Canadian Armour vs German Pioneers in MW

Greetings FOW fans, today I shall regaling you with a tale of my game last Saturday against John Smith.  We decided to try out a bit of MW as neither of us has played it much. Rolling for scenario we got Hasty Attack (or Hasty Defence as I call it!).

So be it, the Canadian’s finest against Heer Pioneers,

 The Lists

German Pioneers CV

Hq with 1 x Knacker and AT rifle

10 Stands of rifle pioneers with pioneer cart

10 Stands of rifle pioneers with pioneer cart

1 x Ferdinand (I am intrigued to see what a very big cat is like in MW!).

3 x Stuhs

3 x light AA

1 x T70 (CT)

 

Canadian Armour CT

2 x HQ Shermans

3 x Shermans

3 x Shermans

1 x carrier patrol

3 x Honey Stuarts

4 x 25pdrs

Short Rifle Platoon

Limited Hurricanes

 

Deployment

John placed his objs in the normal fashion, forcing me out to both  flanks, withmy  own obj in the centre of my own and his deployment.  He chose to deploy his arty and both shermans platoons, while I attached the AT rifle to the 2IC to make 8 pltns, thus deploying 2 x inf (1 in immediate reserves), Ferdinand and AA.

I placed 1 x inf on one side but within spitting distance of the centre obj, the Ferdinand in the centre with the AA on the right flank.  Tbh I got confused here thinking that Hurricanes were for air interception only, I should have out the guns in the centre.  Boy were those bombs a surprise 🙂

John deployed his Shermans on each flank ready to advance with the arty in the fields at the rear.  He removes the left flank obj with the inf on it and I place the other platoon from immediate ambush on the right flank obj along with a mine field.

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The Game

Turn 1

No reserves but the air is ready to play.  Shermans advance on each side to start closing to shooting range of the inf.  All the time trying to stay out of LOS of the Ferdinand.  The air claims a flamethrower which is a nice start.  The arty ranges in on the Ferdinand but fails to hit.  The Ferdinand moves and manages to get a shot however wiffs with a  1!

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Turn 2

Still no reserves.  The right flanking Shermans smoke the Ferdinand as they advance.  I realised I hadn’t managed to move out of the Arty template which had ranged in but again he failed to hit.  The Ferdinand now starts shifting left and claims a kill on the left flank.  The Shermans also chip away with a lucky kill on the right flank.

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Turn 3

2 x Reserves for the Canadians, who start advancing their inf down the road and double the Stuarts into the centre of the village.  The left flank Shermans think better of facing the Ferdinand and fall back behind the hill.  This leaves no target for the Ferdinand (The Germans get a very short turn!).

Arty fails to range in and no air is called (The Ferdinand is still under the AA umbrella).

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Turn 4

The whole Canadian army is now on the board with the carriers coming in along the road on the back right. Air is called but wiffs its roll.  The arty switches to the left hand inf and claims 2 teams (rather cheeky for 25prds) while the right loses another team to the Shermans now shooting unopposed.

Luckily the Stuhs arrive on the left flank and claim a Sherman who peskily pass their morale check.  The Ferdinand whiffs (again!).

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Turn 5

Air arrives and manages to target the Ferdinand who is close to the railway station but using a inf team as the aiming marker, however it fails to hit anything.  The right flank Shermans claim another inf stand (This is becoming a habit) and another stand on the left drops to the arty.  These Pioneers are getting closer than id like to a morale check!  The Stuarts move across the centre to support the right flank however 2 are blown apart by the Stuhs at long range (I love FP 2+), again the Ferdinand whiffs its chance for glory, missing the platoon commander.  The Stuart holds its nerve.  The Nebs also arrive and start setting up behind the hill just right of center.

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Turn 6.

