A Combat HQ battle report by Mike Leathem.
Last weekend we met at our local wargame club to run a medium-sized WW2 engagement based on the Italian campaign. We played with 15mm figures and the game was a fictional attack by American forces on German and Italian troops holding two small towns.
We used a ruleset new to most of the players called Combat HQ which those of us who have played before, are really enjoying and see a lot of potential for the future. In these rules a base represents an infantry or armoured platoon.
The forces were similar in strength both having in the region of 2600 points. We had 5 players, 2 German and 3 American. We divided each side into two battle groups with 2 players sharing one of them.
US Troops begin their attack by cresting the hill and getting ambushed by a PAK 40 in the town.
US troops recon the town. As soon as they realise its Italians that are defending it they will be in there like a shot:)
Both sides kept half of their forces off table as reserves at the start. This would later allow them to bring on these forces with triple moves allowing them to quickly deploy where needed.
The battle began with the US advancing cautiously with a number of Stuarts to recon the enemy area. Their recon efforts were largely unfruitful as well directed mortar fire forced the Stuarts to retreat into cover. As the attack built the US armour crested the hills in front of the one of the towns only to be met with ambush fire from 2 previously hidden PAK 40s.
A Stug III puts on the breaks as US infantry open fire.
Two Stug IIIs were sent to engage but the US infantry taking up an advance position on the edge of a wood soon sent them scurrying back to the town for safety.
On the other flank 3 Sherman platoons and 7 infantry platoons formed up for their attack on the other village. Unfortunately they were hit by a well directed German 105mm artillery battery from off table. Their close proximity to each other made the barrage so much more effective and most of the infantry were sent backwards looking for a safe place to hide and pull themselves together.
US infantry ready to attack under the cover of an ATG and M10.
US troops on the right flank started to pressure the German defences. A 57mm ATG and an M10 began firing on the defenders. At this point US reinforcements were pouring into the battle but it was the German reserves that first saw an opportunity to follow up the success of their artillery. Three Panzer 4 platoons were ordered up from reserve positions and ordered to attack. Unfortunately 2 of them got bogged down in some soft terrain and by the time they recovered, the opportunity had gone. There were lots of medium range engagements betweenPanzer 4s, Stugs, German ATGs and in total about 7 Shermans. As the Shermans got a little too close to the infantry at times they were met with Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck fire from the infantry and in truth were lucky to escape.
We ran out of time, as gamers always do, with the US about to launch a concentrated attack on both the village and town. The Germans were hard pressed particularly in the town which was defended by a company of Italian infantry.
All in all we had a great day. With so many players new to the rules we didn’t get as far as we would have liked and in hindsight it probably was quite a large battle for a FIRST game, but I think everyone is up to speed now and we are all looking forward to our next adventure into WW2 with Combat HQ.
