KG Klink in Greece, Fight #3

[Just Jack]

All,

Morning, 11 April 1941

Here we are, continuing Kampfgruppe Klink’s campaign in Greece.  The first battle saw Captain Freitag’s 1st Schutzen Battlegroup take a key mountain crossroads manned by members of the British Royal Engineers supported by Armored Cavalry from New Zealand.  The fight saw the Germans infantry nearly eliminate the Commonwealth battlegroup, which fell back in disarray.  Captain Freitag pressed his advantage, immediately pursuing south down, where it ran into defensive positions manned by the remnants of the New Zealand 21st Infantry Battalion.  1st Schutzen then evicted the NZ 21st Inf Bn from its positions, forcing them to fall back.  Now we have 1st Lt Ginter’s 2nd Schutzen moving to secure a crossing over the D3 bridge, defended by the 27th MG Battalion.

The Germans quickly deploy (all long left-hand table edge), looking to force the bridge.

It quickly becomes a traffic jam, which the Kiwis begin pounding with mortars and small arms fire.

The Germans eventually manage to fling a platoon of infantrymen over the bridge, mostly owing to Lt Ginter’s stellar leadership under fire, and they are soon joined by their tank platoon.

Though they (top left) promptly run into the New Zealanders’ 2-pdr anti-tank guns (bottom right)!

To see how the fight went, please check the blog at:
https://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2020/04/kg-klink-in-greece-fight-3.html

And here are the Turn 4 map moves, for your perusal:
https://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2020/04/kg-klink-mini-campaign-in-greece-map_6.html

Next fight coming later this week, so stay tuned!

V/R,
Jack

[Whirlwind]

Great stuff Jack, many thanks.  I think the New Zealanders are due some better dice after that poor showing by their mortarmen!

[Just Jack]

Thanks John, my pleasure!  Yeah, luck was certainly on my side, the bridgehead was threatening to turn into a bloodbath.  Fortune favors the… solo player? 😉  Just kidding, I swear I wasn’t cheating!

The very interesting piece to this is that my playing out the entire war is not going to be one of those things where my ‘team’ wins every tabletop fight but the Germans still lose the war; just as the Germans suffered very few setbacks in ‘real-life’ prior to the Soviet winter counteroffensive in December 1941, the opposite is true from July/August 1943.  I can see KG Klink still winning its share of tabletop fights, but ultimately it will be losing as it will HAVE to lose the overall campaign, which will mean whole strings of ass-whoopings for the Germans.  The trick is going to be doing that without getting every single character killed.  Or is it? 😉

V/R,
Jack

[Whirlwind]

I don’t doubt you: no-one who has followed the “rough handling” that the USMC and USN pilots have been getting at the hands of the IJN can fail to be impressed by your sense of fair play

Will you try and manipulate the deployment of KG Klink so you don’t get them into a battle too earlt where they are probably going to be annhilated (Stalingrad, Tunisia, Bagration etc.)?

[Just Jack]

John,

“I don’t doubt you: no-one who has followed the “rough handling” that the USMC and USN pilots have been getting at the hands of the IJN can fail to be impressed by your sense of fair play”
Yeah, no kidding!  I was trying to forget about that 😉

“Will you try and manipulate the deployment of KG Klink so you don’t get them into a battle too earlt where they are probably going to be annhilated (Stalingrad, Tunisia, Bagration etc.)?”
Yes, absolutely, I can’t have them completely wiped out.  For example, what I’m thinking if next for KG Klink is playing Barbarossa out from June to November 1941; most likely I’ll go the direct route: Minsk, Smolensk, Viyazma.  I figure I can probably get ~30 games out of that, and that by the end of 30 games the Kampfgruppe will be absolutely blown (and that’s with replacement men and machines being added in throughout), so then I pull them back to Germany to rest and re-fit.  Which saves them from the Soviet December counteroffensive that caused so many German formations to cease to exist.

Then I either stay on the Eastern Front, pushing towards the city on the Don, but again pulling them out before it’s too late and they get encircled (I actually want to play them in Operation Winter Storm, the attempts to relieve the Stalingrad pocket), or I take them to North Africa.  If they go to the Afrika Korps they will get there in early 1942 and stay until the defeat at (2nd) El Alamein, at which time they’ll be pulled back to Europe to rest and re-fit.  Or maybe they get pulled right before El Alamein (der Fuehrer isn’t happy that he’s committed to many resources to North Africa when they should be spent on Russia), which is a contributing factor in the defeat 😉

As we get through 1943 and the rest of the war my plan is to flip-flop them back and forth between the Eastern and Western front.  Throw them in, let them get chewed up, pull back, rest and re-fit, get thrown into the next meatgrinder.  But not wiped out!  Well, not until the end 😉  To tell you the truth, my plan is not to have them slaughtered at the end, so they won’t be bitter-enders in Berlin.  They’ll be fighting desperately in Hungary or Prussia or one of the Baltic states when the end comes, and at that point I really want to see if anyone made it from Poland to the very end.

V/R,
Jack

[kyoteblue]

Another good one.

[Gaz045]

Great stuff, follows the theme of  Commonwealth ineptitude that marked the campaign in Greece in reality………poor performance whilst appearing capable on paper strengths.

New dice needed for the Kiwis!

"Even dry tree bark is not bitter to the hungry squirrel"

[Darkest Star Games]

Those 2pdrs…. they really have had a poor showing so far, the Pnz crews probably feel invulnerable!  And that bridge crossing was magnificent, could have been a real bloodbath.  Enfilading MGs would have made a real mess if they could survive long enough.

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Thuseld]

When will the Kiwis get a break. It is nice to see 2pdrs in action. I remember how chuffed I was to get the Zvezda 20mm model and see what they looked like. For some reason it had never occurred to me to Google it.

Experiments here: http://inexperiencedmodelmaker.blogspot.co.uk/

Tranquil Stars updates: https://tranquilstars.wordpress.com

[Just Jack]

Hey, thanks guys, I’m glad you’re enjoying the fights!

Gaz – Yes, that’s been a point of emphasis of mine, which I’ve primarily attacked by not giving the Commonwealth troops as many Command Dice as the Germans, but also seeing them have less heavy weapons/vehicles.

Darby – Very true about the MGs, though I’d say the mortars should have/could have handled things quite a bit better, and if I had to count someone as having let the team down, it would be them.  And the 2-pdr ATGs, which I thought were going to be a lot more troublesome than turned out.  But I promise you the panzers are not invulnerable 😉

Thuseld – A break?  No time soon! 😉  The 2-pdrs are doing what they can, but ultimately they’re still really only pop-guns.  They are kinda funny looking, in terms of the way their wheels come off for them to deploy.

V/R,
Jack

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