Operation Newmarket – turns 6-8

We finally got back in the garage this week after the festive break and resumed hostilities. I had taken advantage of the lull in the action to do some rule tweaking (mostly to the advantage of the Germans it has to be said) as one of the reasons for playing this game was to help transform the rule set from a solo system to a proper two player one.

 The British armour enters Hameau Choisy...

Following his success in knocking out the Panther, Dave’s second armoured column pushed on quickly into Hameau Choisy. Here one of my lurking Panzerfaust teams emerged from the church and succeeded in blowing the turret off a Firefly nicely blocking the road to the following tanks.

...and soon lose a Firefly to my Panzerfaust team!

Dave responded by ordering his two Stuart tanks to blast the Germans from the steps of the church whilst re-routeing his remaining tanks to the west of the village. His armour had orders to press on fast towards Saint Arnault to relieve the pressure on his beleaguered paratroopers.

Cromwell tanks bypass Hameau Choisy by moving to the west of the church.

 The Cromwells push on rapidly towards the outskirts of Saint Arnault.

Over at Ferme de la Blanc the British advance had stalled somewhat whilst Dave tried to destroy the anti-tank gun that covered his line of advance along rue St Arnault. The British infantry moved up to deal with the threat but soon came under fire from the pillbox on Hill 136. Luckily for him Dave’s Commandos were just arriving in position to the rear of the pillbox after moving up from the LZ.

"Hande hoch Fritz!"

Meanwhile in the centre of the battlefield the Shermans were trying to get to grips with two more of my Panthers. As the British armour piercing rounds satisfyingly bounced off the front of my tanks (good rules these) they in turn brewed up two of the Shermans. However Dave was rather sneakily moving his remaining Firefly around to the Panther’s rear although in the end it wasn’t this (or a rather unspectacular airstrike) that took out the tank but a lucky shot from a regular Sherman. My remaining tanks and infantry now pulled back towards Saint Arnault.

Two Sherman tanks brew up in the field whilst a third one gets off a shot...

...that finally takes out my Panther on the road.

My King Tiger moves into Saint Arnault to help bolster the defences.

 Whilst an anti-tank gun (in building 11) prepares to fire on the advancing Cromwell tanks.

Back at the bridge the paratroopers were in a tight spot pinned down in front of the pillbox and with two Tiger tanks between them and the town. The Tigers soon knocked out the airborne anti-tank guns and then started to leisurely bombard the infantry. If Dave’s tanks don’t get to them soon it may be all over for the airborne boys!

The paratroopers are losing a lot of casualties to machine gun fire from the pillbox and armoured car on the bridge.

 Meanwhile the Tigers are making short work of the British 6pdr anti-tank guns.

The situation at the end of the third session of play - turn 8.