J32 - Panzer Graveyard

Hey, Thanks for all who wrote with setup advice and to Joe for a great game. Played Joe Celebuski in J32 'Panzer Graveyard'. I won an intense and fun game as the Brits. They defend a town and have 10 squads, a 57L gun, a Churchill IV, a Sherman III and two piat crews and plenty of concealment. The germans have 4 PzIVH, 4 PZIIIN, and 12 squads and need to take 20 of 29 buildings in 6 turns. The germans start across the street from the brits but 8 of their squads are 436 or 447 with and ELR of 2.

German pros: Tank MG's, guns, smoke, close-in setup and 1st prep fire, time, PF's, The germans have the tools to win but they can't get over-aggressive too fast. The tanks guns and mg's need to focus on breaking brit infantry. Bypass sleaze isn't needed because the german infantry isn't strong enough to exploit the gaps anyway. Just drive the tanks up next to the brits, stop and fire. Any brits not broken will leave rather than face the 16+2 or 3 from the mg's in the next turn. Then the infantry can advance under the tanks any keep sliding forward to capture abandoned buildings (use lots of half-squads). Smoke can help in neutralizing any big brit MG's stacks or piats. The threat of a massive prep fire/smoke attack should keep the brits spread out in their setup. Try to take the Piat teams out in CC if they still are manning the weapons. The Pz IV's, PF's and ATMM's should discourage too many brit tank sorties. Expect to lose 2 tanks to the ATG and two to the piats and maybe one to the Sherman and Churchill combination. The key is to keep driving the brit infantry back while taking out the antitank weapons ASAP.

British pros: Infantry superiority, high net TK #'s, last move, high building VC requirement, hidden ATG with 3 ROF, concealment The brits have no easy task. If the german tanks can penetrate into the center of the village to cut rout/movement paths, the brits will be toast. But the low german quality and ELR makes them very brittle. In our game a german 8-0 with a 447 and 436 took a 1 MC on a 6+3 shot. When the smoke cleared there was a disrupted 236 HS left. Head to head, the brit infantry will win. So how does one keep the tanks under control? I'd say the brits anti-tank weapons (ATW, including the tanks) need to take a 'reverse slope' defense. That is keeping the brit infantry in front and the ATW behind a hex or two. This'll punish any tank blitz that cuts route paths. Don't use the front line infantry to streetfight, keep them ready to shoot at german infantry. Also have your front-liners keep concealment rather than take marginal shots. The lax germans won't advance into a likely ambush vs. concealed troops. Your ATW's net to kill #'s of about 8 makes life tough for the HG tankers. The ATG is your most powerful piece. I think an up front setup in ZO, Z1, Y3, W5 or in the EE brush may work but it's risky. Here's my setup: I choose a central rear spot for the ATG to try to own the center of the village instead. My approach was keep the center strong, while ceding both flanks. I figured the Germans are only strong enough to fully support one thrust. I also tried to use many 3 counter stacks to avoid identifying my piat teams. ATG in Z5, ?x2 V8(1), 457 aa3(1), 247 ff3, bb1 ? 457 lmg, aa2 ?127 piat, aa4 ? sherman 457, z9 ? 457 70, z0 ? 247, z3 ? 457 MMG, y3 ? 457 8-1, y5 ? 457 9-1, x5 ? 127 piat, x6 ? Churchill (tca south, vca north) 457 HMG, w7 ? 457 lmg Joe decided to hit my right hard but to also press broadly. He setup his PZIV's in 46V3 and W3, 18H2(with 1 squad), F3 (with 3 squads + leader) and Pz III's in 18 F2, G3, H3, J2. The rest of the infantry setup around 46W3. German turn 1 He smoked BB0, CC1 and X2 to start things off. Joe had bad luck with smoke and out of 6 total smoke attempts in the game he found his last round twice, broke a gun, and had no smoke once. The 3 squads from F3 armored-assaulted to EE2 (one pinned to fire). Some squads assaulted into the smoke in X2 but didn't advance vs. a 457 with concealed 8-1 (net -4 to ambush). Rest of fire ineffective. Brit turn 1 My sherman moved to CC3 in bypass but missed its bounding fire shot and went down in german DF. My churchill started a slow passage to FF4 (took 3 turns due to the lousy 9 MP's). I advanced a concealed piat crew into CC3. Rest skulked or moved towards the endangered right flank. Turns 2-3 My sniper began a killing spree to protect my right. He wounded and then killed the german 8-1 in FF3 along with 1.5 squads over the next 4 turns. My piat team in CC3 took out a PZIII moving into CC2 and then fired up the PzIV in EE2 in prep. Joe's tanks/infantry pushed me back slowly in the center of the village. But he lost the aforementioned 8-0 and 2 squads, which hurt a lot. This left him with just the 9-1 who was usually too busy directing the HMG to rally folks. Brit infantry kept routing into the BB3/BB4//CC5 area but rallying to fight another day. I jumped on a pinned 467 in EE4 with a 2 457's and a concealed 7-0. Missed the ambush but killed in CC. Joe then drove a PZIII into the hex and crushed them so that only 2 broken HS's were alive. Also one PZIII was recalled due to main armament being disabled. The denouement (I've lost that great scenario several times) came in turn 4. We were both down to half our infantry being unbroken. The ATG then came into action, smoking a PzIV in Z4, spinning and taking out another in Y6 in prep, and then later immobilizing a third in AA4. Meanwhile the Churchill finally arrived on the right flank and took revenge on the PZIII in EE4. German turn 5 saw Joe with one PZIII and 4 squads vs. the atg, both piats, the Churchill and 7 squads (4 of which just rallied) and we called the game. In hindsight Joe and I agreed that trying to press on a broad front or separating the infantry and tanks won't work for the german. I'd rate it 60/40 pro-brit just because the germans need to use lots of finesse. But the game will probably be decided by the ATG. If it can take out 3-4 tanks the brits should win. If 0 or 1 the germans should. See you at the WCW Open. Paul Sidhu "move out and draw fire"