Rommel 1940 British v German Scenario 5 'Recon in Force'

After succeeding in the 'Evacuation' scenario in the last game this one saw my 1940 British attempting a 'Recon in Force' against Andy's Germans.

In this scenario the Germans have to defend nine objectives, four of which are dummies. To win the British have to capture any three 'real' objectives. My force consisted of two infantry brigades and an armoured brigade well supported with artillery.

The British prepare to move. Unfortunately, I had brought along the only cloth I have that does not have a grid on it so we had to improvise with rather garish counters to mark the grid lines!

The first assault against a potential objective:

The first objective falls, unsurprisingly it is a dummy but the British press on deeper into the German lines:

A second objective falls, this isn't a dummy so two more to go:

The line of battle:

Resistance by the Germans is stiffening but a Matilda sneaks through their lines and takes another actual objective!

A third objective is taken in the town on the right. It's another dummy though:

The British drive forwards on their right:

A rare German counter-attack:

Progress on the left is slower though:

A breakthrough! If the objective behind the river is real (unlikely though that is) take that and the British will have a win:

It's a dummy unfortunately. The Germans have done an excellent job of drawing the British towards the fake objectives then pulling back to defend the remaining real ones in depth:

Attacks go in against the last objective the British might perhaps take, the wooded fields on the left:

They make no headway though and the Germans have plenty of reinforcements left to help hold on:

At this point I conceded defeat. With only a couple of turns left, few fresh infantry units to assault the terrain and Andy having numerous Op dice to defend his position I couldn't really see a way forward for the British.

Andy and I have played an awful lot of Rommel now (maybe around 20 games!) and, I think, have both become quite proficient at playing. One thing we have noticed is an increasing tendency for the defender in the scenarios to just sit back as, in general, there is little point in launching counter-attacks and shuffling troops between the objectives while maintaining your Ops dice is much more efficient. One solution might be to try some 'historical' scenarios though it is noticeable that these mostly consist of vast numbers of infantry and few 'toys' like tanks and artillery!

Rommel Early War Germans

Inevitably given my recent addition of 1940 British I thought I might as well add a few more Germans to be able to use them against the British or the early war Russians. Certainly made a change with no having to think up a camouflage scheme for them!

Panzer I's:

Panzer II's:

Panzer III's:

Panzer IV's:

Half-tracks for Panzer Grenadiers:

As with the initial British purchase I think I haven't really got enough especially as three spare Stug III's I was going to use are later versions that don't really look right for a 1940 army (even for me who isn't fussy about the difference between various models of the same tank) but as the Germans are more expensive it will probably be enough for a defensive orientated force and I do have a lot of infantry!

That really just leaves the French in 10mm I don't have (plus all the desert war, but those I have in 3mm). 

Rommel British additions

Having done some early war British for Rommel of course I then decided I hadn't quite got enough and needed to add some more as usual!

Three more A14 Cruiser tanks:

More of the mighty Matilda tanks:

Six more infantry bases:

Three Churchill tanks for the late war version of the army:

That should be everything for a while now really hopefully!

Rommel 1940 British v German Scenario 4 "Evacuation"

Almost immediately after being painted the 10mm British 1940 force for Rommel rolled into action. My opponent again was Andy, this time using 1940 Germans. Feeling it was most appropriate we went for the 'Evacuation' scenario which sees the British defending five objectives that they need to hold for a number of turns. The Germans need to capture three of the five objectives before they are evacuated or night falls:

The Germans have a substantial points advantage (102 to 82) though actual numbers will be closer as many of the German units are elite. I think when I have  played this scenario before as the defender I've gone for defending the three objectives furthest back while committing only delaying forces to the front two objectives.

This time I thought I'd try a different plan and go for a solid defensive line as far forward as possible. The advantage of this approach is that firstly it would be harder for Andy to achieve the devastating flanking attacks he has become very adept at and secondly if all went well I'd only have to survive ten turns (five of Andy's and five of mine). The downside was that to hold the entire line would use up almost all my forces with nothing left in reserve and only single bases holding the other objectives. If Andy broke through the line the game could be over very quickly as well.

My force consisted of an Infantry Brigade supported by the 'Tiger of the early war' Matilda tanks and an Armoured Brigade. I ended up with only 11 terrain choices but still managed to make a decent defensive position and cover the 10 turn objective with a river. The Infantry Brigade deployed on the left, the Armoured Brigade on the right. Andy had a Panzer KG on his right, an Infantry KG in the centre and a Fallschirmjäger KG on his left:

The Germans move up their infantry and Fallschirmjäger while the Panzer KG makes an immediate attack in the open ground to my left which is thrown back by the mighty Matilda's:

A second attack by the Panzer KG is repelled as well:

The German attack is repulsed all along the line:

Another attack on the right of my line fails:

Things are going no better for the Germans in the centre with only one small gain and heavy losses:

With the first objective successfully evacuated, the German units largely spent and the next two objectives unlikely to fall in time the Germans withdraw to reconsider their plans:

I thought it was probably going to be a short but brutal game and that certainly was the case, after a few turns Andy's Germans had taken a pasting not helped by some poor combat dice on his part which made many of his attacks ineffective. On reflection I suspect that if Andy had massed against one part of the line that might have worked better, by matching my line he ended up with few reserves as well so had nothing to follow up on the damage his initial attacks did. All in all a good start for the new army, maybe next time I will use them as Late War British.

