Hunts Gap Pictures

This game was played Good Friday (3/4/15) in my conservatory. I played the Brits, Dave N and John played the Germans

I/86 Panzergranadiers line up for their assault on D coy 2nd/4th Hampshire Battalion. The game starts in the dark so as yet the two forces can not see each other. 3.7" mountain gun by Moonlite Modelworks

The Voraus Abteilung makes a dash for Ksar Mezouar. Unfortunately for the Germans they didn't get close enough to spot the 17pdr in turn 1. The turn after the 17lb, reacting to the noise of tank tracks in the dark, turned to face the oncoming Germans and shot the Pz-IV to pieces. The Germans really missed the Pz-IV later in the game. Pz-IV by Airfix. The 17pdr Pheasant is a crude conversions from an Airfix soft plastic 25pdr.

B Squadron North Irish Horse pushes forward to support the recce platoon of 2nd/4th Hampshire Battalion defending the north end of the ridge against the encroaching German infantry of I/47 Bataillon. This was a calculated risk but luckily the Tiger advanced down the valley. Remember its night time so the tanks can't see each other. After shooting up the infantry the British tanks ran off to the south before the Tiger could come and get them. The recce stand was not so fortunate and paid the ultimate price. Churchills are from Cromwell. Tiger is a cheap die cast off a magazine repainted and the Pz-III is a conversion from the Matchbox model.

As the Voraus Abteilung has abandoned the station A Squadron NIH also move up in the darkness. The Churchill I is a Science Treasury rip-off of the Hasegawa kit. The Mk III is from Britannia (now Grubby Tanks) with the "tree-trunk" gun replaced with something much better in scale

As dawn breaks the RAF is up-and-at-them. A Hurri-bomber gives some 250lb "love" to the Tiger. This failed to dent the Tiger but had a profound effect on the game as the Tiger failed its morale and when shaken, returning to the board edge. The astute amongst you will notice this is entirely the wrong sort of Hurricane for Tunisia. Unfortunately my late mark Hurricane still languishes un-built in the stash.

Accompanying the Hurricane was this Spitfire which strafed the PaK-38 with remarkably little effect

On the heights I/86 Panzergrenadiers gradually eroded D Coy's defence. The bunched panzergrenadiers made a great target for the massed British artillery, however the clincher was Dave's lamentable dice rolling. D coy hung on longer than anyone would have expected.

A Squadron NIH continues its steady advance

Shaken tigers. They are being rallied by the KG commander. The commander was was delayed due to D Coy's 2pdr which overlooked to Germans' entry point. The delay in over-running D Coy meant a delay in the commander getting forward to rally the tanks. At this point the battle was almost halfway over, so time was getting tight for the Germans. PzBefWg-IIIJ is a conversion of an MMS model.

I/86 PzG finally overcoming the last stand of D Coy

I/47 Bataillon advances down the stream bet towards Ksar Mazouar, nicely spaced out to mitigate the effects of the British artillery. They are greeted by A Squadron NIH taking advantage of the Tiger's poor morale state. However out of shot to the right the Germans have deployed the 88 of the Flakkampftruppe which is just barely in range of the Churchills.

The Italian air force attempts to bomb its own side. Luckily for the Axis the Germans tanks showed a scornful distain for the Macchi and their morale remained unaffected. The Italian air was quite active in the battle, but nowhere near as prevalent as the RAF. Of Stukas and Bf-109's none were to be seen.

The Tiger returns and promptly destroys a Churchill. Return fire was completely ineffectual. At this point in the game there are only a couple of turns left to the Axis and they have yet to capture a single objective.

German artillery fire eliminates the 6pdr and a SdKfz-231 swoops in for a kill. It requires a 10 rolled for a kill so the Churchills concentrated on the Tiger. Unfortunately for the Brits a 10 was rolled...

Last gasp for Ksar Mezouar, however its still a way off. In the background long range 88mm shooting has killed off the Churchill I

That's were we left the game at the end of turn 9. The 10th turn was rolled but it would have not been enough to get the Germans another victory location, so it was  a British win. The British commander was very jammy with the RAF getting both a Hurricane and a Spit 4 times (this was in version 1 of the scenario which didn't have the airpower cap). The British were also lucky with the rolls in the fight by D coy vs I/86. The Germans initial rush towards Ksar Mezouar with the Voraus Abteilung could best be described as Ill considered. The Pz-IV would have been very useful later in the game especially as the road objectives are rather distant form the German start line. The Germans were unlucky in the fight vs D Coy and it might have been better to have attacked the 2pdr first allowing quicker deployment of the KG stab, which would have sped the rallying of the Tiger.

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