Closing the Gap: Panthers on the Prowl!

Major Currie's has now advanced his forces to the centre of St Lambert. He has taken some loses, almost 20% of his men and one of his Shermans. He now has to face some heavy armour.....the Sd.Kfz. 171 Panther.

This is a challenging scenario for the Canadians, they have to force the Germans to withdraw or suffer a massive Morale Failure. The Germans positions start at almost the the centre of the board, there is lots of hard cover. 

Here is our starting positions. Fortunately for the Canadians they get to throw a d6 for some free moves.

Luckily I get a 5, which allows me to lock down Germans almost immediately

Here we can see the 6 JOP's. The Canadians are within 6" of two houses and thus can deploy into both houses at the crossroads that give an excellent LOS on the German positions. German Morale is at 9 and Canadian Morale (had to take a -1 as the men's opinion was low) is at 8 at game start. 

Mike has taken a Sd.Kfz 250 HT with a JL and a LMG team in addition to the Panther, I take a Medium Mortar, a HMG Team, and Achilles (there is no other way I can attempt to take out the Panther). I also take a medic to protect my SL. Unlike our last game my dicing is pretty good and I can quickly place the FO with a infantry section and a SL in the stone house that controls the crossroads. I also plop down my 3rd section behind the wall. Mike places Squad 1 in the stone house. My Bren team behind the wall takes some shock, but fortunately no kills. My SL is the activated he calls up the mortar. The Canadian Section in the house fires at the German squad and scores a kill. Mike throws to check if the leader is hit, he fires a 1 and then tests to see what happens. He fires a 6, the JL is killed! A good start for the Canadians. Mike then places the Halftrack with the LMG team on the road but can not get a clear shot, he brings in a LMG team and fires at the Bren team behind the wall as does his leaderless 1st squad. The Bren team is now at significant shock. Time to move off the wall and retreat into the wood. Mortars are called. An aiming shot is off 100 yds. The HT now moves into position and fires at the Canadian section in the house. One man is killed. No other casualties. Back to the Canadians, more good command dice. The barrage lands and the German squad in the house take more casualties. The Panther is hit but suffers no damage. The HMG team in the the other house fires at the LMG team behind the house, they are all killed. The German morale is down to 7. Aside from the LMG team in the HT, the Germans are all under the barrage, the HT fires and misses. Back to the Canadians, the Barrage is again activated but is moved 100 yds. to the right, the HT takes damage and is now under the barrage. Back to the Germans, they decide to make a tactical withdrawal and leave the town centre to the Canadians................ game over. A Canadian Victory!

Well my men's opinion has gone up. Overall a good victory but the German morale on the campaign tracker is still quite high, it would have been nice to get a crack at the Panther and drop the German morale by another 2.