Wargames Weekend: Marche Machineguns

On the Sunday we kicked off with the first scenario from Face of Battle: Act with Daring, the Invasion of France scenario book.  Once again this had been converted to work with Nuts! and also to provide forces which matched the figures and vehicles available!  In this case the figures were 28mm French from Crusader Miniatures and Germans from Wargames Foundry.

Once again I took the Germans with Lenin commanding the French.  The French objective was to take the farm buildings and hold up my advance as long as possible before withdrawing without taking too many casualties.

Initially the French seized and held the initiative, advancing forward and deploying their two light machine guns in positions which were to make my life pretty difficult.  I attempted to forestall the French advance by rushing my motorbike team with their MG34 forward but they were almost immediately pinned down by one of the French LMGs.

I decided to switch my main advance to the other flank but my second MG34 team got caught in the open moving across the road and that plan stalled.  That allowed the French to occupy the farmhouse.

I tried to push some of my riflemen forward to harass one of the French LMG teams but to no avail.  At this point my advance had lost any energy as I waited, in vain, for my armoured support to arrive.

The correct dice combination for my reinforcements just wasn't coming up so I decided to try another push having put some fresh crew with one of the MG34s.  Fortunately, I managed to pin down the French rifle grenadier in the farmhouse and rushed their riflemen in the garden of the farmhouse.  Things were starting to look up for the German attack.  Of course, now the Panzer 38(t) arrived!

Despite their best efforts the French LMG on the left flank just couldn't stop my tank and with infantry support running along behind we soon had that flank secured.  Meanwhile a bloody close quarters struggle had begun in the farmhouse.  I had sneaked up and thrown a grenade through the french doors and then burst into the kitchen over powering the dazed riflemen inside.  But the Lieutenant upstairs took the initiative and rushed my men, defeating them easily.  The French then tried a desperate withdrawal back to their start line under heavy rifle fire but managed to get to the trees covered by their second LMG team before I could outflank them.