As the dust settles on another ETC, it is time to look back over my 6 games played in not so sunny Poland.
I was running with Team England and packing my aggressive Sherman list at 105pts.
Game 1 : Portugal – Carlos Ferreira
Carlos was running a rather nice Soviet Red Banner list with a 12 scary AT12 vehicles. He chose defend and we ended up with Valley of Death.
With his 76mm Shermans and Recce in reserve I weighted one side and went for it. I was fortunate to get a platoon from reserve turn 1 (thanks to Patton). The M10s waited for better shots to engage but I had the weight of fire to start bringing them down. His infantry on my side wisely sat still not wanting to run into a hail of bullets and weathered the artillery.
His reserves arrived and fortunately only killed a handful of tanks (thanks to smoke covering my rear) before my whole army concentrated their fire power on them, getting them down to a single tank. Carlos has terrible luck and his remaining Sherman and M10 fled. With no AT on table save some 45mm guns and Fausts I now started to advance to the objs.
I had underestimated the armoured cars ie that they were cautious (5pts for 7 x fearless cautious vehicles!) which went to ground on 1 obj forcing me to push to the other. His pesky 45mm guns harassed my rear armour but the Jumbo and Patton helped out. The game finished with an assault into his infantry who fell back leaving me on the obj.
8:1 and a good start to the event. To be honest had Carlos ambushed ahead of me and limited my return fire it may well have gone differently!
Game 2 – USA -Johnathon Meier
John was using a Berlin Panzer Battlegroup with a Berlin Infantry Battle group for good measure. I didn’t have very good predictions against any of the USA lists so was placed out first (known as thrown under the bus) with the hope to give the rest of the team better matches. In reply we had a choice of this of Tony Davis and his Vet (and aggressive Shermans). I had a slightly better prediction vs this so rolled up attack in Outflanked.
The scenery was tough no options to place my objs which weren’t in/surrounded by buildings or in/on cross check terrain. Therefore, I ignored the building obj and pressed for the one by the pond. I used smoke for 3 turns to cover his 88s via the gap in the woods while I advanced and burnt a lot of inf. This got me to the obj and with smoke covering his LOS I engaged the PZIV/70s with 5 x AT13 76mm guns and whiffed with only bails.
As the smoke cleared I was now facing a lot of AT14 along with Pak40 recce and some cheeky faust inf sneaking up on me. It was all too much and he managed to destroy all 21 Shermans.
7:2 to Johnathon with a well fought defence.
Game 3- Spain -David Walker
Next up it was time to face the Spanish team. I was paired with David and another Red Banner list, this time with a Churchill formation as well. I was worried about this as FA8 is not the friend of my force. I only have so much AT12/13!
This time I was to attack in Killing Ground. This meant all his Churchills were off table and would come on with Scattered reserves. Noting that he now had no high AT (beyond fausts and 45mm guns) I weighted my attack to one side and crossed my fingers his reserves come on the other side!
I started aggressively with a blitz on the Crocs to start burning the infantry and guns. He cleverly moved up his recce as a vehicle shield to block my advance. This held me up while I dealt with them however his 1st reserve came on the wrong side. I polished off most of the armoured cars and started to work on his infantry using smoke to protect my rear.
His next reserves come on his back line and moved up to take shots at me in the smoke and cornfield. Alas he failed to do anything but bail me and Patton got me back in. I turned my attention on the Churchills and killed 3 and bailed the other 2. Smoke then protected me from the other platoon advancing. He did remount and managed to blow my Crocs away as I started to press on the obj. Fortunately his 3rd reserve come on the wrong side.
I regretted not finishing his ACs who now got 1 onto the obj as he rushed his inf up to support. He bailed my Jumbo with a lucky Faust (my lucky card even rolled a 1!). Unfortunately he made a mistake and assaulted the Jumbo with multiple stands rather than one which caused more defensive fire which forced him back. Next turn I mowed down his infantry and the blew apart the ACs to take the win 8:1.
Game 4 – Switzerland – Raphael Bosson.
This time I was matched against an almost mirror list of aggressive Shermans. The key difference was no Patton but a Desert Rats Motor platoon instead.
Mirror matchups are always tough and I felt being the attacker would be key. Unfortunately this round I was M and Rapheal was a A. This meant I defended in Escape.
Knowing I had first turn I positioned to get some initial shot with my 76mm guns on his tanks on the road hoping to at least pop a 76mm and maybe a 75mm while laying smoke to limit return fire. However I achieved a bail on 75mm which of course remounted. In better news I got a platoon from reserve which arrived and beat up the 3 x 75mm Shermans threatening my left flank. This then mean I could hide my Crocs and HQ saving them for the end game when the fight would be close up.
