Achtung! Panzer! (Campaign Game)
Players: Matt Muehlbauer (Allies)
Strengths: Aggressive, lucky, buys his own food.
Weaknesses: Impetuous attacker favoring big stacks, doesn't know OBA rules, sings and dances to tunes on the radio during MPh.

Scott Butler (Allies)
Strengths: Conservative, maintains rout paths, softens up targets before charging.
Weakness: Rolls boxcars during self-rallies, doesn't know Chapter D, eats his weight in oatmeal-raisin cookies every three hours.

Rob Seulowitz (Germans)
Strengths: Has large dining room table and no wife to complain about game sitting there for two months.
Weaknesses: Gacks every gun on third roll, neglects rout paths, has skipped large sections of the rulebook.

Scenario 1: The French Make a Poor First Impression

Having played through a dry run of the first scenario (in which the Frogs got legless after three turns), I expected Scott and Matt to take a much more conservative, careful approach. I was wrong.

We were playing with variations on the rules that allowed the French to set up 2 Armor RGs on day 1, and they ended up with 4 H35s and 3 AMRs. They also (wisely) bought another module of OBA but (unwisely) only 70mm. They bought another RG of 1st Line Infantry (paying extra to set 'em up on board) and poured the rest into FPP - nearly half their allowed CG max - to buy massive amounts of Concealment counters and HIP (Frogs set up first even though they also move first). To my amazement, they did not buy Recon!

I spent my meager 8 CPP on a second Battery of Pak 35s (expecting much AFV nastiness), a unit of 70mm OBA (which deigned to appear for exactly 1 fire mission before giving me a second red card) and FPP, which I spent on a PB in front of the Bridge on board 7, a few trenches on the big hill on board 40, a fortified building Location in the 23Z building, HIP for a half dozen MMC with LMGs and few foxholes, mostly on board 40. I thoughtlessly placed my PB in 7Y3 Instead of 7AA4 and so it was only a matter of time before the French got to it via a DC from 7Z2. I had 3 of my 4 PzIIAs on board 7 south of the river to threaten a flank attack, but left them with inadequate infantry support and forgot where two of my hidden LMG/Crews were!!! Idiot! I lost all four AFVs in the first 4 turns; 1 to CC, 1 to an MG, 1 to a DC and 1 to the 37* INF. Scott's Frenchmen took the board seven bridge with time to grab a tiny bit of real estate north of the river, and every MMC I had on board 7 died or got captured. Ugh.

On the other boards, the French attack was so widely dispersed they were easily repelled. Rather than bring his tanks around the west side of board 40 and concentrate on the hill, Matt tried to sneak 'em through the woods, driving the platoon of (radioless) AMRs through the two stone buildings on board 23 south of the river. They died instantly. 3 of the H35s got creamed before firing a shot, and the other was immobilized in a position with extremely limited LOF. (That tank survived immobilized into the second scenario, gacked it's gun & MG and still nearly didn't die - took 3 tries in CC!) Matt mobbed his men everywhere, allowing my 37L guns with their lovely 3 ROF to blast 'em into itty bitty Frog parts. He grabbed some footholds on board 40, but suffered 71 CVP. I suffered more than 50 myself (21 for the AFVs and a bunch of prisoners didn't help!), so it was really only due to the Allies failure to gain objectives that it was a decisive German Victory (146-49!).

In the ensuing RePh, we squabbled a great deal over perimeters and pockets, I lost nearly half my gacked guns, and we both battle hardened nearly all the survivors. Due to the high French losses , their DRM were ridiculous, so I knew the next scenario would swing heavily in their favor.

Scenario 2: The Germans Taste Bitter Defeat

Hope raised her fickle head when the weather came up "Mud" - "Ah!" I thought, "no Char B's today!" I again had only a paltry 10 CPP to work with and foolishly opted not to buy any OBA. I needed men and guns, I decided, so I bought Reserve 1st Line Inf (good move) and yet another Battery of Pak 35s (bad move). The 37L's seductive ROF lead me away from more effective anti-personnel weapons, like Air Support (perfect on a slow-move day) and mines.

