Oberst Felix von Kummerbund sat at a makeshift desk in the captured French farm house and stared at the map in concern. The earlier attack had been a mess, orders from above were contradictory and in some cases in defiance of sanity. The oberst hadn't seen a shambles like this since Poland and now apparently a major general was dropping by to add his two pfennigs worth. A sudden buzz among the staff officers heralded the newcomer's arrival and von Kummerbund's eyes widened in horror at the heavily bemedalled and terrifyingly familiar figure. Suddenly everything became clear.
Generalmajor von Kattelrussler strode into the room sucking enthusiastically on the end of his baton his eyes darting everywhere. He wasn't necessarily looking for anything, his eyes jumped about like a flea on speed at the best of times. Von Kattelrussler stopped and stared at the empty desk that awaited him. Beside him a staff Hauptmann looked around in bewilderment.
"I assure you Herr Generalmajor the oberst was here just a moment ago."
Von Kattelrussler slapped his baton down on the desk and jumped at the noise it made.
"Fear not Hauptmann, I shall take over." He turned to another staff officer, "You, I want a situation report on this desk in thirty seconds." He pointed at the Hauptmann, "the enemy have tanks so I want every man equipped with a boar spear."
"A what sir?"
"A boar spear, it's like a pig spear but way cooler. And somebody get a hold of the Luftwaffe and tell them to shoot down that damned stuka, the siren is setting my teeth on edge."
The staff officers stared in disbelief for a second and von Kattelrussler lost patience.
"Sitrep, boar spears, stuka! Go!"
The officers gave hasty salutes and fled. Generalmajor von Kattelrussler sat down on the desk and apparently addressed the empty air.
"I do know you're under there Felix."
But there was no response except for a slight sound which a knowledgeable listener might have interpreted as the sound of an oberst in the German army attempting to dig an escape tunnel with his fingernails.
After my previous disasters with the Romanians Dave Wilson and I decided to do something a little more mainstream. Dave suggested GTF-7, Recapturing Ernage and because I couldn't think of a reason not to I agreed. After mismanaging their initial attack on the French village of Ernage the Germans now face a combination of Morocccan troops and Renault tanks making a counterattack to reclaim the bits of Ernage currently in German hands. The scenario is ten turns long, presumably to give the slow moving Renaults a fighting chance to actually approach the objectives.
I commanded the Germans and found myself in charge of a reasonably competent but desperately small force. I had two elite squads and four first line squads equipped with a heavy, medium and light machine gun plus an antitank rifle. Added muscle was provided by a 75mm infantry gun and a pair of PzII light tanks. On turn one I would be reinforced by a pair of PzIII medium tanks. Despite von Kattelrussler's orders a single stuka circled the skies above looking for something convenient to drop its bomb on.
Dave in command of the avenging French Had a tank heavy force that came in in three waves. On turn one he gained four squads (two elite and two first line) with an lmg and an antitank rifle. Accompanying them were three Renault tanks two of which were armed with the stubby 37mm gun and one sporting the not quite as short variant of the same weapon. On turn two another three elite squads arrived carrying a dismantled medium machine gun and 60mm mortar. Escorting them were another two Renaults one of which had the slightly longer gun. Finally on turn three four first line squads and another dismantled mmg turned up accompanied by a further three Renaults. That was eight tanks in total. To win Dave had to capture two buildings at the rear of my position in the face of no doubt furious resistance.
The French arrive from offboard giving me the opportunity to set up wherever I liked. I settled for a small delaying force up front (a singly first line squad and lmg) plus some dummies. The remainder I set up for a defence of the victory buildings. The rearmost building was surrounded by a wall and I parked the PzIIs behind it covering the approaches. The 75mm gun was off to the right with a line of sight to the approaches to said building. I placed some troops in the building itself and the heavy machine gun with my best officer in the somewhat more foward building. The remaining forces I spread out in a line across his most likely avenue of advance (across the big grainfield on the right). My plan was essentially to take up time, delay Dave's movement and take advantage of the low speed of his Renaults to run him out of time.
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| My set up with the lead elements of Dave's force lurking modestly offstage |
Things were quiet for the first couple of turns. Then they were quiet for the next four turns after that. Dave's turn one troops rolled and marched slowly towards my positions in whatever the opposite of a blitzkrieg is. Dave kept his Renaults close to his infantry, logical since they both moved at about the same pace and oozed like an aggressive snail towards my forward defenders. I brought on my two PzIIIs on the left to hopefully hit the flank of his Renaults. I think I had fanciful ideas of taking out the tanks and then sweeping around behind his reinforcements. This was a ridiculous notion as circumstances would prove.
