Wittman Vs. 4th Armor

We had an odd number of players at The Game Castle last night so Ted and Rob split a 2000 point SS Tiger company commanded by the famous Michael Wittman. 

I had a 2000 point list of 4th Armor, our mission was no retreat and I was the defender. Unfortunately my list had 5 platoons so I got two platoons on the battle field to start off with. I picked my Artillery and one of my Armor platoons, I kept the armor in ambush.

German deployment.

I screwed up my deployment putting my CO and 2IC too far forward and when you are facing 88s that re-roll misses (Rob and ted had Every shot counts on both platoons!) that's not going to end well for you.

I was in a tough spot and the guys were willing to let me "jump into" one of my ambushed tanks with a warrior save but I was pretty sure this was not in the rules so I refused. on my turn I sprung my ambush.

My ambush sprung in the field then my Sherman 75s moved to the left of the Tigers for side shots (Detroit Finest and stabilizers baby!) while the Sherman 76s shot at long range at the far platoon.  I killed 3 of 6 tigers and bailed another! As ambushes go this one was very good.

German retaliation of the next two turns was harsh. I lost three more tanks, both my AOP and ground observer. I brought in my infantry because the objective need coverage by more than a few guns. My second tank platoon came in and rather than move directly against the remaining tigers I moved around the right hopping to get behind them for side shots. My infantry above had just killed the German recon in assault though the tiger and berg-panzer drove us off.

The tigers would kill the remaining Sherman form the fist platoon they did not assault or they would probably have won the game.

I got the flank shots I was looking for but my platoon was broken by return fire Still that left only Wittman on the board (he made his warrior save).  My Recon meanwhile had shot up the German AA platoon forcing a company moral check.

Rather than assault Wittman choose to fire on my recon hoping to break the platoon and force a company moral check on me, a check I would auto fail because my officers were dead. Wittman got three hits but I made my saves. I won this one by a whisker. I lost 9 Sherman to kill 5 tigers which is actually really good when you look the historic rate of exchange.