Late War Flames of War Italy game 1250 points

Another game report for the WWPD Italian Campaign and this time I use 1250 points of New Zealand Armour.
Not the later Late War options when they have access to Fireflys, Wasps and other green painted goodies but from a time before that when vehicles mostly had a base of a Light Mud colour and black camo pattern.

I faced Lochy with German Infantry (2 Platoons) backed up with 2 recon 8 Rads, 2 Tigers, a Pak 40 Platoon and a Nebelwerfer platoon.
Me.
HQ 4 x Shermans
2 x Combat Platoons with 3 Shermans in each.
Two Scout Patrols (3 Universal Carriers in each)
A Stuart Jalopy recon platoon (x 3 Jalopys)
6 platoons each.

Mission: Free for All
With only 1250 points and first turn I decided to bravely attack the Germans.
It was really two Kiwi forces at the extreme table ends. One mob heading to the PaK platoon in a wheat field near an Objective while the other headed through some woods to threaten the other objective. Doing this really gave the German side plenty to do in defending and that's what they did.
The 8 Rads played a game of delay the Shermans and it took a few turns for me to finally be rid of them. If they had broken through they could have threatened one of my Objectives. I left nothing back on my starting line. After they had been dealt with the Kiwi force managed to break through the woods and destroy the Nebelwerfer Platoon. A sherman platoon bravely assaulted some dug in infantry but soon had to abandon their tanks.
On the other side the Kiwi force used some wood features to get shots on the Pak 40 Platoon and from here a Sherman Platoon was eventually destroyed by Long Range shooting from the two tigers and the Pak 40s. Eventually though when all that remained on that side was the Sherman 1iC and the Jalopy Platoon the Pak platoon was eliminated through shooting and assaults. This left the Jalopys to assault any German Infantry teams they could reach to hold the Objective. However the Infantry was fed back into 4inch proximity and stalled the Objective from being taken for another turn or two.
Back near the old position of the Nebelwerfers the green Carrier platoon foolishly decided to assault the German Infantry platoon dug in around the objective. A high risk and bold move but it ended predictably with the Carrier platoon destroyed and bringing me to 4 platoons destroyed so my turn.....Company break test required....FAIL!
A very, very close game. Onlookers thought the Kiwi's might have been well and truly done for prior to the destruction of the Pak 40 platoon but once that was gone it could have gone the Kiwi's way. Especially if I played it a bit more cautiously and cunning but we typically play like gentlemen gamers so we both had a very enjoyable and exciting game. The type of game that you go man that was awesome.......I want to play another game.

Table and deployment after Recon Moves.

8 Rads have look at the noises coming from the woods area behind the big Church.

Moving around the towards the wheat field.

It's a trap!

Assault on the Pak Platoon in the wheat field fortress.

Jalopys with Objective in sight and only Dug In Infantry protecting it after the Pak 40s are gone.

Left Objective zone after Nebelwerfers destroyed.

Now that we have survived this far shall we charge that infantry? Hell yeah!

Just about End Game.

After that blast we managed to get two more players involved and had a 2 vs 2 game to introduce a new player and a gamer who had not played Version 3 rules before but has a Mid War army. This actually got us all excited to go back and explore Mid War in the Deserts of North Africa again. I am going to have to dust off my Desert coloured Tanks I think.

Cheers from Brendon

Liri Valley Road Block FoW AAR

A regular opponent at my club Lochy pointed me in the direction of the WWPD Global Italian Campaign for Flames of War games. Awesome! Me, I chose.....ALLIES.
So we registered and planned to have a game or two. Only the thing is....for our first meet up...Lochy had a big night before hand and slept through his alarm and never made it. Very funny.
I suggested that the Germans had an orders mix up when a senior officer had too many Italian wines and failed to occupy a sector of the Liri Valley so the Allies advanced unopposed.
However another week went by and we managed our first campaign game. To cut the rust from our FoW rules memories we went with small point size of 1200 and the first mission...

ROADBLOCK!

My force...Confident Veteran American Tanks advancing into the Liri Valley.
HQ 2 x Shermans
Combat 1- 4 x Shermans
Combat 2 -3 x Shermans
Light Tanks -Stuarts x 5
Light Tanks -Stuarts x 4

Germans Confident Trained except for the Armour CV.
HQ Infantry
2 x Infantry Platoons
3 x Marders
4 x StuGs
3 x 37mm AT guns
2 x Infantry Arty guns
1 x 105 Artillery Battery
I may have missed one as I recall he said he had 8 platoons.

As per the mission rules I spread out 3 Platoons along a road waiting for a Road Block to be cleared. I kept the smaller Stuart platoon in reserve. Kaboom. Suddenly some small German AT guns open fired from ambush on my larger Sherman platoon. Result 1 x dead platoon leader and 2 bailed tanks. Fortunately I didn't lose a platoon as I had anticipated. StuGs and Marders had deployed in good positions and had great lines of sight. What to do. Sit near the objectives and let him come to me or do a series of bold and risky moves to take the fight to the Germans. I went for an Attack as my best form of self defence.
The small AT guns became quickly overwhelmed by combined shooting then an assault into the Grape plantations. My Stuarts at the other end of the road sped towards the Marders who had a nice fortress behind some rock walls. Some got cover from an old ruined church but eventually the Stuarts won the duel at close range.
The StuGs played the re-position game with Storm Troop moves but I sent the Stuarts and a platoon of Shermans around some buildings towards the Artillery line. Using Stabilisers and massed firepower the Artillery was soon overwhelmed and was forced to retire. They had opted not to dig in on previous turns and try bombardments instead.
From that position the StuGs became surrounded with shots from the front and rear and soon became one StuG that moved away to get a shot at the now reduced Stuart Platoon that had defeated the Marders to try and nab a Victory Point by losing me a platoon. It wasn't to be and despite the arrival of the infantry and the small guns for the Germans it was time to retreat.    
Victory for the Allies 6-1
Not what I expected after a break from the game.

The table, deployment then ambush.

Blam! 1 x destroyed Sherman and 3 Bails

Destroy the ambush.

Advance towards the Marders behind the wall.

Try and survive the shooting of the Marders

Move out.

Light Stuarts vs the big guns of the Marders.

Hit em with everything you got!

Artillery no more.

One Marder continues the fight but not for much longer

StuGs are getting surrounded.

Last Stug attempts a Platoon kill on the Stuarts.

Overwhelmed by American Tanks the Germans leave this part of Liri Valley with the Road Block Attempt failed.
No doubt they will have more surprises and delaying actions in store for the Allies.

 Cheers From Brendon (The Kiwi)