Thursday, 28 June 2018

Some More TW&T! July 1944 AAR - Into The Woods!

Well we revisited TW&T again this fortnight using a scenario I found online. This is the second game of TW&T for our group but I have a couple of extra games up my sleeve. We wanted to really test the rules out.

Germans watching the Tommies advance...

Into the Valley
July 1944 an Allied offensive around Caen has splintered the German defences. The British are attempting to push forward to find gaps that they can exploit, whilst the thinly spread German second line is attempting to stand firm until reinforcements can be brought up...

Defending Germans
1 Big Man Level IV
1 Big Man Level III
1 Infantry Section with LMG Team
2 Tripod HMG Teams

British Attackers
2 Big Man Level IiI
2 Big Man Level II
1 Big Man Level I
3 Infantry Sections each with a LMG Team
1 Light Mortar Team

The objective was for the British to emerge from a wood cross a serene gentle upward country slope with minimal cover and clear the 6’ x 4’ table of Jerries. Easy!

The table ready for the British to arrive from the west, top right in the picture the German blinds can be seen behind the luxuriant hedges at the top of the slope...



Note - sorry tried to find the site again that listed this game without luck so can’t credit it!

The Game

The Germans were deployed with their Infantry Section covering the centre third of the table with a HMG Team on each flank set up with a pre-targeted firing lane ready to sweep their fronts.

All three of the British Sections came on in the centre of the table quickly losing their ‘blind’ status due to the open terrain. The Dummy Blinds played little part in foling the Germans what they were up too. Doing so inadvertently saved initially them the wrath of the Jerry HMG’s!

All started okay for the Poms and one section reach some dead ground on the slope for cover while another moved up alongside them. Then the section in cover deployed their Bren Team to the crest of their dead ground to harass the Germans and this is where everything turned nasty for the Brits!

For several turns in a row they became bogged down, twice aircraft buzzed the field of battle (random event) stopping any movement for the turn and on the others the card draws gave the Germans multiple actions while leaving the British stranded! During this time the German fire kept taking a steady toll of British. Several HMG jams did keep the game alive though.

Both the up front British sections lost their Bren teams and were stuck half way up the slope. The third section tried to suppress the Germans from the cover of a stone wall with little effect and then to top off their bad luck when their mortar came into play another random event occurred and a small structure caught fire and the wind placement sent smoke across the mortars line of sight requiring it to relocate!

The British players now got their Platoon leader up to the men stranded on the slope and he got them moving, unable to move directly forward they followed the dead ground to their left flank and ran straight into one of the HMG’s!

At this point the game was over for the British but as the HMG they faced had jammed and the grenades barrage they had launched against it was ineffective we continued for one more turn to test the close combat rules. Here too the Germans were successful by losing just two men to three. The Brits were broken at this point so it was time for coffee and the debrief!

Some Pictures...didn’t take too many as I was busy umpiring!

The first British section sprints to a patch of dead ground as the advance 'into the woods!'

Germans awaiting the British to attempt to get 'into the woods!'


Just as the British mortar support got into the show a blaze broke out in a derelict building and the smoke obscured their view!

With things going badly the British platoon leader inspired his men to swing to the left!

Straight into the sights of a German HMG Team...

Luckily for the Brits the German HMG jammed and a melee ensued...

The defeated British fled, here's a few with their Platoon Leader trying to stem the tide...'Come on lads lets give Jerry some curry!"

I like these rules and the guys general feedback was good. The turns flowed well and quickly. We covered all the infantry rules from grenades to close combat and found they worked well.  I think the secret to these rules is get your best Big men attached to your strongest units ASAP! This game though the British drew the short straw getting pretty bad card selections but that’s what the fog of war is about troops don’t always do what you want. We will use these rules again and plan on trying out the newer version Chain of Command at some point too!

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