AAR BtB16 Battle Group Nor-Mons

....or "Maybe Try Having a Plan Next Time"

     Jim and I went back into the bocage a few weeks ago for this BFP Beyond the Beachhead 2 offering. The VC in this one require the Germans to acquire more VP than the British. The Germans accumulate VP at the rate of 10 pts per building controlled. The Brits get VP = twice the CVP of Good Order units they have on level one hill hexes at game end. (The Germans must also control all level two hexes, but that should be the easy part.)

    My initial thought was that if the Germans kill all six British Shermans, they could conceivably win with as few as three buildings. I should have kept thinking. I had two Tigers, two StuGs, five Panzer IVs, and some pretty badass SS troops, to try to get it done.

    The Germans get a turn one Rocket OBA blast with a pre-reg hex. The level two hill is right in the Germans face, but would be very hard to hold. I couldn't imagine Jim would waste troops by putting them on that hill, so I targeted the building in BFP-F S2. It didn't have the impact I'd hoped for, breaking only one squad. It did immobilize a Sherman, ensuring it would not be on a hill at game end. Unfortunately, it was in a pretty good location, and caused me problems throughout the game.

 

      At first glance, it seems like the level two hill would be a good place for the Tigers. You could move up there, try to go Hull Down, and a get a pretty commanding view of the battlefield. The problem with that is that the Brits have a 120+ OBA module directed by an offboard observer. Chances are the Tigers wouldn't last long under that kind of fire. 

     I divided my attack into three groups and set off to go Sherman hunting.  First I had to deal with the units on the hill. I approached with needless caution as they all turned out to be dummies. I sent a strong infantry group up the right. and a Tiger, a StuG and some more infantry up the left.  

    On the left, I managed to kill one Sherman but got my Tiger immob'd. Bad trade. The other Sherman slipped away and took up a new position. Then I malf'd the main armament on the Stug. Not. Going.Well.

 

     On the right, I had a little too much confidence in my 8 morale supermen, and ran into a wall. I sent some help in the form of the other Tiger and the rest of the tanks from the center group. It wasn't enough. The Tiger got Immob'd by OBA, and it wasn't until late in the game that I finally broke through and was able to head for the building in the rear.

    Infantry with a schrek made a move on the building in the middle, but made no headway.

         There really isn't much more to say about this one. I really thought my infantry would burst through on the right, and open up some good positions for my tanks. When that didn't happen, my immobilized Tigers were unable to help out with a plan B. Jim also conceded that the dice were crazy bad for me in this game (both his and mine.)

    It's hard to rate a scenario under these conditions, but there are certainly much better ones in that BtB pack. There's also the possibility of a gamey tactic where the Brits could try to just hide their tanks and run them up to the hills on the last turn. Not sure if that's a workable strategy, but it might be.

   What's the old saying? A bad day playing ASL is still better than....