A not-bored British Player presents:

CHURCHILL vs PANZER IV A tale of useless tanks, Starts, and infantry.

On the German side, we have a generic Panzerkompanie from Grey Wolf. Featuring Panzer IVs, Panzer IVs, some more Panzer IVs, and a King Tiger that got lost.

Panzerkompanie, CV, 1515 points (4 Platoons) HQ

2 Panzer IV - 180 points Combat Platoons Compulsory Panzer Platoon

4 Panzer IV - 360 points Compulsory Panzer Platoon

4 Panzer IV - 360 points Panzer Platoon

3 Panzer IV - 270 points Support Platoons Schwere Panzer Platoon

1 Konigstiger (Henschel) - 345 points Honestly, his list would have been much better if he had replaced the small Panzer platoon with a Panzerpionier platoon, but he’s hesitant to use infantry because “they don’t do anything when your opponents are all tanks”. In retrospect, this is hilarious.

On the Commonwealth side, we have a Guards Tank Squadron from Nachtjager (Digital). The list consists of a core of heavily armored (by British standards) Churchills, with supporting M10Cs, Stuarts, 25 pdrs, and Parachute infantry. Guards Tank Squadron, CV, 1515 points (6 platoons) HQ

1 Churchill V with Applique Armour - 105 points Combat Platoons Compulsory Guards Tank Platoon

2 Churchill VI and 1 Churchill IV, all with Applique Armour- 335 points Compulsory Guards Tank Platoon

2 Churchill VI and 1 Churchill IV, all with Applique Armour- 335 points Weapons Platoons Guards Tank Recce Squadron

1 Stuart VI with AA MG, 1 Stuart VI - 105 points Brigade Support Platoons Anti-tank Platoon (SP), Royal Artillery

2 M10C 17 pdr SP – 185 points Support Platoons Parachute Platoon

6 Rifle/MG, 1 PIAT, and 1 Panzerfaust/SMG - 240 points Field Battery, Royal Artillery

4 OQF 25 pdr gun, 2 Rifle, Staff, Observer, and OP carrier – 185 points AOP – 25 points A much more flexible, but slow, force than the opposing Panzers. This was my first time fielding this list, and man are CV heavy tanks (even cheapish ones with meh guns) hard to make a list around. There were far more 2-tank platoons than I was entirely comfortable with, and I didn’t even get to include any Mk VIIs!

Just like our fellows across the shop, we rolled up No Retreat for our mission. Zee Germans won the roll off, and decided that they really didn’t want to try and dig FV infantry off an objective without Recce. They placed their objective in the clearing to the south (this image is flipped compared to the rest), while I placed mine in the woods to the north. The Germans placed one of the large Panzer platoons in the woods around the north objective, while the King Tiger waited in ambush. He would later put his two command tanks in the woods near the south objective, intentionally placing them inside so that I couldn’t see them early on. I decide that two commanders and a King Tiger would be easier to take on than 6 Panzer IVs and a King Tiger, and so place my entire force on the south to force the flank, except for the 25pdrs enjoying the cover of the wheat fields. The Paratroopers start the game riding on one of the Churchill troops, for 2” more speed.

The Stuarts immediately take advantage of the hiding German commanders, rushing up the full 16” their Recce move allows in order to drive back the inevitable KT ambush. With the mission granting me the first turn, I move the Stuarts even father forward, preventing the King Tiger from appearing in the closest woods and hammering me early. The M10s move up to hold the center of the board, while the Churchills advance behind the ruined church. One troop moves at the double, since I figure any enemy fire is going to be light enough that they can take it with their 9 front armor. The 25 pdrs drop some rounds on the Panzer IVs, but do absolutely nothing after ranging in on the third attempt. The german response is fairly uneventful. The CiC and 2iC try to pop out and blast the Churchills, but the CiC bogs (Taking over the 2iC’s tank immediately). The CiC’s new tank misses both shots, then hides back into the woods with his Stormtrooper move. The Panzer IV platoon also tries to break cover and drive out the M10s from the center, but one of them bogs, and the two that manage to get line of sight fail to hit and they all fail to stormtrooper

Turn 2, I continue moving the Churchills and Stuarts up, with the Stuarts now touching the southern objective. The M10s stay and fire against the Panzer IVs, managing to kill one of them. The 25pdrs follow the moving Panzers, but once again fail to do any damage. In the south, the Churchills open up on the bogged 2iC, bailing him but otherwise causing no damage.

