All,
It's 0800, 1 Sept 1939, and the recce element, in a bloody fight, has secured the northern end of the line at Mokra. However, other elements of the 4th Panzer Division had a rougher time, and so the formation halted and regrouped while air and artillery pounded the town. Colonel Klink attended the hasty Divisional orders group, where he was told the attack on Mokra would begin at 0800. Klink returned to his men and issued his orders: the attack would go in at 0800 on the heels of the arty barrage, led by Klink himself, with 1st Panzer Plt and 3rd Gren Plt (minus its 4th Squad, but with 2 squads of 1st Gren Plt attached) in the first wave. The attack by KG Klink would launch from the positions it captured earlier that morning, and would hit the northern flank of the Polish 21st Uhlan Regiment, supporting 4th Panzer Division's main attack which was going straight up the middle (to the south of KG Klink).
Once again, the opposing forces, guns against tanks. The Poles have a CO, a .30 cal. MG, an 82mm mortar, four 37mm ATGs, and six rifle squads, and will be dug in. KG Klink will field its CO (LtCol Klink; yes, LtCol, though you'll often see me simply refer to him as 'Col Klink'), 1st Lt Bohm's Pz Mk III (the Panzer Company Commander), 1st Panzer Plt (led by 2nd Lt Loeb, with three Pz Mk IIIs and two Pz Mk IIs), 3rd Grenadier Plt (led by 2nd Lt Tausch, with three of his own squads and two from 1st Gren Plt, one of which is 2nd Squad led by Sgt Haas, holder of the Iron Cross 2nd Class).
Overview, north is up, Germans on left, Poles on right, situation as of the lifting of the arty barrage. The Polish line, with ATGs on hill at top right, a trench of two rifles and an MG on their northern flank, and a four-squad rifle platoon on the southern flank in the town. The German set up, with 3rd Gren Plt and Col Klink in south, and 1st Panzer Plt in the north, with the two 1st Gren Plt squads in trucks. The Panzer Co commander, Lt Bohm, is also there. Let's get it on!
Check out the report on the blog:
link
Sometimes you grab the bull by the horns, sometimes you get gored. You may be laughing at my rudimentary tactics, but I'm sticking with history, and the Germans lined up their panzers and charged the enemy gun line, and, just like real life, they got shot to pieces. I don't feel too bad, it was going to be a tough fight either way, and I never felt out of the fight until the very end when the Polish rifle squad charged and put my two panzers on the hill out of the fight, at which point it was clear which way the wind was blowing. The rules have an activation system that truly add drama to the game; for me they are the perfect balance of adding fog/friction, without making you feel helpless; you don't know what your options will be until you make the command roll, but you're constantly making decisions, which is what I want from a game.
More to come (another butt-whooping, incidentally).
V/R,
Jack
's first experience with 1:4800 scale naval models.
