My 28mm Americans (shown first here), finally got their chance to get on the table recently. In the tradition of newly painted miniatures everywhere they didn’t win, but it was nice to get another game in as the weather cools down and gaming becomes more regular. While my platoon is based and built on a typical rifle platoon, in this case I decided to use an armored rifle platoon – which is huge and packs a lot of firepower with an integral MG squad as well as a mortar. My support options were a Sherman M4, a sniper, and a medic. Lucius fielded a Panzer Grenadier Platoon with two minefields, an FJ squad, and a pre-game barrage.

Our thrown-together scenario was in the early days of June ’44, with a farmhouse near a crossroads causing problems. The Americans were to clear the farm near the crossroads. The Germans had to hold on. Sadly I forgot to bring out the wire fences I normally use to mark minefields so in some pictures you’ll see some hedges defining the mines placed right near the farmhouse.

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The pre-game barrage disrupted my deployment but I got some troops on my right and the first German squad answered. I brought my integral mortar on, and got into a good firefight. The armored platoon has no teams in the squads, but the 12 man squad meant that there was a fair bit of firepower and depth as well – a lot of staying power really.

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My MG squad (with one .30 cal played by it’s bigger better known brother) came on to put pressure on the left while the firefight developed. Then a Panzerschreck team appeared in the centre!

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The Panzerschrek missed. Repeatedly. The team was killed by the Sherman, which lowered the German morale. FJs appeared on my left and end up pouring a tonne of fire into my MG squad who were only in light cover. My Junior Leader was wounded and then killed before I could get my medic on to help. The one remaining MG in my squad fell back as I killed their Junior Leader in response, which again lowered German morale even as mine dropped as well.

I brought my Pl Sgt on my right to try to keep my right in the game and also put my sniper on, who sadly did very little the entire game. My armour was more useful. I managed to get my Sherman up into the fight and to destroy the German squad across the field which dropped German morale down. Somehow my Sherman either shrugged off or was missed both the FJ and regular Grenadier squad firing their Panzerfausts throughout all of this. Sadly my mortar team ran out of ammo after only 2 rounds down range. Again. I brought my Platoon Commander on to try to keep the MGs on my left. I had a full squad and an HQ squad left to bring on, but I wanted as much support as I could. MG 42s appeared in the farmhouse upper windows, so the 2nd last German squad was now in play.

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As the Sherman moved up to engage the FJs, the last German squad appeared with them on my left, and fired yet another Panzerfaust. This hit and destroyed the tank. My morale was now hovering around 4 and I was losing options. The firefight against the MG42s wasn’t going well. I attempted to win the firefight and push up into the field but after getting over the wall and killing about half the Germans in the house I simply had to pull back over the hedge – my morale couldn’t take much more.

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Sensing that the battle was now in the balance, the third German squad appeared on my left and pushed up the road.

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My platoon commander had finishing rallying off the shock on the remains of the MG squad and they fired at the advancing Germans but the return fire wiped out the remaining men and that was it. My morale crashed to zero and the Americans withdrew.

It was a good, fast, fun game. Very different in 28mm from 15mm. The game felt a bit more constrained but it was good fun!