After trying out the 'Livry' Fireball Forward scenario, I thought I'd re-visit the Brecourt Manor scenario featuring E-Company 505th PIR on D-Day. I've previously played this with Platoon Commanders War and more recently with WRG 1925-50.
It is a slightly complex scenario as the game length and victory conditions are based on how many shots the German artillery get to fire, but it is a pure infantry engagement with no complicated artillery, tanks etc and I feel I need to get my head around the TaM infantry combat system better. It is also a good test of my troop quality mods.
I've only previously done this scenario using a conventional table layout. The map of the various hedgerows, trenches, gun positions etc is above. It was a bit of a pig mapping the Livry scenario onto a small hex grid so I gave up on a notional ground scale and just used a standard 6x8 board, so assume the hexes are maybe 60m across? In low level tactical combat if you can see it you can usually shoot it, so ranges matter less.
The extra elbow room meant I could do a pretty good approximation of the published table layout on hexes. The trenches are hard up against the hedges, so there is cover on either side of the hedge. The guns are set back from the hedge to clear it though, so essentially their LOS is blocked directly across the hedge sides.
The protagonists. On the left are the Germans, four artillery pieces and the battery defence platoon with two rifle sections and no less than three(!) tripod MGs. The infantry and MGs are average quality but the gun crews are poor. I rated the overall force as average, so their force morale is 3.
On the right we have the remnants of E-Company, the two para teams of Lt Buck Comptons platoon, Dick Winters with another para team and a pair of .30 cal MGs and finally Lt Spiers platoon with two more teams. As these guys are the 505th PIR assault company I'm treating each team as if they are a full rifle squad, they also have high morale so the squads rally on 3+ (unmodified) and their overall force morale is 4.
Apologies about some of the photos, it was a very sunny day and I ended up closing the curtains but of course then it was too dark...
Anyway, here is the German setup. The four guns are pre-positioned around the perimeter, one section and one MG set up in the trenches between guns 3 and 4, while the rest set up in the triangular hedge section. I stacked the infantry with the MGs to absorb any pins which came their way.
In the standard scenario the Germans get 1VP per gun surviving at the end of each turn, plus 1D3 VP per gun which fires. Fireball Forward turns are much longer than TaM ones as units can undertake multiple actions, so I changed it to 1VP per surviving gun per turn and 1VP per gun which fires per turn.
The game ends when all four guns are destroyed or the Germans accumulate 24VP of shooting VPs.
Here are the US waiting to enter. I didn't bother with the game clock for this as Lt Spiers enters on turn 4 otherwise there isn't a turn limit, either the Germans get to 24VP or they lose before then. The red and black dice are tracking each sides force morale. Winters 'company' comes on from the west (left) and Spiers from the north (top). I've just realised that the number of figures is actually E Company at 1:1! 'Two squads of 3 men'.
Winters guys take advantage of the hedgerow to move 2 hexes as they start out of LOS. The .30s set up a base of fire, Winters leads a team into the trench corner at the top while the two other teams storm the first gun position! I subsequently found out I'd made a mistake, units can only assault adjacent units. Oh well, these guys are Paras. Currahee!
The German MGs fired opp fire as targets presented themselves, but the cover everywhere meant they were only hitting on sixes. They managed to pin one of the .30 cals, and one of the MG42s was stuck with an opp fire marker while the other managed to avoid it.
The German gunners don't get any CC dice, just 1D6 for defending cover, whereas the two teams of Paras rolled four dice. The gunners missed, the Paras got one hit so the gunners had to retreat, abandoning their gun. BOOM! The Paras spiked it. German force morale now 2.
The Germans put their leader with the MG nest, everyone else had to fend for themselves, but the other Germans all activated. BANG, BANG, BANG went the other guns for 3VP (plus 3VP for surviving). The German MGs managed to pin one of the victorious Para teams, and the rifle section in the trench moved to defend gun position 3. The unpinned .30 cal fired opp fire at them but missed.
