"6mm Normandy game" Topic

The latest remote viewing and text game was from the IABSM rule book. Scenario 4, A Canadian VC. This game is based on the August 19, 1944 Canadian advance into St Lambert where the Allies are trying to plug the Falaise Gap. Normandy games look nice but with terrain like this you really have to send a lot of pics to convey the tight confines of views available. I did adjust the basic map a bit to add more buildings and some walls. Really one of the best scenarios I've played/run. We had 4 players scattered around Atlanta area and in Florida.
Germans had to hold off the Allies and prevent them from capturing the main crossroads. Grenadiers (Martin) had 2- 2 section platoons, 1 with a pzshrk and 1 with a pzfst/sect. The 3rd zug had a section and a MMG team and 2 pzfst. The armor under William was a zug of 2 PzIVHs and a zug of a Tiger and a Panther.
Canadian infantry has 2 platoons of 3 sect and a Company HQ of Maj Ivan Martin (Level III). Lt Gil Armour (III) has the 1st pla and CSM G Mitchell (II) the 2nd. Jess was the infantry CO and Sheridan the armor. There were 2 troops of Shermans in support. Maj Dave Currie (III) and Capt John Redden (II) were the leaders.
Link to the fickr AAR:
link
Mark

‌German reinforcement edge by Mark Luther, on Flickr

‌Panther moves up to cover the eastern road by Mark Luther, on Flickr

‌More panzers by Mark Luther, on Flickr

‌Shermans and PzIV exchange shots by Mark Luther, on Flickr

‌Germans pull back again by Mark Luther, on Flickr

That's a great looking game.

Good looking board!

Mark your games look epic!!!

Stunning table – looks great!

Love every bit of it!

That game is mahvelus, simply maaaahhhvelus.

Really, the opening pic in the Flickr AAR ("The Table from above") sets the tone right from the start -- can't hardly believe that is a game table and not a museum display. And it only gets better from there.

The terrain is really compelling. I see lots of war scars on the buildings. Never noticed that in your AARs before. And the pigsty right in the middle of everything. Just so perfect. The lay-out of the hamlet, the walls, the hedges. Really nice. And the models and figs are a delight -- so many rolled tarps and crates on the tanks, I gotta love that. You are hitting on all cylinders with this one (but then, you usually do).

A couple questions about the game…
- There seems to be a lot of smoke, and buildings catching fire, and shell bursts all around. You didn't mention any arty in the description of the units, so was there arty support for either side?
- What killed the Panther? It died pretty quick, with nothing accomplished that I could see. Did it get bushwhacked by a side-shot from a Sherman?
- The Canadian tanks -- were they troops of 4 with 1 Firefly in each? That's how it appears from the pics, just wanted to know for sure.
- The Firefly that got toasted … is that a 'schrek team I see that took it out?
- They ganged up on the Tiger, but did they KO it? Not clear in all the smoke…

and …

What was the end result? Oh c'mon, you can't take us all that way and not post the conclusion of the battle!!!! The Germans were pulling back again. But off the table? Or did they manage to hold on by the skin of their teeth?

Inquiring minds want to know.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Gorgeous work as always!!!

Hi Mk1,
No offboard arty, but both Canadian platoons had a 2" mortar which is great for smoke. The M4s also have a nice HE round. The Panther got 1 phase of firing off and missed. But was spotted and hit by one of the M4s. Needed 10 on 2D6 to hit and then had a great strike roll and the Panther failed badly on its robustness.
Maj Currie's Firefly did get taken out by the panzerschreck after surviving a MG blast. The Tiger CO was hit outside his tank trying to get an view of where the other troop of Canadian tanks were heading. IABSM allows for some nice scenario tailoring. In this case the Canadians had a Heroic leader card that they could play once and the house fire was the result of a random event card.
You should check out the AAR link. The pics have descriptions
Thanks, Mark

You should check out the AAR link. The pics have descriptions

Thanks for pushing the point. Flickr has a bit of an odd UI. I was looking at the tiled composition (which shows the titles of each image), and then was clicking on each pic, but I had it at such a high zoom (to get all the eye candy) that I could not see the text descriptions below. I also tried the slide show mode, but it doesn't give any info on each pic.

So I managed to look it over 3 different ways and never found the text description.

Now I can see what I've been missing from your last many AARs. I guess I now have a backlog of weekend viewing coming up.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

This is really great!

Beautiful work!

I've actually been to Saint Lambert-sur-Dives.

The road in to it from the North-West is pretty straight.

I seem to recall a ford to the East of it somewhere where you could walk across quite easily but the gap was only a vehicle wide.

Apparently farmers are still pulling bits of WW2 hardware out of the soil and hedgerows in that area.

But the Germans were trying to get their Army out through the gap.