Having a few generic playtest games under my belt, I thought it was time to start running historical scenarios to see how things flowed compared to the actual historic fights. Since I still had my British in the transport case, I figured I would use them again. One of my buddies pulled his German micro armor out of storage, so I figured I would give him the chance to use it after a long sojourn.
I have a number of scenarios for Canadians that I could pull from, so I opted for Verrieres Ridge, as it was the size I was looking for, The terrain is quite open with a handful of Forrests and towns. The Germans start with the high ground along the ridge and have their front anchored along the river Orne.
The Germans would start on the table with the smaller force and then have to counter attack with their reserves. The winner would be the side that controlled the most of the five towns on the table. The game was set at six turns long.
The Germans start with a Grenadier regiment of two battalions in emplaced positions. The force is supported by two companies from SS Panzer Aurklarungs Abteilung 12. The defensive force would b e supported by two battalions of divisional artillery. In reserve, the Germans have a kampfgruppe built around the rest of the Aufklarungs troops and the remnants of one panzer battalion (Pz IVs and Stugs). These would be held in reserve and would by available starting on turn three, based on a roll of four on a D6. Any units not entering in on turn three would enter automatically on turn four. This force would be supported by a Werfer battalion of artillery.
The Canadian force was made up of two infantry brigades. Each would include an MMG company and Churchill company (it should have been Shermans, but I did not have them with me). This force would be supported by three regiments of 25lb artillery.
The game would start as overcast, so there would be no air support. Starting on turn two, we would roll for rain. On any roll below the turn number, the rain would start. Once it started to rain, maximum visibility would be reduced to twenty inches and a command penalty would apply to all rolls.
The Canadians set up first within fifteen inches of the north board edge. The Germans then set up their onboard forces behind the forward highway, but not within engagement range of the Canadians (six inches).
We got a bit of a late start again, but finally got going once the players organized themselves. The Canadians were the attacker, so they would win any initiative ties. We started turn one, with the Germans holding on defense and the Canadians moving forward slowly to soften up the defenders. The Canadians continued to advance the next few turn and angled the Germans in close combat.
The sheer weight of numbers really favored the Canadians, as they started to wear down the Germans, casing both battalions to go to worn. The Canadians losses were spread across their battalions, so they could keep up the advance, with the exception of their left most battalion that took the brunt of the fire from the ridge and also went to worn.
On turn three, the rains came, as well as the bulk of the German reinforcements. However, both of the German infantry battalions had gone to spent at this point. The Germans moved forward with their reserves to shore up the center and left of their battle line (deciding the right was lost). The Canadians kept coming forward and pressed their attacks.
The ensuing fights favored the Canadians (as in they rolled a lot better), pushing the spent German battalions back away from the fight. The reserve battalions poured fire into the Canadians trying to slow the advance. The key fight was the large town of St Martin where the panzers and Canadians attacked collided. The Canadians took the heavier damage, but the SS troops were the ones that got pushed back out of the town.
Unfortunately, we ran out of time after five turns. However, it was clear that another turn was not going to affect the overall results. We tallied up the points and the Canadians controlled three towns, to the Germans one (St Martin was contested). This resulted in a Canadian victory. The butchers bill was two spent German Grenadier Battalions and one worn Canadian battalion. Hail Canada!
I finally did a wide front game, which I hoped would give me a better feel for the fatigue system and it did. It is clear I need to cap fatigue once a battalion is spent, as it starts to get a bit silly. I still need to do some pondering on mixed formations and targeted fire, as we had some anomalies when engaging the Churchills and Universals. Nothing huge, just a few more tweaks! Stay tuned for next months game!
- Manteuffel