LEHR RECON, PANZER LEHR CAMPAIGN, GAME THREE

Game 3 is a very small squad affair, as a Lehr Recon detachment gets behind American lines and runs into a battalion HQ area. As it’s a small game, we played this on a tiny 2x4’ board, but it still worked, as the night fighting restricted range for aimed fire and we agreed at the start everything would always count as obscured, in the open or not. Here are the forces… because BRs were so low, I just gave each side +3 BR to make a longer game of it, even though we removed all 4 and 5s from the BR counters (we really are the extreme small end of the BG rules working here).

On random attachments, the Germans went with the 250/9 rolled, the US got a flamethrower team (very random!).

GERMAN FORCES - ELEMENTS OF 130 RECONNAISSANCE BATTALION (All Vets)

1 Platoon HQ- 4 men in heavy car            3    Officer

Recon Team - 5 men with MG-42            3    1 Panzerfaust

in SdKfz 251/1    

Recon Team - 5 men with MG-42            3    1 Panzerfaust

in SdKfz 251/1    

The ‘this scenario is too small’ bonus       3


Totals                            12 BR + attachments    1 officer, 0 scouts                

Roll once for attached support (Rolled 14)
D20 Roll    Attached                BR
1-8        SdKfz 234/2                +1

9-14        SdKfz 250/9               +1

15-18        SdKfz 251/9             +1

19-20        StuG III G                +3


Artillery Support
None    


US FORCES - REAR ELEMENTS OF 3rd BATTALION, 47th INFANTRY REGIMENT, 9th INFANTRY DIVISION  (All Inexperienced)

Battalion Staff    - 7 men                             2    Officer, start in HQ dug-out

Ad-Hoc Rifle Team - 5 men with a BAR    2

Ad-Hoc Rifle Team - 5 men with a BAR    2

Bazooka Team - 2 men                                1    with D6 rockets (5 rolled)

MMG Team - 3 men with .30 cal MG        1

HQ Dug-out                                                 0    2+ cover save (max 2 can fire out)

Foxholes for 15 men                                    0    3+ cover save

The ‘this scenario is too small’ bonus        3
    
Totals                        11+attachment    1 officer, 0 scouts



Roll once for attached support (Rolled 2)
D20 Roll    Attached                             BR
1-5        Flamethrower Team - 2 men      +1

6-8        HMG Team - 4 men                   +2    with .50 cal HMG

9-18        HQ Team - 2 men in Jeep        +2    Officer, Jeep is unarmed    

19-20        M4 Sherman tank                   +3    * may be immobilised awaiting repair


Artillery Support
None
 

SCENARIO SPECIAL RULES
Squad-level: As a small squad level scenario, remove all 4 and 5 counters from the BR counters before the game begins.

Soft Ground: Wheeled vehicles which move off-road treat it as Dangerous Terrain. On a 1, roll again. 4+ OK, on a 1-3 Bogged down and immobilised. Half-tracked and tracked vehicles move as normal.

Night Fight: This scenario takes place at night. Use the night fighting rules.

No Air Support: It’s dark. Any Air Attack counters drawn count as 0.

Objectives: None

Advance through Enemy Lines: If the Germans can get an infantry squad off the US board edge, they gain an extra +/-2 attachment credits.  

Immobilised Sherman: After placing the Sherman roll a D6. On a 1-4 it is immobilised awaiting a mechanic and cannot move. On a 5+, to may move as normal.

2'x4', Germans advancing from the far end. US HQ dug-out on the hill, facing the other way, as that is actual forwards for the US. The recon group is behind them.

 

The game began with the Germans arriving behind the US forces, my squad de-bussing into the cottage and the hedges. 1st Squad would move up on the left, covered by their 251’s MG. 2nd Squad would move up on the right, with its 251’s MG to cover and pin the enemy ahead. In the centre, the PHQ would be on covering ambush fire, as would the 250/9, its main firepower would target the biggest US threats, and with suppressing fire because we can’t really see much of each other… let the tracers rounds fly!

The US responded with setting some ambush fire themselves and their .30 cal team let fly into the night, and scored 2 lucky pins, on squad 1 in the cottage and the PHQ. That fire was close… bad start!

