Battling in Normandy

Yesterday was 'Star Wars day' - May the fourth...be with you!.

However, we resisted the temptation to do more 'X-Wing' gaming, and instead did a WW2 skirmish with my Crusader miniatures 1944 British against Lawrences' Germans.

Lawrence diced to be in command, with 1 squad and the lieutenant in charge.
Gareth had a squad, and a PIAT team.
I had a squad, and the command groups' 2" mortar team.

Looking at the terrain, Lawrence put my squad at the front, while his squad and Gareth's followed in column.

The target of our mission, the farmhouse.

 As usual, lots of mixed dummy and real counters were placed in potential ambush places on the table.

 I started on table in a wood. I set the mortar to cover my advance.

 My Bren team and rifle group took a small hill to our front. 

Ahead, we could see a hidden marker, we halted to try to observe. 

Lawrence's squad came up behind me. 

 ..followed by Gareth's squad. 

 (An overview of the terrain we were entering)

 Lawrence put pressure on me to continue advancing!

I brought the mortar forward and infiltrated through a copse of trees. 

Keeping to as much cover as possible we pushed on. 

 The mass of Lawrence and Gareth's forces followed on.

Not having spotted any enemy, I continued advancing cautiously. 

Lawrence and Gareth held back protecting my rear and flank. 

My mortar team spotted a marker on a hill ahead... 

..A German sniper took a shot and retired. 

 The NCO of the mortar team slumped down dead.

 Gareth's men spotted another counter..a Mortar attack!

 Luckily, no casualties resulted, but they were suppressed and hugged the earth!

 My men spotted another counter a group of unaware Germans on a hill.

 We hit them with the 2" mortar and small arms, the survivors scattered.

Obviously attracted by this, a group of German infantry fired at Gareth's shaken section. 

 Gareth withdrew his poor rifle team into the woods to recover. 

Another group of Germans to my front spotted my scouts passing between 2 woods as they rejoined me, but failed to hit once!

Supported by Lawrence's men, my squad hit them with mortars and small arms. 

 More amazing die rolls saw them heavily suppressed!

My and Lawrences squads then attacked the German position and wiped them out. 

 My Mortar team meanwhile, saw something altogether more threatening!

We all bunched up in the woods, and sent a runner to Gareth's PIAT team! 

 Fortunately, the Germans fighting Gareth didn't follow him up, so he came forward. 

 The PIAT team taking the lead.

As Gareth came forward, my men probed to the wood edge.. 

 More great shooting from the bren! The surprised Germans were unable to reply!

..they quickly retreated to the farmhouse. 

Gareth finally arrived! 

The PIAT lobbed a shell at the Hetzer..and missed! Fortunately, the Germans didn't see the PIAT (It has a low signature as it is spring loaded!) 

My mortar laid a smokescreen to cover the PIAT as it tried to get closer! 

The Hetzer reacted by moving up to the smoke screen and machine gunning it!

 It then fell back to a walled enclosure.

Gareth's PIAT was waiting for it! 

 My squad now advanced to the hill I had driven the enemy squad from, and saw the Germans had an MG section defending it.

 I came under some ineffective long range fire from my rear at long range. 

 I eventually got my mortar team to screen my flank with smoke!

 Lawrence raced down the flank of the farmhouse, and lost a man to the MG42.

Gareth's men followed to outflank the farm. 

 My fire from the hill silenced the MG42, and the Germans decided to bug out!

We had achieved our objective!

The game was made easier by my incredible dice rolling! for example, I needed 16+ on a D20  with 5 rolls and got 4 hits! 3 kills/disables and a suppression! (6,5,5,3 on D6)

We only took 2 killed and a wound on our force, the Germans took 13 dead and a Hetzer blown up!

We were lucky! - the Germans couldn't hit squat and our firing was phenomenal!

We had fun though, and the solo system running the Germans didn't mind getting trashed!

(The rules used are available at Rules )