Home Forums WWII Battlegroup Blitzkrieg AAR – The High Ground

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #20455
    Avatar photopiers brand
    Participant

    Another Battlegroup Blitzkrieg game, this was set during the German push for the coast. We used 500 point armies, drawn from the BEF and the German Panzer lists, with ‘Take the High Ground’ as the scenario with the BEF aptly defending.The British were set up dug in around the hill with a forward MG bunker dominating the centre ground, and unknown to the Germans, no less than four minefields! It would be a tough nut to crack.

    The German attack therefore weighted one flank heavily, with all but a recce patrol arriving on the church flank, aiming to use the hill and woods, and then church ro screen the advance. The task was made easier by a first turn salvo of German mortar fire on their pre registered target point. One 80mm mortar bomb had the British FAOs name on it andnit landed inside their foxhole… a double one for their save seeing the team wiped out. This first turn calamity put the British on the backfoot with no spotter now available to support them, they would have to wait for reinforcement.

    The German advance was cautious enough. Though an MG team who tried to sneak up on the MG bunker got riddled for their trouble. But the advance, well screened and with no British observer, moved forward under cover of mortar fire. As the Germans reached the church they ran into the first minefield, but got out unscathed by a miracle. They waited for their supporting armour to arrive. When it did the Germans heldmthe advance to allow the vehicles to catch up to the infantry. As they did so, British reinforcements arrived and one was able to observe for the mortars and a short barrage did little. In return, a wild German mortar salvo scattered and by the devils own luck, put a bomb on the British observer, whomwas also the Forward HQ. The resultant effect saw them all killed or wounded. Scratch the last observer… it was all getting rather like 1940!

    As the German vehicles arrived, the attack resumed. Several bursts of 20mm cannon fire finally knocked out the MG bunker, though they did manage to pin a 38t who ventured too close to them. As the Germans advanced, a morale chit for the British was a mine strike, and with a roll of six, a 38t was blown to bits! But the German advance slowly rolled forward, the constant mortar barrage hammering the hill defenders and keeping them pinned down. In order to get supporting fire, one of the British platoons despatched their runner, but that too proved ineffective. But the Matildas began to push, and as round after round pinged off them, they first took out the German 37mm AT gun, before one despatched a 38t with a long range round up the rear!

    The Germans reacted with all they had. The remaining vehicles directed fire at the Matildas, and while doing no damage they became pinned, giving a brief respite from their marauding. The Germans now took the church and an MG34 team in the steeple cut down a Boyes AT rifle team as it made a dash for the british trenchline to give them some support against the advancing German armour. More German fire saw more troops pinned and units lost. With command units lost, the British needed one good turn to blunt the German attack. Sadly a poor command roll saw them unable to do much, and then while trying to unpin the Matildas, the BEF battle rating finally cracked.

    The BEF began the retreat to the coast…

    Battlegroup Blitzkrieg is due for release at Salute 2015.

    #20545
    Avatar photoRod Robertson
    Participant

    Lovely work, Piers. You really do the hobby of table-top wargaming proud with such splendid models, figures and terrain. Bravissimo! I think my favourite early war tank is the Czech-built Pz 38(t) and seeing your Bat. Rep. has further entrenched that bias of mine. Thank you once again for inspiring me to do better and work harder at my miniatures. Your every posting inspires me and thus erodes my mountain of lead a bit more.

    As an aside, does Battlegroup/Ironfist publish a complete and stand-alone set of rules or must one buy the supplements to get period/region specific rules in each supplement? PSC offers a mini-rules product but is it complete enough to play the game in any period or theatre? I am thinking of trying out the rules after reading the Charlie Platoon PDF on the Ironfist download page, but I am not willing to pay for supplements until I have tried the rules and decided whether it’s worth investing in or not. Since you play the rules so much you seem to be a good person to ask these questions of. Any insights which you could offer would be much appreciated.

    Cheers and good gaming.

    Rod Robertson.

    #20547
    Avatar photokyoteblue
    Participant

    Another beautiful table..Thanks for your AAR.

    #20562
    Avatar photoSteve Johnson
    Participant

    Great looking game and table as always Piers.

    #20584
    Avatar photopiers brand
    Participant

    As an aside, does Battlegroup/Ironfist publish a complete and stand-alone set of rules or must one buy the supplements to get period/region specific rules in each supplement? PSC offers a mini-rules product but is it complete enough to play the game in any period or theatre? I am thinking of trying out the rules after reading the Charlie Platoon PDF on the Ironfist download page, but I am not willing to pay for supplements until I have tried the rules and decided whether it’s worth investing in or not. Since you play the rules so much you seem to be a good person to ask these questions of. Any insights which you could offer would be much appreciated.
    Cheers and good gaming.
    Rod Robertson.

    For full disclosure… I dont just play them, I write them too with Warwick Kinrade. Battlegroup Blitzkrieg is my latest effort… Warwick and I take turns being the lead on books, though most of the time he does all the real work, such as turning my rambling toss into a book!

    The books come as supplements, with a little mini rulebook available seperately for a very cheap price. We went this way as it means a player can pick and choose what he wants once he has the mini rulebook. So each supplement has history, theatre specfic rules, army lists and then scenarios and painting guides etc. Our first release, Battlegroup kursk’ also contained the rules, but many didnt want the Kursk book so a mini rulebook was created to allow a ‘pick and mix’ system.

    Now if you just bought the mini rulebook, and then downloaded our two free fanzine ‘Dispatches’ issues, you would probably have a enough stats to work out a little game to see if you enjoyed the rules. If you required stats for a particular vehicle or weapon, then i’d be happy to help you out for the purposes of trialing the system. You could certainly try out most of the rules, with nothing more than the book, and if you go looking on the net I suspect you could find some stat cards for vehicles that players have made. All you would be missing is the army lists, scenarios and the special rules, which are core components, but you could at least play through the mechanics and see how you find them.

    Over on our forum at http://www.guildwargamers.com are alot of AARs and some more tutorials and walkthroughs of the mechanics that may offer further insight.

    Incidently that rulebook is available as a free PDF for those buying Blitzkreig on pre-order… 🙂

    #20639
    Avatar photoRod Robertson
    Participant

    Thank you Piers for your guidance. I’ll pick up the nini-rules packet and see what’s what. Keep up the great work!

    Cheers and good gaming.

    Rod Robertson.

    #20640
    Avatar photoSparker
    Participant

    Yes great Batrep Piers! Good to see the Matilda’s given the Jerries pause for thought! Must dust off my copy of Tramp in Armour again!

    Rod, FWIW the BattleGroup rules were a bit of a struggle for me until I bought the mini rulebook which brings things together nicely.

    http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
    'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
    Matthew 5:9

    #20663
    Avatar photoRod Robertson
    Participant

    Thanks Sparker!

    I am ordering the mini-rule from PSC this weekend and then I’ll have a go at them.

    Cheers and good gaming.

    Rod Robertson.

     

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.