Blitzkrieg Commander: Counter-Attack - 30 April 2011

A counter-attack desert scenario with 3000 points (plus 10% thanks to the die roll) of British (commanded by James and Kieron) vs 2000 points (less 10%) of Germans (commanded by Andy).

Despite the scenario, Andy engineered himself a strong defensive position by placing a town on his right flank, some great scratch-built salt marshes on the left, and an oasis to stick his troops in.

Even more surprising was that the German attacking force I was counter-attacking turned out to be all infantry and guns!  The British tanks pushed through the small dry paths in the marshes, and the infantry in their trucks pressed on forwards in the centre, but were no match for the range and effectiveness of the German guns.

However, the British had significant off-table artillery assets and rained down successive barrages on the German positions around the oasis...

...and the scrub around the commands and guns...

British reserve tanks slowly entered the table but again got beaten up by German guns.  But after three turns, the Germans had taken so much damage from the artillery barrages that the battlegroup broke.  The British had achieved their major objective (earning them 3 Victory Points) but the Germans had achieved their minor objective of inflicting >25% casualties (earning them 2 VPs).  But the large difference in size of the armies meant that British casualties were still more than that of the Germans, earning the Germans a further Victory Point.  With the same number of Victory Points, the scenario was a draw - the British had broken the Germans but at too great a loss to their own troops and armour.

We had some extreme command rolls in this game.  In turn 2, the British CO rolled a double-6, a command blunder, and in turn 3, this feat was repeated by another British HQ commander.  The Germans had much better luck, with Andy managing to roll two double-1s on the trot during turn 2, giving him an extra two rounds of shelling that turn.

Main lesson: we need more terrain to break up the lines of sight or else every game is going to be German guns take out the Brits before they get close enough to fire back!  I helped myself to some roof insulation out of a skip last week so I'll shape that up to give us some dunes.