683 - D-Day Campaign Phase 1b (US Airborne Landings)

Wow! Somehow, I'm three weeks late with this one, but here's the OTHER of the parallel games we played to represent the nighttime landings in the early hours of D-Day, 1944.

Osttruppen worriedly edge up the road in the dark...

I believe it's called 'Skirmish in the Dark' (again, from the new Campaign: Overlord' supplement) and it is the kind of game that I absolutely adore: in other words, it was small-scale and very very randomised in terms of what units appeared, when and where, to represent scattered patrols of echelon Germans desperately scouring the French countryside for even more scattered fragments of US Paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st. 

More Paras arrive (played here by Alex's gorgeous US Army)
and the night is shattered further by close-range musketry.

Simply, on a 4x4 table, the US player starts with a group of 5 Paras, and the German has a normal patrol of Heer. From that point on, tow units enter from a random edge each turn, and the players roll to see whether they're US or German...before rolling to see who it is, from a wandering medical team to a lost mortar to a bazooka [useless in this game!] to a squad of brave Fallshirmjager or cowardly Osttruppen. 

Bazooka versus infantry. In the dark. Useless.

As it happened, I was very lucky with my rolls, whilst my opponent, Charlie was not. Mostly, this manifested in way more US troops arriving than Germans, and then it just became a matter of whittling them down. 

A senior German Lieutenant picks his way toward the fighting. Too late.

Pleasingly, no-one shot at the medics from either side. 

This lost British Para Medic is escorted by two US Paras
as they dash across the track. 

Even more pleasingly, an unlikely series of enjoyably lucky rolls on turn one resulted in none other than Capt. Richard Winters rocking up out of the darkness! Whilst a few more rifles might have been useful, and he spent most of the game just watching from the middle (let us charitably call it staying a tactical bound behind', at the end, when needed, he ordered four units at once to converge on the last remaining pockets of Heer troops in the area and send them packing. 

Dick Winters (centre-top, behind the hedge gap) takes charge. 

Another enjoyable random feature was the night-fighting. Every turn a powerful flare might go up and turn the night briefly into day, so it was really risky to move out into the open.

The last squad of Grenadiers, shortly before they were shot and
pinned off the table.

HUUUUGE thanks to Charlie who set up a beautiful table and was - as always - a thoroughly sporting foe: even when the chips were down, he enjoyed telling the story!

Next up, 

BEACH LANDINGS!

- Drax.

(lagging behind, but loving the gaming.)

682 - D-Day Campaign Phase 1a (British Airborne Landings)

Hello, All,

Last week the local club's approach to a D-Day Mini-Campaign kicked off, with two parallel battles taking place in the early hours of June 6th 1944. This post records the first of them, played by Alex and Sam...

Assault on the Merville Battery

Objective: Destroy the German 150mm battery

Under the staunch leadership of Lt Col Otway, Alex's men of the British 9th Parachute Bn had edged toward the battery perimeter, and Capt Greenway's men had cleared paths through most of the mines, but the battalion had lost way too many of their men and equipment in the landings... 

The Scenario Map from Warlord's Campaign: D-Day 
(used w/o permission. Note the minefields, marked with brown patches) 

Sam's absolutely SUPERB interpretation
of the map. We had to improvise the mines,
so we used brass drawing pins. It worked a treat! 

So, under-equipped and perilously undermanned, Otway decided to forgo the last few yards of breaching, and instead headed round the flank to attack from the road entrance!

The Paras veer off to flank along the road.

This was a departure from the historical battle, but there were some similarities, like - for example - the prompt destruction of the perimeter machinegun nests. 

 Here, the extent of the minefields is clear.
You can see why Alex's Otway went round instead! 

The Paras made great progress up the road (and clearing the buildings) at first, but then, when the inexperienced defenders started to make sense of the dim shapes flitting through the darkness, their fire started to whittle the Brits down.

The Static Infantry Div troops are okay
to start with. 

The Paras are grateful to reach the buildings. 

Ne'er disheartened, the Paras stoically fought on and into the gateway to the battery, overwhelming those squads who'd rushed out to meed them. 

And then, just as they were nearing the gun in the first casemate, all resistance crumbled. As a couple of the remaining perimeter teams fled back through their lines, the stunned men of 1st Bty, Artillery Regiment 1716 and 716th Static Infantry Div put down their arms, put up their hands, and shuffled forward in the dark. 

