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)