PzB Normandy tournament for beginners

[Dog Soldier]

Stejones82 and Chris Merchant,

Thank you for your comments.  I am sure the design team is checking in to read them!  Even though every scenario in each game in the series will be different, there are common threads that will emerge over time allowing for better scenario design.  I think those who played a lot of the Squad Battles series can see that evolution in those games.

I did not know if this first scenario would be balanced or not.  I choose it for the range of forces.  Artillery, infantry and armor and some ATG.  This gives players a good range of units to use.  Learning to coordinate the three major types and how to use ATG to cover your flanks while the infantry and armor advance were the lessons I was going for in this first round.  Both sides could do just that, though with different trade offs.
The Germans have good tanks with the Panthers.  The close range of the fight could nullify that advantage.  The PzGr are B morale to the Commonwealth C morale infantry.  The PzGr are well armed with S/A 11 versus the Commonwealth S/A of 6.  Each PzGr company is backed up by a MG platoon.
As was noted, the Allied player does not want the PzGr to close and assault.  The PzGr assault with a whopping 16 to the Commonwealth 10 assault factors.  That is a 60% advantage.

What does the Commonwealth player do?  Moving first he can occupy the VP location and begin fortifying it. The VP location is a village, so he can set a company of infantry to digging in, while setting the same company to never fire in the defensive fire phase.  That should protect them from getting spotted and shot at while preparing the village defense of Brettevillette.  Set up the other companies to form a screen to keep the PzGR away from your tanks and the VP location.  No need to break down into platoons and form a continuous line.  Just pick some good cover and get there before the Germans can spot you moving into the positions. The nice thing about PzB is that you can cover ground with overlapping defensive fire to create kill zones using the ranges of your units.  Set them to fire only at close range.  When a German unit walks into the zone it will get pounded by the unlimited defensive fire.

The big factor for the Allied player is the artillery and the four smoke rounds.  The artillery should pound any PzGr advancing on the village VP location.  Really let them have it and keep hitting them every turn.  Concentrate on one unit then the next if the Germans are in companies.  If they spread out as platoons pick on a single platoon to raise its fatigue then pic on the next one.  If the MG units expose them themselves to artillery fire, take them out first.  The Allied tanks can deal real punishment on the PzGr if they try to close on Brettevilette.  The trick is to avoid the Panthers shooting up your Sherman IIs and other armor.  Like the infantry, do not expose your self unless you have a devastating shot.  Taking long range (more than three hexes) shots at the Panthers is just asking for dead Allied armor.

Now here is where those four smoke barrages come in.  When the Panthers settle on a place to shoot from and the Allies want to use their tanks to deal with the PzGr, place a smoke round where it will block the Panthers from shooting at your tanks.  Let the PzGr get it that turn from both the artillery and the Shermans.  That should stop them.  Or at least bleed them bad enough your infantry screen can deal with the surviving PzGr.

The Allied tank destroyer are nothing to sneeze at either.  Get them into positions where they can move one hex and fire them retreat back out of German LOS.  Over time they will fatigue the Panthers to C morale and inflict some casualties on the Panthers in the process.  At yellow fatigue the Panthers will then begin to take more losses.  If the Panthers choose to hide out of LOS during the Allied turn, then the threat of the tanks destroyers has reduced the effectiveness of the Panthers anyway!  They will only get one or two shots per turn instead of three.  At least they are not in the fight during the Allied turn, meaning you have some freedom to re-position your Shermans if you choose without the Panthers dominating the field.

These are just a few thought I had on how the Allied player can achieve a victory.  Maybe I should try this scenario with some of you as the Germans to see how it works out.

Anyone else can post about lessons learned in this first round. I would like to hear from you!

Dog Soldier