Emergency Miniature Work – 15mm USMC Super Cobra

Wednesday night we had a fun stream where we dusted off an old classic, SSI’s 1995 classic “Allied General,” sequel to “Panzer General,” more recently re-launched as a fan remake: “Panzer General Forever.”

This is a casual, fun, “operational-lite” wargame where players can recreate great campaigns in World War II.

In this stream we did the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943 (Operation Husky – Patton’s 7th Army, Montgomery’s 8th Army, both part of Alexander’s Fifteenth Army Group).

Panzer / Allied General allows the player to rename his units and build up their experience and equipment over time.  So I started this stream with all units renamed and “commanded” by members of our Sitrep / OTT community!

Check it out and see if we have what it takes to put the first crack in “Festung Europa!”

Here’s a YouTube replay of Sunday’s Panzer Leader 1940 game between myself and community member Rasmus, in his first proper game in the Panzer Leader system.

This was a rough approximation of part of the Battle of Merdop, 13 May 1940, a  rare “meeting engagement” between major formations of French and German armor, pitting battalions of the Somua S-35 against the PzKpfw-IIID.

If you want to skip the historical background, preview, deployment, and initial movement, the first kill comes at 29:20.

Enjoy!

We’ll be streaming Panzer Leader with the community live today at 7PM UK / 2PM East US time. We hope to have a new Panzer Leader player from the community with us, and introduce him in detail to this “command tactical” classic.

A small, entry-level scenario of a rare “tank on tank” meeting engagement that took place when elements of 4th Panzer Division (XVI Motorised Corps) ran into 3rd DLC (Division Legere Mechanique – part of Prioux’s Cavalry Corps) in central Belgium.

The French couldn’t often meet the Germans on equal terms during the May 1940 campaign, but this was one of the exceptions!

We hope to see some of you there.

SITREP TWITCH

SITREP YOUTUBE

More Panzer Leader 1940 counters for community use – French in 1939-1940.

These can be used for Panzer Leader scenarios not only in the Battle of France in May and June 1940 (Case Yellow and Red) – but also France’s Rhineland invasion of 1939, and French participation in the Norway campaign of April, 1940.

Oh, and honestly, SOME of these units can also be used as Vichy French colonial battles like Syria in 1941, Madagascar in 1942, and even Morocco in 1943.

More Panzer Leader 1940 countersets for community use – Belgians in 1940.

Have a great weekend!

Hello, everyone.  So as I’ve been uploading Panzer Leader 1940 videos, people have been commenting on some of the custom counters I create for these games.  People are also asking whether these counters are available for download.

Normally I reply to such inquiries with a polite “thank you for your support, but I don’t really play Panzer Leader in a physical format, so traditional .pdf countersheets aren’t usually a thing I put together …”

However, people have asked now here on OTT private message, my personal e-mail, YouTube, and Boardgame Geek.

So I have expanded the counter sets and created printable .pdfs people can download and use if they wish.

If nothing else, maybe crosslinking to this project will get people from our YouTube and BGG community to check out OTT.  😀

Part Three of our Panzer Leader replay of the 10 May scenario, originally played on the 80th Anniversary of the beginning of the “Case Yellow” Blitzkrieg in the West.

The game recreates the initial contact between forward elements of 1st Panzer Division / XIX Motorized Corps and the Belgian 1st Chasseurs d’Ardennais / Group Keyaerts. Furthermore (and just to get some French armor on the table), we also imagine forward elements of French 5e Division Légère de Cavalerie (DLC, Light Cavalry Division) joining the battle. Although Belgian resistance and local French counterattacks have resulted in frustrating delays and steep casualties for the Germans, the invaders have finally regained momentum and are bulldozing Allied units before them. The only question is . . .

. . . is it already too late?

It’s the classic “historical asymmetrical” scenario, where the attackers have all the advantages in firepower, support, mobility, and resources … but also carry the burden of victory.

The Germans have to take all five objective hexes by the end of Turn 10.

If even one objective hex remains contested by the end of the game, the Allies technically win, on account of German “blitzkrieg tempo” hampered to the point where the can’t take subsequent objectives later in the day.

This would give additional Allied forces more time to mobilize overnight.  More defending forces (and better organized defending forces) means MORE lost time, which means MORE enemy mobilization, which in turn means MORE lost time …

In offensives like this, lost time at the beginning of a campaign really has a way of snowballing toward ultimate loss of operational momentum and eventual failure.

May, 1940.  Spearheads of German 1. Panzer Division (XIX Motorized Corps, Panzer Group Kleist, Army Group “A”) have crashed through the Ardennes region of Belgium.

They are met by screening elements of the Belgian 1st Chasseurs d’Ardennais Division, trying to hold narrow woodland roads and river crossings.

Historically, the Belgians held as long as they could and then fell back, awaiting French reinforcement per the Allied “Dyle Plan.”

But the French units in this region of southern Belgium (5e Division Légère de Cavalerie, reporting directly to 2nd Army) were delayed by bad coordination and German bombing of communication and lines of transport.

This game imagines that the Allied Dyle Plan worked a little better, and forward elements of French 5th DLC made it to the line of contact in time to help the Belgian initial defense.

It’s a fun way to get three factions on a Panzer Leader table all at once!

Part 2 of 3.  Part 3 should be up later this weekend.