Battle of "Trois Ponts" 1943.

Last night we had a 100% turnout for our second WW2 game using Brian's figures and Dave's rules.Paul and I were British and Dave and Graham were Germans.I had sent by "snailmail",information,scenario and objectives etc. to everybody,and they came armed with battle plans-so far,so good!!
Brian had volunteered to be referee,and had a few surprises up his sleeve-the cunning little fox!!!

The top photo is the scenario,the second is the map and the third is how the table looked before any movement/troops.

The first "nasty surprise" for the Germans!!-the bridge had collapsed during the night,rendering the German battle plan "kaput!!"-for that section of the table at least.
Now the German commanders had to think fast-and they did!!

This shows Dave's attack across the bridge,being led by a Puma,which was subjected to all kinds of fire and was eventually lost to our hidden Cromwell tank-hurrah!!-now Brian unleashed his second sneaky trick-the following tank had shed a track!!-blocking the infantry advance and holding up the German attack(you would almost think that Paul and I had bribed the ref.!)

This shows the moment the Puma was destroyed,Paul had hidden in the corner of the field,a Heavy Machine Gun unit,which proceeded to wreck the German infantry trapped on the bridge,much to the dismay of the German high command(ie a lot of swearing!!)

Although I didn't really know what I was doing,I managed to knock out most of Graham's tanks(including a Tiger!) that were attempting to cross the bridge,although he did manage to inflict casualties on my mortar and PIAT crews-but the flank was secured,leaving me room to manoeuver onto the German centre.

Dave,having regained his composure, has put in a magnificent attack on Paul's troops defending the village,so we are rushing as much armour etc. as possible over to the flank-however,Graham has deployed his infantry in the central woods,and is shooting the hell out of my infantry as they try to help Paul-this is serious stuff!!

By a combination of HE fire from tanks and small arms fire from infantry,a platoon of British infantry has been forced to abandon their position in the village-this is not looking good!!-however,Paul has positioned his Cromwells to enfilade any German tanks that try and force the position.

The village is all but abandoned in this shot,as the German infantry pile across the bridge and wade through the river-Paul put up a desperate defence,but the German tanks seemed impervious to his shots from the Cromwells!!- the referee looks pleased with himself!!

Oh dear,don't those Cromwells burn nicely?

This outflanking attempt was thwarted by HMG fire from Graham's troops in the woods,although the tank did continue,and put the German infantry under pressure.

It's all over!! Dave's command is in the village,and his tanks are massing to complete the victory,plus,the 27p we paid the referee obviously wasn't enough,and he declared the Germans the winners!!
This was,to me, an exciting but confusing game(because of my WW2 ignorance!) but alot of points were brought up during the game,and discussed,and the rules ammended,which is always good when preparing a new set of rules for any period-well done to Dave,and of course to the rest of the lads.
Roll on next Sunday,probably an Ancients.