WW2 20mm West Front Goodwood mini-Campaign Game 3

Introduction
I have 1/2 a table tennis setup and am playing a 7 game mini-campaign set over 2 days at the opening of Operation Goodwood. This is game 3.  Game 1 and some more background, see this blog post.

Scenario 3 - Emieville Charge
Irish Guards attack a Pak front and a lost King Tiger wanders in for support.  Objective is for the British to hold the road in front of the woods.

Setup and table.  Objective is the road on the right

Troops
Germans
3 Panzer Grenadier Squads
3 MMG
2 Pak 40
2 Pak 43
Tiger 2 (potential reinforcement on a 4+ per turn from turn 4)

British
3 Squadrons
    2 Shermans
    1 Firefly
1 Sherman FAC
1 Daimler Armoured Car

Scenario changes
As I use card activation with a End of turn card, I will start rolling for the King Tiger on turn 6.

Campaign so far - two wins to the Germans (blue).  We are in game 3.

Deployment
3 AT guns in the woods and one slightly forward in a hedgerow. The Panzer Grenadier squads spread out across the woods and the hedge on the far edge.

The German setup.  The third squad is off camera on the far left behind a hedge.

The British will focus on coming down their right flank.

British deployed with focus on their right flank.

Game

With my card activations, one possibility is to hold where you can then activate anytime during the rest of the turn.  I have not had much of a chance to use this during the last two games but this game, I gave the 88s (as the first unit activated) this order as the allied tanks were likely to get closer this turn.

The Allies advance. Daimler is shot at by a Pak 40 but misses.  The other Pak 40 hits a Sherman and it is destroyed (rolled a 6 to hit, and then a 6 for damage - reminds me of the first shot with the 9 year old and he was playing the Germans as well!).

First Sherman gone.

The Pak 40 that destroyed a Sherman destroys another one and the remaining firefly in the sqaudron has enough and pullback ( after a unit suffers equal or greater than 50% casualties you need to roll a morale check.  The Firefly rolled a 1).

..and another.

The Daimler spots the Pak 40 that fired at it (needed a 5+) but misses.

The Daimler is halfway down the road at this point with AT guns firing at it.

A Sherman next to the Daimler also spots the Pak 40 and manages to kill the crew (very lucky MMG firing).   The Pak 40 takes a morale check and the other Pak 40 (that has two kills for two shots) is pinned (no move or fire).

Two of the AT guns - a Grey 88 (should not be grey but all I have) and a Pak 40 further away.

88s on activation either fail to spot a target or miss entirely.  The Pak 40s are showing them up!  And then the Shermans manage to spot an 88 and the entire squadron opens up with direct HE fire and manages to kill all the crew.  The other 88 rolls a morale check and also rolls a 1 (just like the Pak 40) and so is also pinned.  Things are not looking so great for the Germans now.

And the FAC Serman successfully calls in a Typhoon on the remaining 88 that is destroyed.  The Pak 40 (the last remaining AT gun) becomes unpinned and destroys another Sherman.  But the combined returned fire from three Shermans finally puts the Pak 40 out of action.  The Brits have lost 4 Shermans (three KO and one routing) and so have 6 left.

A view of the "advancing" British armour.

And then the Tiger II comes on.

Tiger II

All the Fireflies have a shot but miss.  One of the Shermans raced up the road and subsequently got a flank shot on the Tiger and pinned it (1 in 9 chance).

The Sherman in the foreground has a flank shot at the Tiger and actually pins it!

But the Tiger II subsequently unpins and destroys a Firefly.  Tiger II subsequently pinned again by other Shermans.

The Daimler advances to the road - it is the objective after all - and is destroyed by a Panzerfaust.

The destroyed Daimler.

Other Shermans race up the British right flank, over the hedge and a clear line of sight down the hedge.

Could not be better - over the hedge and they are nicely lines up for the Sherman MMGs.

The following turn 4 vehicle MMGs  with 12 dice manage to cause 7 casualties (5 sixes!).  The rest of the unit routs.  They advance to the road and one is pinned by a Panzerfaust from the woods.

A German squad in the woods.

  The other Sherman successfully spots them and fires it MMGs, causing casualties and pins.

The Shermans now focus on the squad in the woods

A Battalion morale check is triggered (greater than 40% of all units pinned destroyed or routed).  They pass, but next turn the Sherman MMGs fire again, causes another battalion morale check and the Germans fail and pull back off the board.  Victory to the British, and well deserved too!

End game. The British survive with 1/2 their armour 

Verdict
Well, I did think that it would be all over for the British; and when the Tiger came on it was not going to get better.  But the German AT guns fell one by one, and the plane attack definitely helped. I think there was a bit of luck on the British side.  It was an interesting game (and fast - I think it took 30 minutes), and one likely best played solo as I did.  The Germans don't do much but fire at best targets, it is up to the British to figure out what to do with ever diminishing resources.