FOW Totalwar: Market Garden @ the Cavs

Adam was there as a non-combatant and can provide more of a global overview than I can. Pooch and Jason were down the end where Allied armour was allegedly trying to break through and must have been doing something right so hopefully they can fill in the gaps there on their own blogs too.

All quiet on the Oosterbeek

All that action took place up that long table in the pic above - looks peaceful right now, doesn't it? Dave D was my fellow German and was tasked with taking Arnhem from Lionel (Colonel Frost)'s British Paras. They faced off in the main city to the 'left' of these pics. All around the board, Josh (Lionel's Son - and did he ever make his old man suffer) commanded Panzer reserves that would arrive at random locations. Meanwhile 1200pts of Sperbervande Harzer (me as Oberst Gerhard) had the job of holding the line outside Arnhem and preventing twice my points in Allied Paras from joining the fun and reinforcing the bridge.

Two companies of Paras vs one company of blocking troops.

 Here you can see the defensive line. There is a row of houses to the right of the street. The pair of houses that run next to the road at the top of the pic contain Sperr Pioneers, which I was hoping could assist my fellow countrymen in Arnhem, once I quickly saw off all those Paras. Then that line of two story buildings running down toward the bottom of the pic on the right-hand side of that road contained two Sperr platoons including some observers for supporting 75mm IGs and 8cm mortars and four integral HMGs. Stephen S's Paras are deployed bottom right of pic and Jeff L's Paras have top right. They both had 6pdrs and Jeff was smart enough to bring a para gun battery, which was essential to any successful attack on defended buildings. Stephen had ATGs and HMGs but no arty and it seriously, seriously, hurt him. Keeping in the spirit of the battle, I had only a mortar platoon and a pair of IGs but these wrecked havoc on the attackers and I was quickly able to take out the Para ATGs in both forces, all except for one of Jeff's - which I never killed but always remained pinned.

Perhaps the orderly preparations from some planned, future, attack?

 After the first couple of rounds I went to take this pic. It was rumoured that Allied armour was moving to join the fun at Arnhem but the German commanders between me an them seemed pretty blase. So I thought I'd check to make sure the 'alleged' tanks were actually there. However, it looked like I wasn't likely to have to cover another flank anytime soon!

Damn, didn't put HMGs to cover that approach.

 After a few rounds unsuccessfully trying to force my right flank (bottom of pic) Stephen's Paras are pinned down. However, Jeff's troops have decided to use the concealment provided by trees near the river and move in on the Sperr Pioneers holding that end of the line. So I sent in my Panzer reserves. Not too close though! There was a railway line there and that really camped the movement of the Panzers, since throwing a track near numerous platoons of Paras was a good way to lose scarce tanks.  Jeff was not perturbed though and kept his platoons advancing. My mortars could not reach the troops at the river edge and concealment and infantry saves kept them fairly survivable. I also had to devote fire to reducing Stephen's force lest I be caught in a pincer. This meant that a number of Jeff's platoons were almost in position to attack me. Belatedly, Stephen (with a little encouragement) decided to leave a token force to tie some of my troops down and then move back to reinforce Jeff. Despite numerous entreaties from Stephen, Jeff kept all his arty support to himself and used smoke to restrict my ability to use my tanks and HMGs against his advancing troops.

 At that point, one of the troops taking a leak out the back of the defensive line noticed something scarcely believable - some of Colonel Frost's paras had snuck out of Arnhem, marched all the way to the Oosterbeek, and were now preparing charges so as to blow a hole in the wall and assault my Sperr Pioneers. So a battle on multiple fronts now unfolded, with my forces having to squeeze into a narrow space to keep out of reach of too many para assaults. Luckily the Allied air could only strike within 6' of the advancing Allied armour... and they were miles away, right? Hang on, that trail of smoking columns seemed to be getting closer - had the Fallschirmjager run out of Panzerfausts  and the Reluctant and not very well trained Luftwaffe infantry been rolled over?

Hells Highway

Gott in Himmel, one more turn and they would be able to target my precious armour and that also meant that I needed to do more to push the Paras back and secure the river so that I could prevent the newly arriving mobile forces taking the Bridge. So the Sperr platoons left their cosy holes and a number of rounds of interlinked independent team coordinated shenanigans ensued around the t-junction in the middle of the pic (below). At one stage, I was using Panzer IVs to assault buildings occupied by paras, and only a rare mistake by Jeff about where to lay to lay the smoke saved me from losing the buildings held by the Sperr pioneers.

We are about to meet by the riverside. 

At the end of it all though, Sperrbervande Harzer prevailed and my Panzers were finally rolling up to join the Pioneers in filling the river-banks with lead. At that point, the lead recon elements of the Allied armoured columns appeared in view. Was it all too late?

Frost's last stand

No, Dave D's SS (with a couple of armoured platoons supplied by Josh's reserves) had broken the rest of Lionel's (Col Frosts) forces and the Arnhem Bridge was safely in German hands.

That was the most fun I've had playing FOW in ages. The game is much better within scenario parameters like that and it was great to spend the day at the club with all the guys around one big table.

Much fun was had by all.

 Cheers for making it happen, Simon.