Played at Jay Stribling's home in Jackson Mississippi, September 3rd, 2007

Photo by Jim Pitts

One of Robert’s Panthers under ineffective American artillery fire while the lead tank in a British column burns in the background. This Panther was later destroyed by a British tank.

This is our fifth game using a miniatures version of Avalon Hill's SQUAD LEADER boardgame. It is the fourth on a hex-gridded table. This game table which is 5' x 8' is about 1.25 times the width of a scaled-up Avalon Hill game board, but only about .6 of the length of what a true AH game board would be with 4" hexes.

The American Players were Ed Sansing, and Jay Stribling. The British player was Fred Diamond. The German players were Jim Pitts, Phil Young and Robert Whitfield.

The game-master was Jay Stribling who had become tired of just running these games and writing these reports, so he resolved to be IN this game. Stribling's usual luck applied and troops did not do well.

By this game all of the players had some previous experience with Squad Leader with Miniatures, or at least the original Squad Leader game by Avalon Hill.

The game played more smoothly than some of the previous efforts.

The Allied Players were on the attack. Parts of the US 9th Army and the British Second army, their objective was to occupy the three towns of Porsche, Audi and Beemer.

Photo by Jim Pitts

Another of Robert’s Panthers under ineffective American artillery fire. It was also later destroyed by a British tank.

The German Set-up for this game

The game-master allowed the German Infantry and two 88mm guns to set up in the three towns. Also they could set up on, or to the rear, of a line even with the front of the towns. The German infantry forces consisted of 18 squads, along with various officers and supporting weapons. This represented two companies of infantry.

The German armored units were at the rear and were required to enter the table on the roads coming from the German rear. The German armored units consisted of 3 Panther tanks, 3 Pz IV tanks and 3 Stug III assault guns.

Photo by Jim Pitts

Jim’s 88mm dual purpose gun under ineffective American artillery fire. It’s crew escaped unscathed and got their revenge by destroying three of Ed’s Shermans.

Photo by Jim Pitts

The lead tank in Fred’s British column burns after being hit by a German Panzershrek from an adjacent building. This blocked the road to any further British vehicular traffic, forcing them through the woods on the left..

The Allied Set-up for this game

The Americans were responsible for the thrusts against the center and left towns. The British forces operated against the right-hand town. The British had 4 Shermans (1 was a Sherman firefly with 17-lb gun) and one Churchill tank.

The British infantry force, which accompanied the tanks was 10 squads of infantry with officers and supporting weapons. All were mounted in Kangaroo or Universal carriers so that they could keep up with the tanks. The entire British force entered the table on the road which came on from the right hand table edge. This was a suprise to the Germans!

Photo by Jim Pitts

Phil’s 88mm dual-purpose gun engages Jay’s American Sherman tanks, scoring two kills. Some of Phil’s German infantry is advancing into more favorable ground to repulse the feable American attack.

Photo by Jim Pitts

Two of Ed’s American Sherman tanks try to outflank Jim’s forces, killing one of Jim’s three Sturmgeschutz in the process. But Phil moved his platoon of Panzer IVs to outflank the Americans, killing them both. Ed’s American infantry in the trees were soon taken under fire by Phil’s and Jim’s German troops and badly shot up, fleeing further into the woods.

Photo by Jim Pitts

Jim’s 88mm dual-purpose gun scores a catastrophic kill on one of Ed’s Shermans. “Can you say Ronson! It lights every time!” Another target, er Sherman, is soon to join his comrade. Ed’s tank destroyer platoon advances across an open field, screened from the 88 by a building. They were able to kill two of Jim’s three Sturmgeschutz but couldn’t move closer to the buildings for fear of German anti-tank weapons.

Rules changes for this game?

• Artillery availability - When the player has successfully tested to maintain radio contact, the umpire rolls a D6. If the result is 1 or 2, it means that some other unit has a higher fire priority and the American player gets NO shells at this time . If the result is 3,4,5, or 6, that many shells are fired.

  Both methods seemed to work well.

• AFVs may fire in the Prep Fire phase and then may move up to half of their movement allowance. No fire is allowed in the Advancing fire phase for these units.
• AFVs that do not fire in the Prep Fire phase may move up to half of their movement allowance and then fire in the Advancing fire phase. Normal modifiers to fire apply.
• AFV units that are fired upon in the defensive fire phase, the Prep fire phase, or the Advancing fire phase and are not knocked out, may "fire fight" with the unit that fired on them. After passing an immediate morale test, they may fire back at the unit that fired on them. Normal penalties apply for moving, firing outside the covered arc, etc.

  After two shots, we stop the fire fight.

  AT guns may take part in these "fire fights" with enemy AFVs if the AFV target is in the covered arc.

• We now allow "Panzerfaust" counters to be held by the Germans at company level doled out to the squads as they are needed. This keeps the American player from knowing which squads have the one-shot anti-tank weapons.

Who was the victor in this game?

The Germans won the game handily. We only played two turns. The German AT guns and tanks were very VERY accurate.

How did the rules work?

The results were discouraging. THe American infantry and tanks were shot up before their artillery could have any effect. Since the game-master was an American - sigh!

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