Hey,
X-mas just passed and because my brother came to vist once again there was a chance to confront US and German armies. Both bloodthirsty, both fully painted!
After setting the battlefield we randomly picked Top Secret scenarion:
long story short the plane crashed in some western Europe village, whole crew died but there was still a briefcase containing top secret documents to be retrieved. Most probably V3 rockets plans or something. Both sides need that stuff and need it now!
The battlefield:
Round 1:
It was retrieve mission so both sides tried to bring in as many units as possible from the very beginning. Big surprise was German infantry squad mounted on bikes which got dangerously close to the plane in the very first round!
The only thing I could do was bringing Hellcat into the game: luckly for Uncle Sam my destroyer hit the nazi bikers both with big gun and machine gun, sending 5 of them to Valhalla and forcing the last one to flee.
Most of US forces also reached the positions:
infantry squad moved into building supported by medic and veteran sniper, on the other side of the road arrived the commander, bazooka team, mortar and air force forward observer.
At the same time Germans brought medium mortar and spotter, infantry squad and truck loaded with another squad + force commander.
Those damn nazis dismounted reaching the plane! Disaster! 😤
Round 2:
Germans started the second round by bringing the biggest nightmare of any US commander: Flakverling! From the hill it had clear view on the most of the battlefield! 🥶
Before the gun crew left transporter I tried to reach it with bazooka but the target was an inch beyond the maximum range.
At this point I had no other choice then calling an airstrike on infantry next covering the plane.
German MMG and infantry opened fire to Hellcat giving it 2 pin markers:
which was just enought to make it fail order test and eventually - useless to the very end of the game. In responce my GIs left the building and fired at enemy machine gun:
11 shots at close range was more that enough to take it down. Still the Hellcat wasn't worth it.
German commander grabbed the briefcase and started falling back covered by infantry.
My mortar and HQ squad missed so shit got really thick right now...
Trying to cut off German commander Dodge packed with infantry squad and Jeep moved from the flank but they reached only the hedge line. Seeing that German commander moved the truck in front of my wheelers which opened fire at my Jeep pinning it.
Germans brought another medium machine gun to stop my flanking action, they also tried to take down my sniper with mortar fire but luck was on my side this time.
Round 3:
Suddenly US airplane came down from the skies aiming for German infantry squad but Flakverling did it's job right: plane pilot didn't even see the target before flak fire torn his machine into bits of scrap. The battle seemed to be over but in act of desperation another airstrike was called - this time on Flakverling itself.
Seconds after pieces of burning junk fell down from the skies Panzerkampfwagen III flanked my cars destroying Dodge and forcing the squad to emergency landing. PzIII also took down 3 GIs advancing nearby. Actually there were 4 casaulties but medic did his job.
It wasn't much better on the flank:
Kubelwagen rolled in trying to take down my mortar and then - lieutenant, bazooka team or the observer (all easy targets). But it missed all shots!
Seconds later my commander and his sidekick moved between trees and fired the invader - a perfect shot just under the line of Stahlhelm was just enough to get rid of mobile MMG.
The briefcase was now almost behind German line...
US assault squad tried to storm machine gun in the back but failed order check.
Germans put some more pin markers on the Jeep so it looked like the game was over.
US commander ripped army list to pieces and prepared to pack the toys and go back home...
Round 4:
Since the game was practically over and we were bit drunk already decision was made just to solve an airstrike pro forma:
tha plane not only arrived but evaded all shots from Flakverling and second later there was no more German flak!
US commander had to take pieces army list from the bin trying to assemble it...
There still was some hope!
I didn't manage to bring the other truck in the previous turn but it arrived now just from behind the hill. The driver fired at enemy commander but didn't even make a scratch.
Engineers did better:
after jumping of the Dodge they gunned down Axis lieutenant and tried to torch the squad nearby but it was out of flamethrower's range. Gulp! 😬
Germans didn't take a risk:
they put on the bayonets and charged US engineers killing 5 and giving 2 in return.
Without any US units able to pick up the briefcase nearmy the game was definitely over.
Looking forward for rematch.
