Having had a great time with Mike fighting at Villons Les Buissons, Lucius and I decided to leave the table up and refight it ourselves. Sadly we didn’t get photos of all of it, but I’ll try to tell the story through what we have. Note that if you’re reading this on email you won’t see the picture captions (not all photos do, mind). Our set-up was almost all the same as with Mike (here). The difference was that Lucius led with a recce vehicle, and my support options included a StuG. Lucius led with his recce car, and it fulfilled part of its purpose and found some of my forces. I deployed my StuG which eliminated the recce car immediately.
Brewed up Humber at the far end of the table. It would eventually set the adjacent fields and building alight. 
I liked the street scene from the last game so much I had to move the vehicles and see what it looked like.
Following the first shots of the game, the Canadians pushed up through the wheat field with a section of infantry. They moved quickly on a double phase so I was forced to respond. The terrible 2″ mortar (I really don’t like that thing) smoked out my StuG and my weren’t great so I put my first squad on and immediately laid down fire. The firefight was beginning to be one-sided but a Sherman from the Sherbrooke Fusiliers came on joined in. Despite that, and my troops being obscured by smoke I managed to break the section of infantry with my SFMG 42 joining in.
HE hits the manor behind 1st Squad 
2nd Squad leaves the building in a hurry 
Lucius rolled four 6s and not only did the turn end (collapsing the manor), a fire also started near the Humber (we figured the ammo cooked off and lit the structure). The fire would spread across the field for the rest of the game. As the Canadians pushed up into centre again as well as on my left near the church, I knew I had to get the Sherman gone. I moved my StuG up and into some cover.
The Sherman, meanwhile was advancing and tore into my MG 42 and put it out of action. Additional troops were coming up but the StuG was a danger so he traversed right but missed! As smoke poured down on my lines again, I managed to get a Panzerschrek team in – just in time for Lucius to play an interrupt and kill one member. I ended up missing anyway. The next phase the Canadians responded in kind and brought up a PIAT team facing the church. For once, though, they were not able to score a kill (the round bounced off) and my response finished them off.
Sherman engages German Armour 
AT team firing through smoke 
The PIAT team wasn’t so lucky this time.
My StuG advanced and after taking a Sherman’s 75mm into the glacis (and taking on some shock), it brewed up the tank. My 2nd squad advanced into line with the 1st squad and facing only one Canadian section ahead of us, I figured it was time to advance. The StuG would provide overwatch and my 3rd squad would advance on my left towards the burning building to protect the flank of my armour.
You can see the fire spreading across the fields. The knocked out Sherman burns as my 2nd squad moves past the burning manor house to make a bound up the middle 
Through the smoke! 1st and 2nd squads charge forward and the Canadian’s retire.
Lucius was in a hard spot now. 3 Section on my left facing the church was isolated and not likely to be able to be of much use. He had no AT left and my armour and infantry were massing in the centre. I got a double phase and moved through the smoke to find the Canadians had retired.
Having fought over this ground three times, I’ve learned a bit. In the first game, a poor selection of JOPs and the use of a FOO simply locked me down. Mike was simply too cautious to get fire superiority. In this battle, Lucius did rush a little rather than establishing a full base of fire and of critical importance to this game were the dice. His morale was shaken early and my AFV saved a lot and scored many hits, in contrast to the Sherman. The hard cover was super useful even for green troops, which allowed me to hold the centre and use my StuG to overwhelm the enemy. It was a close run thing and I’m sure if we play it again, we’ll see a slower and more deliberate base of fire and then the Germans will be running.