All,
This is the second fight of "The Last Fifty Yards," which I recently restarted with "Canadian and German Patrols Clash Near Caen," in which I am following the exploits of a Canadian rifle section and a German rifle squad. That fight essentially ended in a draw, with the Germans coming out slightly ahead, but both units pretty beat up. It is now July 18, 1944, three days later, and another fight is brewing. A British rifle platoon had advanced north to south under heavy fire, now dealing with (off map) heavy opposition. The remnants of the platoon, with an artillery forward observer attached, has taken up shelter in a bombed out farmhouse atop a knoll. The fight continues; the platoon is low on ammunition, and the only thing keeping them hanging on is great work by the FO. But not only is ammo low, the FO's radio battery is about to run out.
Cpl Kelly's rifle section (though he is still convalescing from wounds received in the first fight) is called up by the Company's Officer Commanding, and a team is put together move up and deliver the necessary ammunition and batteries to the beleaguered rifle platoon. But, due to some faulty map reading and the confusion of battle, the team is a bit further off the mark than should be, and now has to cross the last fifty yards to deliver the supplies. Simultaneously, Cpl Wyche's German rifle squad is being sent into action from the south in order to isolate the Canadian rifle platoon from reinforcement.
Once again, this is a 'real' game, with me playing the Canadians and the boy playing the Germans. He's been knocking the hell out of me, let's see how this goes…
The map, north is up. The Canadian platoon is sheltering in the bombed out house at top left (there will be a couple figures there, but they are simply representative, not a part of the fight). The Canadian team will enter at top right, and the Germans along the bottom edge of the table. The Germans are forbidden from moving to the bombed out house (in real life terms, to avoid friendly fire as the bombed out house is being engaged by German units off table to the left (west). The stream is crossable at the bridge, and fordable anywhere, though at a movement penalty. Note the liberal German use of Dragon's Teeth. I don't know why, I just think they're cool ;)
To see how the fight went, please check the blog at:
link
I think it worked pretty well on the 2' x 2' table, though I need to get more terrain in that blocks LOS. Unfortunately the table is a lot uglier with the carpet hills on top of the boards, but it's a helluva lot quicker to set up and take down.
Three more very cool batreps coming up; I'm very excited and interested to see what kind of reaction they will get.
V/R,
Jack
