Been a while since the sands of North Africa have been the scene of battle so with the new hills and trees it was time to go back. My only desert force are my trusty Italians, backed up by three German Panzer IIIJ's, (who clearly haven't been off the boat long enough for a new paintjob!)
My opponent wanted to field the fully veteran version of his New Zealanders so went with an Italian list, 6 CV Sherman's, oh dear! The allied Tiger vs. my M14/41's!
We rolled up breakthrough so Gavin's infantry company was to defend. I wanted to get all my new scenery bit's onto the board so it ended up a bit cramped, and thus my 90mm guns were wasted!
The armoured spearhead prepares to move out,( my compulsory delayed reserve was my 20mm SPAA trucks.)
Whilst the NZ infantry prepare to occupy the objectives.
I decide to go for a quick kill on the NZ artillery and bring all my light tanks to bear against the 25lbrs.
It doesn't work and I only manage a pin, the rest of my force engages in a Mexican stand-off with three hull down Sherman's.
Gavin doesn't fancy his chances against the two 90mm guns and three panzers so backs off the Sherman's.
His 25lbrs stay GtG hoping the massed Italian armour will again……
….not twice in a row my friend, and two guns go down.
With the Sherman's not playing the panzers go looking for them instead! (Remembering that there is another three in reserve.)
Of course I fail stormtrooper giving the NZ artillery a perfect target!
But just two 25lbrs can't cut it and all my wagons live.
Gavin pulls the Sherman's further back whilst digging in on both objectives and awaiting his reserves, so I keep on pushing forward with all my tanks, not that i manage to damage the NZ forces!
The Sherman reserves arrive and flank the main Italian force.
And so the pain begins, two M14/41's knocked out by the Sherman's with a third nailed by the 25lbrs. This is what you get for rolling "Trained" for two out of three tank platoons!
My poor little tanks can't play with Sherman's so all efforts are directed against the small infantry platoon which is blocking movement straight through the town.
But those damn Sherman's calmly redeploy and slot two more 41's. A surviving tank fails motivation and flees, 6 down, 8 to go!
All i can return fire with is my 75mm artillery, which does manage to bail one!
At the same time the panzers push into the wadi and also bail a Sherman.
As a side note this turn my reserve's arrive so the SPAA rolls into a bad place, manages to hit nothing and is then obliterated by direct fire 25lbr and massed R/MG fire!
What's worse is that whilst the bailed Sherman fails to remount his buddies about turn and KO one of my precious panzers!
Retribution, however, is swift!
With the Sherman's out of the way, and the other platoon of them about 5 feet away from where they need to be, my remaining tanks double towards the furthest objective.
Unlike my tanks the Sherman does have a 32" range gun and that last platoon keeps the pressure on.
But they can't stop the Axis armour heading towards their goal!
The assault goes in and pushes the NZ infantry off the objective, but they are still contesting.
To pour salt onto the wound my 75mm artillery bails a pair of Sherman's who remain that way for the last two critical turns.
The remaining Sherman does manage to bail one of my paper tanks before the last assault goes in.
On his last turn Gavin KO's a 2nd panzer leaving the last one to run away, my third platoon destroyed.
And launches a heroic assault by the CiC and the remaining platoon commander….
….but defensive fire kills the CiC and drives off the platoon commander.
And with that it's all over. The Italian's capture the objective and with 4 platoons destroyed from 7, and both HQ teams destroyed, break the New Zealand company as well just for good measure. Gavin commented that he made a couple of mistakes, not engaging the panzers in a long range duel when he had the chance and bringing on his reserves in the wrong place, but CV Sherman's are definitely a bit of a nightmare, well, for CT M14/41's they are!
