All American campaign: Battle for La Fière

 With a -2 on my force morale roll (men's opinion was -7, due to the casualties suffered in previous games), attacking across an exposed causeway, the Americans starting with 2 full Chain of Command dice and occupying hard cover buildings, this scenario was going to be challenging for the Germans to say the least.

Because of the mandatory 2 tank support requirement, the mortar barrage option was not available for the Germans. Trying to deny the Americans deployment with help of a preliminary barrage was also out (starting with 2 full Chain of Command dice meant my opponent could end the turn immediately, ending the preliminary barrage before it took place).

My plan was therefore to take an extra squad as support and try and advance the infantry while the tanks were blasting the Americans.

The patrol phase did provide the Germans with a foothold across the bridge which I used to deploy Obergefreiter Merkwürdig's support squad in overwatch

A slew of double phases allowed my opponent to deploy his 2 paratrooper squads and his support MMG.

Although they took some minor hits from the German overwatch fire, their return fire did more damage and wounded Obergefreiter Merkwürdig.

Not once, but twice! Knocking him out for the remainder of the turn.

It even got worse when the US mortar team deployed and started dropping mortar rounds on the German squad.

Lt Jesse James and Plt Sgt Henry McCarty directing fire

A bunch of useless German command dice rolls prevented deployment of support for Obergefreiter Merkwürdig's squad. Destruction was imminent.

Finally some decent command dice rolls! The Panzers arrive!

They start firing high explosive shells at the paratroopers, causing casualties and taking some pressure off the beleaguered German squad.

But of course my opponent uses his full Chain of Command dice to exploit the scenario ambush location under the bridge and a US bazooka team appears next to the Panzer!

And they miss!

Several times!

The Panzers move forward, but it is too late for Obergefreiter Merkwürdig's squad. They're gone and German morale is dropping.

The paratroopers now attempt to drive off the Panzers with machine gun fire. I deploy Obergefreiter Heines's squad behind the Panzer on the bridge, primarily to prevent another bazooka ambush.

Despite them taking cover behind the walls lining the bridge, accurate paratrooper fire quickly wounds Heines and destroys the squad to a man.

Inevitably a bazooka round finds its mark and destroys the Panzer.

We discussed the likelihood of the second Panzer being able to push the wreck of the first one off the bridge (I don't think it is in the rules), but decided to stop the attack. The Germans still had two full squads, but only 3 command dice left. Their chances of reaching the objective building on the other side of the table were slim.

This means that the Germans have lost the campaign (this was campaign turn 5; they had to win this game AND the next one to meet the campaign victory conditions). The US paratroopers have succesfully delayed them long enough. Post game bookkeeping saw the men's opinion on the German side drop to -12. Which means that Unterfeldwebel Kühn dies in mysterious circumstances...

In hindsight, my plan to have the Panzers advance across the bridge providing cover for infantry behind them was not the best option.

Using the foothold across the bridge to try and flank the paratroopers with the infantry while providing supporting fire with the Panzers from the causeway (forcing ambushers to fire at their front armour) would have perhaps worked better.

Fistful of Lead - first game

As part of my ongoing search for the "right" sci-fi skirmish game rules I recently bought Fistful of Lead by Wiley Games  They have a sci-fi specific set of rules (Galactic Heroes) that has the same game mechanics, but I decided to try the core rules first. Since it is a multi-period set of rules, my son and I went for a cowboy game.

After Mr Brown's escape from the Law (read all about it here) he headed North across the border. There he and his new gang attracted the attention of the North-West Mounted Police. The Brown gang has noticed that the Law is again on their tail and are planning to ambush the NWMP camp (modified ambush scenario from the free Galactic Heroes scenario pack).

I have a bad feeling about this...

The mounties sense that something is up and scan the area for the Brown gang. The Brown gang has the first action however and Mr. Red uses his sniper skill to wound the NWMP leader, Inspector Goodman.

Fortunately Inspector Goodman activates on a Queen of Hearts card, removing his wound and allowing him to run for cover. 

While Mr Brown and Mr. Black move through the forest to the north side of the camp, Top Hat and Mr. Pink move to the south side.

The mounties run to the hill, but Constable Frost is hit by a long range shot from Mr. Red.

Top Hat and Mr. Pink have cleared the woods and exchange fire with the mounties. Constable Crow manages to put Mr. Pink out of action, but not before he inflicts some shock on Constables Hudson and Frost

Mr. Brown and Mr. Black have reached Mr. Red and move in on the mounties from the north. Corporal Hicks has however reached the top of the hill and uses his expert long range fire skills to take Mr. Red out of action.

Inspector Goodman joins Corporal Hicks at the top of the hill, but quickly runs out of ammo after wounding Mr. Black.

Meanwhile, Constable Frost has gotten on his feet and staggers towards the hill, only to be stabbed from behind by the insidious Top Hat.

Constable Crow moves in to assist his buddy, but he is no match for Top Hat's fighting skills.

When Constable Frost collapses and dies from his wounds, Corporal Hicks has a clear shot and takes out Top Hat.

Having eliminated the threat from this side, Constable Hudson and Corporal Hicks turn their attention to the other side where Mr. Brown has managed to take out Inspector Goodman.

