This headquarters location has been identified by local French people. Capturing it will spell the end of resistance in this area and the US forces will be able to complete their drive forward to Isigny.
The Forces:
The last mission of the campaign takes us back to the main line of advance, so a weakened German platoon is used: it is down to two sections, with a single figure platoon leader. As always in this campaign, a separate US infantry platoon is involved, so it starts at full strength.
United States:
Pl HQ:1 x Rifle group (Pl HQ); 1 x Bazooka team
3 x Squads: 2 x Rifle groups, 2 x LMG groups (BARs)
2 x Shermans
1 x FOO with a battery of 4 x 81mm mortars on call
1 x additional Bazooka team
n.b. As discussed in the previous mission, the organization of US infantry in these rules will very much depend upon how the player feels about the BAR. This mission uses BARs as light machine guns, with two per squad according to typical 29th Division practice.
Germany:
1 x Rifle group (Pl HQ): 1 x Officer (single-figure)
2 x Sections: 2 x Rifle groups; 1 x LMG team
1 x Hiwi section: 2 x Rifle groups (additional -1 on any reaction tests)
1 x Sniper
1 x FOO with a battery of 4 x 8cm mortars on call
1 x MG42 (tripod-mounted) team
1 x IG18 and crew
1 x Pak38 and crew
1 x Pak40 and crew
The Germans are generated randomly from this list.
The Set-Up:
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| The battlefield. The US forces will approach from the East (right) again. In the scenario the large field (top-centre) is full of "Rommel's Asparagus" but I don't have any suitable models. The lines of stones are replacing drainage ditches (since I don't have suitable terrain to hand) |
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| An overhead, with East (bottom) |
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| The GIs poke forward, with armour in support... |
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| A German gun opens up (okay, it is a mortar pretending to be an IG18...) |
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| A wider view |
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| The leading group of GIs is eliminated by the HE fire |
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| Germans fire from the building on the right; those US troops not suppressed return fire |
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| Some good US shooting persuades the German survivors to withdraw to the next building (left) |
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| The US continue their cautious advance |
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| "Before I could say, don't step on the mine..." luckily the GIs avoided a mine left in the garden |
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| The US creep forward, suppressing the Germans in the other building (off picture, to the left) |
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| A German section hidden to the flank opens fire! |
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| Another view. Luckily for the GIs, they are suppressed rather than killed |
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| Superior US firepower is again employed - the German section's MG42 is put out of action (these Germans broke and ran soon after) |
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| The remnants of the leading German section retreat in the face of overwhelming odds! |
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| A concealed MG42 opens up!! |
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| Luckily the US are again suppressed, rather than killed... |
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| GIs enter the stone building and the Sherman continues to roll forward in support |
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| The isolated German riflemen are killed or taken |
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| And the flanking MG42 is destroyed too! |
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| Nearly there! The US resume their advance, attempting to cross the road... |
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| When a group of concealed Hiwis suddenly opens up at close range! Eight GIs are down in moments... |
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| Return fire from the Sherman and supporting infantry kills half of the Hiwis in seconds and the others run off (centre-left, in woods) |
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| Ever so near to their objective, the US infantry spot a concealed German AT gun... (top) |
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| The crew are eliminated in short order and the advance continues |
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| The position is taken and cleared! |
US: 3 KIA, 7 WIA
Germans: 6 KIA, 16 WIA (inc. 9 POW)
Game Notes:
A fittingly ferocious end to the campaign. The US have done pretty well, and it scores as a "major victory", although they have suffered appreciable losses - especially in armour - and some delays during the campaign. Roughly 45% of the local German infantry have been given time to escape, but all the artillery has been isolated and abandoned or captured. I don't actually think I have much different to say about this one which wouldn't repeat things I have mentioned previously in the series.
The main things I want to work on rules-wise are to improve the resilience of the defenders. To that end, I am going to spend a little more time refining the Treat Generation System and I am also going to incorporate a withdrawal mechanism for suppressed troops, so that if they have a covered retreat, they can choose to retreat or halt if pinned, as appropriate to the morale result. This will make it more difficult for the attacker to pin and destroy defenders, whereas attackers will still be vulnerable when stepping out into the open. Perhaps I may submit my revised system as a magazine article, if it can be put into a shape I am fully happy with.
All-in-all, I think it has been a really good campaign to get my newly-painted Baccus 6mm WW2 Americans to the table. It provided some very tight, intense, fascinating games - I enthusiastically recommend this Too Fat Lardies' pint-sized campaign!
Many thanks to those who have followed and commented on this series of reports.
Rules as ever were WRG 1925-50, figures by Baccus 6mm, buildings by Leven miniatures.
Interesting to compare this game with a 'standard' CoC one. From our experience the Germans generally gave the attacker quite a bloody nice, with MG 42s and Mortars causing most grief. Whilst 'realistic', the games became a bit samey after a while.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting - why do you think it works out that way in CoC? I have only played CoC a couple of times, and that being solo, I sometimes get a skewed impression. I liked the initial 'patrol phase' bit.
DeleteWe found that an MG42 in a building with good fields of fire pretty much determined the game from the off. Note that this was using the standard scenarios from the book, not the campaign supplements. I know other gamers that have found the same. Great ruleset but not enough 'fun' for me.
DeleteAnother issue is whether to play across the board or along it. One scenario (I can't remember which) meant I won because the opposition couldn't stop me physically leaving the board. When this was mentioned on the CoC forum, the answer was to play along the board. So many games I've seen play like this, making frontal assaults the 'norm' with little option for flank movement etc.
I see, that is quite interesting. That is a fair capability gap between an MG42 in CoC and a similar weapon in WRG then: I have to beef up the abilities of MGs to make them a bit more effective in these rules. That perhaps partly explains why the Allies have normally felt stronger in these CoC-campaigns: the German's most effective weapon is relatively weaker.
DeleteOne of the big advantages of playing in 6mm is that there is nearly always room on the table to find a flank or a more subtle axis of advance.
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