Panzergrenadiers vs. Grenadiers (FOW)

Hello everyone, I'm back and hopefully will be updating regularly again.

After taking most of December off from work spending in on the farm, I've gotten back into some wargaming. At home with poor internet and being a hundred miles from any city of note updating the blog wasn't really an option, I was however able to get a ton of painting and modeling done. Also somewhere between building some sidesheds on our barn and duck hunting I  made the trek over to Huntsville, AL and played in their fantastic Battle of the Bulge mega game at the Foundry. A great event at a great store, if you are ever in the area stop by the shop and check it out, it's a gaming store run by gamers. Okay free plug aside, I took some great pictures of the event and huge table, unfortunately my old Macbook Pro decided to die a few days later and I lost most everything, sad face.

I will have to offer a batrep of this weekends FOW game instead. I had to settle for a blue on blue game this weekend since everyone else was playing X-wing in preparation for a tourney next weekend, I would have joined in but I was jonesing for some FOW. So it would be a battle of German infantry with my Fuhrerbegleit Brigade versus Perry's vanilla Grenadiers. We set up a terrain heavy east Prussian village. The mission was dust up with me as the attacker, here are some pics of our armies and setup.

(Sorry for some of the blurry pictures, my camera is getting long in the tooth.)

My 1780pt Fuhrerbegleit Brigade.

Perry's 1780pt German Grenadier Company.

The board, objectives A and B were my targets while I defended 1 and 2.

My list had two Panzergrenadier platoons, three Jagdpanzer IV/70 (A), three StuH42, four 122mm mortars, four 150mm Howitzers (proxied by 105s) and Remer.

Perry had three Grenadier platoons, two 75mm infantry guns, six 81mm mortars, four HMGs, two Tiger I's and four StuH42's.

A view of the board from the other side.

Half my force on the board, the rest in delayed reserve.

The same with Perry. He had on two gren platoons, HMGs and mortars.

A Führer Panzerfüsilier Platoon.

Two of my StuH42's and the Panzer III OP.

The old wooden bridge would not take me where I wanted to go.

The begleit spot something in the buildings across the water.

A few enemy teams go down to the 105's.

My halftracks pushing hard for the right side of the board.

The first few turns saw Perry dig in and move one grenadier platoon through the town in the center on a long slog to my objectives. I pushed everything to the right towards his objectives, and with delayed reserves and limited line of sight the first two turns were relativity uneventful. My StuH's did manage to kill a command team and a HMG in the buildings on turn three.

Perry's mortars watching the mech approach.

A gren platoon on the forward objective.

 Next turn Perry's StuH's arrive and being to move to my objectives, I didn't shift back to protect my objectives Instead relying on the 150mm artillery and the river to slow him down long enough for me to take his objectives, a near fatal mistake on my part.

His StuH's doing what StuH's do, killing guns.

I move my own to get a bead on his infantry.

A few teams in the open were cut down my mass MG fire.

My two mech infantry platoons move to the ford.

He moves up to the river, kills a gun, I fail to range in to the tightly packed assault guns, then next turn they all cross the river with no bogs, kill another gun and I fail two close range direct fire shots, and he finishes off the battery next turn. As a precaution I moved back my 2IC when the StuH's first arrived now he was the only team on the objectives.

The last two 150's missed point blank shots at the StuH's in the open, and were wiped out.

But on the other side of the board my reverses showed up, the second mech infantry platoon and my Jagdpanzers. I quickly moved the Jagdpanzers back to protect my objectives along with my two StuH's, after losing one to a long range shot from a Tiger. Both groups of halftracks moved up to the ford in the river to cross, it would be slow going in the halftracks, but better than on foot in front of six mortars.

IV/70's rush (sort of) towards my own objectives.

The Tigers only action of the game, re-roll misses help him get the shot.

The first platoon with Remer crosses the river.

 The first of my  Führer Panzerfüsilier Platoon mounted assaults out of the river, his observer was on the bank, and moves closer to their objectives. In his turn he kills my 2IC holding the objective but loses a StuH to my Jagdpanzers. I then move both the Jagdpanzers and StuH's to contest the objectives, both are short my milometers, they shoot and triple bail the only enemy StuH I can see, but he stays. On the other side of the board I dismount move up and assault the reduced gren platoon on his forward objective, with Remer leading my platoon he doesn't stand a chance and I am on top of his objective. Now back to my objective if neither of my armored platoons stormtrooper I will not be in range to contest my objective, both do, and we keep going.

The little 81mm mortars are about to punish my bunched up halftracks at the ford.

My new Winter Germans prepping for the assault.

Perry's grens had suffered for their failure to dig in for four turns.

My mortars show up as my StuH's double towards my own objectives.

The tank hunters nail an enemy StuH as my own double to cover.

Remer's assault wipes out the enemy grenadiers.

His StuH's kill my 2IC but my StuH's and IV/70's move up and triple bail his commander.

Perry moves up his HMG platoon to contest his objective and the bailed StuH gets back in and move for side shots on my StuH's. His HMG's kill a few of my infantry, enough to drop me below half, but re-rolling for being guards I stay. He kills a StuH and once again guards saves me and the last one stays. Perry then mesures and finds that his HMGs are short of contesting the objective, he rolls for stormtrooper and fails, I start my turn in control of the objective and win.

However since everyone else is playing X-wing and we don't have time to start an entirely new game we keep playing.  In my turn I kill the StuH in the open and kill the HMG platoon. His mortars pound my second mech infantry platoon, and kill two halftracks with their passengers, three teams down, but they pass moral and the halftracks stay.

Perry's HMG's move up to contest the objective.

The victorious platoon.

 We play for a couple more turns with my halftracks and 122mm mortars beating up on his last two infantry platoons as they move over to retake the objectives. The Tigers are cursing the terrain as they slowly move up with no line of sight for shots.
My second mech platoon mounted assaults the reduced 81mm mortars and drive them off the second objective, they dismount and hunker down. His StuH's are hiding in the woods bailed and bogged but don't run. The infantry assault in but are pinned and his mortars fail to unpin, that leaves me in control of both objective and we decide to call it.

My second Führer Panzerfüsilier Platoon takes the second objective from the mortars.