This past weekend my local Pittsburgh group got together to wrap up our Firestorm Gazala campaign with an epic team battle!
This battle is the culmination of our group’s Gazala campaign that saw the Germans Sweep into Tobruk but the British escape the pocket in the ensuing games. Thus, the Germans were considered ot be the defenders for this mission. We utilized the Total War mission rule-set from V3 as it works very well for a pitched battle between two sides. As the Allies were counter attacking into Tobruk, they were automatically the attackers. Yours truly was commanding an Italian force arriving from reserves (I was late to the game). Here was my list
Initial Deployment
The allies had 2 Soviet players, one British player and one American. The Axis had 3 german players and myself repping Italy! Turn 1 saw the allied Grant horde advance behind a smoke screen while the allies sought to pick off whatever unit they could.
Turn two the British player who was running late brought in his Shermans and cars in the spot I was aiming at for my Paras outflanking move. Accepting that my brilliant tactical maneuver was foiled, I set my sights on taking out the soviet 122 battery that had just smooshed a panther tank. At this point I realized I forgot to take pictures of their glorious arrival, alas.
Italian shooting takes out a few katuyshas but little else. In combat the Paras clean up the Soviet battery and prepare to take a lot of fire from the Shermans. Elsewhere the Germans lose a number of panzers and marders to grants after failing their blitz move.
Turn 3 sees the Allies control a number of objectives. They sweep into the fort on the right flank and charge a long German panzergenadier platoon on the left. However the turn doesn’t go well. The grants flub their shooting, the shermans only kill a few para bases then fail their morale in assault and a lone german stand is able to win combat against the soviet horde.
The Paras push into the madrassa to contest it while support from the panthers knocks out and bails two shermans. Italian and German tank fire kills the bulk of the grants in the fort. In assault the italians kill the bailed sherman and route the last one who fails his last stand test.
The next turn the allies continue to pour fire into the Paras holed up in the madrassa but without success. The allies continue to shoot poorly and try to kill the long 75 semoventes but fail 3 3+ firepowers to kill the unit. After seeing their aircraft fail to arrive the allies flank begins to collapse under the weight of Italo-german tanks
At this point we called the game as the Grant formations broke, and while the allies could still have taken a toll, there was no way for them to make up their deficit in points. The axis win 15-14!
I wanted to thank everyone for coming out, thank Guy on the Couch for hosting us and encourage you all to participate in our worldwide Market Garden campaign!
