The second round on the same table (see the first game for info on the terrain) begins an hour after the start of the first attack – the men’s watches show 0540.
American Force
The 1st Platoon’s numbers have been reduced due to transporting the POWs and wounded JL of the mortar section: Four of the mortarmen (who drove the Jeeps and acted as guards) haven’t made their way back up the hill yet.
The men have been busy digging in along the line they had fought from in repelling the first attack. It’s difficult going in the hard, frozen ground, and they’ve only managed to form a few scrapes that measure their depth in inches when sounds of a new attack coming from the darkness force them to drop their entrenching tools and pick up their weapons.
Their repelling of the first attack and the reinforcements have served to keep their force morale at 9.
The newly arrived 2nd Platoon is under the command of a ‘gung-ho’ leader…
…whose dismissal of the warnings of difficult terrain has led him to bring up three Jeeps -one of which mounts one of the MG section’s 50-cals – as well as to ride up the hill in his M8.
The men don’t share his confidence, and begin the battle with a force morale of 8.
The vehicles may come in handy to cover/facilitate a hasty retreat, but could also be the cause of a debilitating traffic jam?
German Force
The attack (a Probe Scenario again) musters two platoons this time (though the assault platoon is diminished by the capture of five of its men).
The Rifle Platoon has come on the scene with an eager SL who has assumed overall command and vowed to take the hilltop and move quickly to Mouterhouse.
His men do not quite share his eagerness for glory in battle: Their force morale is 9.
The Sturm Platoon has reorganized under the direction of the senior Sturm Gruppe Leader (JL), forming the riflemen into a single section under the other Sturm JL. The LMG Gruppe and Rifle Grenade team are at full strength.
Their force morale is at a ‘why are we doing this again?’ 8.
The Patrol Phase played out much like the previous match, with an extra marker allowed for each side by the presence of a second platoon.
The placement of Jump Off Points also produced similar results. Each side has two markers shared between the two platoons (1 and 4) along with a single JOP for each platoon: tan 2(1st) and green 3(2nd) for the Americans, and white 2(Sturm) and black 3(Rifle) for the Germans.
Dawn is around an hour away so the men are still fighting in the dark (8″ visibility other than on the track which allows 24″) and will have their ears cocked for any noises in the forest that could disclose the presence of the enemy.
The first phases see the Germans come on the table in force. The Sturm Platoon on the left is tasked with acting as a diversion to keep the defenders’ attention on the track, while two sections of the Rifle Platoon (and the third soon following) deploy into the ‘pit’ and make their way towards the hill looming before them – getting up the slope may require more than the SL’s eagerness to succeed?
To make the climb more difficult (and hopefully impossible), the American 2nd Platoon has set up its MG section on the hill above the pit. The 1st Platoon has its own MGs in its scrapes on the other flank – though the 50-cal is the only one that can direct fire to the trackside of the ridge.
The ‘lull before the storm’ ended when the Stuart noticed the Germans in the moonlight edging up beside the track, and opened fire with its bow MG and 37mm gun. A loader for an LMG was taken out and a bit of shock inflicted on the other team.
The range was very long, but the Sturm JL ordered return fire from two men carrying Panzerfaust in the hopes a quick (lucky) blow, but the rockets missed the target and whistled off into the trees.
Return fire by the tank in the next phase put some shock on the grenade team.
With the fight seemingly underway and the German force more-or-less committed* the Americans form up to meet the threat with the fire superiority that won them the first.
An armored car crew of the 1st Platoon and the mortar section of the 2nd remain undeployed, but everything else is on line and peering into the dark.
* This situation -common in many games?- is another ‘fog of war’ violation (similar to the Command Dice issue in both CoC and O Group) that removes what could be an interesting challenge for players in not knowing how much an opponent has ‘up its sleeve’.
The revealing of the U.S. force up on the hill (presenting an opening to the right that contrasts with the danger of climbing the hill to their front!)* leads the Rifle Platoon SL to redirect his men to the right (to get to the track on the far side of hill) as the Grenade Team (the last of the platoon’s force) deploys.
*another of those pesky ‘fog of war’ glitches…
Up on the ridge the Sturm Platoon acts to fulfill its diversionary role.
The brave (or crazy?) rifle grenadiers send shots arcing towards their foe – no damage is done, but the tank will have to engage them on its next activation.*
The LMG teams cross the road while the assault gruppe moves quickly forward in the cover of the trees.
*the unsaved hit is house-ruled as MG fire causing a zero-net-hits result
The tanker’s response (cannon and bow MG) inflicts shock on the Grenadiers.
The 1st Plt mortar section nearby hears the German LMG teams run across the road but -recalling what happened the last time they fired blindly into the darkness (and realizing that they occupy the front of the American line!)– held their fire.
