Here are some photos of a solo battle I played through this afternoon. I chose the One Hour Wargames Scenario 7: Flank Attack (2) to see how the WW2 rules play out and see if they needed any modifications.
The setting is Northern France, summer 1940. The Red forces holding the objective, the main hill, would be the plucky lads of the BEF. The attacking Blue forces in the scenario were my early war Germans. The Wermacht would attack from front and flank in an attempt to capture the hill and strike a blow to the British rearguard. The Brits had to hold the hill at all costs.
The German forces consisted of three infantry units, a Pak 36 anti-tank gun, and two tanks, a Panzer IV and a Czech 38t.
The British had four infantry units, a 2-Pounder anti-tank gun and a 25lb-er gun howitzer.
To summarise the action, the main German thrust was on the British left flank, whilst the German anti tank and one infantry unit demonstrated against the BEF centre. The BEF lads soon noticed the typical shabby Nazi trick and redeployed to counter it. The German infantry attack stuttered a little at first, leaving their tanks to drive deep behind the hill. However, despite the Panzers' speed and firepower they could not consolidate their gains without their accompanying infantry. When the German foot soldiers did advance, the British artillery piece was ready for them and the 25lb shells carved bloody holes in their ranks. The British 2-pounder anti-tank fire from the hill had mixed success, but with assistance from heroic neighbouring infantry, the German panzers were defeated.
Towards the end of the battle, with only a anti-tank gun for support the German infantry pushed hard up the hill, but with poor dice rolls and artillery hammering them, they were ultimately defeated. In the One Hour Wargames rules, anti-tank guns are rather redundant if the enemy has no armour on the table, so the Germans had one sixth of their force at an immediate disadvantage. In contrast, the British artillery piece did sterling work and survived the battle with only one point of health remaining. Unsurprisingly my Zvezda British medic team had lots to do! The last remaining British infantry unit, comparatively untouched on 9 points of health out of 15, had managed to stay out of trouble during the early stages and thereby formed a good "meatshield" protecting the howitzer.
Overall a tense battle, again showing that anything outside of cover and within line of sight doesn't last very long on a Second World War battlefield! It's also a good idea to attack with all of your units simultaneously, and if you lack artillery support, throw your men forward as soon as possible!
The only thing I would improve for next time is to include a bit more battlefield clutter and light cover for this wargaming period, as artillery vs infantry engagements are absolutely brutal!
The last couple of photos show the British commander raising his hand in appreciation to his men, and the knocked out Panzers behind the hill.
