I don’t normally play Axis, but last Saturday I was forced to give them a go. Kampfgruppe Ibekwe consisted of;
2 PzIVs
1 PaK38
1 SS Hauptoberfeldwhateveroffitzer
1 MG42 team
1 50mm light mortar
3 German Riflemen and
1 Italian Rifleman
Which are actually just most of the axis figures I haven’t been able to swap away.
The opposing force had
1 M3 Lee
1 Crusader
2 Stuarts
1 Humber
A couple of Bazooka teams and some other odd infantry. But, fatally, no Officer.
We played on the ‘high ground’ map. I set the tanks up on a hill with the infantry deployed around them, the officer bravely hiding in dead ground to the rear and the PaK38 in cover off to my right, covering the panzers’ flank.
My opponent moved one Bazooka team adjacent to the objective, and made a line-of-sight mistake which cost him the Humber, shot by a PzIV. He then sat his tanks in full defilade behind hills, so we had to go hunting him. This was made easier because, thanks too our officer, we won all but one initiative roll and were able to defeat him in detail. Eventually, we killed all of his tanks - the Crusader finally tried an outflanking move, only to fall prey to that anti-tank gun - and our only loss was one PzIV damaged by the Bazooka as it overran the objective (and simultaneously took out the Bazooka team). I didn’t use my infantry at all (a mistake), but did concentrate the fire of my tanks (good mutual support).
Having an officer is vital, as is not getting him killed. And remember, this is a game of maneuver - if he’d been more aggressive with his armour and rushed me to get some flank shots, it would have been a different story.