The brave Grenadiers -with moral support from the SL- have found the range and land more hits. In addition to demanding the attention of the tankers (the red marker indicates their obligation to engage) two of the nearby M8 crew have fallen in the attack.
That success aside, the Grenadier team is beginning to feel like Oddball in that “The only way…to keep [that tank] busy is to LET [IT] SHOOT HOLES IN ME!”
On the other flank, the 2nd Plt 50-cal position hears movement down in the pit that seems to be to their left, so they shift their facing to better cover that slope.
While the Grenadiers draw everyone’s attention the rest of the Sturm Platoon continues its stealthy advance (undetected) on either side of the track, while down in the pit the Rifle Platoon (whose SL had to move back to fetch the grenade team) is steadily working its way around the hill without being heard by the American MGs at the top (-the noise of all those grenades exploding around the tank may have something to do with that?).
The surviving M8 crew move a short distance away from the grenade-magnet tank.
The mortar team of the 1st Platoon feels a bit too hung out and moves (slowly) to the rear, while the far-right MMG team picks up their gun and moves to get to the track-side of the ridge where all the action is taking place.
The men of the 2nd Platoon also do a bit of rearranging but are left in a bit of a muddle.
The mortar section arrives to take over that part of the line, but…
…the 30-cal crew -intent on shifting to the flank- only get as far as picking up their gear. The Jeep tries to get back to the track so that it, too, can cover the other side of the hill but finds itself stuck!
At least the JL manages to get the newly-faced 50-cal back on overwatch.
The brave rifle grenade team up on the track can certainly be said to have answered the call of duty…
…but their luck runs out with the next round of fire from the Stuart whose cannon kills one of the team and -with the shock from that as well as that inflicted by the bow MG- breaks them and sends the men back off the table.
Worse, the platoon leader was dragged with them – the resultant rolls against force morale sent it plummeting to 5.
The Americans continue to get their lines in order: On the right, the mortarmen of the 1st Platoon get in place and the 30-cal team moves to where they can set up. Over on the other flank, the 2nd’s mortar section leader -taking over for the stuck jeep and plodding 30-cal team- moves his men left to establish a line and gets one of the teams on overwatch.
The German Rifle Platoon SL moves up and orders his men to keep moving around the hill.
The 50-cal and the mortar crew on overwatch hear them and open fire. It’s still blind firing into the dark, so only a single hit is scored from the HMG – but it takes out the man carrying the LMG of 2.Gruppe.
The American MG JL orders the MMG team to the end of the mortar section’s line and puts the 50-cal back on overwatch.
The German SL keeps the rest of his men moving while ordering 2.Gr to fire, attracting a response by the HMG.
The newly-emplaced 30-cal joins the mortar section in putting more rounds downhill – only one hit is scored in the dark that puts more shock on the LMG team.
More bullets fly through the dark forest that result in few hits. Most inflict shock (including on the German 1.Gr passing behind the firefight), but one wounds the U.S. MG-section leader – he must have been popular because force morale fell two points as a result.
Prior to getting hit he’d ordered the Jeep team to quit fussing with the gears: “Just grab the 50-cal and get moving to where you can do something!” -which meant they got caught in the fire directed at the other HMG!
Up by the track the 2nd Platoon’s SL finally realizes that being a spectator to the 1st’s fight is not doing much good, and so orders his driver to turn around (luckily not getting stuck in the process…) and tells his fellow M8 crews to hoof it after him as he heads down the track to get around the hill.
Things are quiet up on the ridge/track.
The LMG Gruppe continues to advance slowly, while on the other side the Sturm Gruppe leader decides that their mere presence satisfies his ‘act as a diversion’ orders and has his men hunker down in the trees to keep a close watch out for what may happen next.
Everyone else seems content to play the “watch and wait” game as well.
The American Platoon SL orders the two crew of the second M8 to join the line, and the tank cannon and bow gunner peer out of their slits for any movement in the dark.
The German LMG gruppe edges closer.
The quiet is broken by the mortar section that detects the movement to their front, and…
…since they’ve machineguns on either side and feel braver than they did earlier when out in front alone, they fire into the dark.
The shooting puts down the loader of a team, but the German JLs manage to keep fire discipline -steadying their men and urging them to keep silent- so there’s no response, and things again go quiet.
The MG section JL on the far right of the American line decides to pack up the (at this point) useless 30-cal and lead them around the ridge to perhaps establish some sort of flanking fire on whatever enemy may be lurking out there in the dark.
