Post by Tiger505 on Nov 9, 2008 20:11:05 GMT -5
Well after a trip to Alabama I have to report my first Tiger losses with the 505th. I ended the day with a 2/1 record having finally went down to a Panther company in a city fight in round 3 in the game to determine the tourney winner.
Round 1 vs US Rangers Break through
The table had a large town in the middle running from corner to corner with a small walled farm in one corner and woods scattered around outside town. He defended the farm and the opposite hex with woods giving me a choose of putting objectives in fields near the church or in woods. I elected to put the objectives in the fields. I started with AA and Tigers up with the Brummbars in reserve. He had a 6 gun Priest unit on table with 4 Sherman Tanks and 2 Hellcats in reserve. He deployed 2 Ranger platoons to rush the objectives one blocking the town and the last facing me to hem me in. He also deployed 2 small mortar units for smoke and left his SP AA off table. He also had limited P47 support brining him to a total of 10 platoons in 2 companies. The game started with me potting a Priest with a long range shot and 4 other Tigers gunning the hell out of the picket Ranger unit before the assaulting and forcing them back. His first turn saw two units of Rangers double time to the objectives and the tank shocked unit refusing to unpin. He smoked out my AA and dropped a bomb on a Tiger which I forgot to make him re-roll due to one plan and promptly KO-ed the tank. Well no use in crying so I kept on the pressure advancing and all but wiping out the pinned down unit while adding more Priests to the dead pile. About 4 turns in his first reserves showed up right as I was moving into range to hurt the infantry swarm on the objectives. His air and arty had proved useless at this point ether refusing to hit or waving off to the friendly troops being danger close. His Rangers had also refused to dig in 3 rounds running so things where looking good. The 2 Hellcats came on first strait up my Tigers back sides but both shots missed! Return fire from 2 tanks and the AA killed everything but 1 bailed out M18 which not only refused to break but remounted and killed my CO the next turn. The Co made his hero save and took over the 2IC tread and continued the battle as the Brummbars finally turned up and concentrated MG fire all but broke one ranger unit. The M18 died and 3 Tigers drove into the rear Ranger swarm. Roughly 4 rounds of assault later there was 3 stands of infantry left of the two platoons I hit and 1 burning Tiger as the other two fell back on a bad moral roll. He got his Shermans on and managed to KO the remaining tank of one platoon with a flank shot (about a 6% chance of happening but you know Murphy). The two Tigers and 2 Brummbars on the objective Mged the last 3 infantry off and proceeded to squat on it daring him to interfere. His next round saw him finish off my AA and then unless everything he had trying to kill 1 Tiger to force me to take a company break test. Air strikes, 105mm bombardments and 2 bailed only Brummbars later the Tigers win it 4/3 and I get my revenge on Rainbow Ranger Danny from the last War Room tournament.
