Paul S NJ
Senior Member
Played this yesterday with Gary Mei. 1945 Germans defend with a Tiger I and 7.5 assorted low quality squads (ELR2) with two leaders, a MMG and a PSK. They need to have a good order MMC adjacent to one of three roadblocks in the city center of board 53 after only 4.5 turns (yes, typical Schwerepunk timing). The US attacker has a Pershing (named Fireball of the scenario title), a 76L Sherman, a 105 Sherman and a halftrack plus 8 mostly elite (ELR4) squads but only two leaders (a 9-2 and a 9-1). An SSR allows a front turret TH roll by the Tiger of 5 or less to effectively take it out (to simulate historic back to back critical hits) I set up forward, using the dummies to portray a 2nd Tiger and trying to discourage tanks from going over the bridge or to my right flank. Gary sent most of his troops to my left using the orchard cover there. He did run the 76L Sherman to my right, but my Tiger missed its 7 to hit by one pip. German turn 1 I more or less stayed put (moving the Tiger back a couple hexes). US Turn 2 Gary managed to cross the central open ground with just one break while a 236 on my left flank passed a couple MC's before finally breaking. GT2 I repositioned the Tiger to threaten his 105 Sherman on my left and got a lucky 2+2 Tiger bounding fire MG shot with broke the whole 9-2 667x2/MMGx2 stack. I was feeling pretty good at that point but Gary battled back. His Pershing came straight ahead. I missed my 88L regular shot at him by one (see a theme?) but managed to roll a one to hit the overstocked 105 Sherman (cool!). Fireball stopped two hexes in front of the Tiger and I missed my IF shot by one (again). Then the bounding fire shot burned the Tiger. Turns 3-4 saw the US fortunes rebound with aggressive moves now in the city allowing Gary to melee or break most of my infantry. A lucky 4+2 advancing fire shot in turn 4 broke my 8-1/447/lmg. They likely would have been impossible to take out otherwise in US Turn 5 (the last turn). As it was the game came down to a concealed 248 in a rear stone building vs. a hero/667 adjacent and the decision to use the surviving Sherman to bypass freeze/strip concealment. Gary made the right choice for the tank to enter the hex to strip concealment and then stop to ensure melee would ensue if the vehicle survived fire PF shot (which it did since I didn't want to risk pinning for a PF or ATMM). I just needed to survive the 8+2 Advfire infantry shot, a lousy tank mg adv fire shot, and then win the ambush (where I had a +2). No effect on the advfire and I rolled my ambush first with a 2. This gave Gary a 1/3 chance to win the game, but he came up short. Good close game. I'd take either side, but I think the Germans have a small edge, especially vs. an inexperienced US player. Fun game, thanks SP team and Gary!