Mr. Brown decides to get out while he still can and tries to escape. He runs past a dying Mr Black when a bullet from Corporal Hicks cuts him down. 

The Mounties won, but if Mr. Brown had been able to escape, victory would have gone to the Brown gang (Constable Frost failed his recovery roll and died from his wounds).

Playing was quite easy. We only had to look up the close combat, wound and recovery rules and used the quick reference for everything else. I kept the individual traits simple so we wouldn't forget about them and wouldn't need to look up the specific rules.

Perhaps it was our dice rolling and/or selection of traits, but I found it to be an unforgiving game: Even with some cover, figures are easily hit and once they are wounded they are very vulnerable and have little chance of recovering.

I definitely like the rules and look forward using them for other periods and settings.

(Excuse the dark photographs. Lighting conditions were abviously not optimal. I often have difficulities taking good pictures of a snow gaming table; most artificial light seems to give everything a yellow haze, but without it everything's too dark).

All American campaign: Holding the line at Cauquigny, 2nd attempt

I struggled to come up with a new plan for this scenario after having been defeated during the first attempt. US elite paratroopers in hard cover are very difficult to take out, needing two subsequent sixes on d6 rolls for infantry squad weapons fire. No doubt my opponent would again make the most of the available hard cover on his side of the map. 

In the end I stuck with the forward mortar battery observer as a support choice in addition to the mandatory panzer. I read another Chain of Command AAR where a Pre-game barrage allowed troops to quickly move towards their objective unopposed because the enemy failed their deployment rolls, so I decided to give that a try.

The plan:

In order to prevent the early loss of my forward observer I wanted to protect him as much as possible and activate him as much as possible so my plan was:

• to deploy him behind the panzer
• together with the senior leader
• surrounded by a squad (to take the hits for him)

The other two German squads would then be used to exploit (hopefully) opportunities to move forward and seize the US jump off point, helped by the pre-game barrage delaying arrival of the paratroopers.

It worked. But the whole thing was a nailbiting experience and could have gone either way.

The patrol phase went slightly better for the Germans than the previous game, allowing the German squad led by Obergefreiter Keller to deploy in the farmhouse overlooking the church.

Unterfeldwebel Kühn deploys with the Panzer III

Soon followed by the forward observer and Obergefreiter Grabers squad.

The paratroopers led by Platoon sergeant Wyatt Earp and sergeant Frank McNabb deploy again in overwatch behind the sturdy walls of the churchyard, not in any way hampered by the pre-game barrage!

Then the mortar shells start raining down. The barrage is moved slowly towards the church by the forward observer.

With the barrage hampering the US troops, Obergefreiter Heines deploys on the road, intent on exploiting the gap.

They need to scamble back over the wall to safety however, because sergeant Frank Galucio deploys with his paratrooper squad and sends a hail of fire down the road.

By now we had a turn end, full chain of command dice used to continue the barrage and end the turn again and a barrage re-start attempt.

The group upon which my plan depended was taking casualties. So far the forward observer had managed to avoid injury.

While another barrage hit the paratroopers, I decided to replace Grabers squad (now reduced to just the LMG team) behind the panzer with Heines squad to increase the chances of keeping the forward observer alive.

 

Things weren't going well for the paratroopers. When they weren't being hit by the barrage, the panzer was pounding them with HE.

Then disaster strikes (for the Germans)! The forward observer is hit. Fortunately he is only wounded and cannot move for the rest of the game. 

He can however still call in a barrage and move it towards the paratroopers in the church yard.

The game now continued in a chain-of-command-dice-turn-ending contest: The Germans start a barrage (and were fortunate not to roll a 1: no more barrages available for the rest of the game), The Americans use a CoC dice to end the turn, the Germans use a CoC dice to continue the barrage, turn ends because of 3 and even 4 sixes, etc., etc. When the paratroopers fire at the group behind the panzer, the panzer returns fire. The wounded forward observer is safe from paratrooper fire and together with Unterfeldwebel Kühn, keeps on directing the mortar barrages.

At this point I got so nervous, I mostly forgot to take pictures.

Lieutenant Bob Dalton and sergeant Frank Galuci (wounded) braved the mortar barrage to succesfully defend the jump-off point against capture by Obergefreiter Graber and his LMG team.

The sole survivor of his squad, obergefreiter "Glückspilz" Graber narrowly escaped the next mortar barrage, running for his life back towards the German main lines.

In the end, the remaining paratroopers were pinned inside the church, sheltering from the mortar barrage , while the panzer was steadily punching holes in the house containing Bob Dalton and Frank Galuci.  

The paratroopers withdrew. The Germans reached their objective and won the game. The plan worked, but as said, it could've gone either way. If the German forward observer had been killed, or the barrage had become unavailable for the rest of the game, victory would have been doubtful.

The next map requires the Germans to attack the La Fiére bridge across a narrow causeway. If they lose that game, the campaign is lost for them and the Americans will have succesfully delayed them long enough for Allied reinforcements to reach them from the Normandy beaches.

Given the effectiveness of the mortar barrage as a support choice in this game, the Germans will most likely face one in the next game. It will not be available for them as a support choice, because  the scenario states that the German player must select 2 panzers for support and they don't have enough support points left for a forward observer. I will have to think of something else......