THE MAIN EVENT III! Arrow vs. Moondog

[Der Kuenstler]

Next is Moondog's setup - here is an overall view:



Interesting - I have drawn a red line where the Germans would logically go - but Moondog appears to be doing the opposite - he has almost nothing by the Southern flags and most of his forces facing the Northern flags. Is he trying to trick Arrow? Or did he just make it harder for his men?

In a closeup to the North we can see all of Moondog's key fighting vehicles except the Tiger are here. They are all loaded up with MG42 HMGs and one HQ. Instead of leading with his elite vehicles, he plays it safe and leads with his stugs. (Worried about hidden guns?) Further to the North some foot infantry are ready to go - all of Moondog's infantry are hiding - and none of them lined up in single file as Herroberst and others have done during setup.



Lastly, a shot of the vet tiger. The Tiger and the 251/1s are carrying the poineer platoon and some FT units.



From Commander Moondog:

"Purchases - I bought as much armour as 800+pts can buy and a Battalion of infantry plus a few other bits. It took me ages to decide what kit to get and I'm still not sure if I should have bought a Tiger, mine normally get bogged but hey at least I haven't wasted points on 150mm guns as I sometimes do. I love those things but one shot is normally all they get, however impressive that shot is. ....Also I have an Elite Panzer IV that I can't even remember buying. :-S

Terrain
(Great map by the way).
The map edge and river have basically created an island with limited entry points. This narrows down the tactical options quite a bit and with 5 out of 6 flags on the "island" the obvious plan is to get as much stuff on there as possible and as quickly as possible. I'm therefore expecting Arrow to rush across the two bridges onto the island and I'm sure he expects me to do the same.

My Plan.
There is a lone flag in the South outside the island and nearer me than him so I'm going to hope he thinks that this flag is just too easy for me to secure and defend and ignore it. I am only going to send a small party to secure that flag and patrol the southern area. It's a gamble that leaves me enough men to stand a chance at the other end of the map. If he sends a huge force down south we might not meet up till the game is over :-)

In the middle I have some engineers on apc's ready to do a flag rush up the middle and at least get a presence in the town. All of A company are followng this rush on foot to support them.

This commotion should convince Arrow that the centre is my main thrust and draw any Artillery or nasty surprises into the the town while my real strength will be to the North where I already have a foothold on the 'island'. I hope to quickly occupy the wood and overwhelm his right flank with B C and D companies before moving south to meet up with A company and finish the job.

I haven't mentioned armour as I'm treating this as an infantry battle with tank support and plan to be very cautious with my cats until i know where he is coming from. Especially as he has an Elite sherman with nasty ammo out there.

Of course plans never work and against the Allies and the USA I'll probably get shafted by a huge barrage of coke machines ice cream makers and whippets and be told to fark orf and have a nice day but we will soon see."