Winters and his team were already adjacent to gun no. 2, so they stormed it and once again won the Close Combat to destroy it. German force morale now 1.
After this early success things went a bit pear shaped. Winters pushed along the trench to gun no. 3 covered by the .30s, but one of the teams moving up the trench from gun no. 1 was shot down by vicious MG42 fire. US force morale now 3. This seems a common development in this scenario, the first two guns go down easily but then it becomes a struggle.
To add insult to injury, a German rifle section managed to pin Winters down, and then the section defending gun no. 3 charged them!
Pinned units only get 1D6 in close combat, and although they did pin the Germans, the Germans managed to finish them off. Winters ran back down the trench to the smouldering gun no. 2. US force morale now 2. Oops.
The next US turn featured some ineffective shooting and the US rallying all their pinned units ready for next turn. Thank goodness these Paras are veteran.
There was great excitement as Lt Spiers arrived and stormed gun no. 4!
Once more the German artillery crews didn't prove to be a match for the US Paras. BOOM! went the gun as it blew up. German force morale now 0....
Cue morale tests for every German unit. I used the standard game morale rules for the 'fall back test'. The German infantry and MG in the forward trench fell back, but hilariously the poor quality gun crew stuck it out.
One of the battery defence MG42s also wavered and retreated.
In their turn the Germans managed to activate the MG and get it back into the trenches, but the other retreating units stayed where they were. The US managed to pin the rifle section in the open AND the German MG as it reoccupied the trenches (all opp fire I think).
The only exciting development was that the other German MG42 managed to roll a whopping number of 5s and one 6 firing at Spiers. The result being that one of Spiers teams was pinned and the MG jammed - the first time that has happened in a game. The MG was now useless.
The US concentrated fire on the pinned rifle section in the open who were duly routed, triggering another round of morale tests. The gun crew held firm, the last functioning MG in the triangular hedge retreated off table, so another morale test...
And finally the gunners had had enough and they fled from their position. The other Germans were now falling back in disorder and some were cut down as they ran across the open ground, just like the real battle! Or at least as depicted on TV. In his recollection in the book Winters said "We cut them down like wheat".
And finally Winters and Spiers met up in gun position 3. and blew the final field piece up. Game over and a US victory with 19 German VP on the clock.
I really enjoyed that, it felt very dynamic and I particularly liked the German collapse in morale at the end as it went some way to reflecting the confusion of the German defenders. The individual unit morale differences didn't make much difference although it meant the US were pretty much guaranteed to rally off any pins. The 'force morale' concept worked very well as it contributed to the German collapse without them fighting to the last man.
I did have to fudge some of the LOS issues in the scenario, in Fireball Forward 'hedgerows' are a very specific terrain type with all sorts of restrictions, as opposed to 'hedges' but it produced the sort of dynamic I was after with the US being able to close behind the cover of the hedgerows but then fairly exposed once they were in the German communication tranches.
The main mistake I made was allowing units to move two hexes into close combat, although as they were ut of Los for the first hex, maybe it was OK? . It probably wouldn't have affected the overall outcome, but it may have given the Germans three or four more VPs as each gun would probably have survived an extra turn. I also erroneously gave the gun crews 3D6 in close combat to start, when I eventually realised they should only get 1D6 (for defending cover), which makes quite a big difference! There weren't many other errors although because I wasn't using the game clock, I kept forgetting to roll for random events.
The red letter event was one of the MGs rolling enough on its fire dice to malfunction/run out of ammo. Although that is a bit Squad Leader like, it actually added to the feel of the game I felt. As it only happens if you roll high, you can rationalise it as running out of ammo or something.
I'll try a few more of the US Para scenarios with TaM, particularly as they include The Poupeville Exit and the Niscemi Biscari Highway, both scenarios in the original Squad Leader US Para extension published in the AHGC General which I played a lot at the time.
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