"Rémalard, France 1940 - Battlegroup Blitzkrieg AAR" Topic

Another game of Battlegroup Blitzkrieg… this time an attempt by a light German force to quickly secure the town before the French could adequately organise their defence. 

We used the Urban Assault scenario from the 'Fall of the Reich' supplement for this with 350 point armies. I made a crucial error in my planning. I ignored old Johnny Frost's advice after the battle of Arnhem and blew almost a third of my army points of getting a battery of mortars in support and upgrading my platoon HQ to have a radio. In open ground, it would have been an excellent choice. In the close confines of a town, with the enemy sheltering in buildings and poor lines of sight, they were a very silly choice. I brought a knife to a gun fight in essence…

This flaw would cost me the game, helped by my utterly dreadful luck, and my mate Cyril performing a perfect defence, even with only half his army on the table. I think being French helped him to channel a bit of luck. While my Germans seemed to he hiding behind walls of Swiss cheese, his were behind bunkers! His intial defence rested on two MGs, carefully positioned to cover all approaches to the town centre, supported by several infantry teams covering them, with a sniper and an aT gun making up the rest. With much of his force in reserve and waiting to rush to help, I needed to move hard and fast to dislodge the initial defence and gain a foothold I could dig into to await the inevitable, and likely piecemeal, French counterattack. I got very lucky and all but one of my units started on table, the Panzer IV remaining in reserve until the infantry had at least got things covered. Finally my ace up my sleeve was my Recce Foot Patrol who using the Infiltration special rule began behind the French defence line of houses.

From then on it went downhill very fast, from turn 1 really…I tried to push forward and ran into French units on Ambush who poured fire into my men. Despite so heroic actions by my men, by the end of Turn 2 my commander was looking at nearly half the platoon as casualties already. Then the Panzer IV arrived and my men roared in anticipation of victory as it clanked up the road. There was a loud crack from the little 25mm AT gun on ambush, followed by it rolling double six to penetrate the frontal armour. The Panzer IV burnt very nicely. 

And that was how it went on really. A total massacre despite my best efforts and utterly awful dice rolling. The Frenchie was on fire though and when the French reinforcements began to arrive my army morale finally collapsed and we retired to the nearest Field Hospital to get Uncle Richtofen and his Stukas on the phone. 

So lesson for tonight… dont under estimate the French in defence and make sure you have plenty of men for fighting in an urban area. Obvious really…

Battlegroup Blitzkrieg is due out at Salute in April, but can be pre-ordered from The Plastic Soldier Company and get some freebies and chance to win cool prizes into the bargain! 

link

Wow. What a beautiful game. What is the size of the playing area?

4 x 4.

Small but perfectly formed! ;)

Insane, I swear you seem to get better all the time. Didnt know they had walled cities in France in 1940:)
My only gripe – more photos, could sit there all day and drawl!

I'm with No Retreat!

Yer… sorry, was meant to be more pics but I got too caught up in the game!

Just recently come down with a serious drooling problem and my doc has recommended that I cut out all Piers Brand AARs .

I changed doctors…<drool>

Beautiful buildings -particularly the shop window!

NEVER underestimate the courage of the French! Remember, they discovered that *snails* are *edible!*

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

P.S. At the ranges encountered in a street fight, the little 25mm 34SA could penetrate the frontal armor on the early Panzer IV's with unnerving ease. As for the Panzer IV going up in smoke after that penetration, that is also all too historically accurate, as the early production marks of Panzer IV apparently had a design flaw in their internal fuel and ammo stowage arrangements that made catastrophic brewing up upon penetration all too likely. The 34SA was for its day a nasty little cuss, as even the Germans's own post-campaign evaluation found the gun easily concealed, hard to spot under battlefield conditions due to its small size and efficient flash suppressor, accurate, reliable, had a good rate of fire, and possessing a better penetration envelope than their own 3.7 cm Pak 36 "Doorknocker."

And is that a RAFM Pan-Pan I see about to ventilate the lead Panzer I?

Great table!

Kinda relieved I do 6mm in the face of this stunning decorative order and good to see a Befehlswagen in a game.

Thanks guys…

OMG…this is stunning! The brick facades on some of these buildings is crazy. It's like they have been Photoshopped with real brick, and the minis are better than some 60mm toy soldiers I've seen. Okay… give it up. Where'd you get all these wonderful toys? ben

Not much to add. Figures are glorious. Vehicles and guns stunning. Brickwork is insanely good!!! Just a joy to see, as always.

Wow – I'm lost for words, except well done.

Stunning buildings….just stunning. The other toys are great too, but the buildings are superb.

beautiful…

SFC Retired

Mother!
Wow!
But….
Never mind.
Wow.
Sigh.
Cheers.
Rod Robertson

A really good looking board. Well done.

Question: can you fight inside the buildings or only around them?

You can get in all the buildings… on each floor, and the larger buildings have internal rooms.

You can get in all the buildings… on each floor, and the larger buildings have internal rooms.

(Best Inspector Drefus voice) I hate you, Piers… *sob!*

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

A true masterpeace

Are the buildings from the guy who does the photo-printed ones on ebay ? They are just SO good.