Force Grubber versus 52nd Highland Div in an armoured engagement

Axis Forces:

Captain Bryan Talbot, leading Force Grubber

fought an armoured engagement against...

Allies Forces:

Private Ethan Talbot, leading 52nd Highland Div

Result: Axis victory!

The Black Baron
With the table set up the intended advance of the British Division commenced. Not even having chance for a cuppa tea the British drove straight into the ambush of the Tigers – with fur and teeth flying in all directions the following occurred.
Turn one: with all three Tigers in ambush (remembering the Whitmann special rule) the slaughter commenced. First on to the table was the Command Cromwell tank; the nearest Tiger allowed it to advance at a run so well within the point blank range then fired at it – the shell punched straight through the front armour of the British tank with the explosion lifting the turret straight off. The second Cromwell tank advance slightly more cautiously and fired, wildly missing the nearest Tiger – the Tiger rotated its turret and returned fire also easily killing the second Cromwell. The last Cromwell tank advanced but was checked by Whitmann whose first shot blew off one of its tracks and caused a turret jam, the second shot set hit and set the tank on fire, but amazingly the crew managed to extinguish the flames but were left with a completely immobilised tank. So at the end of turn one all three of the British tanks had been dealt with.
Turn two: the first of the Bren Carriers arrived and raced up the road. Whittman’s Tiger set to ambush waiting for more British tanks – shortly a Firefly arrived and was hit twice by Whittman and destroyed. Another British Cromwell arrived and moved forward and fired at Whittman but the shell seemed to unfortunately bounce off the thick armour of the Tiger. The nearest supporting Tiger fired and knocked out the advancing Cromwell. The last Firefly arrived on the table and advanced also firing wildly. The last Tiger then fired and immobilised the Firefly.
Turn three: the first Bren Carrier raced forwards and became temporarily stuck in the rubble obscuring the road. Another Bren Carrier arrived and advanced forwards. Whittman finished off the remaining Fire-fly tank leaving only the immobilised Cromwell on the table. The two supporting Tigers proceeded to eliminate the transports on the table.
Turn four: more Bren Carriers arrived and along with the existing ones were all destroyed by the Tigers by a combination of pinning them with the hull mounted MMG and destroyed with the main gun.
Turn five: called a halt to the game as the British player had no more tanks and no means of effectively scoring points as most of the exit routes were blocked by burning vehicle wrecks.
Conclusion: having three Tigers already on the table massively swings the potential for an Axis win, if maybe one Tiger started on the table with the ability for two more to arrive as the British tanks were arriving would have made the scenario more of a challenge. The ability of Whittmann’s to fire twice from an ambush effectively doubles the offensive capability on the table thereby making it as if 4 Tigers were present. So even from turn one the British player is massively disadvantaged as they can only bring their armour on one at a time in the first turn, so allowing the Axis player to concentrate fire on single units.

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