Tuesday 7 February 2017

Battle Report - Operation Battleaxe - Total War Mission

Hello Readers,

So this past weekend we had the last day of the clubs Early War campaign. It was close to tied on the last turn, so we decided to just play a giant battle to close it off. Using the Total Victory scenario where you accrue points by taking objectives, we did 1250 pt armies each, the British had 5 players and 5 companies, and the Germans had 3 players with 2 of them running 2 companies.

I did a Panzer 3 company, and a Shutzen Company. We agreed to only have 1 platoon of 88s max so I didn't have any in my force, but the small anti-tank guns are just as effective, maybe even more so really.


Here we are early on, I had my 2 companies on this end where three objectives, the other 3 were spread out along the table. My plan was to use small disposable recon companies to capture the middle objective early, and the contest the British objective to deny them points. I figured we would time out, so it's important to get an advantage early. Otherwise my tanks and guns just grinded forwards.


As the battle progresses I am doing a good enough job of killing the tanks the started around me, starting to blow up allot of crusaders. We got a little bit of a lead in the early turns. But way down in the dark desert the British and pressing hard for out objective, and they have the center one as well, so it starts to turn pretty fast.


At this point I have destroyed the tanks facing me and solidly taken the center, and was starting to push on the British objectives. But elements from 2 other British tank companies are starting to head my way, which is distressing.


Here is a close up, lots of burning tanks around now.


As the sharks circled I had a critical turn where I failed 3 or 4 morale tests in a row, and my tank company evaporated. This left me with not so much to fight back with. Our center company, had broken or was close to breaking by this point as well, and things were not going well in the dark desert. As you can see in the above picture there are 2 or 3 people measuring how fast their tanks can shoot up my stuff!

In the end our forces were broken, and we had lost on points by a good margin. But I managed to break one British Tank company as I was going done, so we at least accomplished something!

Thanks;
Mike

2 comments:

  1. Excellent report. In the Dark desert, a Crusader squadron broke the german forces, mainly with Artillery smoking the 88's so they were ineffective in firing and the germans eventually broke causing the british to start moving to the center.

    The British won the campaign, as it was essentially tied and the winner of this would determine the winner of the campaign.

    Again, thanks to Mike for the report and pictures, and all who participated. Next up, Serge and Bagration so it's back to the USSR.

    Bernhard

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  2. What a splendid and impressive terrain!

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