Americans vs. Germans

As this German propaganda poster purports, the German infantry really is “the Queen of Services.” An American company realized this to their sorrow trying to repulse a counterattack led by Panzergrenadiers supported by a Panzer IV.

Eric played the Germans while Lloyd played the Americans. The rules used were Poor Bloody Infantry by Rules for the Common Man.

As per the rules, the attacker and defender were determined by the recon phase, with the Germans gaining an overwhelming advantage. As a result, the Germans rolled onto the table with the full weight of their 400 points – two platoons of veteran light machine gun armed grenadiers, a platoon of average heavy machine guns and a lone average Panzer IV.

Arrayed in defense, the Americans had 190 points, thanks to starting the game dug in. The defenders put three platoons of average infantry on the table with a platoon of three M-5 light tanks and a platoon of Rangers in reserve.

The Americans chose to split their force to cover all three objectives – a lonely church, the large bridge and hill. The Germans had the church as their prime objective and deployed their flanking force close to it, while the Americans placed their heavy machine gun platoon guarding the large building.

The Grenadiers succeeded in taking the church by the third turn and never gave it up. While things looked good for the Fatherland on the flank, their troops approaching from the east ran into a trap in the forest and we're quickly wiped out to a man by an astonishingly brutal American close assault.

The assault wiped out a full platoon of the German veterans and threatened to stall the offensive.

The Panzer IV and the heavy machine guns, however, gave the remaining platoon the support they needed to take the church and, later, to take the bridge objective and secure victory.

The German counterattack was off to a strong start, but heavy losses took a toll. The Germans lost 23 veteran soldiers dead and 32 wounded or missing, most in the forest. The American toll was 27 dead and 43 wounded or missing.

As a side note, this is the first time we have played a game of PBI II where the attacker has gotten all 400 points plus the flank attack and won in three attempts. Kudos to Eric for that, although it certainly wasn't as easy as he might have thought. Had the Americans holding the bridge not succumbed to fire from the HMGs on the hill, odds are they could have pulled out a win.

All miniatures were painted by Lloyd, and I recommend you download some of these pictures and examine the detail he put on these 15mm figures, as it is outstanding. The terrain was provided by Eric Wood except for the swamp, which was made by Kevin Balentine, who wrote this report and took the pictures using an Olympus C-7070 digital camera. The poster at the beginning was taken from www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters2.htm.