16 December, 0730 hrs. This game sees the Germans moving on from their victory at the crossroads. The photos below show the view of the table from the south – the crossroad is down the road to the right. The Americans have two squads from the 2nd Platoon (led by the Platoon Sergeant) with a 30-cal MMG and bazooka in support. Their orders are to harass and delay any attacking force and then fall back into the town. Having heard the gunfire to their front at the crossroad as well as behind them in town they will face no deployment restrictions. They have prepared entrenchments across the road and at the wall/fence corner NE of the house, and the MMG is dug in at the door on the east side of the southern barn. They’re not eager for the fight, though, as their Force Morale starts at a lowly ‘8’.
The Germans will attack with the Sturm Platoon (fresh off their success at the crossroad), a Rifle Platoon, and an MG section (2x MG42s). They have two approaches available: Up the road or (on/after the second turn) through the woods — the latter route has been assigned to the MG section, which is tasked with establishing a base of fire on the edge of the woods where the path emerges. The visibility in the fog is 24″. Units maintaining contact with the road needn’t roll for deployment, but the MGs deploying from the woods will need to roll 4+ to succeed, and two failures will indicate their being lost and out of the game. The troops may have felt that one battle was enough to ask of them, as their Force Morale is -like the Americans- a not-at-all-thrilled-about-this ‘8’.
The Americans get a great first roll and deploy both squads and the MMG. All are placed on overwatch, peering into the fog, while -perhaps most critically- the Sergeant manages to establish contact with the mortars back in town. Hearing that they’re up and have already been in action (on Map B), he tells them to be ready to receive a fire mission for here.
The Germans also see success in initial deployment and soon have both platoons moving up the road, though the leaders are kept busy keeping their green troops in order. Leading the way is an assault squad in the captured jeep: Their orders are to hide in cover and be available to rush any weakness that may appear in the defender’s position. They manage to get to the shed without the Americans realizing that the vehicle is not -as they assume- manned by friendlies rushing back with news from the crossroad.
The fog thickens a bit (random event from turn-end brought about by German roll of quad-6s), and as the Germans pile out of the jeep someone on the 30-cal crew cries out “They’re Krauts!” and the MMG opens up – no casualties are caused but the JL will have his hands full rallying off the shock.
Hiding behind the shed does not help, though, when the Sergeant orders the bazooka team in the house to put a round into the structure: The blast takes out two of the Germans.
The main German force continues its advance up the road – the reduced visibility (18″) helps to screen them from any hindering fire but running continuously has placed a lot of shock that the leaders just can’t keep up with. Still, they decide that getting up and ‘stuck in’ is their best hope for winning, and so continue pressing the men forward.
As they close in those that come within sight of the defenders receive a disproportionate share of attention/fire: An example being the LMG squad that makes it to the fence next to the jeep only to be pinned there.
The casualties and shock are soon spread to all of the attackers as the range closes and the Americans have plenty of targets. Urging their men forward/into action is proving to be too much for the German leaders to manage. It doesn’t help that the planned support of the MG42 section hasn’t materialized: It has finally managed to find its way to the forest edge, but the thickened fog presents them with only sounds of gunfire and desperate shouts.
Seeing so many Germans massed to his front (and not wanting to wait for them to organize for a concerted attack) prompts the American Platoon Sergeant to call up the mortars. “Shall we send a ranging shot?” they ask. “NO!” the Sarge shouts back: “Fire for Effect!”. Everyone on both sides instinctively hunkers down as they hear the whistling signal of incoming mail that is simply addressed to “resident”.
Two of the tubes put their rounds into the yard between the opposing lines: The Germans at the fence and the Americans at the corner each take a point of shock, but the US squad also sees its leader knocked out.
The third mortar puts its fire behind the house, shocking the bazooka team and causing them to wonder if that barrage was ordered by their side or the enemy…?
The mortar fire ended the turn (actually triple-6 US command roll, but the other way sounds better…) and when the smoke clears so does the fog: visibility has risen to 42″. When they rise up and quit wondering “What the Hell…?”, the Americans still see lots of Germans to their front and open fire. One of the assault squads at the fence decides that this is much worse than their previous job at the naval base and breaks to the rear, while an advancing LMG squad has now been pinned.
The Germans refuse to concede, though – perhaps they think that that mortar fire was theirs…? With the battlefield now clearly in sight, a Platoon SL orders his rifle grenade team to plunk rounds on the 30-cal – they manage to take out the loader as well as an adjacent rifleman.
On the German right, intense fire from the assault squad at the fenceline along with that of the MG section at the forest’s edge (who can finally see something…and they roll 20-dice!) takes out the BAR team in the corner entrenchments and makes life for the Americans there quite perilous – they probably can’t survive those conditions for much longer.
“Well, Hell…” thinks the American Sergeant, “If at first you don’t succeed…” At the beginning of the new turn he’d called up the mortar section and told them that the effect of their first effort was what he’d expected, but could they please add a few yards for this next go so that it landed on the Germans? The whistle of the shells arcing overhead this time sounds better to him: They should fall to his front instead of behind…and so they do. Shock and death rain down on the attackers. A second round comes soon after, convincing the German leader that this just isn’t going to work, and he orders his men to fall back.
The Germans leave behind 3 men (including a JL) to become POWs, and their morale sinks from their earlier, patriotic fervor to -1. The Americans feel good – except for the Weapon Platoon who take the presence of the jeep as a sign that their comrades at the crossroads are lost, and their morale falls to -2.
As per their original brief, the Americans will cede the ground (Map A) and retire to join up with the 2nd Platoon for a united defense of the town (Map B).
brawlfactory 