Round 2 FFA vs Stug Batterie SO
The table was cut by a Y shaped road that was the only crossing for a very difficult creek that cut the table roughly into 60/40 parts. The road was also boarded by very difficult hills that cut up LOS well and turned the road junction with a few buildings in it into a choke point from hades. I rolled ROF 3 on my 2IC, ST 2 and RRM on my 1IC and had Clever Hans on both platoons. I deployed the Brums, 1 platoon and the CIC on my right and the AA, 1 platoon and the 2IC on my left. He had 3 platoons of 3 Stugs each which deployed to hide as best they could, A 1IC Stug also hiding, and a platoon of infantry on each objective. He deployed his 3 tubes of 105mm in the middle of his area hidden as best he could. This should have been a REALLY easy game but again Murphy hated me. The first turn saw me roll into hull down firring positions and KO his 1IC and 1 Stug from his center platoon. He moved up and his counter fire got him no where as did the arty. My next two rounds I killed nothing as he kept dodging from cover to cover and MAKING ARMOR SAVES! Finally at point blank range I kill another two Stugs. Then I promptly fail an armor save with a 1 losing a Tiger. My return fire kills nothing and he fires again resulting in another 1 and a dead Tiger. I am beginning to ponder what I did because at this point I am wondering how I pissed off the dice spirits today. My return fire reduces 2 units to 1 Stug each giving him 4 remaining tubes and HE PASSES ALL THE PLATOON MORAL CHECKS! At least my armor works this round but I am a platoon down and really not pleased with the ammo factory nor the Tiger production plant because as I move to kill the last 4 Stugs 2 Tigers with Clever Hans BOG down( I forgot about wide tracks!). So I move up my Brummbars and 1 Tiger and pot another Stug. He is now down 2 platoons and has 2 tanks left in the 3rd. He returns fire at the Brums 1 hit armor save is a 1 again and scratch one Brum. Keep in mind ever roll I have failed so far was only fail able on a 1. Also only 1 time in the game did I roll 3 armor saves at once. So I finally KO the last Stug unit but not before his arty eats a bogged Tiger (they stayed bogged for 2 turns thats 4 rolls of 1). So now I have 3 Tigers, 1 Brummbar, and 2 AA tracks left totaling 3 Platoons. I now advance up and start picking on the arty park under the plan of killing the 3 guns and making the unit take a break test and therefor making him auto fail a company moral thanks to the burning CIC. I hide the combat platoon Tiger and do this using the CIC and 2IC but of coarse he makes the moral check again keeping his unbroken strain of 4+ rolls. I now had a choice to make. I could drive my 1IC and 2IC over a difficult terrain check to hunt down the staff and command team or I could drive them along the road but risk an assault by a Pioneer unit that was all PF teams. Both tanks Bogged and he announced the Pioneers had FTs. Two dead Tigers and a dead AA track later saw him with 6 stands of Pioneers left and me lining up my 3 remaining vehicles to MG him down. He lost 3 stands and finally failed a moral check giving me a 5/2 win.
At this point I had rolled 6 ones for armor saves as well as 6 for bog checks with clever Hans tanks. My rolls for the day where VERY sub par but I had managed to get myself into 2nd place. this forced me to engage a Panther company and I knew that was going to hurt in the Cauldron.
Round 1 vs US Rangers Break through
The table had a large town in the middle running from corner to corner with a small walled farm in one corner and woods scattered around outside town. He defended the farm and the opposite hex with woods giving me a choose of putting objectives in fields near the church or in woods. I elected to put the objectives in the fields. I started with AA and Tigers up with the Brummbars in reserve. He had a 6 gun Priest unit on table with 4 Sherman Tanks and 2 Hellcats in reserve. He deployed 2 Ranger platoons to rush the objectives one blocking the town and the last facing me to hem me in. He also deployed 2 small mortar units for smoke and left his SP AA off table. He also had limited P47 support brining him to a total of 10 platoons in 2 companies. The game started with me potting a Priest with a long range shot and 4 other Tigers gunning the hell out of the picket Ranger unit before the assaulting and forcing them back. His first turn saw two units of Rangers double time to the objectives and the tank shocked unit refusing to unpin. He smoked out my AA and dropped a bomb on a Tiger which I forgot to make him re-roll due to one plan and promptly KO-ed the tank. Well no use in crying so I kept on the pressure advancing and all but wiping out the pinned down unit while adding more Priests to the dead pile. About 4 turns in his first reserves showed up right as I was moving into range to hurt the infantry swarm on the objectives. His air and arty had proved useless at this point ether refusing to hit or waving off to the friendly troops being danger close. His Rangers had also refused to dig in 3 rounds running so things where looking good. The 2 Hellcats came on first strait up my Tigers back sides but both shots missed! Return fire from 2 tanks and the AA killed everything but 1 bailed out M18 which not only refused to break but remounted and killed my CO the next turn. The Co made his hero save and took over the 2IC tread and continued the battle as the Brummbars finally turned up and concentrated MG fire all but broke one ranger unit. The M18 died and 3 Tigers drove into the rear Ranger swarm. Roughly 4 rounds of assault later there was 3 stands of infantry left of the two platoons I hit and 1 burning Tiger as the other two fell back on a bad moral roll. He got his Shermans on and managed to KO the remaining tank of one platoon with a flank shot (about a 6% chance of happening but you know Murphy). The two Tigers and 2 Brummbars on the objective Mged the last 3 infantry off and proceeded to squat on it daring him to interfere. His next round saw him finish off my AA and then unless everything he had trying to kill 1 Tiger to force me to take a company break test. Air strikes, 105mm bombardments and 2 bailed only Brummbars later the Tigers win it 4/3 and I get my revenge on Rainbow Ranger Danny from the last War Room tournament.
