Miniature Wargaming with Spudnick: AAR: Sherman Road Kill.

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

AAR: Sherman Road Kill.

There is nothing like a Tuesday morning where you can wake up and beat up friends in a wargame. Well, that was sort of the plan on my behalf! It sort of backfired to the the point of a slaughter. My friend, Danny came over for a fun game of Bolt Action. He had not played the game in a year, since we last played against each other at his house, so he was looking forward to playing a game. It also helped that he does not live very far from me, so it is easier to play at my place than travelling across town to our local Hobbytown, U.S.A.
Now, one would think I would have the home advantage of knowing the rules more and also really being at home, but it was not going to be one of those games. For one, I did not care about winning as much as playing. We did not really care about points for our force make up. I ran a lower force in comparison. One reason was just for the challenge to see if I would survive. The answer we are looking for is "no"! Two, I thought I might have more of an advantage knowing that Danny has a history of rolling bad. I have no idea why I thought this would matter when I have the same history.
We played and Maximum Attrition mission. I had my small force composed of one 1st Lt. with two men, four squads of Fallschirmjager with four Panzerfaust each, one Panzerfaust trap (a made-up team consisting of two men armed with two Panzerfausts, one shot wonders!), and two Stug III's. Danny had a 1st Lt. with two men, four Squads of American Airborne, and six happy Shermans ready to go! The Shermans were going to do most of the work in this game.

From the start, Danny was concerned about losing one of Sherman tanks to a Stug III. I only managed to hit one with a glancing blow. The same happened against that said Stug in return fire. It was by turn two, that the Stug III in the road was destroyed. This was only the beginning. He held a squad of infantry and a Sherman off table for flanking purposes. For some reason, I felt that holding things in ambush would give me the edge. It worked okay against one poor American squad where they lost their NCO to small arms from my hedge-hiding Germans. My non-burning Stug III in ambush missed the drive by one of the Shermans costing the whole crew's lives. At this point, it was armor versus infantry.
There was a hold up with small arms fire between opposing squads of infantry. This quickly gained the attention of Danny's Shermans after they made short work of a German squad in the road. This turned into the great pinch. The Americans used their flanks and the Shermans to envelope the Germans holding the road. It turned into disaster as round after round tore the Germans to pieces. It was not pretty.
On the other side of the board, two Sherman tanks attacked the one squad of Germans with support of a squad of Airborne. The tanks cut down the enemy with fire while the infantry mopped up the remaining Germans in an assault. The only resistance left was my one-hit wonders, the Panzerfaust traps! They fired at the tanks. One faust bounced off the tank on the side. The other one was shot at another Sherman, but the German must have been sidetracked by a butterfly. He did not hit. Since they only have one shot each, they withdrew from the table making them the only survivors of the skirmish.
The ordeal was a crushing defeat for the Germans. I can say that I am proud to have made it to turn six, even if I was gone after the first two dice were pulled that turn. We had fun, and that was what counts. We will see in next week has the same results.

The board from one side.

My side of the board.

A Stug III advances with infantry. Just as a side note: I gain a free camera that I was trying out. It was worse than my dying current one. I took 36 pictures and only 13 were worthy of saving. So sorry!