End of the Rat Race

The first wargame of the new year was a Battlegroup: Fall of the Reich game. I based the scenario on the "End of the Rat Race" scenario from the book. I choose both forces with the Americans having a higher points total. However the American force was loosely based upon a recce style force so plenty of light vehicles and armoured infantry and an air controller. Due to not having enough Stuart's assembled and painted ( we both thought there was a squadron done) an M10 took its place.

The German list was based around a scratch holding company backed up by a King Tiger and some NebelWerfer and mortar support. They also had trenches to deploy in, which would make them less obvious that the buildings and there was also a booby trapped building thrown in for a little mischief.

As I had designed both lists I allowed my opponent to pick which force that he used.

The game was a lot of fun with the Germans initially managing to stymie and hold the Americans at bay. American weight of numbers and plenty of vehicles began to tell and they were able to start clearing the forward German positions.

German reinforcements began to filter on to the table but orders were a bit of an issue. However the final nail in the coffin was a turn which saw the King Tiger crew bail out and surrender ( after having had an Out of Fuel, Breakdown and finally another Out of Fuel chit played on it over a number of turns) and the artillery and mortars failed to be called in.

With the German over their break limit the remaining Volksgrenadiers withdraw leaving the bloodied American recon group occupying the village.

I think the scenario worked well and the forces for both sides worked well as neither had the exact tools needed. While an additional anti tankgun for the Germans would have been welcome, I feel that it may have been very difficult for the Americans to make much headway. They had their work cut out for them trying to deal with the King Tiger as it was. They also had to be careful about getting too close to German infantry as every squad had a panzerfaust. The trenches for the Germans proved very useful but the booby trapped building felt like a let down. I expected a bit of fun with this but it seemed really lacklustre. That being said it was a interesting addition to the German force.

The American force

The German Force

A couple of quick shots of the board that we played on. This was a 6x4 table. All of the buildings are scratch built.

Hopefully will get more pictures up tomorrow but the uploader seems to be playing up