The ‘wait and see’ mood ends as a German LMG team hears the MMG team coming around the ridge and tries to cross over to engage them. The American mortar section hears them again (“I TOLD you there’s something out there!”) and fires, but only inflicts a point of shock, so…
…the Germans get off a shot on the MMG team, knocking out the leader, but…
…their move didn’t carry them over the crest and the 50-cal still has them in view: It opens up on the flashes and all hell breaks loose with everyone who’d been on overwatch firing wildly at the sounds and flashes in the darkness to their front.
Prior to putting some rounds on the 50-cal, the LMG JL moves with the other team closer to their comrades on the ridge.
When the (figurative) dust settles, the impact is seen to be a lot of shock spread across the battlefield from the few hits generated by the wild firing, however: The American head count reveals an armored car crewman and -more importantly- the (center-of-line) 30-cal gunner put out of the fight, which pins the MG position.
The American SL puts one of his crew onto the MMG, and has it join the rest of the line firing, but the shock inflicted by their attacks isn’t enough to pin or reduce the enemy.
The Germans have greater success (after surviving ineffective interrupts by the HMG and Stuart) and see the 50-cal gunner go down while -more rewarding- the MMG in the American line breaks to the rear – U.S. morale slips another point (the first was from the KO’d MG JL) to 7.
With gunfire spread across the entire battlefield the hillside flank is now the quiet(er) side as the MGs and mortarmen on the hill exchange fire with the 2nd gruppe but only trade a bit of shock. The American SL’s M8 -though moving slowly- looks to be winning the race with the 1st and 3rd German sections to the far side of the hill (though winning any fight that may happen there is very much unknown…).
The American 1st Platoon on the ridge is hurting: The MG section has its leader knocked out, the 50-cal gunner is KIA, and a 30-cal team (one of which is the newly-attached M8 crewman) has fled into the forest. The German Sturm Platoon isn’t in the greatest of shape (or notably numerous) either (and there’s still the tank astride the track…) so the outcome there is on a knife edge.
The scale tips in the German’s favor when their fire pins the mortar section before the Americans manage to recrew the MGs on the line*, and the flanking MG team (with the KO’d leader) is pinned.
*not RAW: Keeping the weapons on the table and specifying casualties was done for the scenario
It comes as no surprise when the dice continue to favor the attackers (in command, firing, and result rolls) during the actions of the next phases.
The mortar section breaks and joins the MG team in fleeing the battle, and the morale of the 1st Platoon sinks to 5.
The Germans use a CoC die to end the turn, and hope of rallying them is lost as they run off the table.
The new turn saw the KO’d MG leader back on his feet, but only to lose the duel with the German team on the ridge and become pinned.
With only the tank (whose fire has been disappointing at best…) left as a significant force defending that flank (and being vulnerable without infantry to keep the German panzerfaust at range) the American 1st Platoon leader wonders whether a complete withdrawal is called for, or if he can pull his remaining men back to help 2nd Platoon hold the line on the far side of the hill?
The Americans on their left flank are edging closer to winning the firefight there: The German 2nd Gruppe has been pinned.
The 30-cal team on the end of the line has detected the movement below them, but has yet to manage a response (i.e.: no 1s rolled on the Command Dice!).
The German SL decides to bolster his flagging base of fire, and orders the entire platoon (sans the rifle grenadiers still struggling to join them…) to fire up the hill, knocking out the mortar section leader, taking out the gunner for the 50-cal, and spreading shock across the American line.
The Force Morale of the 2nd Platoon falls to 5 (joining that of the 1st), and the Americans decide that it’s time to “get while the gettin ‘s good” and order a general withdrawal before their men are lost along with the battlefield.
Casualties are light, and all but five of the Americans make it safely to the south (off the table) – four are casualties, and the fifth is the remaining 50-cal crew of 1st Platoon on the ridge: Having been left on his own when the mortar section bugged out, he doesn’t get moving before the Germans of the LMG Gruppe come upon him and take him prisoner.
The withdrawal by the Americans ( -and concurrent advance by the Germans) was roughly played out but produced nothing of note, until..
…the Stuart almost got caught in its retreat when the Sturm Gruppe leader ordered a man to get up onto the track and fire a panzerfaust into its rear. The soldier didn’t manage to make his way up the bank, though, and the tank motored over the hill into the darkness…
…where its luck ran out and it found itself sliding into the ditch – right where the (now abandoned) 50-cal Jeep had made its way into the woods.
An attempt to get free failed, so the crew decided to bail out (instead of asking the Germans for a hand in getting pushed out) and made their way down the hill on foot with the rest of the men.
The other vehicles (two Jeeps and the 2nd-Platoon’s M8) managed to make their way down without getting stuck – though it did get close!
With the hill taken, the Germans will now sort themselves out for the next move (-hopefully the other Sturm Platoon is soon to arrive and can join the attack) while the Americans make their way down the hill to see what the Troop Leader has in mind for the next delaying action.
brawlfactory 