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Tuesday, 13 December 2016

Airfix Battles Scenario Three - Bring on the Tiger (Part I)

The third Airfix Battle was situated in the badlands behind Omaha beach as the Americans attempted to break out. The vital objective was a farm house top-left. In addition extra points were awarded for armour knocked out, in particular the Americans would like to "bag a Tiger". Playing German I placed my infantry on the flanks and the armour in the middle (see below):


Possessing the initiative I orchestrated a quick infantry strike on the Americans, in light cover, to the (German) left of the Objective (see below):


The dirty American gangster commander interrupted me and retreated into the Objective (and hard cover to boot!), exactly where I wanted to go. The "Dirty Dogs"! (see below)


Not to be outdone I assaulted this position with my second squad of infantry and in the subsequent firefight I mauled the Americans and finally took the Objective. The Americans sought protective cover to the top right of the picture (see below):


However by feeling of euphoria was short lived as I realised I had placed my troops in full sight of an "angry phalanx" of US Army Sherman tanks. Admittedly they only had 75mm guns, but that didn't stop them opening fire in unison on the German defenders to devastating effect (see below):


Still albeit technically in control of the town (and holding the Objective marker) the German troops (now much less in number) suffered a bad case of morale failure. Hope seemingly deserting them and they retreated, aka ran, back a terrain square (see below):


The German infantry had shot its bolt but was there anything the German armour could do?
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3 comments:

  1. Service Ration Distribution (Hobby)13 December 2016 at 16:24

    Looks good and fun to boot.

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  2. Monty13 December 2016 at 17:56

    This looks good, Geordie! I've scanned the Airfix Battles rules, but never toom the plunge, sticking to Nuts! instead...may have a look now, though.

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  3. Geordie an Exiled FoG14 December 2016 at 22:57

    If you accept a certain level of abstraction they are very playable
    The random event aspect of the cards makes it very unpredictable but not unplannable ;)

    Certainly not deterministic

    The armour combat is attrition based rather than penetrate and kill
    Incremental damage which pulls Tigers eventually down to Shermans but Sherman's get hurt but not auto kill

    For example (off the top of my head):
    Armour Value of Target 4 (Sherman)
    Attack Dice of 88 is five
    Roll to hit, if successful
    Roll five dice for effect 4, 3, 2, 1, 1
    One always a miss

    4 hit Sherman's Armour Value goes to 3
    3 now hits Sherman Armour Value goes to 2
    2 now hits Sherman Armour Value goes to 1 (cannot go lower)
    1 and 1 miss
    Three Damage points

    Sherman lives but on 1 HP
    Likewise a Tiger's AV would get pulled down

    Note: Gun unaffected until tank gets killed




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