Saturday I made the trip up to Albuquerque for an eight man Late War event and decided to bring a variation of the Fallschirmjäger list I took to Kublacon last year. I figured two platoons of FV Fallschimjägers backed by two platoons of Marders would do pretty well again. Here's the list I brought:
In the first round I was matched up against Derrick and his Gurkha Rifle Company and I'd be attacking him in Hold the Line on a pretty barren desert table.
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| There would be a lot of open table between me and the objectives and I figured my best chance would be to take the forward one before his reserves began to arrive. He had a single Rifle Platoon on the forward objective, a 25 Pounder Battery near the rear objective (right behind the large mosque), and a 2 Pounder ATG Platoon in ambush. |
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| I used the large hill for as much cover as I could get before trying for a daring assault. He was unable to deploy his ambush platoon as far forward as he wished but they still posed a decent threat, high rate of fire and enough AT to kill my Marders. |
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| My second FJ platoon would try to make a deversionary attack on the mosque but receive a hail of fire from the 2 Pounders, pinning them for what would be a decisive turn. |
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| My main attack would fail miserably, the Nebelwerfers would miss the smoke barrage, and 7 out of eight shots of defensive fire would not only prevent the assault but kill six stands... |
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| With no chance at the forward objective my second platoon would assault the mosque, killing the 25 Pounder command teams, staff team, and one gun and contest the objective. The 25 Pounders would break and run. |
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| Unfortunately, the turn my fearless troops wouldn't unpin gave Derrick's reserves the tuen they needed to move in and contest. My FJ platoon would be destroyed leaving only a handful of Marders to make the fight for the objective. |
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| Surprisingly, the Marders not only killed a platoon of 76mm Shermans but a Gurkha Platoon too. With one Marder II left near the objective one of the 2 Pounders snuck in through the gate on the other side and took it out, causing my now HQ -less company to break. |
Derrick would lose three platoons while I lost five (both FJs, both Marders, and the mortars) giving me a 3-4 loss. Tough game and closer than I thought it would be towards the end!
In the second round I would play Ryan, a pretty new player who was running the US Task Force Alpha list. I knew it could be pretty tough to face but also knew it was hard to run. The mission would be Hasty Attack and I would be defending.
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| I deployed both of my FJ platoons, my Nebelwerers, and the Marder IIs but Ryan's aircraft knocked two of them out before my first turn! He started with a six-strong battery of M7 Priests, Pioneers, and a Hellcat Platoon on the board. |
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| My Marder IIIs arrived pretty early on and kept his Pioneers from moving forward for a bit. |
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| Ryan's artillery would knock one out and the others would fall back since the second Hellcat Platoon was approaching. |
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| Ryan made his push on the other side, which initially was lightly defended. I was able to shift my two remaining Marder IIs to engage the Armored Recon and Hellcat Security Section. |
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| With only a single bailed out vehicle from the Security Section left, my 2iC would make a solo assault, destroying it and preventing the Hellcats from being placed on the board since they were too far away from the terrain. Time would be called soon after. |
I would win this round 5-2, losing the Marder IIIs to a combination of Hellcats, artillery, and the 2iC's M8 armored car, but I had two platoons (2cm FlaK and LG40s) down to their command team and making a few Sole Survior checks.
My final match was against Vince and his Schwere Panzerkompanie in a Free For All.
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Only got one picture from this battle as my phone died, but this is the half of the board that mattered. The other half consisted of rubble that slowed movement to 8" and really prevented the Marders from doing much. Vince also had a pair of Möbelwagens keeping my infantry at bay. I hada few chances to bag a Königstiger, but a failed Tank Terror (1 and a 2) and a failed Pin check ((1 and a 2) really hurt. My FJs would make it across to the objective, but his tanks all had Schnell and they weren't slowed down at all.
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Vince would win this one pretty convincingly, I managed to kill his 1iC tank and Motorcycle Scouts, but he would take my objective. 2-5 loss after a long day of gaming.
The Marders were a total let-down, and my Fearless troops were pretty disappointing all day. A platoon of StuGs instead of the Marders would've made a world of difference. I still wound up in third place due to soft scores and took home $10 in store credit and had fun in all three games. Thanks to all three of my opponents!
