Operation Newmarket - Conclusion

We had our final playing session of Operation Newmarket last week and wound up the game after another couple of turns. In the end we decided it was a marginal victory for the Germans although I still felt there was a chance that Dave could have won if we had played on. This is how it went:

 German tanks blocking the British line of advance through St Arnault.

Dave continued to throw his tanks forward into the heart of St Arnault but he had only Cromwells and lightly armoured Stuarts to pit against my King Tiger and its supporting Panzer IV’s. The British Churchill tanks were lumbering along in the rear, too far behind to make any impact on the action. Eventually, although they took out a Stug III and my anti-tank gun, Dave’s tanks failed to make any headway

British tanks fire their 'pea-shooters' against the side of my King Tiger - to no avail.

 A German Stug burns - knocked out by a Stuart tank!

Meanwhile at Orion Bridge the British paratroopers were having more success. A PIAT team crept up on the pillbox and a lucky shot flew through one of the gun slits eliminating the occupants. A further shot knocked out the German armoured car on the bridge itself leaving the east end of the structure in Allied hands.

 The para's take out my pillbox at the bridge.

Dave’s main column was making good progress along the rue St Arnault and the Commandos had by now taken the pillbox on Hill 136. It’s possible that this force still had enough clout to force its way through to one of the town centre VP locations. However at the end of play the Germans were still firmly in control of the town.

 Dave's coulmn nearing the out-skirts of the town - too late!

This game had always been intended as an exercise to try out the rules and the forces proved to be unbalanced which meant that Dave had a difficult task on his hands. The rules were originally devised by me for skirmish level games and although the armour rules work well, those for the infantry are just a bit too fiddly for a game of this size. We also felt that if the armies are to get an outing again the figures will have to be rebased in multiples – our eyes just aren’t up to the job of working out what weapons each carries!

The 1/300th armies are still under-going their refit so next we may try a stab at a 15mm ACW game.