Nuts! Game

Having been stuck in a bit of a work rut, last week I decided to set-up a quick game, entirely for its own sake.  With no time to think hard about scenarios and suchlike, and my 7-year old son expressing an interest in playing, I decided to have a game of Nuts!

 Apart from its many intrinsic virtues, the recent news that a new edition of Nuts! and a compendium are out may have put it to the top of my mind!  The other thing I wanted to do was get my US 15mm WW2 platoon to the table, since it was painted a while ago but I hadn't yet got to play a game with them.

Anyway, an extremely simple set-up; 2 x US squads (one of 11 and of 12 respectively, each Rep 4 with a Rep 5 leader) taking on an area relatively strongly defended by the Germans (investment level 4).

Americans approach a small French hamlet in the midst of some little woods over a stream.

It is a bit tricky to see, but there is a hill to the left of the two central buildings

The US go right-flanking; there is nothing obvious in the building so the Americans use it to anchor their position.

The US left-hand section then begins its advance, but the soldier on the extreme left sets off a mine - two soldiers are merely concussed, but another is killed and one more severely wounded

The US were advancing through the orchard having been assured by some local French people that it was safe; a German section was moving from the woods (top-centre) towards the Americans when it was engaged by a fire team to the left: the German point man and section commander were both made casualties, although one of the US soldiers was severely injured too.

With German attention focussed elsewhere, the US left-hand squad advances by skirting the hill to the left (bottom)

The US point man enters the woods (note the wounded Germans in the background)

The other US section achieves fire superiority but is then engaged by an MG42 hidden in one of the houses.

The arrival of the other US squad from the other flank tips the balance: a further German is injured and the MG42 team is silenced by combined fire from the squad leader's Thompson and the BAR man.

With the German section's heads being firmly kept down, the US sends a small team round the back of the German position

A further German casualty tips the balance and the Germans run for it!

The remaining Germans surrender to the US at the edge of the woods

 Game Notes: Not a lot to say about this one except to comment again on Nuts! being a great system for this kind of situation, where a quick solo or co-operative game is required.  The scenario promised to be a lot tougher except for the US good fortune in meeting the French civilians.  As well as using up one of the PEFs (potential enemy forces) this also (mechanically) reduced the enemy's investment level, meaning it less likely that further forces would be activated.  Given the number of buildings, which also could be hiding Germans, this dramatically changed the US chances, who would otherwise have been at severe risk of being out-gunned.  As it was, reasonable use of cover to end up putting the Germans in a cross-fire and a reasonable amount of fortune in the die rolls meant that the the US were able to come through this one okay.

US casaulties: 1 x KIA, 2 x WIA
German casualties: 5 x WIA (all captured), 5 x unwounded POWs.

Mechanically I wasn't sure what should happen when the running away Germans came into close combat range with the US group in the rear.  Entering melee seemed unlikely, so I ruled that they would have surrendered.  Any thoughts?