Battle for Alte Brat

[mikeh]

The village of Alte Brat was a sleepy burg until being thrust into the front lines during the American advance. Alte Brat had been battered pretty good by the time Lt Hanley and Sgt Saunders arrived to take the town.

At this moment in it's history Alte Brat is known by both sides for one thing and that is fuel, a large part of Army Group B's fuel is being stored here. At this point both sides need it as fuel has not caught back up to Patton's 3rd Army since Ike gave the lions share to Montgomery for Market Garden.

[mikeh]

Lt Hanley decides to split up his squad, with the support of a Sherman he will attack the north side of Alte Brat.

[mikeh]

Sgt Saunders is tasked with hitting the south side of town, also with the assistance of a Sherman.

[mikeh]

Field Marshall Walter Model knows the fuel situation as well as his counter part Patton. With those thoughts in mind Model has been doing his best to scratch together a few more troops for the small town. The town originally had not much in the way of troops, mainly just some Volksturm and HJ with a good supply of Panzerfaust. Now elements of the 272 Volksgrenadier Division enter town along with a Mountain Trooper taken off a convalescent train. An excellent sniper Hoffman sets up in the ruins of a bombed out building. The CO is Hauptman Schneider, himself a very capable officer who was wounded while trying to get out of Falaise before the pocket closed.

This is the setup for the Battle of Alte Brat.

[mikeh]

Gebirgsjager (Mountain Trooper) Hoffman in his perch.

[mikeh]

The prize.

[mikeh]

Move out! Hanley and Saunders move their men out using the Sherman's as cover.

[mikeh]

German with Panzerfaust uses cover to move forward towards a small woods.

[mikeh]

The draw for initiative goes to the Americans, the draw for action points is a 2 of diamonds. This just enough for the Sherman to move out from behind cover and fire it's hull MG at the man running with the Panzerfaust. Tank MG's fire 3 times, both sides flip a card. The German card is a King of diamonds, the only thing that can beat this is another king of either spades or hearts. (Bridge Rules) or if the American would have drawn the king of diamonds from his deck BOTH sides redraw a card with highest card winning. None of these scenario's worked out for the American Sherman and the German is unharmed.

BTW The Sherman's are Corgi Brand and very nice.

[mikeh]

The German side now draws an 8 of Spades. So, even though the German with the Panzerfaust has LOS on the Sherman, the Sherman is beyond the range of the Panzerfaust 18 inch maximum and the soldier just runs into the woods for cover.

[mikeh]

Ok, this guy was taken down by the other Sherman's MG on the first shot, the Sherman still could fire 2 more times to make his 3 shots but as there are no other enemy in his LOS they are lost.

Now for the casualty, we will not know if KIA or just suppressed until a Joker is turned at which time one card will be drawn, this is the easy part-Red you're dead black card he is back in the fight. So you know when the Joker appeared a 7 of hearts was drawn so the defender is considered KIA and has been removed from play.

[mikeh]

Jul 8, 2022 14:40:06 GMT -5 mikeh said:

Good spot to try and explain the Morale Check. Each side is assigned a number for the scenario being played, in this case 5 for the Americans and 4 for the Germans these numbers signify the morale of the army in play.

Next you have motivation numbers assigned to two pieces on each side. Motivation #'s

Lt Hanley 3
Sgt Saunders 2
Hpt Schneider 2
Gef. Hoffman 1

Immediately after a joker is drawn and before the casualty check each side will draw a card for itself and add it's morale number to that example, Americans draw a 5 of clubs (suit doesn't matter) To the #5 that was drawn you will add the morale number, in the case of the Americans it's 5 so 5+5=10. If you have more KIA then 10 the army "breaks" and leaves the field.

Now here is where the motivation part comes in. Lt Hanley has 3 Motivation Points this means after the first card is drawn if it breaks the army by being higher than the 10 Hanley uses his 3 MP's to draw up to 3 more cards to try and get a lower number then 10, if he draws 9 or less his army stays on the field and remains unbroken. Should Hanley become KIA and removed from play Saunders would use his MP's in this case 2 and would draw 2 cards to try and beat the break.If Saunders is KIA then you just go with the card drawn.

For the turn that just ended when the Joker was drawn you do not count the your figures that are on the ground towards your total casualties, this is done after the Morale Check portion of the end phase.

Well, hope I explained that right and you could follow it.

[mikeh]

Condor 2 Germans 0

[mikeh]

The Sherman's moved up after the sniper broke cover to take a shot (miss) at Hanley, both Sherman's fire at Hoffman but he somehow manages to survive.

Now both Sherman's are in Panzerfaust range but the action card is an ace or 1, he could break cover also but would not have the point needed to fire, so he stays in cover.

[mikeh]

Some good action going on this evening. Americans 0 KIA German 4 plus 1 down. German fire has been very poor at targets, only 2 glancing blows from Panzerfaust not one casualty from rifle fire.

The Germans have now given up the outer road of the town and have fallen back. Time for the American infantry to go in and clean it up. The Sherman's will stand back in support should needed. No need at the moment to make them easy targets for Panzerfaust in the close quarters of the town. So the infantry will need to go in and fight their way past a well dug in enemy to capture the fuel dump.

Germans have lost 3 privates and Gef. Hoffman fell. That just leaves Hauptman Schneider left with Motivation Points to use during morale checks and casualties are rising.