WW2 Wargame

       A few nights ago I was randomly going through some of my collection of wargaming parts. I came across a Micro Machine truck that I had started painting but never finished. I pulled out some paint and finished painting. If you don't know about Micro Machines, they were miniature toy vehicles that were sold in toy stores. Galoob company made military vehicles that were actually very good miniatures. However, most of them were painted non military colors.  I have a pretty good collection of Micro Machines, but haven't used them as much as I wanted to. That evening I painted several of them with the goal of using them in a game. The next day I saw a posting at Battle Game of the Month blog. It used Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargame scenario; Unfortunate Oversight. I have fought this scenario twice before. I know it pretty well by now. Instead of rolling for the armies, I just gave both sides one tank unit, one artillery unit, and four infantry units.  For rules I used Bob  Cordery's Memoir of Modern Battle.  In the scenario description the blue army moves first. For this game I was drawing colored tiles for movement. The blue army automatically got to move one unit first, then I drew for who would move next.

The German units are to hold the bridge at the town as long as possible; it is the last line of retreat and must be held. The British army wants to seize the hill behind the German line. It is an ideal observation post for German artillery spotters. The British engineers have managed to drop a bridge at night without the Germans realizing it. The British then send a task force to carry out the mission.  First thing in the morning the Germans spot the British column moving down river. Each of the trucks carry an infantry unit.

The Germans realize that the British have deployed a bridge downstream. The British have sent one infantry unit to try to distract the Germans, with little success (I wash't going to fall for that a third time!). The British artillery has managed to hit the German artillery unit.

The next move the British artillery finish off the German artillery. Originally I was going to position the German artillery on the hill. However, I decided to try to stop the British tank unit with overwhelming tank and artillery fire.

The panzer unit manages to push the British armor back, but suffers a hit itself.  As the hexes are too small to fit 3 Micro Machines tanks on, I put two infantry figures with the tank units. As the tank units took hits, I removed one of the infantry figures. As can be seen, the British Priest artillery unit has a gunner with a shell next to the gun. If the Priest takes a hit, this gunner would be removed first.

The last British infantry unit crosses the bridge.

This shot shows the end of a move.  The Germans have launched an attack to try to crush the bridgehead. They force one infantry unit back, but the German unit is caught in a crossfire and is eliminated.  The panzer unit is also eliminated. At the other bridge, the British infantry firing across the river has wiped out the German resistance in that sector.

The British infantry now cross the bridge; they will be coming up behind the German defenses.

The remaining Germans refuse to give up (at this point the Germans have lost 4 out of 6 units and have lost the game. However, I wanted to continue playing; no matter the results I considered the game officially over at this point). One German unit is forced back but immediately counter attacks. The other German unit on the hill uses a panzerfaust and hits the tank unit.

The British pushes back one German unit, which then falls back to the hill to join in the defense. The British tank unit pushes the Germans back and advances onto the hill. The Germans counterattack. They knock out the last tank and inflict 50% casualties on one of the infantry units.

The British commander now orders the Priest unit up. Instead of wasting his infantry in a costly assault, he will blast the Germans off the hill.

At this point the German commander realizes the battle is lost and saves what's left of his command.