Even worse for me, Matt was away so Scott had complete command. I knew Scott would waste no time or energy on boards 7 or 23 and would be able to swarm board 40. I expected a creeping barrage, lots of dead squads and a hangover. I neglected both the reverse slope defense and to prepare fallback positions, stupidly hoping to ride out the HE and delay him as long as possible.

Instead, he bought two OBA modules - 70mm and 80mm - and alternated them between SMOKE and FFEs, crushing my feeble fire bases and nearly cutting me to ribbons. I had only two good leaders (9-2s) and he killed one and damn near trapped the other. I pulled the sleazy "run away/voluntary break/voluntary rout" move to cover half a board before his MMGs were in position, then discovered the great peril to the Germans in this game: There is no place to rout to north of the board 40 bridges once the Allies can shoot at you there.

I sweated bullets hoping for a merciful ending, and got a fortuitous dr to save my 9-2 at the last possible moment. The French gained 26 points, going a long way toward evening up the game, and now the two bridges on board 40 were in grave danger of falling into French hands.

I slept fitfully, whimpering the phrase "rout paths" over and over.

Scenario 3: Panzers Roll!

The French had few losses in #2, so I knew they had about a 2-1 advantage in Infantry (40 squads to 20 was my guess). I had lost half my 37Ls (only 6 of the 12 I had purchased remained), all but 2 of my MMGs, had 5 8-1s and a 9-2, and was looking at a long day. On the positive side, I knew where they would strike next and how.

After long deliberation, and despite having a serious dearth of leadership, I decided my only hope for holding the bridges on 40 was to buy tanks. I choose the t35s over the IIIF for three reasons:

1. OVR strengths and MA IFT values are equal, but the better Czech tanks were less prone to Bog and didn't have the dreaded "B11".
2. The extra CPP allowed me to buy two modules of OBA (I had learned a valuable lesson from Scott).
3. Since tanks can't do Fire Lanes, the two 4 FP MGs actually defend better than a 8 and a 3.

I set up 2 squads in Foxholes with an LMG each and a 8-1 on 40I1 and 40Q1, put half my Infantry around the 40CC7 hill and 23Z2 buildings (including my 9-2 w/my last MMG), and left the rest offboard. I scattered 4 of my 6 37Ls and my last 81mm MTR north of the river with LOF to his MMGs and the bridges. The tanks would enter in the bottom of the first. So long as I kept the 3AF front target facing against the French MGs and used my firebases to neutralize any heavier AT weapons, they would have a good chance of survival; my plan was to park one on the south end of each bridge and pray.

Scott yielded command to Matt, who decided against Scott's two preferred options (Creeping Barrage on board 23 followed by massive infantry wave OR dig in on the board 40 hill, buy 75* ART and heavy AA and blast away until the French could safely picnic on the bridges). Instead, for reasons I don't pretend to comprehend, Matt decided to relive WWI and stage a massed infantry attack on the bridges.

Ever see "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"?

Well, they there were - 30+ squads massed on board 40, ready to charge the bridges and sweep east. The rest were in foxholes south of the woods bordering board 23 in case I attempted a counterattack across five hexes of open ground with the no infantry I had left at the time. The French turn 1 saw Matt roll some lucky PFPh DRs, exposing, then breaking or pinning everyone in 40I1. The 40Q bridge fared better, especially as the (solitary) SR landed offboard (Matt repeated this 4 times in the first few turns). But his damned Frogs withstood massive amounts of DFF, even Battle Hardening on the bridge before diving into CC in I1 - where he created an 8-1 Leader on his way to chopping up my firebase.

