Victory Conditions: Each side must clear the hilltop or eliminate the most steps with the German count being doubled.

Initial Set-Up: Smoke is available to both sides. British start with Initiative 4 and the Germans Initiative 2. The German 88mm is dug-in in the light woods on top of Hill 112. German Pz IVHs approach hill from southwest and Panthers from the southeast. British units begin in Baron, a town northwest of hill. British Infantry are loaded on APCs. British will attempt to charge the 88mm AA with its tanks and eliminate it before the artillery can fire a second round.

9:00am: The first Sherman that climbs hill is hit and reduced by the 88. It doesn’t disrupt and continues its approach. The remaining armor follows the trail to the center of the hill. The Panthers move north to approach the hill from the east. The loaded British APCs move east along the trail to the north of the hill to stay out of sight. The Germans lay a line of smoke and the Pz IVHs climb the hill on the southwest. Hopefully, the smoke will last.

9:30am: The smoke disappears leaving the Pz IVHs exposed. The Shermans fire twelve salvos and manage to reduce and disrupt both Pz IVH Units. The 88mm blasts an adjacent Firefly. It is reduced but doesn’t disrupt. Instead of using Direct Fire against the dug-in 88mm the British armor charges and assaults the German artillery. The high German morale keeps the 88 from disrupting. Meanwhile the British infantry dismount and climb the hill to the north along with a Firefly. When the Firefly summits it is seen by the Panthers and the Panthers easily shred the Firefly. The Pz IVHs retreat off the hill to re-group.

9:45am: The infantry advance south. Shermans move closer to engage the 88mm at point blank Direct Fire. The 88mm kills another Sherman. The Pz IVHs rally.

10:00am: Finally, the Sherman’s Direct Fire eliminates the 88s although the German Lieutenant manages to escape. The Pz IVHs combine. The Panthers move back north and are immediately flanked on three sides with Shermans and the infantry. With the British high Initiative, they will assault before the Panthers can react.

10:15am: The Germans get Initiative! The Panthers shoot uphill into the adjacent hex with three Sherman Units. They manage to destroy ALL THREE Shermans! The Infantry then assault the Panthers. The reconstituted Pz IVH moves north using the hill to conceal it from fire.

10:30am: The infantry continues to assault the Panthers, but the Panthers still have a lot of fight left. Meanwhile the Pz IVH continues its advance north while the British armor in the middle of the hill waits.

10:45am: The Stuart IV joins the assault just as the infantry call it quits and retreat out of the assault hex. The APCs are chasing the German Lieutenant who is trying to find a target for the German OBA.

11:00am: The Panthers eliminate the outclassed Stuart and rally. The Lieutenant is finally overrun by the APCs. The Germans prepare for the final charge to the hilltop.

End of Game: The Pz IVH charges uphill from the west. It takes all the British armor’s opportunity fire to destroy the German’s western advance. This leaves the Panthers to the east an unopposed advance.

Neither side cleared the hilltop. The British lose 23 steps and the German’s only lose 5 steps. The German count is doubled to 10 but they clearly inflicted more steps than they lost so the victory goes to the Germans.

Lessons Learned: Smoke works better for the side with higher Initiative. The German Lieutenant needs to free itself from the 88 and act as a forward observer. A British leader needs to advance to be a FO to possibly eliminate the 88 using OBA. Like all armor, the Panthers are vulnerable to Assault but with a DF value of 11 they will take out a lot of infantry before they go down. The Germans should attempt to eliminate easy British steps and make a final run for the top of the hill toward the end of the game.

I played another scenario from Beyond Normandy tonight and I really enjoy playing BN and it has a lot more scenarios on my radar but for now I went with a pretty small one in terms of BN anyway. Nine turns, one map, smoke, lots of armor on both sides, Infantry only on the British side with the Germans only having a LT & 88mm AT Gun as personnel units. Tons of Off-Board Artillery and the victory hex, hex 0827/Hill 112 or having units within three hexes of it and if both sides had units within three hexes of it, the side that eliminated the most enemy units wins and only the German loses count double, which will help off- set the British armor loses to the German.

The British win the first two initiatives, applying smoke and closing with the German 88mm Gun and the victory hex. The Germans follow suit with their Armor. The shootout was brutal but the British took out the German 88mm gun after the OBA smashed it. Both sides traded armor. The British controlled the victory hex area but the last step of German Panther tanks recovered on the second to last turn and rolled into the same area, so the tie breaker was now on step eliminated and the Germans counting double. But still the British lost 21 points in steps compared to the Germans 18 points in steps. A narrow German victory! This was a fun scenario.

