Last nite we played some action first from the @nd Front Drive to the Rhine western front module then switched gears to infantry and tank combat in 1943 Ukraine.

The first scenario figured some dual entry point meeting engagement action in the bocage of France, as Panzer Lehr raced to escape the pocket around Mortain in August ’44. A company of  M4AI’s and added 76mm long barrel units fueled up to prevent the Kampfegruppe Koch loaded for bear with PZ IVH and J units.

We used the staggered initiative new rule with a twist, where in Direct Fire phase you roll for which formation fires first, and so on continuing rolling per formation and then kept rolling for initiative in the move phase (versus doing things in reverse order..that seemed all to hard and lame to us).

Assuming we were playing correctly (I guess it has been a while), often the location hit was more a matter of interest that needed, with close range shots all penetrating, so at point blank you really could skip the location die roll and go directly to damage, unless you were holdin out for the 10% survival chance of a track hit!

Given I had not played  much prior to these two sessions I felt good about the knowledge transfer.

We did come across some whacky questions that I’ll be posting in the Panzer folder later. For instance could a tank reverse into a overrun /close assault, with or without turret rotated?

I struggled with our  small arms fire via tank and vice versa. That seemed to not play as I recalled.

Our second scenario saw Pz IIIM’s and more IV H units face off against AT guns and T-34’s which were the /76’ers model 43. I profess to not knowing all these model variations until I am into the game. My opponent got a little geeked out with all the data cards. During setup I curse two things. First finding the right units types, second finding the right card (clearly pack up last game was sub par….but I also curse when I see the better armour rating of other models of the same type when going into battle.) This scenario was a straight up exit your units off off the map scenario  also.

All in we got two scenarios done, a total of 15 or 16 turns with 2+ platoons of tanks and some trucked infantry so lots of moving parts.