Independent Tank Company vs Westfallen

Today Mark recounts his recent game vs John on his shiny new gaming board a fitting ending to version 3.

The Board

This was the first game on my new board and while gorgeous it does have to be carefully defined for game play.  To that end we decided that the foliage glued onto the board was for aesthetics only.  The game would be played with true LOS.

The river is just a bog check.  Infantry can finish on the river on the wooden bridge side (on the ford) to help with crossing over 2 turns.

The lists and scenario

The game was played at 1625pts and we rolled up Dust-up.  I would be attacking.  I’ll also point out that this was V3 in fact maybe my last game for a while as I get used to V4.

Westfallen FT 1625

HQ, 2 x Panzershreks and 3 faust traps

1 x full SS inf pltn

1 x short SS inf pltn

1 x panzergrenadier pltn with panzershrek RV

1 x light artillery battery with 3 x Pak 40 RV

2 x Tigers and 1 x Panther RT

1 x full pltn of Volkstrum

1 x Jagtiger RT

Independent tank company CT

2 x Sherman HQ

2 x Sherman and 1 x Firefly

2 x Sherman and 1 x Firefly

2 x Sherman and 1 x Firefly

2 x Sherman and 1 x Firefly

8 x 25pdr (CV)

3 x Stuart

Limited Typhoons

The Game

I deployed the volkstrum, RV inf, short SS platoon and the Pak-40s, while John elected for both arty batteries, a platoon of tanks and recce stuarts.

I foolishly set the Volkstrum up in the buildings meaning they were visible.

The overall board.

John was bold with his recce and pushed it forward to the bridge ready to flank my forces.  I reacted to this by moving my RV Inf forward through the woods ready to cut them off, also aware that my reserves would show up right by him.  His Shermans stood out of range of my PAK40s but in range of the Volkstrum that I had foolishly put into the buildings.  I should have placed them behind so they couldn’t get hit and ranged in on.

The RV Inf start to move out and John applies pressure with his Stuarts.

Johns arty blew a big hole in the old men in the buildings killing 3 stands.  The Shermans also started blasting away at long range killing another.

I actually had little to do until my 1st reserve arrived on turn 3.  My Tigers and Panther arrived and started to murder the recce platoon.  However his arty started to whittle down my Pak-40s weakening my anti tank anchor on the left flank.  2 of my fausts traps were sprung and targeted the Shermans on the left flank where I felt my AT was weak.  I killed one and bailed the Firefly.  Unfortunately his infantry arrived from reserve and wiped them out in assault!

Faust trap sprung.

Faust trap results.

With the Stuarts dealt with, my tanks rolled forward, joined by the Jagtiger and Infantry.  John hid his Shermans, leaving a Firefly behind the courtyard, gone to ground.  Unfortunately, my tanks couldn’t hit a barn door as they advanced to the edge of the river.  However the infantry started to charge forward ready to put pressure on the forward objective.  John’s Firefly managed to bail the Panther in return fire and, to add insult to injury, his Typhoon brewed up the Jagtiger!  Meanwhile my Pak-40s had be obliterated by the 25pdrs.

Knowing that reserves would start to arrive the Shermans take cover moving off the embankment.

The RAF does it job and brews up the Tiger

By turn 7, I was now on the objective with a second platoon of infantry flanking along the embankment.  This resulted in John having to advance a platoon of Shermans up to contest, which were quickly wiped out by the big cats across the river.

The infantry don their waterproofs and go for a wade through the river.


The Cats provide over-watch as the infantry advances.

With all his reserves on table, John redirected all his tanks to the centre and contested with his CiC.  With 3 Fireflys he started to engage the big cats and claimed a Tiger (darn those re-rolls to hit).

Now on the objective.

Dug in and holding on.

My infantry bravely charged the CiC (he had no tanks within 8 inches to add to DF), but both stands were murdered by his machine guns.  Luckily the enjoy the war rule kept all the stands in the fight.  As the game drew to an end another Tiger was claimed by the Fireflys and, with both infantry pltns either on morale checks or 1 casualty away, we called it as a 4:3 win to John.

Unfortunately my Tigers could not win the shoot out vs the Fireflys.

That’s a lot of Shermans

With only 1 Panther left we call it a 4:3.

A great game with 2 well painted armies on a stunning board,  What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

2 thoughts on “Independent Tank Company vs Westfallen

  1. Er? How did those Stuarts die, exactly?

    Stunning, stunning table. Love it. Are any of those buildings commercially available?

    Thanks for the inspiration.

    1. The Stuart’s were killed by the tanks coming on from reserve.

      Afraid not they were made by a chap in Portugal.

Comments are closed.