Tigers. Now what?

GeoffP · December 11, 2000

Played an IP game last night as the British,

Armor/900pts/Meeting Eng. I had 3 Churchills, two Kangaroos, 2 infantry platoons, 3 piats, 3 mortars.

My start zone was flat, at a high elevation, with a valley in the center of the map. German's setup zone was on the other side of a ridge. From my viewpoint, the first OBJ flag was at the bottom of the valley, the second a little farther away and on the reverse slope of the ridge.

My side of the valley sloped gradually, so there was no cover on the approach, but he moved cautiously, making it easy to hustle into position unobserved.

He had two Tigers and two Marders in his force. I knocked out one Marder, but the Tigers laid waste to all my vehicles and I was routed. I was aggressive with the Churchills, having one support 1/2 my infantry directly on the valley floor, then using two to attempt flank shots on each side once I observed his two Tigers trying to get into hull-down position on the ridge. I did have 2 flank shots on the left-most Tiger, but no joy. The other had turned directly towards the Churchill to start its own flanking maneuver, and they met head-to-head. This Churchill died in reverse. It was a gamble, because there was only the cover of the elevation once the "flankers" exposed themselves. He pursued to the edge of the ridge on each flank and was shooting down at the reversing Churchill. BTW, a piat team on the reverse slope of the ridge used every shot against the left-most Tiger at ranges 35m-55m, and got no results. I needed at least to immobilize it.

Should I write this off to no luck, should I have held the Churchills back behind some trees until he moved into the valley, or should I have tried to break far into his rear area and dragged his heavies away from the objectives?

Obviously, there is no "answer" here, I was just hoping some of the good players could offer some opinions.

Thanks.

I/O Error · December 11, 2000

The only way you, as an Allied player, will be able to take out Tigers or better is by getting behind them and surprising them.

Seems like you also tried to go head-to-head, and THAT will never work in the Allies favor...

I/O Error · December 11, 2000

I should also show you this link: http://www.rugged-defense.nl/cm/Fionn3.htm

Good way to level the playing field. I mean, llike we haven't seen enough games where Tigers dominate?

December 11, 2000

Two methods I can think of:

First blind him. Lately therese's been more and more written about 75mm gun Sherman's (or Churchill's) heavy reliance on the "American Smoke" shell in the European theater. Especially since the AP was all-but useless. Smoke is about the only thing that'll allow you to get into an nice rear firing position alive.

2nd suggestion: Forget about your Churchills. Withdraw them to safety, make it an all infantry assault. Keep the woods between the infantry and the Tigers if you can. If you can't destroy the Tigers you can make them operationally ineffective by not giving them a target.

My 2¢

Clubfoot · December 12, 2000

I agree with Mikey. Smoke. If you have a slew of fire missions from FO's, smoke. If you have too few fire missions to "waste" them on smoke, there's a good chance you have too few to fire for effect anyway. So smoke. Tank smoke is good for covering immediate withdrawal, but not as well suited for advancing.

I think your initial plan to scoot on into the village (thus gaining control of 1 of 2 victory objectives) was probably a sound one.

If you could have found cover for your armor inside the village, you may have been able to work his flanks with sneaking infantry while entrenching the village with support crews to prevent his doing the same (in theory).

As for the German player rolling his Tigers up and making them "killable", don't hold your breath. He simply doesn't have to. Having achieved a hull down on the retreating face of a ridge, I imagine he was more than content to sit on high and hurl his lightning bolts at you.

If, however, he desperately wanted that victory flag in the village, he may have attempted to assault your entrenched position. This would be no guarantee of success for you, but he would have to roll his Tigers down the facing side of the ridge first, and then into YOUR village. Close proximity might even up the odds.

(a little anyway.)

.02

Clubfoot.

GeoffP · December 12, 2000

Thanks for the input guys. to make matters worse, Clubfoot, it was farmland, so there were only scattered trees near the victory flags. Would have been nice if there were some buildings.