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

NZ Turn 3:
The smoke bombardments land further back and play no real impact on this turn.

Tank Platoon 1 attempts to cross the barbed wire, with all but one tank being unsuccessful. The remaining 2 tanks get close enough to a mine counter to trigger it, it turns up another blank. Red Platoon also gaps the barbed wire by the river. The Engineers, Green Platoon and Tank Platoon 2 all advance up the road, looking to leave the 3sqds of Fallschirmjager to Orange Platoon and the Tank Platoon 3.

During the shooting phase, the mortars yet again pin but fail to wound 3sqd. T3, Orange Platoon and the Carriers all pour their fire into 3sqd but fail to cause any damage. Just like the real battle, the Fallschirmjager are well dug in and will take some effort to shift.

German Turn 3:
The NZ advance is enough to trigger 4 deployment locations. The German player draws a blank for the location behind 3sqd, the scout squad for the house above the road, the 2 squad Fallschirmjager for the house further back and the Marder for the location behind the barbed wire (see the tactical map).
3 sqd this turn fail to unpin and their reduced firepower results in no hits at all. The Marder is unable to find the mark on the advancing Tank Platoon 1. The Scout platoon has a little more success, inflicting one kill against Green Platoon in the middle of the table. The newly discovered 2 Squads of Fallschirmjager are out of range and so cannot fire this turn.

NZ Turn 4:

The smoke this turn lands around the hill so has little impact on the game.

Red platoon now advance through the barbed wire they gapped last turn and Tank Platoon 1 moves up in advance of them, giving the infantry some cover and protection. The Engineers get forward to almost reach the first ruined building, while alongside Green Platoon advances up the road and Tank Platoon 2 move off the road to their right. Tank Platoon 3 decides that the 3sqd of Fallschirmjager at the farmhouse are too well dug in and begin to advance around the barbed wire.

With the discovery of the second Fallschirmjager platoon, the Kiwis use their one artillery strike on them. Yet again, the Fallschirmjager are too well dug in to cause any wounds however they will start the next turn pinned. 

The Mortar platoon continue to land shots on the 3sqd Fallschirmjager at the farmhouse and manage to destroy another team this turn.

Tank Platoon 1, faced with a Marder, decide to open fire on it to remove the threat. Despite being on the move and at range, they manage to get a glancing hit that causes the Marder crew to bail out. In the centre, Tank Platoon 2 and Green Platoon fail to cause any hits against the Scout Platoon in the ruined building ahead of them.

German Turn 4:

The advance opens up two more deployment locations and the random draw is a blank and the Fallschirmjager HQ. The HQ are deployed in the ruins behind the 2sqd (see the tactical map)

All of the pinned units are able to unpin and the Marder team remounts their vehicle – exactly what you would expect from the Fallschirmjager!

The Scout platoon fire upon Green Platoon and kill a team meanwhile 2sqd is able to kill two teams from the Engineer Platoon.

The Marder crew waste no time having remounted and fire upon the advancing Sherman’s of Tank Platoon 1 but their haste is to their detriment as they can only manage to bail out one of the Shermans.

NZ Turn 5:

Once again the smoke lands toward the back of the battlefield, not really impacting play this turn.

The Sherman of Tank Platoon 1 is able to remount but the platoon stops to better engage the Marder. Tank Platoon 3 is able to round the barbed wire and turns toward the farmhouse, looking to assault the dug in 3qsd Fallschirmjager there. Tank Platoon 2 moves up toward the scout troop in the ruined building.

Green platoon dives into the ruined building across the road from the scout platoon while battered engineer platoon moves in to take cover behind tank platoon 1. Red Platoon moves up alongside and reaches the second set of barbed wire. Orange platoon, still not willing to move due to the overwhelming firepower that the Fallschirmjager in the farmhouse can apply finally manage to dig in, providing themselves some useful bullet proof cover.

Tank platoon 2 and Green Platoon lay down some fire on the Scouts in the ruined building but fail to cause any damage. Tank Platoon 1 hits the marder, again forcing the crew to bail out but fail to destroy it. 

The Mortars and Tank Platoon 3 manage to once again pin the 3 sqd Fallschirmjager platoon but fail to cause any damage.

Tank Platoon 2 is close enough to launch an assault on the scouts and does so. The Shermans crash into the ruined building, destroying one scout team and forcing the rest to fall back.

German Turn 5:

3 new deployment areas are discovered. The Germans randomly draw the 7.5cm infantry gun teams (placed into the ruined buildings at the road fork), the MG teams who are in position on the hill and the PaK 40 anti tank gun which is placed in the fields behind the buildings and further back from the Marder. 

The Marder remounts and the scout platoon falls back to the building further down the road, recreating the ‘building to building’ fighting that made up much of the combat seen in Cassino.

The Marder fires upon Tank Platoon 1 and causes both tanks to bail out but fails to destroy either. The PaK 40 further back has a shot but the tank somehow bounces the powerful shot – this tank platoon is living a charmed life!

2 sqd Fallschirmjager fires upon  Green platoon and manages to destroy another team while 3qsd’s shooting on Orange Platoon is ineffective. The MG team on the hill has nothing to shoot at but will certainly stop the infantry from advancing around the back of the houses.

In the images below, you can see the state of play at the end of turn 5 and two shots of the battlefield during the Kiwi’s turn.