For all those who enjoyed it and want to know, this little bit will be the after game report. A huge thank you must be said to Jim and Tony for making this all possible and being good sport's about it. You will here their points of view soon.
How did it work?
Well, before each turn I would send that commander a email report, what his forces could see, any casualties and where they were.I then waited for the commander to send the orders. They would email me each HQ's orders for that turn, thankfully they were fairly basic. I decided that other being told what to do I would use my own call on the table regarding placement and what ordered to take actions in. after the entire turn had finished I would email that commander a report detailing; strength, location, how many orders had been completed and any new enemy contacts.
That was it really.
How long did it take?
The turns took no longer than a normal turn, but writing every thing down took quite a while. I have a large whiteboard with a map of the town drawn on it. Plus both sides commands, strengths, moves and actions (lots of mad writing but it kept me on track later) In reality 5 turns of the game took us from 1100-1730 on Sunday the 7th of June and a couple of hours on the following Sunday! Plus all of the wiring up for the battle report, uploading the pictures. SHORT answer; 2 days to play and maybe 20hrs of writing battle report.
Was it fun?
For me it was frantic writing and moving and rolling followed by long periods of waiting for orders. But it was brilliant to see what madness my remote commanders were up to. They had only reports and simple map to work with. But I think they had a great time doing it, they have both told me it felt very "real" as they were completely blind to the others forces for the entire game. I would do it again, no doubt, maybe even invite others to join and have much more commanders involved.
The results of the game:
To me this is always less important that having fun, but also is needed because it give the game a result. I will again say I stuck like glue to the crib sheets and only followed the commanders orders. So when you read the battle report I'm sure you will imagine how you would have done things in similar condition. I sincerely hope you will give this type of game a try, it was well worth it. AND I hope you enjoyed reading it and being part of our little slice of war-games history.
German
Objectives
Hold
Airfield - Failed 0vpts
Hold/Couter
Attack Village of Arret de Cheval - Failed 0vpts
Destroy
American Forces - Success - 32vpts
Total -
32vpts
German
Losses
x3 HQs
x11
Infantry Platoons
x3 MG
Platoons
x2
Pioneer Platoons
x2
Half-tracks
x1 Wesp
SPG
3 over
break point! will double American vpts
American
Objectives
Push to
or past halfway point - success 10vpts
Capture
Airfield - success 10vpts
Capture/KO
enemy HQs and COs - success 90pts
Total -
110vpts
American
Losses
x1 HQ
x3 Ranger
Platoons
x3 M10
Tank destroyers
x3
Half-tracks
x2 Infantry
Platoons
x1
Engineer Platoon
x1 Ranger
MG platoon
x1 Recce
Greyhound
4 under
break-point.
 |
| American and German positions at the end of the game |
Over to Jim now.
From the German players perspective, I felt like the Americans were
coming at me from all sides. Even though I didn’t have a clear picture of where
their main objectives were, I was pretty sure that Arret de Cheval was going to
be important. Unfortunately, I couldn't reinforce it quick enough as I was
being stretched by the attack on the airfield. If my counter attack force under
Hass had of been a bit quicker off the mark then I may have been able to take
it back. Schorner would have been able to lend a hand to Prille and Linderman
who did a heroic job of holding the village against heavy odds. The only unit I
was not sure what to do with was Fressners command. I wasn’t sure if the
Americans objective was Murs Blanc so he was pretty much tied up with the
defense. The American player kept me pinned there without knowing it. Fressners
force would have made welcome reinforcements to Prille and Linderman.
My opening plan was dictated by the number of units I had to
play with. My two best units were off table to start with, so I had to make do
with a very mixed bag. Prille was given Arret de Cheval to defend, his units
were average. Linderman had good units so I put him in the wood to support the
airfield or Arret de Cheval. Rendullic who had the worst units was given a chance
to shine in defense of the airfield, which with its 2 mg bunkers would be a
tough but to crack. In hindsight maybe I should have placed him in Murs Blancs.
Schorner was my reserve till my other units showed up. He may have been
better suited to defend the airfield. But with his mighty Nashorn I wanted him
in the rear to deal with enemy armour at long range.
All in all I was surprised by the amount of casualties I took
thought I would have inflicted more on the Americans. Great game though and
congratulations to a skilled American opponent.
JIM
Tony, (who is now totally in character as Hugepants McBride and no doubt drinking bourbon and smoking a cigar)
.....yes
quite incredible and she managed to dance in that wild fashion for another hour
still holding it in place but I digress.....Arret du Chavel ...that’s where we
were....it had seemed pretty straightforward that morning when I ordered
Lemores and Hall to secure that village and push on up the road, but Hall fresh
out of West Point took it on himself to go Tiger hunting and got himself in a
fine mess....I couldn’t blame him though my spurs were hot to jangle at his age
although I never got my ride shot out from under me...Whilst Hall was drawing
the Tigers claws Lemores was finding that the good folk of Arret weren’t gonna
be getting liberated anytime soon...seems the enemy were intent on keeping the
place but that just made me want it all the more, hell it was probably time I
got me the title of liberator but more of this later...on my left flank the
attack on the airfield went more smoothly. The Rangers stormed the airfield and
surrounding buildings with little fuss, turns out they weren’t even facing any
boys from the Fatherland ...but we knew they would be coming. They are good
soldiers , the Rangers and they didn’t need to be told to dig in for the
expected counter...fortunately Tyler and Kelso were coming up the main road to
lend a hand...just a well as all hell came a pouring out of Murs Blanc....man
there was all sorts of big stuff being flung at our Sherman’s and transports .
It was quite something to be walking tall through this maelstrom urging the
boys on...it was the least I could do...
....
seemed like the day had sped past and I had a sleepless night overseeing the
care of our wounded...for sure we had battle scars having come up against the
best part of a heavy panzer division, but we knew we had hurt them too. The
following morning saw me draw on my extraordinary depths of resolve and
determination hell I was almost 90% true grit! And having bade farewell to
Yvette and Claudine I ordered Gunson to saddle up. I wanted no German alive in
Arret...meanwhile I went over to look at
some of
these King Tigers that Burnshaw was holding off....
...looking
back now I know Chafe hadn’t been there, the guys we had just given a lesson
too were better, more experienced and fresh from the Eastern Front...but it
cost us dear...I still think of those guys we left behind ....every time I open
a fresh Murs Blanc Cognac, I take that first sip and think of the good men we
left behind ...and the vast quantities of unattended bottles I found in an
abandoned store in the town centre...and those half empty ambulance trucks I
commandeered.....
H. P. McBride (Tony)
Well, I'm going to sign off now, I hope you have enjoyed this game. It has given me lots of ideas for the future and I will be doing this sort of thing again. perhapse even inviting others to the act as the individual commanders.
Thanks
Dave