Otway's men were relieved, to say the least: casualties had been high, but at least the Old Man hadn't made them attack through the fence and minefield. Also, having lost their explosives in the landing, they now had a little more time to work out how to destroy or disable the guns...which it turned out were not the 150mm guns they'd been briefed on, but instead some old Czech 100mm howitzers. 

An RAF photo-reconnaissance shot
of the abandoned battery, 0743hrs.

Still, at least that was one battery which now wouldn't be able to engage the men on the beaches!

By 0530, and under attack now from another German battery, the 9th Bn moved off toward their next objective: Sallenelles.

- - - 

Hearty thanks go out to Alex, Sam and Charlie, without whom none of this would have been thinkable, and Guy, for the loan of guns and scenery. Some of these pics are courtesy of Alex, and Sam and Charlie did a truly MASTERFUL job of setting out the scenery. 

The next post will be Phase 1b: the US 82nd and 101st Airborne randomly scrapping their way through the darkness of rural Normandy... Watch this space! 

- Drax. 

681 - Super-fun Intro Game of Bolt Action

So super-fun, in fact, that I forgot to take enough pictures!

Last week, a new fellow - David - came along to the club in Torbay in the hope of trying out some Bolt Action, so I jumped in on the game that Alex and Sam were going to have and we bumped it up to a 2v2, 1500pts per side game instead, with US and British Allies in Normandy defending three hard-won crossing points over the upper Meuse River from a German counterattack.

Sam had got there early enough to set up a gorgeous table and come up with the scenario: cleverly, there was no set-up (all units had to advance on), but - having won the toss - the Allies got to choose their table edge, and this made them defenders too, meaning that contested objectives would go in their favour.

David had chosen to play Brits, so he took charge of 750 points' worth of my 4KSLI with a Cromwell in support...

...and Alex had his Yanks - including his stalwart Rangers, whom we allowed a pre-game 'run' onto the board. 

Facing them, Sam and I opted for an attack across a fairly broad front - we were very restricted in our movement by terrain, especially a tributary of the Meuse which cut our side in half. The Allies also had two bunkers in one corner, which was bound to make them a very tough nut indeed to crack!

Some of the Germans:

I shan't provide a blow-by-blow account; instead, here are a few of the highlights...

On turn two, a squad of my Heer de-bussed from their Hanomag and opened-up on the unsuspecting Rangers...without a shadow of a doubt this was the best single roll I've ever made in twenty-mumble years of wargaming - distracted by a firefight across the river, the Rangers were slaughtered from their flank, losing ten of the eleven men remaining at one fell swoop:

Shortly thereafter, the plucky British PIAT team snuck-up and blew their Hanomag sky-high with a beautifully placed spigot round. Everyone loves a rare PIAT success, and David was no exception! 

Whilst the opposing tanks flirted with each other and the troops jockeyed for position, the Allied forward observers were setting up to call in their support: the British FOO called in a fire mission on a dense concentration of Germans in the bottleneck on our right flank, whilst the US air observer called in a strike on the Germans approaching the bridge. Sadly for him, his transmission was cut short as he was gunned-down in his OP. Did enough of the target information get through?

Turn four started with the off-table 25pdr batteries raining death on the German lines: some fortuitous rolling from David led to a MASSIVE bombardment of our troops: the 12'' radius caused a huge amount of pins and the loss of another three German units - the sniper, the mortar, and the PaK36 Hanomag.

Ouch. Sadly, no pics.

Then came the roar of engines and the USAF zoomed in...straight at the wrong target! Yes, the AOP's dying message had evidently been garbled, because the 'Jabo' took after its own Sherman and spread around an awful lot of pins. A pity that it didn't finish off that pesky tank, but after the awesome success of the British artillery, the airstrike cock-up did cause much hilarity at least!

The biggest moments after this, really, were the Germans taking the bridge and whiffing another two Panzerfaust shots before being gunned down by the vengeful Tommies, and the Yanks consolidating the ford on their right flank. 

Game over: a secure Allied victory, with them holding two of the three crossing points.

This was an absolutely cracking game, and a pleasure to meet David, as well as playing my old sparring partners, Alex and Sam - thanks, guys!

- Drax