Battlegroup Overlord British vs Germans

Last week brought another chance to visit Stumpy Towers, this time for a game of Battlegroup Overlord.  Gus was attacking with a British Infantry force while Nathan defended with German Infantry. 
Nathans initial line of defence consisted of an Ost platoon spread over the frontline, some in trenches, supported by a HMG, 2 MG bunkers, a pair of Pak 40s and a nasty 88 on the hill.


Gus started of with most of his infantry platoon, his forward observer and 3 Churchills.  He piled most of this force, except the observer, on the right flank as it gave better cover from any long range 88 fire.

Nathan quickly called in some artillery fire and managed to get hold of some 210mm Nebelwerfers.  With much whooshing and banging they came in and managed to catch the infantry and Churchills.  Despite the large number of hits, Gus managed to save almost everything.  He's getting some damn good dice lately.

 To return the favour, Gus called in his own artillery, receiving a barrage of 8" shells in return.  These deviated a bit from the intended target (the 88), but did manage to rout both the Pak 40 gun crew and the German HQ.  A bad turn for the Germans to be sure.

 As the big guns blazed away, the initial British force was reinforced with the arrival of some Shermans and more infantry.

 Another artillery call by Gus brought in some even bigger guns, some US 240mm howitzers this time.  Again they managed to miss the 88, but they did some serious damage to the supporting German infantry and Stugs.  Somehow the Stug commander was destroyed by this barrage, further hindering the German command ability.

 By this point things had definitely swung in favour of the Brtish, as can be seen by comparing Nathans morale counter pile with Gus' in the next photo.

 See, hardly anything there!

The British kept advancing and pushed back the German defenders.

Somehow Gus failed to notice the 20mm Flak gun hiding in the corner, until he drove up to the hedge and the gun opened fire.  Although a Shermans armour is not exactly thick, it was too thick for the 20mm gun, whose shots all bounced off.  The Sherman then crossed the hedge and crushed the Flak gun.

 In a valiant, but ultimately failed, attempt to slow down the advance, Nathan sent sped forward with a recon unit in a Kubelwagen.  After shooting down the road at breakneck speed, the driver slammed on the brakes and the soldiers jumped out, readying their Panzerfaust.  The Churchills promptly opened fire withtheir mgs and pinned them, before doing the same again and routing them.

 Desperate now to cause some damage to the British, Nathan pushed his remaining 2 Stugs forward, but it was too little way too late.

 Even though the 88 managed to exact revenge for the crushing of the 20mm Flak gun, the Germans morale was now teetering.


A final volley of fire killed off the German HMG and infantry on the right flank, the resulting morale chits were enough to see the Germans break and run.  Losses were heavy for the Germans, but only moderate for the Allies.

It was a fun game to watch, the amazing number of 6's that Gus rolled for infantry saves had to be seen to be believed.  Battlegroup rules are pretty good and I will hopefully be playing them soon.

More later folks, as we are all off to watch World War Z tonight.  Keep rolling those dice.