Nuts! Normandy Campaign - Mission 03: Patrol Past Hill 471

After being defeated quite easily in Mission 02 when out platoon of Tyneside Scottish ran headlong into the best part of German Grenadier Coy, it was back to square two, if not quite square one, and HQ ordered another recce patrol to be conducted in the vicinity of Hill 471, to try and find an exploitable gap in the German defences.

Again, this patrol was to be conducted by1 Section, led by the Platoon commander:

Me - Platoon Commander (SMG) Rep 6
LCpl Robson - Section 2IC (rifle) Rep 4
Pte Charlton - Bren Gunner Rep5
Pte Todd - Bren Gunner 2nd Rep 4
Pte Armstrong -  Rifleman Rep 4
Pte Brown - Rifleman Rep5
Pte Elliot - Rifleman Rep3
Pte Johnson - Rifleman Rep4

The Mission:

 

The hill. The British will approach from the bottom of the table.

Pte Brown and the Lt gingerly move forward under the slope

A worm's eye view

The patrol has advanced without much incident.  They prepare a snap ambush in case hidden Huns are pursuing...

Same position, different angle

Having moved safely through the wood, the section creates a firm base of fire, whilst the lance-corporal leads a small patrol forward to complete the patrol.

Same position, different shot

LCpl Robson returns having successfully completed the recce and still not a German seen.  The section is in defence, just preparing to move off when...whistles on the wind...INCOMING!!!  Luckily for the section, only one serious casualty is taken.  The section carries off the casualty into the woods at speed...

Now burdened with a casualty, the Platoon Commander prays that they won't meet any Germans on the way out

His prayers are answered!  The Recce patrol is successfully recovered.

Game Notes:
One casualty was taken in the surprise bombardment, but luckily the casualty recovered quickly afterwards.  No German was seen during the whole affair, but that didn't lessen the tension of the game, as the possibility of the enemy arriving cannot be discounted until the last man is safe - just as in reality.  The lack of German resistance is unusual, but not too unusual, particularly as the German "investment" in this sector is low.  The game neatly differentiates between such things, so Attack/Defend missions are much more likely to generate more enemies in greater numbers than patrol missions.  This "investment level" is really quite a neat mechanism.  The random event generator is similarly simple yet effective.  Nuts! really does handle this sort of stuff very well.

The set-up remains as in the other games of this campaign: the board is 2'x2', the terrain homemade, the figures are mainly from Baccus 6mm, with some from GHQ and Adler too.  Rules of course are Nuts! Final Edition.