Raphael pushed forward on the right flank shooting on the move but achieving nothing as Jumbos took the hits. he did smoke me to block return fire forcing my tanks to relocate to get more moving shots. Meanwhile 6 x Shermans arrived from reserve on my right flank and bullied the infantry and shooting up some rear armour of the 75mm Shermans before smoke blocked them. This forced Raphael to dispatch his own Crocs to counter them and stop me assaulting his infantry. This held me up and cost me a few of my own Shermans. Thankfully I eventually managed to crack them via weight of fire allowing me to switch fire to his fragile armoured mortars and T30s to whittle his formation morale.
Meanwhile one of his formations had been gutted and his late formation was getting fragile. That said he had caused horrific casualties to my own Late formation with only 2 x Jumbos hanging on (with 1 eventually failing its last stand).
Eventually Rapheal had to advance on my objective but by this stage lacked the shots to kill off the T30s, Mortars, Crocs and HQ which swamped it. The game ended as my HQ flanked his Jumbo killing it while my 75mm finished off the others near the obj.
This was a bloody 6:3 with massive casualties on both sides. Jumbos protected both of us with early rounds resulting in slaps as hits bounced to FA11. A tense and great game.
Game 5 – Poland – Igor Rzeszotalski
It was time to face the mighty Poland and of cause I ended up with Shermans again. Unfortunately this time it was Vet Shermans (ie hit on 4s) inc 12 x AT 13 76mm guns (inc 3 x Jumbos). Alongside it there would be 3 x smoke bombardments and and 2 x infantry platoons. I knew this would be an uphill struggle and we would be fighting Counter Strike.
The start of the game was challenging with Igor holding a vital hill providing excellent overwatch of my advancing tanks. This meant i had to use smoke to start moving up depleting it for later game. Knowing he now had the smoke advantage he backed his tanks off under his own smoke while his reserves started to arrive. This resulted in him being able to whittle me on the way in and then lift smoke to truly engage me.
I kept a good showing reducing his starting position to a single Jumbo and delivering a bit of the bloody nose to some reinforcements. A cheeky move by the innocuous UCs got me onto the far obj. I then ended up with a single Jumbo near the other. Alas on turn 7 he managed to kill my GTG carriers and flank my Jumbo with one of his own killing it and producing the win.
Looking back I don’t think Igor was really in danger of me winning but with a few different dice it would have ended up with a mutual lose due a Jumbo or Carrier being within 8 inches of the objs. A really tactical and thoughtful game with a great element of cat and mouse.
Game 6 – Netherlands – Jan Freek Hamming
My final game was vs Waffen SS with the 9th Division card making everything in the formation Fearless, Cautious vets! My heart sank when the table was revealed. It was almost completely ruins which had been ruled as short terrain. This meant bar 1 building and a couple of forests on the board edges there was nothing to block LOS. Even worse with me attacking in Breakthrough, there was no way i could mitigate all the places his 6 x Stummels could come on in ambush to hit my side armour.
Putting this aside i advanced, again getting turn 1 Crocs action burning 2 stands out of the ruins and killing off his recce. I also dropped smoke to protect me from the worst ambush situations. He had little to do on turn 1 except relocate some infantry, however his StuHs managed to kill my HQ Jumbo, Croc and bail my other HQs Sherman but luckily Patton jumped to another Jumbo hull!
I kept advancing burning some more inf but i got greedy thinking I could assault the reduced platoon on the obj but forgot how good Fearless vets are with HQ re-roll and instead lost 2 Shermans. He then popped the ambush murdering my Crocs and late Sherman formation.
Realising I was not likely to take the centre obj I started relocating my remaining Shermans to the far, unprotected one. Artillery polished off the 2 x Infantry platoons although my Shemans were harassed by Pumas and Stummels as they flanked. Patton was now alone and unafraid and broke out towards the StuHs, surviving the Panthers arriving from reserve. Alas he eventually brewed up to a Panther but not before my remaining Late platoon of Shermans arrived from flanking reserve knocking out 2 x StuHs. By now I had a few tanks on the obj and his Panthers not close enough to contest. He desperately tired to break me by engaging my arty but I got very lucky with my single Mortar passing several last stands to prevent my Late formation breaking. After his last round of shooting I was left with 4 tanks on the obj contested by a StuH (who survived 4 x shots from 76mm guns who couldn’t hit a barn door!). I assaulted, dodged the 105mm round and killed his remaining HQ stand. This forced the StuH to break off who miraculously failed a cross check handing me the game for a hard fought 6:3.
Although the scenery was nightmare this was my favourite game which was tense and could go either way!
Wrapping up
Team England finished mid pack at 10 / 20 meaning we have a lot of work to do next year as we rethink our approach to have another shot to take the win. Personally i came a very respectable 18th with 4 wins although down on last years 5 wins and top 5 showing.
As always it was great fun and all games were hard fought with every win on a knife edge. Thanks to all the orgas and my opponents. I and the rest of Team England be back for other round next year.