At the start of Turn 2, my opponent is faced with a hell of a problem. The Stuarts are claiming the objective, and he doesn’t know what will unbog, unbail, or come in from reserves before he has to place his ambush. And even if one of his reserve platoons came on, they’d need to pass a stormtrooper roll to get to the objective in time. Deciding not to risk it, he places the King Tiger in the only place it can and still contest the objective. He then gets to bring one platoon on from reserve, and commits the other large Panzer platoon to the fight in the south. The north Panzers also move south, leaving their (still bogged) comrade behind. The 2iC manages to unbog but stays out of his tank, while the King Tiger pushes past the treeline to open up on the leading Churchills. The Germans open up on them with a flurry of shots, but only one strikes home. Sadly for me, even front 9 means nothing when you roll 1s, and a Churchill explodes. The reinforcements try to open up on the Stuarts, but the Stuarts notice them before they can get a shot off and bravely run away. His stormtrooper moves let him get the reserve Panzers up and onto the objective as well.

My turn, and I immediately drop the paratroopers off, moving the Churchills up and out of the line of sight of the King Tiger while the M10s try to flank the Panzers. The AOP drops smoke on the King Tiger, and my Churchills smoke the northern Panzer IVs. My small amount of normal shooting either misses or is bounced by 6s. At this point I’m just really hoping he doesn’t run up and machine gun my paras on the turn they’re most vulnerable, before they can assault into the woods.

On his turn 3, his final platoon automatically arrives, and he moves the two southern Panzer platoons up to blast my Churchills. He manages to bail my CiC, and kill the platoon commander of the already damaged tank troop. The Stuarts fail to disengage, but he ends up missing anyway because he needs 6s. Up north, the Panzer IVs slam into reverse and open up on the flank of the M10s, killing one. I manage to pass the platoon morale test, but it’s a rough turn for me. I rolled a 2 and a 1 for my only two armor saves this turn. Fucking dice. At least his 2iC stayed out of his tank.

So, how many of you spotted his grievous tactical error from last turn? I manage to unbail the M10, but the CiC decides it’s time for tea since his 95mm is useless. The Churchills reposition a bit, but their mobility is limited by the horde of infantry running around them. The Stuarts floor it and drive off to harass the northern objective, which currently only has a bogged Panzer IV protecting it. Having just remounted, the M10 just barely has the Panzers in its front turret arc but misses both shots anyway. The Churchills are unable to fire with the infantry in the way, though the AOP gets the 25pdrs to drop smoke on the close Panzer IVs

For those of you that missed his error, here it is: He left only two tanks capable of defensive fire inside charge range of the paratroopers. They charge the Panzer platoon and the bailed 2iC, though they wiff their way through the first round of assault. He counterattacks and manages to get two of my teams. Being Fearless with British Bulldog, I obviously counterattack back, this time with much less lucky 6s on his armor saves. He loses all three Panzer IVs that joined the fight, and the victorious brits capture the 2iC while they’re consolidating into the woods. The final tank of the platoon, having seen his brothers in arms disappear into the smoke shortly before several loud explosions, decides discretion is the better part of valor and runs off the field.

Paratrooper Kill Count: 4

Realizing the danger posed by the paratroopers, he moves up his reserve platoon to try and deal with them and the Churchills. The northern panzers stand and deliver against the M10, while the CiC and KT do the same against the Churchills. His 7.5cm shells bounce off the armor of my Churchills, and the King Tiger misses with its three shots. Up in the north though, the last M10 is bailed and his bogged Panzer IV manages to fix his tracks (after three turns). He manages to pass his platoon morale test, but if the M10 doesn’t remount he’s doomed.