The left flank Shermn and CiC fall back further attempting long range shots against a single Stuh but just can’t penetrate at that range.  John decides to go on the offensive and rushes his carriers and Stuarts to my middle back edge to machine gun the nebs before they dig in.  It works and he kills both, they promptly flee.  Meanwhile a Stuh blows up to a Hurricane bombing run.  Sensing a chance for 2 x platoon kills I rush (well if 8 inches is rushing) my Ferdinand behind the Stuart and carriers, moving my newly arrived T70 behind them as well.  I even move a AA gun to get more shots.   The Ferdinand manages to hit something (it better have at 2 inches!) and kills the remaining Stuart.  The AA guns manage to bail 2 x carriers and after a tank terror test the CiC leaps from the trees and kills the final one and captures the rest.

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Turn 7

The Canadians have a bad turn, literally failing to hit anything, the Germans take advantage of the calm to push the centre.  The left flank pioneers advance on the inf supported by the 2 x Stuhs and T70.  The Stuhs kill 2 stands before the flamer claims another (who needs infantry saves…).  The assault fails to kill the final stand and the pioneers lose a team and get pushed back. Thank goodness they pass the morale check with the help of the CiC.  At this point things are closer than they appear. While I need to kill 1 more platoon and that could mean as little as 1 x Sherman, John only needs to kill another Pioneer to keep me checking morale and also a Stuh for a test there.

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Turn 8

No air arrives but the Shermans make short work of the T70 that I stupidly advanced forward (no idea why!).  The Stuhs manage to penetrate the CiC on the left flank but roll a 1 for FP bailing him.  Again the Shermans pass their morale.

Turn 9

The right flank Shermans now start to shoot my Pioneers but fail to kill any, neither does the Arty.  Air arrives but fails to hit the Stuh.  The Stuhs continue to shoot at the left flank Shermans but fail to penetrate although the CiC did fail to remount.

Turn 10.

Fire continues to exchange between the Stugs and Shermans, bailing another.  Again he holds!  The right flank Shermans kill a stand of infantry forcing another morale check but the lads are set on holding, but it is getting rather worrying!  The Ferdinand manages to nail the right flank Sherman Pltn Cdr however the 2IC is nearby to keep them going.

Turn 11

John decides to go for broke, knowing he has to kill 2 platoons and that he is only a single Sherman away from a possible company morale check.  He advances on the centre to assault the pioneers.  He gets in and kills 2 stands.  The pioneers counter thanks to the CiC and kill 2 in return, however they are beaten back by the survivor.  Again everyone passes their morale check.

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The Germans sense a chance to polish of the Sherman platoon and the Stuhs advance around their rear along with the Ferdinand.  Out of 3 At10 shots at close range and a At15 all they can do is bail it.  However in an epic close to the game the single pioneer stand that passed his last man standing, along with the CiC assault the bailed tank and claim it for the 3rd Reich.  With the Canadians on a Company Morale check we call it there as a well fought 4:3 to the Germans.

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Conclusion

This was a cracking game which was a lot closer than I thought it would be.  John’s clever use of scenery combined with my inability to hit with the Ferdinand (I can’t even transfer them to the Russian Front as punishment!) meant they survived very well.  He even knew when to fall back and live to fight in another position.  My big mistake was the AA placement which should have been in the center.  I could have also deployed further back to force his Shermans further forward leaving them more exposed.  Better placement of my mines on the right flank would also have helped ensure he had to expose himself to the Ferdinand.  Equally John admitted that he wasted his recce going after the nebs and should have used them to lift GTG on the right flank.

 

All in all a brilliant, tight game on a lovely board (Check out the battle mat here with a review here  ) with 2 well painted armies.  What’s not to love?

2 thoughts on “Canadian Armour vs German Pioneers in MW

  1. “I attached the AT rifle to the 2IC to make 8 pltns”

    As the ATR is an Infantry it has to be attached to a combat or weapons plt . If you had taken a Püppchen , as that is a gun team you could have from a HQ spport plt with that as its a gun team .

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