For this year's International Tabletop Day, my friend Joe ran an event with his home-made rules called “G.I. Battles”. It was a WWII, skirmish-level game and it was designed to provide more realism than the typical skirmish game. The game did not disappoint in that aspect.
The scenario we played came out of a book from http://www.skirmishcampaigns.com. It's the same company that published "Bloody Big Battles" and "Check Your Six". This book can be used to generate balanced scenarios using actual TO&Es from the historical research. This completely takes away the concept of 'list building' and I appreciated that. List building games seem to 'gamey' to me and too much of the game strategy is spent creating unbeatable lists. I enjoy playing historical force lists and wish to play more games this way.
This particular scenario simulated a typical skirmish that occurred in the bocage of northern France in 1944.
Joe arrived before me and set up the table with 15mm figs with heavy bocage terrain and seven abandoned houses. I was given the Germans with three squads of Fallschirmjeagers with a Pak40 and an anti-air gun (historical list!). My opponent Grant played the Americans with a combined company of two squads of mechanized infantry and three Sherman tanks with hedgerow cutters. Both sides had off-map artillery. Joe acted as instructor and referee. The goal was for either side to capture as many houses as possible with victory points awarded for each house. The northern most houses were most valuable. The Germans set up first in hidden deployment with prepared AP minefields. The Americans arrived on the south end of the map.
Grant sent one Sherman through some bocage and started moving down the most direct road on the west side of the map. As he reached the first crossroads, the Panzerfausts took some shots at the lead tank. Fearing that the road was mined and an ambush was nearby (yes to both), Grant backed up almost to the edge of the board and turned to mow down more bocage. The remaining tanks and half-tracks headed down the east road toward most of the houses.
I left most of the southern-most houses free to take. Instead, I concentrated the ambush at the crossroads about 2/3rds of the way across the board. The squads were hidden in the bocage and the Pak40 was placed perfectly in a wheat field and aimed down the length of the east road.
Grant captured four houses with no opposition. He then dismounted one squad of infantry in an open field and marched north. That was when I started dropping a prepared mortar barrage. The Pak40 fired from the wheat field and knocked out the first Sherman. The remaining infantry squad rushed into house #5 and began to set up a heavy MG. In this game, you must roll a d20 and accumulate enough points to setup a heavy man-packed gun (added realism). Another Sherman was taken out by a lucky Panzerfaust hit. The German HQ squad with assault rifles was hiding in house #6 and fired at house #5 doing minor hits.
Grant directed all his weapons on the Pak40. A BAR gunner in house #5 killed most of the Pak40 crew. Then, Grant called in his artillery fire on the Pak40. He dropped a white phosphorous air burst munition on the entire wheat field. Surprisingly, the hidden squad in the wheat field took no casualties from the barrage but they had to leave the area to avoid more injury. The Pak40 gun team was reduced to a single man.
Confidently, Grant sent his last tank to face down the Pak40. The gun fired back and with incredibly good dice rolling, the Pak40 destroyed the last Sherman. The HMG setup in house #5 gunned down several German infantrymen. On turn #10, I was required to roll a die to determine the number of remaining turns. The result was two more game turns. This did not leave enough time for the Americans to capture the houses and victory points to win. The Germans survived with a marginal victory. Perhaps if the Americans had not dropped the artillery in front of their advancing troops, they might have won the game.
Battles in the bocage are typically a grind and this was a gritty, hard fought battle indeed.
The scenario we played came out of a book from http://www.skirmishcampaigns.com. It's the same company that published "Bloody Big Battles" and "Check Your Six". This book can be used to generate balanced scenarios using actual TO&Es from the historical research. This completely takes away the concept of 'list building' and I appreciated that. List building games seem to 'gamey' to me and too much of the game strategy is spent creating unbeatable lists. I enjoy playing historical force lists and wish to play more games this way.
This particular scenario simulated a typical skirmish that occurred in the bocage of northern France in 1944.
Joe arrived before me and set up the table with 15mm figs with heavy bocage terrain and seven abandoned houses. I was given the Germans with three squads of Fallschirmjeagers with a Pak40 and an anti-air gun (historical list!). My opponent Grant played the Americans with a combined company of two squads of mechanized infantry and three Sherman tanks with hedgerow cutters. Both sides had off-map artillery. Joe acted as instructor and referee. The goal was for either side to capture as many houses as possible with victory points awarded for each house. The northern most houses were most valuable. The Germans set up first in hidden deployment with prepared AP minefields. The Americans arrived on the south end of the map.
Grant sent one Sherman through some bocage and started moving down the most direct road on the west side of the map. As he reached the first crossroads, the Panzerfausts took some shots at the lead tank. Fearing that the road was mined and an ambush was nearby (yes to both), Grant backed up almost to the edge of the board and turned to mow down more bocage. The remaining tanks and half-tracks headed down the east road toward most of the houses.
I left most of the southern-most houses free to take. Instead, I concentrated the ambush at the crossroads about 2/3rds of the way across the board. The squads were hidden in the bocage and the Pak40 was placed perfectly in a wheat field and aimed down the length of the east road.
Grant captured four houses with no opposition. He then dismounted one squad of infantry in an open field and marched north. That was when I started dropping a prepared mortar barrage. The Pak40 fired from the wheat field and knocked out the first Sherman. The remaining infantry squad rushed into house #5 and began to set up a heavy MG. In this game, you must roll a d20 and accumulate enough points to setup a heavy man-packed gun (added realism). Another Sherman was taken out by a lucky Panzerfaust hit. The German HQ squad with assault rifles was hiding in house #6 and fired at house #5 doing minor hits.
Grant directed all his weapons on the Pak40. A BAR gunner in house #5 killed most of the Pak40 crew. Then, Grant called in his artillery fire on the Pak40. He dropped a white phosphorous air burst munition on the entire wheat field. Surprisingly, the hidden squad in the wheat field took no casualties from the barrage but they had to leave the area to avoid more injury. The Pak40 gun team was reduced to a single man.
Confidently, Grant sent his last tank to face down the Pak40. The gun fired back and with incredibly good dice rolling, the Pak40 destroyed the last Sherman. The HMG setup in house #5 gunned down several German infantrymen. On turn #10, I was required to roll a die to determine the number of remaining turns. The result was two more game turns. This did not leave enough time for the Americans to capture the houses and victory points to win. The Germans survived with a marginal victory. Perhaps if the Americans had not dropped the artillery in front of their advancing troops, they might have won the game.
Battles in the bocage are typically a grind and this was a gritty, hard fought battle indeed.
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