Get your Panthers off my lawn!

So Thursday was our usual Cavaliers gaming night and it is always good to see my mates out killing each other for fun!
Josh was keen for a game using 1500 points for some reason which I forget and claimed to have a 'knocked togther' force.
I tried to squeeze my list into the, new to me, Task Force A list which was intriguing to me. It looked a lot more like the actual organizations from AAR's that I've read, albiet with some strange restrictions designed to fit them into the *one* task force they [BF] had read about.
In list terms it was HQ, two - one patrol Cav Plts, Full M18 Tank Destroyers, Shermans x4, Stuarts x4, Combat Engineer Platoon with 4 Bzks, Scotts x3 and Limited P47's
Then I saw Josh's gear; at first my eyes locked onto the Panthers and I kinda slowly started counting. Yep 4 Panthers.80
Also he had brought a Stug platoon and a Panzergrenadier platoon with it's Stug HQ.
I'm thinking, wish I had some more AT!
He wanted to play Breakout and I was cool with that. He didn't realize that TFA always attacks. So he started setting up leaving his Stugs as rienforcements and stacking up his Panthers and Panzergrenadiers in an arrow pointed right at the two objectives.
I put down my TD platoon flanking his Panthers and my Combat Engineers in trucks driving towards the objective with the Shermans covering their flank.
Everything good right?
Wrong, his HQ gets placed right on my TD's flank and I've left one exposed from that angle leaving the whole platoon without cover. A rule that is often overlooked in friendly matches apparantly, though I did know of it's existence.
Anyway I recce moved the stray TD and kept him in firing position.
My plan was to incinerate a few Panthers, plunk down the CEP on the objective and win on turn 2.;-)

So, when the rolling/ shooting stopped, I realized that this was going to be tougher than initial projections indicated...
What happened you ask? Nothing. 8 shots of 76mm at the flanks of 3 Panthers. Did I bail one? Maybe, but it doesn't matter, it saved on it's turn anyway. I've kinda blocked it out actually.

Then my Shermans Plt Commander bogged exiting a hilly wood, he stayed there for 5 turns.

The Panthers continue their march, and return fire of course.

Most of my pictures didn't come out either.

In the good news department he only killed one and bailed one. Then on my turn 2 the Sacrificial Stuart platoon showed up, ran behind his HQ Stugs and killed them both!


My combat engineers move onto the objective just in time to get mg'd by the Panthers while my HQ M8's ping away at the lead Panther's flank to no effect. My two surviving Shermans ping away at the rear Panthers, also to no effect.
I forget to dig in my CEP as well as watch while my only 'effective' AT weapons bounce off of the Panther's armor or fail FP tests.

Altogether a real bummer on the engagement department. But fun anyway. As I had read elsewhere, the TFA list is a real 'glass hammer' you need to crush things fast. I could have used another TD platoon maybe, or just rolled better.

I capitulated after my heroic CEP broke after several turns of being mg'd and only after they were down to 2 stands from 10.
Note to self, bazookas do not work against a Panthers front armor.

Huzzah Josh!