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| End of German turn 1 |
My upfront defenders did indeed slow Dave down, not because of anything they did (they did nothing) but because Dave approached cautiously. Unfortunately I rapidly discovered that my troops had an allergy to morale checks, I think they passed one in the entire game (and that time they pinned) with the result of which that he didn't have to attack my forward defenders so much as just move in. Sadly this would prove a pattern for the rest of the game.
In a fit of unimagination Dave labelled his eight tanks A through H. I christened my two PzIIIs Ava and Brunhilde. Tanks A,B & C were helping his initial infantry deal with my forward position while the remainder of Dave's force came on on the right and very slowly made their way to my main line of resistance. This is pretty much all that happened for the next couple of turns. With the forward building captured Dave's centre tanks duelled with Ava and Brunnhilde to the frustration of us both. Collectively we fired off enough metal to build another tank but appeared to be completely incapable of harming each other.
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| Feel free to take a ten minute break, things won't have changed too much when you get back |
This impasse hurt me more than Dave, yes it kept three tanks and his first turn infantry tied down in the backfield but the remainder of his force was descending on me like an unstoppable horde, albeit an unstoppable horde crippled with arthritis. I held back my stuka for the first couple of turns but with five Renaults slowly advancing on my position and a whole bunch of Moroccans blundering through the wheatfields I finally called it in. I only had one dive bomber and it did everything one could expect of it. It's bomb blew up a Renault and a subsequent strafing run broke a 7-0 officer. That might not sound like much but in the context of my achievements for this game it accounts for about 80% of the damage I inflicted. After much effort Ava did manage to immobilise a Renault but the crew stayed in and kept on pumping 37mm shells in my direction. Brunhilde proved incapable of harming a fly.
While the most capable of my tanks were having an impotence off with the Renaults the remainder of Dave's force inched painfully towards my position. There wasn't much I could do about this as I discovered when I tried. My troops refused to pass PAATCs and when Dave tried to help by driving his tanks into my hexes they proved equally incapable of taking them out in close combat. Meanwhile Dave's troops followed on the heels of his tanks and killed my defenders in the subsequent melees.
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| This is actually the high point for me. One Renault burning, another immobilised and his best troops locked in melee. |
Dave had cleared away the chaff as it were with plenty of time to spare and now only the two victory buildings and their immediate defenders remained. Things got worse very, very quickly. Firstly a Renault gained a possible shock result on Ava, this became a definite shock and then an unconfirmed kill. Dave had nosed a trio of Renaults right up to the rearmost victory building while his troops assembled weapons in the safety of the woods. With French tanks literally closed enough to touch one of my PzIIs (I didn't bother giving them names) tried its luck and broke its gun. Then Brunhilde broke her gun. Then the 75mm which had just covered itself in adequacy by breaking a squad (one of only two I would break in the entire game) used rate to fire on a Renault and I broke that gun as well. At this point both Dave and I decided that the dicebot was messing with us big time.
It was turn seven and suddenly I had virtually no weaponry left. Dave suggested I concede, I agreed that I would if I couldn't repair any of the weapons. The next turn Ava recovered from the UK and I rolled three ones to repair all of the weapons. Apparently the dicebot was having a whale of a time. Somewhat encouraged my 75mm fired on a Renault and actually managed to immobilise it with an HE shell. I blinked, perhaps I wasn't quite doomed yet.
Actually I was wrong I was definitely doomed. I still had an hmg directed by a 9-1 under concealment in the forward building along with another squad waiting to unleash when the French infantry tried to move forward. Instead Dave settled for rolling a series of threes with his mmg team and wiped the position out, stone walls be damned. At this point I conceded. I had one unbroken squad. Dave's infantry casualties had consisted of two squads broken (one by sniper) and the 7-0 in the entire game. I think both of us were a little frustrated by this one. There was virtually no fighting (unless you count increasingly hysterical attempts by tanks to penetrate each others armour without success). Since my troops broke every time they took a morale check Dave's job was reduced to simply moving his troops forward. This he managed to achieve. With virtually nothing left and two and a half turns to go I acknowledged the inevitable.
Generalmajor von Kattelrussler rubbed his hands together with delight.
"Well done lads, a great triumph."
This was too much for von Kummerbund who gave a slightly unhinged shriek.
"How can you call this a great triumph, we were supposed to stop the French?"
Von Kattelrussler pointed at the village which was crowed with parked Renaults and Moroccan troops looking for souvenir shops.
"They've stopped haven't they?"
"They've got the village!"
"Yes, but they've stopped. Well done Felix, I'll note your tunneling skills in my report to Corps HQ."
Oberst von Kummerbund didn't reply, he was busy attempting suicide with a boar spear.
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