First game of 2022: 15mm Rapid Fire

 So our search for a club set of WW2 wargame rules continued today with our first game of 2022 using the popular Rapid Fire rules. We used the small starter scenario from the rulebook, 'Lingevres'-a British attack on a German held village (with a few minor tweaks to the terrain and the forces to better match my collection). 

I had also been quickly painting up a few extra German troops and vehicles and also added a mdf shop and some (almost finished in time) hedges/bocage created from the sponge part of some old pan scourers. 

A couple of newly painted Pak40's in front of nearly finished hedges. 

Three recently finished half-tracks travel past my newly made and painted mdf shop. The mdf building kits turn out quite nice after a quick paint job. 

So with two players a-side Ian and Phil took on the role of the advancing British and Nigel and I were the small holding force of Germans. The British troops had 12 turns to capture the village but they were suspicious of German re-enforcements for the whole game. 

Phil's Sherman's advance and chase of my OP before then shooting him in the back. 

The German infantry fall back on the protection of the ruins (we used a factory instead of the suggested church).

The British were advancing across the board. 

The view from Nigel's side of the table. His infantry did not last too long and his Panther tank proved to be a bit of a lousy shot. 

The Sherman's picked off my HQ unit and their half track and went onto clear the buildings of the remaining infantry with a bit of help from Ian's troops in the centre. 

Nigel's Panther lurking in the village trying to hit something, it did eventually soften up one of Ian's Cromwell tanks. By turn 8 things were looking desperate for the Germans then...

The German re-enforcements arrived, right on Ian's flank. Nigel took control of one Pz4 and blew up a Cromwell first shot. 

...I took control of the other Pz4 and with my first shot blew up the damaged Cromwell. At this point, the British opted to withdraw leaving the Germans in control of the village. Their Sherman's obviously did not fancy taking on a Panther and 2x Pz4's. 

The timely arrival of the German re-enforcements and their lethal shooting completely turned the game around and made for a very exciting finish. We all enjoyed the game (and the rules) and have agreed that these will be our rules of choice for WW2 gaming. We were a little unsure over one or two aspects of the rules but I am sure a careful re-read will sort most things out before our next game.