BATREP FOW 1000pts FFA Club league game

My wife was away being awarded 'Employee of the Year', so we moved the 'Cavs' (our club) to my place and played a 1000pt League match on my table. Chris had been along the first week of League games, but did not play, so did not set his own list until he saw that I had a Tiger + Brumms, Jason had two Panthers and Andy was going with the Wiking Panthers! What did Chris take? Yes, he took a Tiger II.

Our lists for this game were both 1000pt Grenadierkompanies, both of them were made up out of a mix of stuff we both owned and loaned to each other. Chris borrowed my mortars and Paks, I borrowed his Brumms.

I had HQ (PFs) + 2 Gren Plt (PKs), 3x Brumms, Tiger I, 3x Panzerwerfer w loaders. Chris had HQ (PFs) with 2 mortars + 2 Gren Plt (PFs), Looted T-34/85, 2x Pak 40, Tiger II.

We played FFA, since Jason and Adam had played that one and I reckoned that was the best way to ensure we would remain able to play different people at different missions, as per Stephen S' requirements, as the rounds went on. Below is the table, I am at the bottom, woods are diff going, ground is cross-country, the bits of felt (sorry, on my to-do list) are scrub (area for inf, concealing for vehicles) the two hills are of course diff going. The water features in the middle are swamps, there are 'balka', which we played as dif going sides, hiding infantry height models and concealing tanks. That ugly feature in the middle is a bit of mdf and some cheap shop cottages, which I will one-day (again, to-do list) turn into actual FOW terrain. That counted as one of our area-terrain villages (houses count as houses, easy going for rest, the template counts as area terrain). You could shoot from hill-top to hill-top, but the 'village' blocked LOS even from up on a hill. I've tagged the actual deployments and obj placement in the picture. Chris got to put hi King Tiger down last. He was salivating so much at the prospect of it running rampant that he forgot to put his 2iC over with the HQ mortars when we deployed ITs. SO we had one heavily loaded side of the board, and other where skeleton forces faced off. If Chris had had the 2iC there (he put the mortars BEHIND the scrub, where their LOS to my guys was blocked), he could have rolled up the Paks and carried mortars up with his inf platoon and taken my weak OBJ, while the rest of my guys were occupied doing the combined arms thing on the Tiger II.

His Tiger gets Ra[id fire, but I get the good one -rerolled hits, my favourite.

Chris wins the roll to go first. One of my Panzerwerfers die. He pushes inf into the town and wood. I respond by pushing forward as well. One Brumm bogs in the wood though and my approach with them is constrained by the Swamps, which Chris has to remind me of about a thousand times, sorry Chris! I also push the Tiger I up and mg some infantry, killing a stand. My Grenadiers lag behind the Tiger, which has taken point so as to keep the woods between it and Chris' overloaded KT. In his second turn, Chris responded by having a crack at me with an infantry assault, but couldn't avoid pulling in the two Brumms and it was pinned down, with casualties. He is still unable to draw a bead on my armour with his Tiger II. I bring inf and the Tiger (rerolls) up to mg his boys in the woods while the Brumms (the guy at the back is still bogged) sweep into their natural habitat and kill a couple of guys in there with more mg fire.
His response is to pull the shattered remnants (circled in Green) back to the edge of the wood and he brings his own King Tiger Foward to stop me being too cheeky with my own Tiger (wide tracks) in the wood. The out come of all of this in turn 3 is that I get all of his infantry, the T-34/85 and the lone-ranger CiC, by driving my Tiger I back, and around the corner of the wood and hosing him down with my rerolled mgs. While all the 'grownups' are occupied on that flank, Chris had decided to reinforce it with infantry from the other, since I wasn't exactly threatening it. However, since all the big boys were gainfully occupied, I had my Brumms continue through the 'village' and eventually mg the lead elements of that Grenadier platoon. I then 'intelligently' assault the Tiger II with my own infantry, yes, genius.
As a result of my 'genius', in Turn 4, Chris has been gifted stationary ROF (Rapid Fire!) against my Tiger I - since he just broke off from the assault and effectively got a free move after I had already moved my own tank.

It dies. However, he now has a lone Tiger II to protect that OBJ from an almost full strength Grenadier platoon, with both the CiC and 2iC lugging their panzerfausts. I am not going to throw them in front of his now though. Now that the Tiger II is tied down, I can move to phase 2 and use the Brumms to roll the other flank.

I bide my time with the Grenadiers in turn 4, pushing my Brummbars back through the 'village', where they have shot up a couple of Chris' infantry teams and now destroy a Pak 40 in the flank of the wood. In turn 5, Chris moves the Tiger around to sort them out, before I roll over that other objective with combined armour and infantry... but of course my own Grenadiers were there, waiting for their chance. To all the advocates of "it's a game of luck" - I say this: Grenadiers have a 1/4 chance of failing to assault that Tiger II. In my book, that is a dice roll you plan to fail. And fail it I did - much to Chris' relief. Two Panzerfausts would have been having a crack at the Tiger II before it got to break off!
In turn 6, Chris has had a crack at my advancing boys on the right flank with his own Grenadiers (hoping to jump them before the Brumms team up and they are unstoppable). However, I beat off the attack, though inflict only light casualties. However, he is losing stands over there faster than me.
So by turn 7 it is effectively a 'done deal'. Chris is not willing to chase my infantry hiding in the wood with his overloaded Tiger II and I have hung them back strung out so that they can pounce on him if he tries to double around either side. So that flank is now stalemated, an attrited platoon ties down a Tiger II!

On the right flank, then my boys advance, shooting at his infantry, while the Brumbars manage to get in range to join in. Between them, Chris' defenders are battered and pinned down, and cannot withstand the following assault.

Good game Chris. Extra sportsman points for bringing the beers!