Turn 5 arrives, and the Stuarts start it off by moving up and contesting the northern objective. The M10 follows up by getting back in his tank, and blasting one of the Panzers into the grave. In the south, the two immutable facts of this game make themselves apparent.

1) My Churchills can’t do anything worthwhile. They miss or bounce all of their shots. 2) Paratroopers are OP.

The Paratroopers assault both the King Tiger and the CiC, and not only manage to avoid taking any hits in defensive fire, they also destroy or bail both of them in the first round of the assault. They promptly consolidate into the smoke and onto the objective. I place them with two teams up front to take any assault by the Panzers. The other three, more than 2” from the front but within 4” to counterattack and defensive fire, stand by to finish the job if they get charged.

Paratrooper Kill count: 6

(Picture was taken after the smoke markers were removed, but before the rest of my turn)

My opponent is not a moron, and so elects to form a gunline to engage my infantry while executing a desperate hold of the southern objective. His machine guns manage a surprising 4 hits, but the paras shrug them all off. In the north, the commander of the Panzers kills the last M10, then falls back with his Stormtrooper move to protect the north objective from the Stuarts.

This basically summarizes my turn 6:

Yeah. The Churchills move up, but because the Smoke lands before they can shoot they miss all their shots. The Stuarts manage to bail one of the Panzers in the north, but they pass their platoon morale test so we go to the assault phase. The paras once again have smoke, and again get in unharmed by defensive fire. They bail two of the tanks and blow up the third, instantly winning the combat and forcing him to take a company morale check on the start of his turn 6. With his CiC and 2iC dead, he loses on the spot.

British PARATROOPER VICTORY

Paratrooper Kill count: 8 Panzer IVs, 1 Konigstiger

Aftermath: British

I have two obvious platoons of the match. In second place are the Stuarts,

who forced his King Tiger into a suboptimal ambush spot. They also

managed to prevent the northern Panzers from helping by contesting the

objective, and even bailed one. The 775 points I spent on Churchills only

resulted in two bails, so obviously I need to just use more Stuarts as they’re

the more points effective tank.

The absolute undisputed kings of the battlefield, however, were the

parachute platoon. The little Red Devils chewed up and spat out 1065

points of German tanks with only smoke bombardments from the 25 pdrs

helping them, and finished all but one assault in a single round (and the only

assault they didn’t finish in a single round ended up benefiting them more

when dragged out). Their runaway success can be partially attributed to the

terrain and my opponent not taking infantry seriously as a threat to tanks.

Once they were in that forest, they were able to assault either adjacent

forest and still be claiming the objective, forcing him to place yet more tanks

within their 10” charge range or lose the game by not contesting.

I really could have used my Churchills better. For several critical turns I

either kept moving the infantry first, or forgot to move the Churchills, or

simply didn’t bother placing them correctly. Compared to my normal

Cromwells, they are much less forgiving about placement, and when I never

rolled above a 3 for an armor save they weren’t doing much better at

surviving than the Cromwells.

If I had to do something different, I would have kept the CiC closer to the

M10s and the Paratroopers, just to be on the safe side for their morale

tests. It worked out fine here, but never hurts to be smarter in the future.

Aftermath: Germans

Remember that comment up at the start about how he didn’t include

infantry because “they don’t do anything when your opponents are all

tanks”? Yeah, I think he’s going to look hard at taking some panzerpioniers

after the paras ran roughshod over 2/3rds of his army. Hopefully he

remembers his smoke.

As for his gameplay mistakes, first off he should have had his CiC and 2iC at

the edge of the woods. I’d be hitting him on 6s at best, and my Stuarts

wouldn’t have been able to get so close and force the KT ambush into a

horrible spot.

Speaking of the Konigstiger, he really should have had the KT in reserve, and

kept the second 4-tank Panzer IV platoon in ambush. Sure, AT 11 vs Front 9

is a bit unreliable, but they’re much better against what turned out to be

the real threats in my list: the M10s and the infantry.

His final mistake was that, on turn 3, he really should have been firing all his

MGs into the paratroopers while they were in the open and getting hit on

4s. After that opportunity passed, the rest of the game was inevitable.

Fearless Vets with gammon bombs just fuck tanks up.