Rommel 1940 British

Yet another example of mission creep here. I ordered something from Wayland Games and it wasn't quite enough to get 'free' postage. So, looking around I saw that they had some of the Victrix 12mm Late War British infantry in stock. Having already got Americans if I bought them I could just replace all my American infantry with British ones, use the same vehicles and play as British! Sounds good!

Once they arrive I think well I'd like to have a few Churchills and maybe some proper artillery. So I order some from Pendraken. I finally start painting the infantry.

Then when arranging my next Rommel game Andy mentions he has done some 1940 Germans and wouldn't mind using them some time. I'd only need to add a few more tanks and I could use the British as Early War as well! So I say okay next game I'll use Early War British and off goes another order to Pendraken. I'd better get on with the painting.

An Infantry Brigade:

Supporting Matilda's and Royal Artillery:

An Armoured Brigade of Cruiser Mk IV's:

Plus some 'Cavalry' in Vickers Light Tanks, some Motorised Infantry and more Royal Artillery:

Finally some Army Level Heavy Artillery:

I like the way the tanks especially have come out, the earlier tanks have a charm all of their own. The infantry are very nice little models with loads of detail which I certainly didn't really do justice to but then with such small drab figures in a darkish room it makes little difference.

The army was only finished yesterday and will be going into action later tonight playing the very appropriate for 1940 'Evacuation' scenario.

I'll need to add more elements really as I only have 80 points worth at the moment and for Rommel you really need around 110 points to do all the scenarios. I have a load more infantry to do but will probably end up splashing out on a few more tanks as well.

Rommel Scenario 6 "Relief" Late War Americans v German

After Andy's narrow victory in our last refight of Juno Beach this game saw my Americans taking on Andy's Germans in a vaguely 'Battle of the Bulge' refight.

In this scenario a quarter of the attacker's force is trapped in an isolated 'pocket' holding an objective and has to be relieved by the remainder of the force establishing a supply line by nightfall.

Having played this scenario a few times it is always interesting and there are a number of ways you can approach it. Being the attacker this time I went for a force consisting of some paratroopers from the 101st Airborne to hold the pocket objective and a strong 52nd Armoured CC together with a weaker 104th Infantry CC to attempt the relief supported by as much artillery as I could manage to really beef up my attacking options.

Initial deployment with the Americans 'hidden' and the Germans spread out across the middle of the table:

The American forces are revealed. The plan is to use the 52nd CC to push through on the left while the 101st holds the objective and the 104th CC acts as a reserve and defends the artillery:

The 52nd CC begins to move to the left in some cagey early turns:

The initial attack by the 52nd CC is disastrous with the Germans inflicting severe losses on the attacker:

A German counter-attack finishes off a couple of the damaged battalions:

The Germans also attempt to assault the 101st but are thrown back with heavy losses. This persuades the German commander that it isn't worth taking the tough paratroopers on again!:

The 52nd CC continue to push forward to achieve the breakthrough and are succeeding in thinning out the German defenders:

The push is going well now with the German defences weakening forcing them to commit more troops from other areas of the lines. The 104th infantry CC is still uncommitted, soon I'll need to decide where to use them:

The Germans re-establish their lines with the units drawn from elsewhere. This fight is going to be close!:

The 52nd makes another attempt to break through:

Success! The 52nd is battered and bruised but through the German line and has the beleaguered 101st in clear sight. The 104th has finally been committed to support the remnants of the 52nd:

Can the 52nd hold on against German counter-attacks?

Observing the relief column the 101st moves out to help the relief force and keep the gap open:

German forces are weakened, scattered and have issues with different units being mixed up. None-the-less they still think they can defeat the almost equally weakened Americans and viciously counter-attack where they can:

The thin line of Americans holds on though, sometimes by the narrowest of margins:

After three additional turns night falls with the Americans holding on to their objective and opening a supply line to it giving them a victory with heavy losses on both sides:

As ever a cracking game which sort of went down to the wire in that right up until his last move Andy almost broke the supply line I'd developed on the left making the last few turns very tense.

However, as often happens in Rommel, in the heat of the fight we both became fixated on the efforts of the 52nd CC to break through in an intense battle. Andy threw more and more troops into the fight from the rest of his lines and by the end most of his force was involved in the fight. In my case I was probably a little tardy in using the 104th to support the 52nd.

The result of this was that Andy had inadvertently allowed a supply line to be created on the right of the table by withdrawing too many units leaving big gaps in his lines so, even if he had stopped the 52nd, I'd still have won anyway which I'd realised a couple of turns before the end and was desperately hoping Andy didn't notice!

For me the plan I had worked well, though I think I got the roles on the 52nd Armoured CC and the 104th Infantry CC wrong in that I made my initial attack with the fast moving 52nd and left the slower 104th in reserve when it would have been better to have more mobility in the reserve where it was needed. My initial plan had included the possibility of drawing most of Andy's Germans on to the 52nd then advancing up the other side of the table with the 104th (which was partly why I committed them so late) but in fact they just wouldn't have moved fast enough where the more mobile 52nd would have had a better chance. 

Andy will choose the next scenario we play and I'm looking forward to what he comes up with!