Schwere Panzer Abteilung 503 (NOW WITH PICTURES!)

general Hoth · Schwere Panzer Abteilung 503 (NOW WITH PICTURES!)

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Colombelles, East of Caen, 10th July 1944.

After the capture of the ruined city of Caen the British main concern became the village of colombelles situated East of the river Orne. Just outside the village stood the Factory of colombelles held by 16th Luftwaffe feld Division where the german used the massive chimneys overlooking the whole Caen area as observation posts for their heavy artillery pieces. These chimneys had to be destroyed at all cost so Montgommery put up "operation stack". In the lead, 51st Highland Division was to secure the village of Colombelles while a little later the royal engineers were to join the battle with the mission to bring down the factory's chimneys. Tank support would be provided by 148th RAC regiment.
Unknown to the British the Schwere Panzer Abeitlung 503 with 13 operational King Tigers plus a few Panzer IVs led by Hauptmann Schreff was kept in reserve in the forest of Canteloup just outside of Colombelles...

Maps:
West-Map1 (upside down)-Map1-East

Special Rules:
Germans set up on map1
British units on Map1 (upside down)
Units may set up within 4 full hexes of their side.
The British player adds 6 shellholes anywhere on or adjacent to road hexes.
shellholes provide cover for infantry units and cost double for vehicles to cross. If placed on a road hex a vehicle cannot claim its road nor high gear bonuses.
The german places two chimneys (i used two piles of large coins) on the city hexes directly facing West on map1.
Chimneys:a unit on the chimney has a line of sight to anyhex on the battlefield. it cost one MP to climb up or down and a unit cant defensive fire in a Chimney.Chimneys can only be destroyed by Royal engineers on a succesfull dice roll of 4+.

51st Highland Division:
Inspiring lieutnant x2
sten smg x2
smle rifle x8
vickers mg
hawker typhoon x2

148th RAC regiment:
m4 a1 sherman commander
m4 a1 sherman x4
vc firefly x2

127th Highland field regiment:
17 pounder AT guns x3
US 81mm mortar
UK observer

Royal engineers:
enter from turn 3 anywhere from the western side of the map:
royal engineers x5
universal carrier x2
jeep x3
archer x2

16th Luftwaffe feld Division:
observer x2 (have to be placed on the chimneys at the start of the game)
ss leader
luftwaffe infantry x5
mg 42
20mm flak cannon
88 flak 36
81mm mortar x2
7.3 lel g18
sniper
bunker x2

Schwere Panzer Abeitlung 503:
enter on turn one from any eastern hex:
king tiger x3
panzer IV ausf G

Victory conditions:
at the end of turn 8:
Major UK victory: Both chimneys are destroyed.
Minor UK victory: Both hexes containing the chimneys are controlled [b]OR[/B
All 3 king tigers are destroyed
Minor German victory: At least one chimney is still standing
Major German victory: Both chimneys are still
standing

Lt_Vleclopity

This looks good! I assume the maps are from the 39-45 starter kit...

general Hoth

yes that's correct. you'll need two sets of maps to play this scenario.
As everyone is expecting the eastern front set i thought i'd work on a western front scenario while we wait!
The british will have a tough time bringing these chimneys down!

lotharlutjens

Konigstigers are certainly common enough these days, everybody should have plenty to field 3.

general Hoth

that's exactly what i thought. it has been printed twice since 39-45 hasnt it? plus it's an impressive sight on the battlefield! when playtesting i thought of the british seeing 8 of these beast show up! from the article i used as a source (batailles hors série) some british tank crews flew away from the battle leaving their shermans still running.

lotharlutjens

The problem with the first Konigstigers was frankly, unreliability, It did not have a powerful enough engine and was prone to overheating, also its massive weight was to much for most European bridges requiring them to be loaded onto rail cars before crossing rivers.

general Hoth

i tried the scenario again last night replacing one of the king tigers with another panzer IV ausf G. it was good fun. even if there's a lot of tanks on the map Cool

i believe the real battle will be fought by the infantry. the British have a tough mission...

