The Adventures of Kampfgruppe Klink

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Another great report Jack.

[Techno]

Seconded !!
Good grief...It must take you longer to write up the report than it does to have 'the fight' !
What does the orange 'wossname' represent, Jack ?
I must have missed that, somewhere.

Cheers - Phil

[ronan]

Good AAR, and I think it was historical, as you said.
( I'm wondering how it should have turned if the german did not notice the french tanks so early..  )

"Eh, mon Capitaine, ze gun, Sir, she's broke."

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

"It's alright corporal, we 'ave a spare! Fire ze 37mm!'

[bigjackmac]

Thanks guys.

Phil - Yeah, the write-up takes a fair bit of time.  I'm using the orange thingie as a tracer to show who's shooting at who.  Most folks know about machine gun tracers, but in WWII they started putting tracer material on the back of anti-tank rounds so the crew could spot the fall of shot.  It helps me show you guys who's who when there are lots of units in the photo (I think, you tell me).

Ronan - Yeah, it could have been different, but I'm not sure.  After the Germans got off the road the French got a normal activation and popped their three Char Bs over the ridges and took their shots; that's the only real difference.  If the French had gone first they would have done the same thing, but they've have been firing on the flanks the German tanks.  But don't misunderstand: the Germans could not knock out a Char B from the front, but the Char B could knock out any German vehicle from the front.

Lemmey - Yeah, that's my point man.  They weren't lacking a weapon

V/R,
Jack

[Techno]

Thanks, Jack.

I imagined it would be something like that....Thought I'd better check, though. 
Cheers - Phil

[bigjackmac]

No problem, anytime Sir.

V/R,
Jack

[bigjackmac]

All,

It's 1000 on 14 May 1940, and KG Klink, attached to the 7th Panzer Division, has been directed to reduce a French strongpoint manned by elements of their 5th Infantry Division.  Elements of 7th Panzer Division stream by to the north and south as 2nd Panzer Platoon, 2nd Infantry Platoon, and 4th Infantry Platoon fall out of formation into an assembly area, then launch their attack on this thorn in the side of the armored thrust.


The opposing forces, with both sides having a mixture of armor and infantry.

The Germans have their CO, two rifle platoons, a tank platoon, and a (worthless) mortar).

The French have their CO, two light tanks, two 25mm anti-tank guns, two rifle platoons, and a mortar.


Overview, north is left, east is up, the Germans are attacking from top to bottom.  I started the French on blinds, placed the Germans, then uncovered the blinds.  The French infantry and guns begin in emplacements, and with concertina wire (not pictured, I put it on the table after I took this pic).

The German line up, from north (left) to south (right): 2nd Inf Plt, 2nd Pz Plt (with CO nearby and mortar to their rear), and 4th Inf Plt.

The French left has an ATG at far left in emplacement, and two rifle squads (one ATR) in the ville.  The French central position is Hill 47, with their CO and three rifle squads, backed up by an ATG, rifle squad, R35, and mortar at the stone farmhouse, and posted to the far right flank is the other French tank.


Things were going pretty well until ze Germans got a little too aggressive in pushing their tanks forward.  Those are German tanks and French infantry.  The results were... different.

To see the whole fight, please visit the blog at:
http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2015/05/kg-klink-france-game-4.html

What a fight, tense right up to the very end.  I hope you enjoy it, and sorry for so many fuzzy pictures; at this point I'd stop considering it a bug, more of a feature from our (fake computer) war correspondents...

V/R,
Jack

[Techno]

 ......Again !!
Cheers - Phil

[toxicpixie]

It's probably actionsmlikethis where they could have and came close to, losing whole platoons of tanks against half a dozen blokes with sticks that meant they stopped for a breather just before hitting Dunkirk, instead of after

Tactical loss, operational loss, for the French; strategic disaster for the Germans

[bigjackmac]

Thanks guys, and that's a very interesting point TP.

I was looking at much more from the shallow end: the dice have been too good to me lately, I'm bound to be headed for disaster!

V/R,
Jack

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Good old Loeb. Tank assault badge for him!

[ronan]

good AAR !

Tough fight !

[bigjackmac]

Thanks Lemmey and Ronan!

You mentioned Loeb, I don't know what it is lately, but the tank kills have been coming in pairs.  There may be several other tanks there, but once one tank gets a kill everyone else misses until the guy that got the first kill gets another one.  Like I said, the dice have been kinda trippy.  I'm scared of the next one.

If I recall correctly, the next two are both armor-only fights.  Which is cool, but I'm kind of missing my old fashioned infantry fights.

Does anyone else feel like the tanks are playing too big a role?

V/R,
Jack

[ronan]

Does anyone else feel like the tanks are playing too big a role?

I don't think so ( historical, isn't it ?)
As long as
- you're having fun
- you're planning to change some terrain. Try a small city perhaps ?