proceeded to immobilise my leading tank.The tank remained there for the rest o the game,firing at and finally destroying the T15.
The antitank rifle also took some damage and ended up as a one man team which basically meant it had become a sniper albeit with a powerful rifle.
Colin's reinforcements eventually all appeared including another T15 and a Vickers 47mm light tank this time with a half decent gun and not machine guns like the previous two.
This went straight into action against the immobilised tank but couldn' land the killer punch to destroy it.Colin's other T15 tank came round to flank the airport and engage the forces in the airport in order to relieve the pinned down chaussers in a nearby wood.The Belgian light howitzer came into action but found it hard to hit so it had to move nearer the enemy to do any reasonable damage.This partnered with a medium machine gun helped to whittle down my airport garrison,but help was at hand in the form of two halftracks full of infantry which finally appeared and disembarked with one section engaging the depleted antitank rifle team with the other section relieving the depleted squad in the airport building.
I then decided to commit fortune to the wind by moving an armoured car round the Belgian flank only to be met by accurate fire from the remaining T15 which proceeded to decimate the crew of the armoured car.I was about to exact revenge with the other Pz38 when once again full time was called.
A good experimental game by Colin who intends to use it in the future maybe at a game show.We discussed differences in forces and setup to see what could be improved for a future run through of this game.Hopefully this time with the "Tante Ju" on the table.
Figures,scenery and scenario-Colin Jack
Next week is back into VBCW territory wth hopefully my B.U.F and support getting a run out.See you when I see you.
Good game. The Belgian armour looks neat.
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