"Operation Jupiter Batrep #1, Les Duanes Farm" Topic

All,

My son and I played the first two games of Operation Jupiter this past weekend, and here's the first one. I was playing the British, he the Germans This was a very simple attack-defense scenario, with not a lot of tactical nuance to it: the Brits, having just shelled the hell out of the objective area, the Les Duanes Farm Complex, lined up in the north with tanks in the lead and stormed south, looking to get atop the defenders before they could reorganize themselves. Rather than 'feel' the effects of the British arty stonk, the scenario sets it up where the Germans simply don't have a lot of troops.

As usual, the game was played using a 5Core variant, this time "Company Command," and it was done in 10mm, troops from Pendraken, though the armor and guns are prepaints from Takara. This first fight saw A Company of the 5th Westchesterfords North Riding Rangers of the Highland Coldshire Guards (5th WNRRHCG), led by Major Dillon and his 2iC, Lt Cooman, leading the assult vs the German 1st Company of the the 457th PanzerGrenadier Abteilung Sauer und Krauthammer, led by Captain Sorensen and his 2iC, Lt Weidthaus.

In real life, this occurred 10 July 1944, between: A and C Companies, 5th Battalion, Dorset Regiment, 130th Brigade, 43rd Wessex Division, supported by tanks of B Squadron, 9th Royal Tank Regiment vs 7th Company, 2nd Battalion, 22nd SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment, 10th SS Panzer Division. In real life the Brits carried out a very quick and relatively easy victory.

A German PaK-40 anti-tank gun (foreground) targets a British Sherman (top center); so much for kiddie luck with the dice! To see how the fight turned out, please check the blog at:
link

Success to the Brits, much like the real life battle. I was fairly confident due to being able to knock out both the Hun's anti-tank guns early on, though I did sweat a bit when I messed up and let a tank get too close (close enough for a squad to rush out and fire a panzerfaust at it), and when the ATG got put back into action. But his firing dice really let him down; each ATG was firing 2K 2S, and I gave the Pzfaust 3K 2S. I think he had a total of 5 shots, totally missing twice, forcing two fallbacks, and immobilizing one tank (and the crew didn't even bail!). So I'm feeling pretty lucky ;)

Casualties:
British: 20 WIA/KIA, one Sherman immobilized but recovered.
German: 30 WIA/KIA, two PaK-40s lost.

And if you really want to see something funny, I actually played this scenario solo a couple years ago, with the same troops but different rules. My terrain may still be humble, but it has come a long way:
link

Next up is 5/Dorsets moving on to Horseshoe Wood, where Brit luck didn't hold up as well…

V/R,
Jack

Nice write up and pic. Thanks for sharing

You made me a Kraut? Im mortified :-)

Thanks Pmwalt, more to come shortly, maybe even tomorrow.

Ivan – Yeah, you deserve it. And apparently not even a particularly good one!

V/R,
Jack

Thanks Jack, will follow with interest.

Jack…you have some impressive buildings, and I really like the telephone poles. Are they 20mm? ben

Hey Norm, thanks! Hope all is well.

Ben, Thanks, those are from the new 15mm Crescent Root town set. The telephone poles… I don't recall exactly. They're just cheap plastics I spray-painted, from a model railroad set I round at a local hobby store. My guess is they're about right for 15mm troops, whatever railroad scale that works out to be.

And the boy and I are having a great time with your book, looking to get a bunch more fights in this weekend.

V/R,
Jack

Great write up Jack. Nice to see you're consistent in your treatment of your kids even during play time ;) Seemed like a fair fight (fair as a couple of browning automatics v a pair of mallard duck)

Next game the poor kid will be playing the local French peasants armed only with pitch forks and some seriously vulgar French vocabulary vs St Jack and a Company of winged Tiger II's

Well at least Dillon was all over the field rallying and generally displaying his heroism. Nicely played Captain. Got the best of that left Winged fascist marxist Nazi scum

Seriously though, it was a very enjoyable read and the new scenery is looking top notch.

Don't know if you mentioned but what age is your son?
Is he enjoying himself?
Has he much natural interest in history or war?
I'm looking forward to seeing more of these.
Thanks for posting

First, Panda, the envy of someone who's not taller than their 6-year old child is palpable in your comments.

Second, the scenario is straight out of the book, and if not for some very hot die-rolling on my part to knock out the two German ATGs right at the start, it probably would have looked a lot different.

Third, I'd chalk up any tactical successes on this battlefield to the battalion commander, not the company commander.

The boy is six, and he's having a great time (as I'm typing, "Daddy, are we going to have a battle?"). The depth of history isn't tremendous (he's only six), but it started with him seeing pictures of his old man ;)

More to come shortly.

V/R,
Jack

but it started with him seeing pictures of his old man

Ok…in that case he'll probably just end up joining the circus

Circus, eh? Yes, Panda, there's no way my flak, helmet, and grenade launcher measures up to your short-shorts and knee socks ;)

Kyote – No kidding buddy, good to see you. Played two more games today, looking to play two more tomorrow.

V/R,
Jack

At 6, you can start explaining some very basic historical bits to them, but obviously keep it pretty simple.

I've been teaching my kiddo about ww2 and ww1 on and off. He's 8 now, so we can get a bit more complex.

You just have to break it down for them. You can ask them questions too about how they'd solve a problem, then talk about how it was actually done. We just did that while talking about 30s tank design and that was really fun, looking up inter-war British and Soviet tank designs and talking about how they worked (and didn't)