This created a quandary. We had agreed before the start of the campaign that in order to enter a unit on a given hex, the hex has to be under friendly control (TH has since ruled otherwise). 40I1 was no longer thus. I had a broken 8-1 and HS in H0 and he had a squad and a half (all Morale 8) with the aforementioned 8-1 in I1. My original plan was to OVR him twice, since even with my 8-1 Armor Leader a 16FP+2 OVR is no sure thing. I decided to enter two tanks in a row on H0, hoping the LGP advantage would prevent BOG and allow for sequential OVRs. The lovely Czech chassis proved it's mettle and chugged in easily, but the 2MC on the OVR resulted in NO breaks and - ack! - HOB on the 458, which created a hero *and* battle-hardened him to fanatic!!! Yeesh! Fortunately, the 8-1 pinned, so Matt only immobilized the t35 in CC-Reaction Fire. I decided to STOP tank #2 in H0 to wait for the outcome.

I then AM'ed two squads into the woods on either side of I1. More CC vs Matt "snakes" Muehlbauer. Yuck.

Meanwhile, one of my two OBA modules had come up lame in the previous DFPh, but the other landed squarely on target south of the 40Q2/3 bridge; his force was caught in the open with nowhere to run. 7 12FP attacks later, they were a battered battalion indeed. My third t35 swept up the bridge, OVR the scout HS there and waited for the FFE to clear to clean up the rest.

The CC phase found a merry mess in 40I1 - my Infantry reinforcements completely failed to do a damn, whilst his freakin' fanatic 458 tossed - you guessed it - another snakes!!! Now I had 2 8-1 Leaders to contend with and my little tanky was looking pale. Fortunately, one 247 HS survived to keep the whole stack in Melee for another turn - it would prove decisive.

As Matt scrambled to rescue his exposed assault in the east, I waited patiently for DFPh. My still-intact t35 in I1 opened up with a TPBF 24+2 attack, followed by a 16+2 from the tank in H0. Results: Everyone but the hero broken, one of the Leaders wounded. My own 247 survived broken, so the able-bodied Hero meant another round of CC. He failed to K the tank and died trying ("Run back to your petite patisseries, mon amis, I shall destroi zees Bosch buckette of bol-- ARRRGH!"), but the stack withdrew to the bridge unmolested. My next turn, while OBA continued to beat the crepe out of his eastern flank, my second tank rolled over the bridge (did not OVR the retreating horde) and shot the MG firebase in the hill to bits. His massive stack was eliminated for failure to rout (I had hoped to capture them, but the 467 I AM'ed to I1 got broke), the bridges were still mine, and his losses were enormous. 3 Turns had taken me from the brink of defeat to spitting distance of victory.

After a night of sober reflection, I received a phone call from Scott:

"If we can be guaranteed positions in the occupation government, I believe we can come to terms."

The Somme was mine as Scott and Matt retreated to Paris to hide their best wine and brush up on their German.

Interesting strategic notes:

1. The Allies, having taken the bridge on 7 early, did not see a need for a British Day. I felt that was an error, as the British light armor has some interesting advantages.
2. The Allies never purchased a Recon dr. I felt this was also a mistake.
3. Allied OBA was devastating. Lack of routing room makes it killer. The Allies should use a Creeping Barrage in the first scenario if they can; and keep the Observers off-board (the buildings on 6 are too obvious).
4. Germans should buy Trenches instead of foxholes if they can spare the FPP.
5. The German INF Battery is a good buy, but don't neglect OBA. The HW RG is essential - without MMG and MTRs you have no hope.
6. HIP for infantry is overrated. HIP for tanks is just plain useless. The Germans should keep stuff off board to relieve stressed areas late in the scenarios - 8 turns can be a long time for a few squads to hold out.
7. The French tanks have lousy OVR value (6FP or 8FP), so park 'em someplace with good LOF and use them as arty.
8. Buy reserves! There are no Idle scenarios, and you have to keep the squad count high to stay in the game. The Germans in particular can defend many areas quite effectively with Reserves alone.
9. If the Germans park the PzII's on the bridges, the French will have a tough time dislodging them without OBA, which they should be using to soften up the firebases on 23 and 40.

"Achtung! Panzers!" is an outstanding historical simulation with many fascinating puzzles. We will turn the boards around and play it again in a few months (after a KGP campaign).

Dr. Robert