The Germans just couldn’t get going in the early turns, an inability to roll over a 2 for orders meant I was living on scraps, the 250/9 blazed away, but with 10 ammo, it was soon under half and had to start being more cautious. My 251s proved hard to pin and their fire got some US heads down, but not the bazooka team, it was dug-in deep and covering the only gap in the walls and hedges to get up the table. They just kept passing 3+ cover saves… I took the first counter to unpin and given we might get through 5 or 6 max, each one hurt!

The first turns had become a stalemate, MG42s firing one way, .30 cal, BAR and M1 rounds coming back, with both scoring a few pins, and 1 GI became the first casualty on a 1 for a cover save, hit by a stray round. I was getting nowhere, so when I finally rolled some orders, my men started to push up. 2nd squad scurried off across the walled paddock, on the right, and made it to the far wall under .30 cal fire that missed (too high!). The 250/9 managed to finally pin the bazooka team and my chance to get through the gap appeared. The 250/9 pushed up to the gap, then was hit by small arms fire and pinned. No, a lucky shot, but it was now stranded. I could see what would happen now. The bazooka team would unpin (they did), my armoured car would be stranded, unpin in my turn, only for the bazooka to have an easy shot at the armoured car, about 10 m from them through the hedge! That’s what happened and two bazooka shots flashed to turn the 250/9 to a burning wreck. Argh! The risky rush had ended in disaster.

Things had turned bad on the left, but on the right 2nd Squad, my only hope for completing the objective, got a stroke of luck. Having passed repeated cover saves behind their wall, their MG pinned the US infantry in foxholes in the field ahead. With them still pinned, the squad made their move and rushed past in the dark. Then, fired on from the left, 1 man was hit, but the resulting morale test was a BtCoD! The squad moved again and were through the next hedge and past the GIs. They rushed on in my next turn, getting to about 8” from the far table edge. US suppressing fire came after them - from the battalion command staff that had armed itself and come out their dug-out. It scored a suppression, but the cover save was a 6… OK. They could keep going. In a bold dash they had made it through, pure fluke, but sometimes you have to go for it and hope.

Everybody else was still stalled, and the US flamethrower team was stalking up behind the paddock wall towards my (static ) half-tracks. If it fired, that would a counter, and most likely another for a destroyed half-track. I raced one 251 forwards to get a shot and they spotted the dangerous 2-man team and machine gunned them down, but I’d made a mistake. The 251 was now in bazooka range if the team moved up from their foxhole cover. They did, and my covering fire, the PHQ on ambush, had just moved to the cottage. No covering fire then. The bazooka fired again and boom, lost the 251 - double argh!

I was close the breaking now, 11 BR from my 13, so the next counter was likely to be it. I couldn’t unpin anything, leaving me just the second 251 and 4-man PHQ to act. They tried to suppress and pin the bazooka team menace, and both failed. That allowed that them to come forward again and fire, the next 251 was hit and burning - triple argh!… the bazooka had 3 victims and the counter drawn was a… 2! So 13 from 13, still going somehow.

Next turn, the bazooka team’s reign of destruction ended when my PHQ moved and shot them down with rifle fire. That counter broke the Americans, a 3 taking them to 13 from their 12 BR total. The Germans had somehow won.

Well, I say won, but actually, the campaign VPs are the BR margin of the victor which was, err… 0. So no VPs, but I gained the extra attachment credits for the escaped infantry squad. Interesting small game… never played like this before and it worked fine (with the bonus BR). It as lucky win (we should call it a draw really).

Game 4 is back to the Hauts Vents crossroad and the US counter-attack. 

The German force, hvy car (light truck), 2 x 251/1s, 250/9.

German deploy on the lane, PHQ is pinned by incoming .30 cal rounds.

2nd Squad get ready to rush across the paddock. 250/9 behind on ambush fire to cover them.

US ad hoc rifle squad and bazooka team in their foxholes

250/9 meets its bazooka-end making for the gap.

2nd Squad dash passed pinned GIs, up the hill in the dark, and make for the far table edge.

Costly error, 251 is the next bazooka victim!

Medal of Honour for these two guys, as they come forwards and kill the second 251. They almost won it single-handed.