I devised a simple scenario to see how some later war German and US armor plays out.
The situation is somewhere in France after the breakout from the beaches. An experienced platoon of 4 Shermans is heading down a road and is ambushed by a Tiger and a Pz IV. The Germans are suffering from scarce ammo, so there is a better than normal chance they may run out of AP rounds ! I won't detail the shot by shot basis but give the action in general.
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| The situation at the start. |
German initial shots are good and manage to penetrate both Shermans on their side of the stream, but their penetration rolls are not so good. The Shermans are not destroyed, but immobilized and shocked (I forgot to apply the "brew up" rules to these guys and it might have made a difference- so much for being the rules writer !).
The cards favor the Americans, and they manage to recover enough to throw some Willie Pete (White Phosphorous) on the Tiger, causing him to button up and partially blinding it. They also manage to get their other Shermans across the river and heading south of the hill thanks to a generous Initiative Card pull.
The German reaction is sluggish (they didn't get much reaction time) and the US response has been top notch (The WP vs the Tiger is a great move and something with the American preponderance in that area should use a LOT). The Pz IV vacates the hill and retreats toward the Tiger, while the Tiger fails to do anything meaningful (they failed their MC to rally the shock) as it sorts itself out from the shock of being WPed with the turret open.
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| The Pz IV retreats while the Tiger tries to get its stuff together. |
The Tiger finally gets a shot off and kills one of the immobile Shermans near the stream. The Pz IV and Shermans moving through the village trade a few shots with it as it retreats north through the town. The Pz IV (and German) luck runs out (bad initiative cards again) and its destroyed scuttling away.
Meanwhile the Tiger finally puts paid to the other Sherman immobilized near the stream, but the Shermans approaching from the now-vacated town (oh for some hidden infantry with Panzerfausts !) manage to immobilize it in return. The crew panics and abandons it. The US has won.
All in all, an enjoyable little fracas that played out in about 10 game time minutes.
I figure I'd show an example of AFV cards I use for this game (they are laminated so I can note things on them such as Armor Leader, ammo loss, armor degradation due to extra damage, etc).
As noted I forgot to apply the brew up rules for the Shermans, and it might have made a difference, but the Germans never seemed to get the cards. Unrealistic ? Maybe. Fun ? Definitely......
