My First CrossFire Game: Opteroon Crossroads (Part II)

The CrossFire 'unique' initiative passing sequence of play now comes into its own. The Umpire's narrative (in orange) continues ...

Lange saw with horror the Pak crew driven from their gun. Unless he got them back into action the Ami tank would blast his troops out of their positions. Lange quickly ran to the gun, and shouting and kicking got the frightened gunners back to their gun. Taking careful aim the Pak fired at the Sherman, and the crew cheered to see it burst into flames. 

The nasty Sherman with its 105mm HE (anti-infantry) rounds is no more (see below):

Back in the building the young recruits scrambled back to the windows as the US infantry closed to assault. In a brief flurry of fire they managed to pin the Ami's down between the two buildings (see below):

The US "Tank Commander's" T-Shirt (Always look on the Bright Side) seems somewhat ironic considering the state of his Sherman Tank (see below):  

Then the left flank MG42 swivelled and opened fire on the pinned platoon, and the German mortar also joined in (see below):

A close-up of the Grim Reapers, always respect the MG42, especially when it is on its tripod mounting and you are in its arc of fire (see below): 

  
The pinned platoon was wiped out

A fire-fight developed between the US and Germans in opposite buildings. Stott moved up to try to assist 1st platoon (see below):

So far it was turning out to be a rather unforgiving game when you made a mistake as shown by twenty dead GI's caught in that murderous cross-fire between the MG42, two German squads rifle fire and a barrage of 81mm mortar fire. Once your fingers are caught in the vice there is no way out. I enjoyed the "lack of" measurement as IMHO it assisted game play no end.

Next: The Germans Counter-Attack
Exploit the enemy strength as his weakness