011608tunis

ONE TIGER CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE Tunisia 1943 Flames of War Berkshire Wargamer's Association January 16th 2008
After weeks of being postponed by snow days, holidays and ‘family fun nights’ that had shut us out of the school where our club meets each week, we got together last night for a battle – and a grand one at that. Matt had about 1400 points of Fallschirmjaegers. They could start anywhere on the board. There was a ruined Arab village on the German left, a farm with stone walls and orchard on the right, and a double-level hill in the center rear of the German side. As these were the three objectives, he deployed forces in all three.
One platoon in the farmhouse, with a gun, an AT gun platoon in the orchard (with a Kampfgruppe with machineguns and SMG teams sup hiddenin there in ambush). Another platoon with supports was in the Arab village, and his mortars were deployed near the double level hill. Coming in to back him up was Joe’s 2600 pt PanzerCompany – complete with a Tiger and 88s. Even though Erik provided American troops for the Allied side, he chose to be a German, with Joe. Joe’s troops came in on die rolls, rolling one die more than the number of the current turn, entering on a 5-6 – and he had a special commander who allowed him to reroll one failed die. His single Tiger, which cost as much as a platoon of Allied tanks, rolled up the dreaded double Tiger Top Ace who not only gets a higher rate of fire but ALSO gets to reroll misses…. A one-man army if there ever was one.
Although I was going to play, I wound up GM’ing the game. Young Eric and Brian came to play. Young Eric took the US Armored Company (1400 points – 11 Shermans, a platoon of armored infantry in halftracks, a pair of 37mm guns); Sergeant Brian took the Indian Motor Rifle Company I had brought (2500 points – three infantry platoons, HMG platoon, backed up by a Royal Horse Artillery battery equipped with Priests – 105mm SP guns – and supported by 9 Grants, 3 armored cars and a number of India carriers). As the Germans had spent a little more than 4000 points between them, the Allies made up the difference with Hurricanes.
As I noted, the Fallschirmjaegers were on the table. The Allies had 16 platoons between them and could bring in half on turn 1, the other half turn two. The Americans all came on together, opposite the Arab village. Brian rolled in with his Priests and two motor platoons. As all the Germans were veterans, gone to ground and in cover and at long range, there were no shots available to the incoming allies. German turn 1, in rolls the 88s – which roll succesffuly to unlimber – dead center of the Nazi line, in a valley, hills to either side and a clear sweeping field of fire for their 40-inch kill range, with nary a bump in the sand between them and the Allied tanks…..
Allied turn 2 – in came the Hurricanes, heading straight for the 88s….which also drew the fire of the RHA….the double hammer blow wiped the 88s off the face of the earth…leading to a great sigh of relief on the allied side, and a deep sigh on the German…. Brian moved on the farm and orchard. Rather than spread across the table to hit another objective, Eric moved his US Armor to cover Brian’s flank. The plan, as Brian said for all to hear, was to take the farm, from which it was a short jump to the double-level hill…that would give the Allies two of the three objectives and victory…or so the plan went.
The battle for the orchard was brutal. German AT guns rolling up to pop Allied tanks; Indian infantry going in at the bayonet yelling their war cry (war cry is their special rule – anyone they charge has to roll morale to make defensive fire). The German AT gunners were suitably frightened, as this is the first time the Sikhs have ever gone into a battle….the Indians did the Empire proud, and swept into the woods – only to meet the Kampfgruppe. The fight there was brutal, and while the Germans were slowly pushed back to the far edge of the orchard, they never left it. Charge after charge of the Sikhs failed to push them out. Matt defended the farm by digging in and keeping his head down – making it almost impossible for the Allies to kill his men. Veterans, gone to ground, in bulletproof cover can only be hit on 6s….and as the Grants do not have HE, all they had was their machineguns…the Indian rifle platoon that came up with them had a Boyz AT rifle and a knee mortar, but the Allies just could not hit or kill anything in the farm. Brian even brought up the Armored cars and India carriers with their 50mm guns – hails of dice, a goodly number of 6s, but no kills….

even the RHA could not register in on these charmed paratroops. Brian risked a bayonet charge, hoping that the FJ might fail a morale check and not get off their defensive fire…but those paratroopers stood their ground and slaughtered the Sikhs before they could close. In the meantime, a tank battle raged between two of Brian’s three Grant platoons and Erik’s incoming Panzer platoons. In the swirling melee both sides lost six tanks, but the British attempt to outflank the farm was thus blunted.
As Brian struggled with his fight, Young Eric and his Shermans had to face the Tiger…which, of course, did not come to the party alone, but with a full platoon of MK IIIs and MK IVs in support…..Four times the Hurricans flew against the Tiger. Four times the Tiger survived. Three times the Tiger roared in defiance, and with each roar one or two Shermans brewed up. Eric brought every Sherman he could to bear on the supporting Panzers, knocking out three (or was it four) of them, but the Tiger kept coming. Nothing on the Allied side could take the Tiger in the Front….and Joe was not crazy enough to close or give the Shermans any chance of a side shot. Brian had thought of throwing the RHA and its 105’s to bombard the Tiger, but he had too many targets and too many problems of his own to face.
As Allied turn 6 came to a close, the American Armored Company was in tatters – half of its tanks gone, and the British-Indians were stalled – Sikhs facing FJ in the orchard, light armored rolling tons of dice without effect against the dug in FJ in the farm, and tanks burning on both sides all around. Although the Germans wanted to do the bottom half of the inning just to try and kill some more Allies, the game was clearly over – with Tunisia safely in German hands.

Tunisia 1943 Flames of War