Operation Martlet (Revisited): Mission 1 - Probe Into Fontenay

The Too Fat Lardies' Operation Martlet "pint-sized" campaign was too good to just play once, so today I played it again.

 I used the WRG 1925-1950 rules to play out the scenarios, although I strongly considered using Nuts! and Chain of Command instead.  However, both of those rulesets seem to play better with individually based 15mm figures than with my element based 6mm figures.  The scenarios in this campaign demand just a little bit more scenery than I have in 15mm at the moment - I really need some more 15mm farm buildings for this campaign! - so I decided to go with 6mm figures and the WRG rules again.  I am really looking forward to playing this campaign with Nuts! one day though, I think it would be tremendous.

This campaign concerns Operation Martlet in Normandy 1944, specifically the attack towards Fontenay and then Ruaray by 11/Royal Scots Fusiliers, later relieved by 7/Duke of Wellington's Regt, against elements of the 12th SS Panzer Division:

Anyway, the first scenario featured a British rifle platoon of 11 RSF supported by a Sherman and a FOO for a 3" mortar battery against a German SS Panzergrenadier Pl supported by a Pak40.

The Set-Up:

The road to the outskirts of Fontenay.  The Scots are probing from the left (North).  Incidentally, the hedgerow at the top of the picture is to mark the edge of the board.  It cannot be used as cover by either side.

Another view.

 

And looking along the road that the Scotsmen will advance by.

The Battle:

An infantry section with an attached PIAT hug the bottom hedgerow.

Infantry sections advance by pepperpot next to the main road.

Another view.

The advance is unmolested so far: a section reaches the first building (bottom-left); whilst the advance near the main road is about 50m short of the house by the crossroads.

Another view.

Contact!  British infantry occupying the wall (left) and the stables (closest building) are engaged by a German infantry section.

Meanwhile, the remainder of the British platoon have occupied the crossroads.

The firefight continues; lots of suppression, not much damage!

The remainder of the British platoon formed up, ready to continue the advance

But the trap is sprung!  German infantry to the top-right of the crossroads (just visible behind the hedge!) and another section (beyond the building at the top-left) open fire.

A view from the Eastern side, so the German section can be more easily seen); British troops occupying the building by the crossroads are supporting the Brits outside

The Sherman moved to help the Scotsmen engaged at the bottom; its HE fire and extra MG, allied to the rifle and Bren fire, has destroyed two German MG42 teams.  The British infantry leave the stables to assault the pinned down Germans.

The firefight around the crossroads continues.

While the Fusiliers have completed the destruction of the German section at the bottom.

The FOO calls in 3" mortar fire on the German section at the top...

Six Germans become casualties!

The Sherman moves up to help the Scotsmen at the crossroads, but a Panzerfaust screams out and brews it up!!  Note that supporting fire from the house has already eliminated one of the German LMG teams here.  Just after this, the remainder of both German sections broke and ran.

With the Germans eliminated or driven off, the Scots resume their advance

Losses:
British: 1 x Sherman, 1 x PIAT team
Germans: 2 x Rifle groups, 3 x LMG teams

Game Notes:
I was using the WRG 1925-1950 rules (reviewed here) along with the solo play "Threat Generation" system from Miniature Wargames 373, which I have reviewed previously here, but in essence involves using a card deck to pick German defenders (or nothing, there are some dummy cards); randomly generating the direction and distance of the threat; then randomly generating the tactical posture of the threat.  It does work really well for a reasonably casual solo game.

 It doesn't generally give the toughest game - although you do need your wits about you - simply because a randomly generated defence shouldn't be as effective as a planned one, given reasonable tactics and an average dose of luck.

You get a feeling for how the WRG rules work after a while, especially in infantry battles: lots of suppression for relatively little damage, as long as the range isn't very close or somene is caught on the move in the open.  This feels pretty realistic.  Suppressing then assaulting really does work, as long as you have numerical superiority too (otherwise it is hard to generate the forces needed to carry out the assault, they are all too busy pinning).  It was quite a lucky shot that did for the Sherman!

I should note that I use a ground scale of 1":10m for these scenarios.  For 6mm troops that is not too far off accurate ground scale!

Figures mainly by Baccus 6mm, the Sherman is from GHQ, the buildings from Leven Miniatures and Timecast.

The Battle of Brunanburh 937AD - A DBA Refight

Guy Halsall was clearly on a roll, as he wrote another cracking scenario in Miniature Wargames 28, covering the Battle of Brunanburh.  Described as the greatest battle in Anglo-Saxon Britain before Hastings, it featured a Norse-Scots-Welsh alliance against the unified English kingdom of Athelstan.

