This holiday season saw our family gather and saw games played! This is an AAR of a game of Five Men in Normandy, played Christmas Eve between myself and my brother-in-law. Enjoy!
Set Up
Early Hours June 6, 1944. A small group of Americans encounter the German garrison of a small hamlet, somewhere along the road to Colleville. The American objective is to push the German's out of the area. The German objective is to render at least half the attacking forces combat ineffective.
Inching Forward
As the attackers, the Americans have
the initiative. The Americans split their forces up into two sections. The Lieutenant,
armed with a Thompson submachinegun, takes the light machine gun team and two
of his riflemen and pushes forward along the road. The remaining four rifleman
advance through a few fallow fields and stop short of some hedgerows. The American
LMG team begins laying down suppressing fire, causing one of the German
MG42 teams to “Bail” and seek cover further away from the threat.
The American’s suffer an early setback, however, when a German rifleman lines up a clean shot on the American .30 cal and rolls a “six” on his kill die, destroying the machine gun team outright. The Americans have lost their only heavy weapon. It will be up to the remaining riflemen to go it alone.
The German MG42s, meanwhile, have been able to reposition and do a good job repulsing the GIs along the road, rolling many “flinch” and “bail” results on their shock die. This keeps the GI’s heads down and forces them to seek cover, slowing their advance. One GI is hit and goes down, but later recovers.
Along the hedgerow, the Americans
manage to cross without incident. However, the German’s roll a “scurry” during their
next turn, which allows them to reposition without fear of reaction fire. One MP40
submachinegunner and one rifleman push forward aggressively, denying easy
access to a grove of trees which would provide a good base of fire for the GIs.
The German MP40 gunner steps out of the cover of the trees to fire on the exposed GIs, but is hit by guard fire. His buddy rushes to his aid. Making base contact with a friendly allows the downed figure to roll for recovery – the MP40 gunner recovers, and the two men move back into the cover of the trees.
Death in the Tree-Grove
Recognizing the importance of capturing
the tree grove, the Americans rush forward. Snap fire from the German submachinegun
puts one GI down, but another two make it into the grove and a fierce series of
Brawls ensues. Twice the GI’s enter hand to hand combat, and twice they are
repulsed! The German defenders roll a tie in each Brawl, and the Americans are
forced to move back. Emboldened by their success in repulsing the enemy, the Germans
initiate a counterattack. This time, however, the dice do not roll in their favor.
The submachinegunner looses his edge and gets the edge of an American fighting
knife instead. The rifleman is hit with snap fire and goes down – he is not
outright killed, but without the ability to roll for recovery before the
American turn, and with no one to provide him with guard fire, he is left
dangerously exposed. The following American turn sees the GIs move in for the kill.
The tree grove is lost to the Germans and the GIs continue their steady advance.
Fix, Flank, Finish
For the time being, the focus of
action returns to the American section advancing up the road. Despite the heavy
machine gun fire, the American leader manages to rally his men. Disregarding his
own safety, the Lieutenant personally leads a bold flanking maneuver and
manages to get into position behind one of the German MG42s. This forces the
German MG to relocate. The MG team sets up,
draws a bead on the American Lieutenant,
and fires. The Lieutenant, however, has nerves of steel. He weathers the machine gun fire and responds with his Thompson, causing the German MG team to bail! With no other cover to flee to, the MG team instead flees off the table.
Grenades: enemy of many and friend of none.
The Americans are now in position to assault the farmhouse. In an attempt to soften their target, each GI within throwing distance hurls a grenade. The grenades mostly bounce away harmlessly, and cause no casualties – however, one grenade lands close enough to the last German MG team to cause the team to flinch and duck behind cover. This gives the GIs the chance to rush forward and get into position along the low wall next to the farmhouse, without fear of reaction fire from the MG42.
The Germans respond by throwing grenades of their own. The rifleman inside the farm house throws a grenade from the window – two Americans are killed in the resulting explosion.
The MG42 gunner attempts to toss a grenade at the Americans hunkering behind the low wall, but the grenade clips the top of the wall and bounces directly back at him and his assistant gunner! Neither of them survive.
The rifleman inside the farmhouse
is now the last surviving German defender. He fights bravely as the GIs close
in on him, but he has little chance of holding the house. Surrounded on all
sides, the rifleman is shot down.
The game ends in an American victory, and a hard fought victory at that!
Hope you enjoyed this little AAR, we certainly enjoyed playing it.