Round 2 FFA vs Stug Batterie SO
The table was cut by a Y shaped road that was the only crossing for a very difficult creek that cut the table roughly into 60/40 parts. The road was also boarded by very difficult hills that cut up LOS well and turned the road junction with a few buildings in it into a choke point from hades. I rolled ROF 3 on my 2IC, ST 2 and RRM on my 1IC and had Clever Hans on both platoons. I deployed the Brums, 1 platoon and the CIC on my right and the AA, 1 platoon and the 2IC on my left. He had 3 platoons of 3 Stugs each which deployed to hide as best they could, A 1IC Stug also hiding, and a platoon of infantry on each objective. He deployed his 3 tubes of 105mm in the middle of his area hidden as best he could. This should have been a REALLY easy game but again Murphy hated me. The first turn saw me roll into hull down firring positions and KO his 1IC and 1 Stug from his center platoon. He moved up and his counter fire got him no where as did the arty. My next two rounds I killed nothing as he kept dodging from cover to cover and MAKING ARMOR SAVES! Finally at point blank range I kill another two Stugs. Then I promptly fail an armor save with a 1 losing a Tiger. My return fire kills nothing and he fires again resulting in another 1 and a dead Tiger. I am beginning to ponder what I did because at this point I am wondering how I pissed off the dice spirits today. My return fire reduces 2 units to 1 Stug each giving him 4 remaining tubes and HE PASSES ALL THE PLATOON MORAL CHECKS! At least my armor works this round but I am a platoon down and really not pleased with the ammo factory nor the Tiger production plant because as I move to kill the last 4 Stugs 2 Tigers with Clever Hans BOG down( I forgot about wide tracks!). So I move up my Brummbars and 1 Tiger and pot another Stug. He is now down 2 platoons and has 2 tanks left in the 3rd. He returns fire at the Brums 1 hit armor save is a 1 again and scratch one Brum. Keep in mind ever roll I have failed so far was only fail able on a 1. Also only 1 time in the game did I roll 3 armor saves at once. So I finally KO the last Stug unit but not before his arty eats a bogged Tiger (they stayed bogged for 2 turns thats 4 rolls of 1). So now I have 3 Tigers, 1 Brummbar, and 2 AA tracks left totaling 3 Platoons. I now advance up and start picking on the arty park under the plan of killing the 3 guns and making the unit take a break test and therefor making him auto fail a company moral thanks to the burning CIC. I hide the combat platoon Tiger and do this using the CIC and 2IC but of coarse he makes the moral check again keeping his unbroken strain of 4+ rolls. I now had a choice to make. I could drive my 1IC and 2IC over a difficult terrain check to hunt down the staff and command team or I could drive them along the road but risk an assault by a Pioneer unit that was all PF teams. Both tanks Bogged and he announced the Pioneers had FTs. Two dead Tigers and a dead AA track later saw him with 6 stands of Pioneers left and me lining up my 3 remaining vehicles to MG him down. He lost 3 stands and finally failed a moral check giving me a 5/2 win.
At this point I had rolled 6 ones for armor saves as well as 6 for bog checks with clever Hans tanks. My rolls for the day where VERY sub par but I had managed to get myself into 2nd place. this forced me to engage a Panther company and I knew that was going to hurt in the Cauldron.