Lettische_Scooterist

We're planning on giving this scenario a go at our next gaming session in a couple of weeks. We're going to play it in 3D.

But a question - do you have any photos or anything of what these "chimneys" and the "Colombelles factory" looked like?

The plan is to make special hex tiles.

Thanks. Cool

general Hoth

i do have black and white pics of the battle scene but do not have a scanner. i'll try the scenario this week (i was busy playing the tannenberg scenario by grenzewolf recently)and ask my wife to help me put the pics on line.
have fun!

Lettische_Scooterist

general Hoth

i've got a week off work and did take about 10 nice pictures of the scenario (set up, turn 1, etc...) when i had a go at it a couple of days ago.
it was savage! the british almost destroyed all the german heavies but could not hold the chimney-hexes.
i've struggled to add the pics as attachment, my wife tells me they're too heavy. So if all goes well i will post them next week (with commentaries and new rules to balance the game-in favor of the british of course) with extra help from a friend who IS a computer wizard!

Lettische_Scooterist

Excellent. My group here in Denver are meeting on the 21st of Feb. We'll be running your scenario then! Smile

Pasalades

I find this scenario to be a bit of an interesting puzzle for the Allies. The trio of King tigers is a tough nut to crack. They act as force multipliers for each other as they are able to act as mutual support. Skillful play can make it very difficult to get a rear shot on any of them and a frontal attack is a non-starter. The allied tank army is toast sooner or later and I'm thinking the best way to go is to focus on the chimneys and silencing Germany's anti-infantry force, eve if it means ignoring the KTs. Switching out one for a PZ-IV G helps out a lot.

general Hoth

I know i've promised pics for this scenario but i'm moving flats so little time for wargaming plus my gaming table is still somewhere under a pile of boxes!! Hope to be back soon on the forums... Good news is i DID have time to read a bio of the 12th SS panzer division "Hitlerjugend" and just started on the memoirs of general Raus. Scenario material in the pipeline.
in the meantime: game on!! Very Happy

TorontoBizz

Isn't the "12th SS" the ones who fought the Canadians aftre D-Day? There was an SS guy named Kurt Meyer and he and some of the SS killed Canadian POWs. Or something like that.

general Hoth

Yes that's right. Kurt "panzer" Meyer. he spent a few years in prison after the war and escaped death sentence because canadian soldiers said at his hearing that canadians did the same (shooting german prisonners in the heat of battle). i've been looking for Meyer's memoirs for a while now (i think it has never been translated so far and i dont read german!!)
when i'll have time expect a scenario including this man's regiment around carpiquet airfield. Very Happy

Steel_Panther

Dang, General, I think you need a "Scenario Maker" badge thing like Palasades has. How many scenarios have you written? How many are in the works?

Lettische_Scooterist

Came across this photo in Flikr. Someone had a BUNCH of normandy photos posted there.

The caption say, "Installations industrielles détruites, sous réserve la Société Métallurgique de Normandie (SMN) à Colombelles."

Looks like it's the area where the chimney's are?

Pasalades

general Hoth

i finally got all my AAM stuff together last night!! Very Happy

Back to work too on the carpiquet scenario which is actually more about the 12 SS division. After that i think it will be an early war eastern front scenario as i'm deep into General Raus memoirs (fascinating read!!) or maybe another D-day themed scenario as its the 65th biirthday this year!! Razz

What about you? what are you working on Question

general Hoth

This scenario won the "Operation Santa Claus" comp organized by grenzewolf on the official wizard's site.
Check out there the rules for Play balance.
They were obvious from the start but will add fun to the battle! Very Happy

Remember-OWS-

I needed to add my touch...

Remember-OWS-

I have compile the data, and the OOB for this scenario in a PDF format.

If some are interested, I can make it available.

Lettische_Scooterist

general Hoth

Wow!! neat!
ok chaps
here are the play-balance rules:
they are really un-historical but will help the brits.

German Forces:
Withdraw one mortar
replace one king tiger with a panzer IV ausf G

UK forces:
add one mortar (US proxie)

ps: yes thanks remember OWS i really would like that pdf.