To do the battle some sort of justice, I used (broadly) the rules for Big Battle DBA, and the following two armies.

The Allies:

The Scots-Welsh Contingent (from list III/45 Pre-Feudal Scots):
2 x 4Wb
8 x 3Pk
1 x Ps

The Norse Contingent (from list III/40b Viking Army):
8 x 4Bd
1 x 4Bw

The English:

The Mercian Division:
2 x 4Bd
6 x Sp
1 x Cv (acting as a joint reserve)
1 x Ps

The Wessex Division:
2 x 4Bd
6 x Sp
1 x Ps

To reflect the Allied quick attack, the first two moves would be given to the Allies before the English Army could react.

The Deployment:

The English are deployed in the foreground, Scots on the hill top-left, Norsemen in front of Brunanburh.

A closer view of the Mercians, looking down across the valley towards the Scots.

The view along the valley, with Allies to the left, English to the right

The view from behind the Allied centre

The Wessex contigent on the English right, facing off against the Vikings.

A close-up of the Scots (and Welsh)

 The Battle:

Following historical precedent, the Allies advance towards the English; the Norsemen slightly ahead of the Scots

...who come down the hill in a large mass, only some skirmishing javelinmen are off to a flank

The Mercians watch the Scots' advance

The Norsemen approach the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall; Viking archery makes no dent in the defence

The Norsemen attack in two groups, with the bowmen left to the rear and a small group of Norsemen in reserve

Fortunes are mixed, but no decisive damage is done to either side in the initial stages of the melee

The men of Wessex stand firm against the Norsemen, who retire to regroup

The melee a little closer to the centre is more of a swirling affair - this heavily favours the Norsemen in general, as the shieldwall is broken and the Anglo-Saxons become less effective

Pressure continues on both sides...

Meanwhile, the Mercians time their advance to maximum advantage, hitting the Scots' spearmen as they advance up the slope

Some of the combats against the Norsemen go the Anglo-Saxons way, but overall the shieldwall has been split, which is very bad news...the Anglo-Saxons simply cannot achieve the destruction of a Viking base here

Whereas the Scots on the other flank are signally succeesful and the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall is disrupted!

And as the shieldwall crumbles, the Scots simply steamroller over the Anglo-Saxons; the entire Mercian Division is in severe trouble

Neither side can gain much of an advantage on the other flank, although the Viking leader does lead his men to destroy their immediate opponents, causing a gap in the line (centre-right)

The Mercian thegns cut lonely figures as the majority of the Fyrd have been destroyed by the Scottish onslaught

More Vikings are pushed back by the Wessexmen, but they just cannot inflict decisive damage!

The Scots destroy enough of the Anglo-Saxon spearmen to demoralize the remnants of the Mercian contingent

The remaining Mercians are mopped up or have fled the field entirely

At last, the Wessexmen destroy a couple of groups of Vikings, but too late, the disruption of the shieldwall is too great and isolated groups of Anglo-Saxons are despatched

The battle ends - the Allies victorious!

The field has been swept of the Anglo-Saxons.  The only crumb of comfort for them is that the Anglo-Saxon nobility appears to have survived intact, the losses were entirely borne by the Fyrd.

 Game Notes: An interesting game, although hardly one of great tactical moves.  However, the decision to plough straight in was bold in its way, I suppose!  More seriously, the Allies were blessed with some good luck and stronger troops.  The advantages of the Viking "blade" troops are already well-known in DBA - the Anglo-Saxon spearmen will do well to beat them; but the Scots' pikemen - even if fast pikemen - are pretty strong when given rear support; again, the Anglo-Saxons will do well to stop them.  A rear supported pike unit against a spearmen shieldwall uphill is an even match unless the pikes are outflanked.  What happened was that the intial pike shock disrupted the line sufficiently that many of the spear elements could no longer claim flank support, so the advantage swung definitively to the Scots' pikemen.  Given that the Scots did have that extra bit of luck, the Anglo-Saxon troops were in for a thin time.  Even when they gained an advantage, they struggled to translate that into destruction results, rather than mere recoils.  The fighting against the vikings was much more even, although it did take some good DBA minor tactics to keep the Anglo-Saxons going for as long as they did.

Rules used were DBA v3.  Figures were from Baccus 6mm, buildings mainly from Timecast, I think.  The play area was roughly 4'x4' on a home made game mat.