Donovan saves USA from World Cup disaster

Everyone has seen the goal. Here's the reaction across the country.

229th vs Pete's Panzergrenadiers - Turns 4 and 5

229th Turn 4


After surviving the ambush relatively unscathed, the Left Flank Platoon advances (6", thank you very much Hen & Chick) to confront the AT gun ambush. I manage 2 hits with 75mm main guns and 3 hits with machine guns. It's enough to destroy two AT guns and pin the surviving gun.

The Right Flank platoon risk bogging to advance to the edge of the trees. They all make the short trip without bogging. The orphaned tank behind them fails his Skill Test and remains bogged. I can't get too aggressive with the three Marders lurking. However, I felt the threat of Right Flank Platoon might keep his Marders from shifting to help the grenadiers.

Pete's Grenadiers Turn 4


Pete pulls the objective on the right flank. Also, he begins moving his 2nd Grenadier platoon to assist their comrades manning the left flank.

In a very spiteful act, the surviving AT gun unpins, then unloads on the Left Flank Platoon, achieving 3 hits and killing the Platoon Leader and another Sherman. Ouch!!!


229th Turn 5


Left Flank Platoon removes the last AT gun after more of tanks move up. The command section of the AT guns fails motivation and leaves the board.

Right Flank Platoon sits tight because the Marders are still behind the hill.

Pete's Grenadiers Turn 5


Pete's 2nd grenadier platoon marches to help the other grenadiers. In the meantime, the Marders make their move. With no objective to defend, Pete leaves to go help out his threatened flank.


Next up...the climatic conclusion to the battle.

229th vs Pete's Panzergrenadiers - Turns 2 and 3

229th Turn 2


Left and right flanks advance, using trees to shield them.

Pete's Turn 2


Or so I thought. Pete's Marders advance around the trees and take out an M4A2, then stormtrooper towards the small hill. Nebelwerfers range in and manage to bail a Sherman.


229th Turn 3


Shermans on the left flank skirt the edge of the forest. The bailed crew thinks being outside a rocket bombardment is very bad and hop back into their tank.

On the right flank, the Shermans take the risky option of moving through the forest. All tanks make it except the Platoon Leader, who bogs. He promptly hops out of his tank and takes over another tank so the platoon can keep moving.

Pete's Turn 3


Pete springs his PaK38 50mm AT gun ambush. He gets 6 hits on 9 shots (ROF 3 for each gun) and bails 1 Sherman. I make 5 armor saves.

Pete also elects to withdraw the Nebels from the board. Marder III's move back behind the small hill.

229th vs Pete's Panzergrenadiers - Turn 1

Here's Turn 1 courtesy of Battle Chronicler. The "bending" movement arrows are a new feature of the Beta version.


229th Turn 1


On the left flank, the CiC led the other 7 M4's behind the trees by moving 12". Pete's nebels failed to range in on the group.

Switching to the right flank, the 6 M4's moved 12", using the hill as cover.


Panzergrenadiers Turn 1


Pete's nebels failed to range in on the left flank group of tanks. No other action on this side of the table. I knew the AT gun ambush is still out there and waiting for me.

The understrength platoon lost one of their number when the Marder III's popped from behind the small hill and killed one M4A2. The Marders them failed their Stormtrooper skill test, but it wouldn't matter because I wasn't going to stop moving 12" for a long range shot needing 5's to hit on my shooting phase next turn.

229th vs Pete's Panzergrenadiers - Deployment

The Realm was hopping on Wednesday. Several FOW people were there and were either painting, modeling or creating buildings. Daniel and Paul had a big Strelkovy vs Finns game scheduled for later, but Pete was game enough to give me a game. I had brought my daughter with me because she wanted to see what I do with all the models tanks in my collection. Before the game was set up, she noticed there was a beading store in the same strip mall and was out the door and spent the next 2 hours over there. Girls!

Pete and I decided on a 1,000pt game. I originally suggested 600pts, but Pete said it's easier for him to slap together a 1,000pt force.

229th Separate Tank Regiment

HQ - M4A2
Company 1 - 7x M4A2
Company 2 - 6x M4A2

Pete's Grenadiers

HQ
Grenaider Platoon - 7 stands
Grenaider Platoon - 7 stands
AT Platoon - 3xPak38 50cm ROF3 - in ambush
Nebelwerfers - 2 launchers
Tank Hunters - 3x Marder IIIM

We rolled up Fighting Withdrawal.

Pete put his objective in the center (can't be removed) and I placed my two objectives on the flank to spread out his forces.

I arrived at the Realm with camera and notepad. I wanted to takes notes and then put the notes and pics to good use and create an AAR using Battle Chronicler.

Below is an exported map of the Deployment. (click on picture for 100% version)




Turns 1 and 2 to follow soon.

Day of Days

In Memorium...

A book for Luftwaffe enthusiasts

I received an e-mail from a close friend whom I hadn't heard from in several years.

Claes Sundin is a world renown researcher and graphic artist, who's been published in several books, mostly detailing the history of the Luftwaffe and the bitter air battles on the Eastern Front.

I've been lucky to come into contact with Claes and consider him a friend. He helped me out on several projects and tolerated my naive questions. He also created several unique profiles for me at no cost to myself.

Claes' e-mail announced the first book he will publish on his own. This is quite a feat considering the publishing landscape.



If you ever had any interest in the Luftwaffe, I highly recommend Claes' work and this book. You can't find Claes' work in earlier books because they are out of print.

Visit his website and you can find many aircraft profiles.

Congrats Claes!