Designer: Adaptation: John Appel, Pat Ryan & Bill Sisler
Starter kit scenario?: Deluxe scenario?:
Balance:
GermanAmerican
Overview:
The Fifth Panzer Army in an effort to expand its position around Tunis, sent the 86th Panzer Grenadier Regiment supported by armor from the 7th Panzer Regiment on a two-pronged attack along both sides of the Medjerda River. If the Germans were to gain control of the bridge near Bordj Toum railroad station, Combat Command B would be in danger of being cut off on the eastern side of the river.
Attacker: German (1st and 2nd Battalions, 86th Panzer Grenadier Regiment and 2nd Battalion, 7th Panzer Regiment)
Defender: American (1st and 2nd Battalions, 6th Armored Infantry Regiment/16th Combat Engineers/2nd battalion, 13th Armored Regiment)
8 turns
Players: 2 OBA: Both Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:24.0 D:20.0
AFVs: A:14
PzKpfw IVF2 x 2 PzKpfw IIIL x 3 PzKpfw IIIJ x 3 SPW 251/1 x 6
D:6
M3 MT x 4 T19 HMC M3 ht
Guns: A:0
5cm leGrW 36 7.92 PzB 39 ATR x 5
D:3
M3A1 37mm AT Gun x 3 M2 60mm Mortar
Misc Rules:
No grain December. Enemy units on opposite side of river ignored for Rout purposes
Map Board(s):
2
6
7
15
Overlays:
NONE
Errata (source)
The American T19 HMC halftrack starts hooked up to its trailer.
Letter68
Players wanting to play this game/Request a match:
A column of German motorcycles, tanks, halftracks and infantry squeezed westward through the narrow pass (2V4/V5). An American mortar on hill 714 (15CC5) rained shells to break some cyclists and eventually clock a halftrack. Germans reacted by darting into blind spots behind the cluster of buildings around 2V8. The group that moved into the 2V6 wood drew bore sighted fire from an American MMG on hill 714 (15X3), but avoided casualties and later pushed forward into the blinds. An American ATG on hill 714 (15Y5) failed to penetrate some Panzer IIIs that had ascended the slight rise (level 1 hill) at 2W6/X6. Both the American (on hill 714) and German (on the other side of the river) forward observers failed radio contact or drew a red card to keep the big guns dormant for a turn and a half. German tank fire at hill 714 knocked out the U.S. mortar and pinned the ATG.
Further north, a German tank-infantry team tried to skirt the board 2 edge and “sneak” westward, but a U.S. ATG atop 15F3 hammered them to immobilize the tank and clobber some infantry in the trees! GI rifle fire from that same summit punished some krauts in the open around 2B9.
In the northwest, Panzer Grenadiers drove and ran southward between the massive board 6 olive grove and the board 7 river to form an arrowhead whose tip broke on a roadblock at 6I2/H2 and minefields in 7H10/6H1. Soon after, the tanks dispensed smoke to enable some infantry movement despite fire from the U.S. 9-1 directing MMG and 7-4-7 on level 1 of the 6K2 building. A HIP ATG in the 6J3 wood patch fired training ammo to kill a Panzer III in 6H2. Same said ATG later fired canister at the G3/G4/H3 vertex to break a whole German platoon! German small arms fire then broke and killed the ATG crew, but by then an M3 Lee arrived on the scene just as the second (and final) Panzer III was leaving due to a disabled main gun. All the while, a concealed U.S. 8-0 with flamethrower and 7-4-7 lurked in the huge olive grove to discourage any attempt to outflank the Chateau (6N4).
Opposing lines erupted with crisscrossing fires on U.S. turn two. American artillery landed around 2W7, where the pass opens up, to break and DM several German squads. American MMGs (plural) unleashed rate tears (plural) to massacre several German squads all along the perimeter. German tank fire knocked out twin U.S. MMGs in foxholes atop the summit of hill 783 (15N4). Kraut machine guns broke a few GI bazooka squads along the board 15 ridge line to open the way for tank movement. Up north the U.S. ATG in 15F3 shrugged off constant machine gun and main armament fire from the immobilized panzer, but a different tank killed the nearby U.S halftrack.
Around turn 3, a Panzer III got half way up hill 714 (to hex 15Y4), but broke down due to ESB. Still, he stalled in the right spot. From there his main gun killed the U.S. 105mm halftrack 11 hexes away in 15N7 (it had fired at him first, but had no HEAT) while his machine guns broke and halved a U.S. squad pulling back from the crest. All that shooting attracted GIs who wove through the crags and shot their bazooka to brew up that defiant Panzer III. A Panzer IV with 9-1 leader drove to 15P4, in the shadow of the central hill 783 summit, to get a flank shot on an M3 Lee who was guarding the board 15 pass. This bold move could have worked owing to the “extra” shot allowed for an APCR attempt. Alas, the German missed with that and regular AP. The lumbering M3 pivoted to fire and missed during defensive fire, but opened up with everything during prep fire to kill the Panzer IV with training ammo. Meanwhile, the Americans who had earlier taken the .50cal out of the (now dead) 105mm halftrack lugged it to the top floor of 15R8. Their cross fire through the board 15 pass out to hex 2X10 shutdown German forward motion.
German artillery finally came through to knock out the U.S. ATG and infantry in and around the hill at 15F3. But that was too little too late. Those turn-two rate tears by U.S. MMGs had just done too much damage already. The Germans had precious few infantry left, only a tank or two still mobile, and had lost three halftracks, all with the bridge still out of sight, so they conceded on turn 5.
2019-07-05
(D) Tom Kearney
vs
Multi player
German win
Four player game. The US Engineers stooped the German attack on the west of the river but was unable to stop those from the east.