Remember-OWS-

I think this link should work

http://www.mediafire.com/?libltkj94yu

general Hoth

Works fine. its on my laptop now.
thanks again.
bonjour aux canadiens, j'ai un scenario pour vous qui arrive bientot!

general Hoth

ok here it is, still learning the ropes of my new software!!
this is the set up, british side, lots of tanks on the right flank

again the brits ready for action

the german luftwaffe observation posts

the brits try a right flank attack...

the schwere panzer abteilung comes in...

end of turn 2, the brits are doing well, but in the bottom corner a king tiger is here!

reinforcements, royal engineers!

turn 4, the tide is turning

the end.

Lettische_Scooterist

This past weekend, our AAM group here in the Denver area got together and played this scenario. We only had enough time to play it once but plan to do it a couple more times at least!

We usually have six players, but only four were able to show this time around. As you can see, we used our 3D terrain. Since four of us played, we expanded the maps on both sides for more room. So, on to the battle…

Turn One had the British advance across the front. The RAC moved along the edge of the map using what cover was available to ensure they were out of site of possible roved King Tigers. The British infantry also moved forward, using the shell holes for cover. Meanwhile the Germans ensured they were under cover since the scenario basically calls for the Germans to endure the assault. The King Tigers entered the map opposite the RAC, but didn’t have any targets – yet. The Typhoons swooped in on the German forces, but a small exchange didn’t amount to much.

Turn Two saw the continued advance of the British infantry and the RAC playing duck and cover with the King Tigers. Both infantry forces exchanged fire with little loss to the British. The Germans lost some infantry.

Thing heated up in Turn Three. The RAC broke cover and did a mad rush at the King Tigers. The Engineers of the 51st arrived behind the screen of British infantry. It’s at this point that thing went bad for the Germans in terms of dice rolls! An exchange of tank fire ended with a Firefly damaged and disrupted, and a disrupted Sherman. One of the King Tigers was disrupted and damaged in return. The German infantry didn’t fair any better, failing to kill anything and suffering casualties in return.

Turn Four saw the continued exchange between the RAC and the 503rd. The British tanks avoided more damage but a King Tiger died and another was now disrupted! The Luftwaffe troops were unable to stop the advancing Highlanders despite firing everything they had. The British, cool under fire, took down more Germans. They were very close to the chimneys now.

The Germans were in trouble now. The Fireflys and Shermans began to swarm the remaining two King Tigers in Turn Five. The Panzer Mark IV had to move over to the factory to help protect it from the Archers and the engineers closing in. Half the German infantry was down. The Highlanders took a couple of casualties, but it wasn’t enough now.

In Turn Six, the German defense collapsed. The Engineers dismounted from the jeeps and carriers near the Chimneys. The German observers had been dealt with and the remaining Luftwaffe troops in the chimney hexes were wiped out. A second King tiger died as well at the Mark IV. And the RAC had YET to lose a tank!

Turn 7 ended the battle. The British infantry moved into the chimneys along with the engineers while the RAC forces moved towards the last King Tiger. The Germans hoped for a feeble counterattack if the engineers failed their rolls, but true to form in this game, the engineers rolled high and both chimneys came down. At this point, the Germans conceded.

We all agreed it’s a GREAT SCENARIO! And it was really down to the TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE rolls by the German players (of which I was one!) that resulted in such horrendous losses for the Germans, and great rolls for the British (it may be time to move to the dice rant thread!). It may have also helped the British that they had move room to maneuver since we expanded the maps a bit.

Thanks for the great scenario, General Hoth.

Andreas3

awesome pics Very Happy

looks really neat with the 3D stuff and fow models Cool

general Hoth

the 3 D terrain is great!
Nice report! Very Happy

Lettische_Scooterist

Oh, and I'll add, we do use some FoW minis. Particularly to make up units that are not in the v2.0 scale yet (Archers in particular).

Andreas3

TorontoBizz

That is awesome. Would love to play on that kind of terrain. I could build it, but where would I keep it (live in a basement apartment that has too much stuff in it already).

RedBaron

yeeah, that is very cool! 3D terrain!

general Hoth

yes, i wish i had those too! Very Happy