Yesterday we played the 16th scenario from the Nuts! supplement from Two Hour Wargames The Big Hurt which takes place in the Hürtgen Forest, on November 6th, 1944, Kommerscheidt, Germany.
The Americans with one full infantry squad and three Shermans M4 must prevent German forces with two infantry squads, three Pz IV J and one Panther putting one tank in the yellow dot you can see in the picture below, where the Americans deploy, before turn 10. Both sides can have reinforcements.
Americans start on bottom left corner and Germans on top right corner. The two yellowy counters are German PEFs representing the two infantry squads.
One of the Shermans started in sight of the panzer IV on the road. Germans won activation, fired, hit and destroyed the Sherman (Shermans and their crews were worse than Germans'). Then, on the Americans activation the M10 (proxying as a Sherman 76mm) got hull down behind the wedge, but again the Germans won the In Sight and the same Panzer fired, hit the turret and penetrated it, disabling the tank and forcing the crew to bail out. I should have been more cautious with those Shermans.
My last Sherman was in hull down behind the crest of the hill and partially hidden behind the forest next to the road, but as soon as another Pz IV got sight of if from the other hill, again he reacted first, fired, hit and destroyed my last tank! Now I only had infantry with one bazooka to stop those panzers.
I sent half of my squad with the NCO jr. and bazooka to the forest and houses in the centre, and the other half with the NCO and the BAR to the forest next to the road. But half of a squad was no match for a full squad of German veterans and most of them fell down in the firefight. The pinned down survivors were then charged and finished in hand-to-hand combat. Ouch!
On the forest on the right things were better as my NCO had Steely Eyes and Rep 5 and could make his section to react first and finish most of the second German squad with the BAR and the SMG. Only two soldiers could escape from the carnage. But then the panzer shot HE and killed half of them so I fell back with the last survivors.
So now I had only half crew of one Sherman ducking back behind their tank and surrounded by enemy infantry and tanks, and my NCO with two grunts taking cover behind the other burning Sherman. My only chance was to hold, hiding and waiting for the cavalry.
More panzers closing down.
Well, the Americans were definitely out of luck! Fortunately, things went differently in reality ...
ReplyDeletePerhaps, given the inferiority in the quality of the tanks, it would have been better for the Americans to stand in sheltered spots and wait for the Germans to advance?
Definitely. I wasn't conscious of that difference until it was too late. Like I said in the report, I should have been more cautious with the Shermans.
DeleteOuch! Sometimes you just have to take your licks! Thanks for the report.
ReplyDeleteJust like real life my friend. I waited and waited for any reinforcements but they never arrived. My opponent pointed out that the game would have been more enternaning if we both had played as Americans struggling against the German AI, maybe next time :)
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