I took some advice on other AARs and use a leader counter for both sides, just to run around and spot for OBA. It proved to be helpful.

This was my second Skype game against newcomer Joseph Ladd. He had chosen this scenario as a into tank v tank action and also his first game in the hedgerows of Normandy. This is a small scenario with a single German 88 supported by Panther's and PsIV's against a mixed arms of Brits who have to take the hill. The game started well for the Brits with the 88 missing two shots one of which was very easy and then taking the 88 out with Sherman DF. However while the Shermans were celebrating that victory the German commander had moved the Panthers up to a strong position behind hedgerows, the following turn saw 20 Shermans destroyed by accurate AT fire, and the battle swung in favour of the SS. The next few turns saw the British infantry steadily advance onto the hill with the remaining tanks sweep around the German right flank in an attempt to get some cross fire shots. The German commander who was now feeling over confident ignored the tanks and tried to disrupt the advance, this was an error as the brave riflemen refused to flinch but more importantly a Firefly got one of the Panther in his sight and took out a step. This caused the German commander to make another error and retreat of the hill. The plan was to avoid combat and then rush back onto the hill on the final turn and claim victory by steps losses. Meanwhile the Brits had captured the German artillery observer and Hill 112. What followed was a travesty as British artillery pummeled the one surviving stack of good order Panthers and PzIV,s. This caused a morale check on those tankers who with a morale of 9 surely would be fine. Rolls of 10 10 11 followed disrupting every unit in the stack and with one turn left no chance to recover in time and move back onto the hill. Game over. Congratulations to Joseph who passed his personal morale check on GT3 when all seemed lost and kept on persevering with his attack plan. This is a smashing little scenario, offering a quick but subtle game with chances for both sides to win. Recommended

Author	waynebaumber (Germany)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Britain
Participants	unknown
Play Date	2022-05-27
Language	English
Scenario	BeNo015

This battle for the high ground has a mainly British tank force attacking 1 88mm position with an artillery observation point, supported by a company of Panthers and a depleted company of PZIV. As the British commander my plan was to swarm the PZIVs take the gun position and regroup for a slightly more measured attack on the Panthers. This plan did not work, the PzIV's and the 88 dispatched all my M3 halftracks and destroyed two Sherman platoons with ease, and only finally succumbed to overwhelming odd GT7. By which time the Panthers were well ensconced behind a hedge with open ground to the front of them. The 88mm gun managed somehow to hold out till the last turn, meaning that my INF could not engage enemy tanks with their Piat's. The final turn saw a desperate charge by the Brit tankers in an effort to win the game by destroying the three final Panthers. A gamey end which marred the scenario, anyway this charge against Panthers over open ground resulted in the totally expected destruction of the Sherman's. My poor start to this scenario and Bangla's good use of cover and often passing on his turn resulted in a resounding defeat. Although Bangla also has the rub of the green for most of the battle I am not sure luck played any major part of his win (but at least I can whine about it)emphasized text

So a disrupted, reduced infantry platoon surviving in an assault with a PzV platoon; a PzIV platoon; and a reduced PzIV platoon recovers from demoralization with a '4' roll on the last turn to "live" in the light woods hex 0929 within two hexes of the objective hex.

Playing "God Save the King" they plant their regimental standard atop Hill 112 whilst the Germans take a smoke break before sending them on to their eternal rest.

Not my favorite scenario, though there were some tense moments. The British did manage to kill two steps of PzV and one of PzIVH. There was sufficient British armor destroyed to change the earth's magnetic field direction.

One interesting tactical point is the the German 88-mm gun (set up in the light woods hex between a row of hedges) did not take its opening opportunity fire against any of the British armor; rather it caught an M3 bringing on the British infantry. I rolled randomly as to which of the three M3's bearing infantry I'd hit (because of the reduced step and/or different leaders they were carrying). Turned out to kill the major. The other infantry platoons decided that this was a good distance at which to disembark their half-tracks and slug it up the hill on foot. The surviving 1.5 platoon steps did exact revenge on the fearsome "eighty-eight."

I suppose one way to look at it is that the aggressive British armor got the attention of the Waffen SS sufficiently to allow the British infantry company to survive - barely - to the last game turn.

Play note: I play BN scenarios such that higher elevation (in and of itself) is not LT, but does convey, for example, a -1 drm to AT fire from a unit firing from lower to higher terrain.

PS: I should have added that neither side rolled for "smoke" and that artillery park rolls were consistently high, which meant few artillery factors for either side.