75th Anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino and Northern Italy (Gaming The Battles)

Turn 8

The German’s start the turn with FBP failing a morale check and being withdrawn from the battle. The German left flank is now looking very shaky! Once again, FGP fails to unpin, which given the supposed fearless reputation of the Fallschirmjager is nothing short of shameful!

With some of the barbed wire now removed, FRP are able to advance upon the British trench positions. 1iC in the Panther also advances to support the infantry and both are within assault range.

Another couple of Stukas arrive this turn and concentrate their bombs on the 2 M10s. Despite ranging in, they fail to hit the M10s which might leave the Panther horribly exposed!

The 7.5cm guns start to bombard BRP in the hope of pinning them in place to support the assault. They successfully range in and hit a number of teams causing a pin but fail to do any damage – still a good result!

Finally, FRP and the Panter fire at the British in their troops but fail to cause any damage.

With the shooting done, the 1iC assaults the 6pdr teams with his Panther. The Defensive fire is ineffective against the thick armour of the Panther and the tank crashes into the gun teams, killing one. The remaining gun team is unable to fall back and is destroyed.

FRP launches an assault against BRP in their trenches. The defensive fire fails to cause enough hits to pin FRP nor cause any wounds, so the Fallschirmjager hit home, destroying 3 British units in the process. The rest of the British Infantry Platoon can’t muster a counter attack and fall back allowing the Fallschirmjager to occupy the trenches.

With the German’s now making progress toward their objective, the British need to stop this quickly. The last remaining 6pdr team fail to unpin again, which is not going to help stop the rampaging Panther.

The MG team and what’s left of BRP fire upon FRP in the trenches. It causes a few hit but not enough to remove any stands.

The M10s are able to shoot at the Panther and hit, rattling the armour and forcing the 1iC to bail out – this now effectively leaves the German forces without a commander!

Over on the British left, the sniper kills one of FGP’s stands. The Naval guns fire again, with the bombardment catching some of FGP’s teams, destroying another stand.

Have the British done enough to stop the Germans?

Turn 9

The 1iC needs to remount to stop the entire German force melting away. It’s on a roll of a 3+ and the 1iC makes it, just, with a 3! Remounted, the Panther can continue and advances toward BRP! Over on the German right, and perhaps forced into action after being pummelled by the navy bombardment, FGP finally gets moving and advances up the board toward the sniper. FRP advance out of the trenches toward BRP to support the Panther.

The Panther is unable to hit BRP with any shots however FRP does hit the MG platoon, destroying the two teams.

The Panther launches an assault against BRP. The PIAT team take aim and fire, hitting and penetrating the Panther. It doesn’t destroy the tank but it’s enough to cause the 1iC to bail out (again), halting the assualt!

It falls to FRP to try to remove BRP. They assault, losing one team through defensive fire but hit home, killing a British team. The British fail to counter attack again and fall back, allowing FRP to follow up to within 2” of the objective. With no British unit contesting it, this gives the victory to the Germans!

Reflections

This was an enjoyable game, particularly at the end with the somewhat unlikely and pyrrhic victory for the Germans. Had the game continued, it’s unlikely that the Germans would have held onto the objective and would probably have been pushed back, but, to win they only had to be in unopposed possession of the objective.

Tactically the British should have moved their left flank to cover their right and leaving the infantry in platoon in position on the left was a big mistake. This could have been enough to stop FRP rampaging through to the objective.

The Naval gunfire was perhaps not as effective as it could have been, perhaps the rules should have automatically pinned all German troops within a much bigger radius rather than the standard FoW rules of pinning from bombardment. However, the sniper on the left earnt his pay, tying down an entire platoon for pretty much the whole game.

Finally, this is actually the first time I’ve ever used a Tiger in a FoW battle. Can’t say I’m very impressed so far…