The Adventures of Kampfgruppe Klink

[bigjackmac]

Thank you, Rob, will do, and the next one is coming right up!

V/R,
Jack

[bigjackmac]

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

[Sunray]

Counting the days Jack!  Thanks for posting and the link. 

Best wishes

James

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Quite a scrap! Well done.
The Kiwi's luck was awful! 

[bigjackmac]

My pleasure, James, and you're absolutely right, Lemmey!

It's a weird feeling playing these games; I don't want the Germans to win because they're the bad guys, but I do want the Germans to win because... I'm playing them.

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 setback 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

[pierre the shy]

My pleasure, James, and you're absolutely right, Lemmey!

It's a weird feeling playing these games; I don't want the Germans to win because they're the bad guys, but I do want the Germans to win because... I'm playing them.

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 setback 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

I think you are handling this aspect of things very intelligently Jack. Its not like we'll be seeing Kampfgruppe Klink invading the US homeland in 1947 equipped with Maus tanks and other fanboy might have been equipment.....

look forward to the remaining Greek battles 

[Techno]

Great fun read, as always, Jack. 

Cheers - Phil

[Westmarcher]

That was good, Jack. I'm not a Modern/WW2 wargamer/collector, so don't normally 'tune in' but it so happens I'm currently playing a solo computer game using Combat Mission and, in the mission I've been assigned, I'm commanding Kampfgruppe Karloff, so the subject matter grabbed my attention. Will try to 'tune in' again, in future. 

[FierceKitty]

The Kiwi's luck was awful! 

Well, if he goes into battle alone....

[bigjackmac]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate it!  Well, except for Fierce Kitty's grammar attack

Glad my view makes sense, Pierre, and it's cool to bring you over, Westmarcher!

V/R,
Jack

[paulr]

Bl%^dy hell that went badly

Given the battalion was raised and initially trained at Burnham near where I grew up I expected much better from them

"The battalion's field training was carried out under canvas at Cave in South Canterbury", a very small town where I spent time as a lad under canvas

[Ace of Spades]

That was a pretty good day for the Krauts; let's see how long their luck will last!

Cheers,
Rob

[bigjackmac]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it!

Paul - Yeah, pretty rough, failure to capitalize.  This using historical units stuff is weird for me: on the one hand, it's really cool that you've got a personal stake/experience with units that are on the tabletop.  On the other hand, when it doesn't go well it feels kinda... icky.  I certainly mean no disrespect, and that's exactly the reason why I generally game with units that I've made up, whether it's KG Klink, the VMF-343 'Dirt Divers,' or even just the entire made-up world of my Cuba Libre blog. 

I don't suspect it will be an issue when KG Klink gets to the Eastern Front, but the Germans will be facing a lot of the western Allies: North Africa (probably, not 100% sure about that yet), Italy, Normandy (around Caen), Market-Garden, the Bulge.

Rob - Their luck is going to last until about December of 1941   Just kidding, obviously they can lose tabletop fights between now and then, just that, in the overall scheme of things, fights will be going their way for a bit still.

V/R,
Jack

[paulr]

Jack, historic stuff IS "kinda... icky" and it is important we remember that

It is obvious that no disrespect is intended and I really enjoy your detailed AARs

[bigjackmac]

Paul,

Certainly, and I appreciate your perspective.  I just worry about it because sometimes I do silly stuff to make the tabletop game (or the batrep narrative) more fun, and I would never want any of that reflecting poorly on real-life men that fought.  For instance, early on in KG Klink's campaign in Poland one of the units was suppressed and had bad dice, just could not rally during the game, even ended up running off the table, so I wrote it up that he was summarily shot by Colonel Klink for cowardice.  I've done similar things in other games, where guys were shot in the ass while running away (failing rally rolls and falling back); I think I even had a guy get shot once trying to surrender because the only white clothing he had was his underwear, so he stripped buck naked, tied his drawers to a stick, and tried to surrender, but got shot because he had soiled them and thus they were no longer white  

That's why it's better to play with make believe units

V/R,
Jack

[bigjackmac]

All,

Afternoon, 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.  The third fight saw 1st Lt Ginter's 2nd Schutzen moving secure a crossing over the D3 bridge, forcing the 27th MG Battalion back.  Now we have Major Bohm's 2nd Recce Battlegroup pressing forward against remnants of the Australian 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment.


Heavy fighting breaks out as a German tank-infantry team works to clear the Diggers off of Hill 256.


German armored reconnaissance attempts to pull a 'Hussar trick' and fling itself into the village before the Australians can mount a defense, but are ambushed by Vickers machine guns on Hill 327.


The attack on Hill 256 is floundering as the German infantry are being roughly handled.


The defender (top left) aren't looking much better, but their spirits are lifted when the Aussie Carrier Platoon arrives (top right, with German armored cars at bottom center)!

To see how the fight went, please check the blog at:
https://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2020/04/kg-klink-in-greece-fight-4.html

Next up, Captain Freitag's 1st Schutzen is defending the B3 bridge from the Brit Rangers/9KRRC and Royal Engineers/New Zealand Cavalry battlegroups.

V/R,
Jack

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Tough fight

[paulr]

Those armoured cars certainly put the Ozzies on the back foot

Another interesting AAR

[bigjackmac]

Thanks guys!

V/R,
Jack

[Techno]

(I 'done it', again  .......Hit the preview button, instead of 'post'.)

Like I said yesterday. Nice one, Jack.

(Now hit the right button, this time !)

Cheers - Phil