The attack on Monte Lucedelsole : as it happened

We last saw the fight for Monte Lucedelsole  just beginning, with Colonel Badger's force appearing by road from the South, and running into fire from von Kleist's  German outposts in the  woods. Now we'll see how it turned out..

Badgerforce to the attack!

The game was played using Bob Cordery's  Early and Mid 20th Century Rules from 'The Developed Portable Wargame', and had the distinction of being the first figure-based WW2 wargame I had played in at least 40 years, and the first outing in that time for many of the ( vintage Airfix and Matchbox ) infantry figures involved! 
It lasted a total of 14 turns, so I will not try my readers' patience with a detailed turn-by-turn  account, just sketch the broader themes and what seemed the important events.

One quite important 'broader theme'  was that the British Commander ( me ) had not really made a thoughtful plan, and was rather improvising as he went along - which had very mixed results ( I'm almost tempted to give him a first name -  'Boris' might seem appropriate? ).   Initially he pushed his two Sherman tank units up the middle, on or close to the road, and brought on M3 half-tracks carrying infantry.  M3 'A' followed Sherman 'A' up the road, and M3 'B' headed to the right and de-bussed its infantry in front of East Wood while his MG unit ( joined by Badger himself ) hunkered down in the walled enclosure, aiming to 'shoot in' the infantry attack.  He sent his Valentine tank unit  forward on the extreme left, and brought on his field artillery ( 25-pdr and quad ) in the centre.

Von Kleist ( also  me ) had an easier job in some ways - shoot at the British when opportunities arose! On turn 2, the German field gun and their Panzer IV both opened up on the Shermans, and forced both to retreat - a taste of things to come.
Turn 3 saw the start of a good run of shooting from the Pz IV and German Infantry 1 in East Wood : taking  1 SP each from Sherman 'B' and British No.2 Infantry in front of East Wood. First blood! Those two German units would distinguish themselves further, it turned out.

Something of a 'firefight' situation continued  in the centre and at East Wood, with the Pz IV doing a splendid job of shooting up Shermans ( two SPs taken from Sherman 'B' by turn 4 )  and German No.1 Infantry unit scoring telling hits on British Infantry No.2 from East Wood ( also 2 SPs ), while the British MG unit threw some pretty poor dice in its attempts to suppress the defenders. The British Field Gun did manage to help, taking 1 SP off the German infantry.  By the end of Turn 5,  losses amounted to : British 4 SPs,  Germans 1 SP.

Turn 5 : Shermans rather 'at bay', British infantry shot up ( 2p piece inidcates 'pinned' )

On the left at West Wood, Badger decided to reinforce by sending M3 'B' forward again, carrying Infantry Unit No.3, giving him two motorised infantry and his Valentine tank against the German No.1 MG unit. But the Machine Gunners were not just sitting there, and successfully 'strafed' M3 'A' and its mounted Infantry unit No.1, forcing a retreat AND taking 1 SP - which under the rules  meant 1 SP from BOTH the M3 and the Infantry - ouch! Machine guns ( and other foot units ) can damage armoured motor transport from a range of 2 hexes, and the MG units 3 dice when firing can make them very effective!  The Valentine extracted some revenge, managing to take 1 SP from the MG, and importantly 'pin' it, reducing its effectiveness.
Losses at end of Turn 7:  British 6 SP, Germans 3 SP.

The following turn, British No.2 infantry unit got into East Wood and carried out a  'close assault' on the Germans there - who the British MG had finally managed to hit and 'pin' - this made the defenders  more vulnerable, and they took a further 1 SP loss before managing to retire on Turn 10, leaving the British in possession of East Wood. At the same time, Badgerforce also took West Wood, having dismounted Infantry unit No.3 adjacent to the 'pinned' German MG and finished them off with a close assault from the rear. Turn 9 was good for the British, as they took 3 SPs from von Kleist's troops ( including the Pz IV, hit by Sherman 'B' ) ,  thus levelling  the score at 6 SPs each.  Badger was also able to bring on his mortar unit and 6-pdr A/T gun in the centre - with the MG and 25-pdr, quite a 'fire base' being developed around the walled enlosure.

German MG 'pinned' and overrun from behind - West Wood taken!

However, German shooting continued good, and the Pz IV destroyed Sherman 'B' unit on Turn 10, and then in combination with the Pak 40 A/T gun took 2 SPs from Sherman 'A' the following turn! Despite having been forced out of East Wood, German Infantry No.1 was not downhearted, and successfully shot up British Infantry No.2 again. After that spectacular sequence of shooting, losses at end of Turn 11 were British  11 SP,  Germans 6 SP.   On turn 12, the Pz IV scored another success  when it destroyed Sherman unit 'A' - so two-thirds of British armour gone, not good at all!

Still all to play for, however, and things were going better on the British left, with the Valentine crushing the German wire and progressing beyond West Wood - now the German fortification by the road and its occupants ( von Kleist's Infantry No.2 ) were the next target, with the aim of 'rolling up' the main position from the West. Turn 13 saw a co-ordinated attack by British Infantry No.s 1 and 3 and the Valentine unit on the unfortunate German Infantry No.2 unit, which had to accept 1 SP loss rather than retreat and give up the fortification - surely they would not survive very long like that. The score at end of Turn 13 : British losses 13 SP ( exhaustion point at 17 ) , Germans 8 SP ( exhaustion at 11 ). Both sides under pressure..

Turn 13: Valentine left hook, both woods taken, but Shermans gone

And then Turn 14 - a bit of a firestorm.. both sides' field guns had been banging away with modest effect, but this turn both scored damaging hits, the 25-pdr removing 1 SP from the German A/T gun (which threatened the Valentine's progress)   and the German 105mm hitting the British MG unit, which had advanced into East Wood. The British attack on German Infantry No.2 by the road continued, with all 3 units close assaulting the 'pinned' Germans - but their dice were very poor, scoring no hits at all!  

Surely they can't hold out?

'They can't hold out for long' , thought Badger, meanwhile bringing on M3 'B' again, ferrying  the final Infantry Unit ( No.4 ) towards his right flank, and keeping up mortar fire on the German positions around the farm, making the German MG Unit No.2 retreat from its dug-in position.     

Badger reckoned without the  Germans' shooting, however.  With rather a traffic jam in the centre, he had put his half-track  M3 'B' unit within range of the German Mortar, which von Kleist himself was overseeing, and it promptly hit and took 1 SP from BOTH the M3 and its passengers in Infantry unit No.4 ;  meanwhile the much-battered German Infantry unit No.1 was not giving up its resistance in front of East Wood, and scored a hit on the British MG unit in the wood - which, having just taken a hit from German artillery, was destroyed.
 
That was decisive - with a stonking British 4 SPs lost ( to 1 German )  in Turn 14, the total losses were now :  British 17 SP,  Germans 9 SP.  Badgerforce had reached its Exhaustion Point - their attack must come to a halt!  And so must the game,  von Kleist being content to watch Colonel Badger's men retire, rather than risk further loss himself in some sort of pursuit.   Heroes of the German hour were their lone Pz IV tank, which scored 5 SPs of hits in its duel with  the two British Sherman units, losing only 1 SP itself, and their Infantry Unit No.1 which survived being Machine-gunned and close assaulted, was forced out of its position in East Wood, but did not give up,  kept shooting, and delivered the final coup de grace to the British MG unit, which spelt the end of the whole affair.  

With my Colonel Badger hat on, I think I need to go back to tactical training school!  Just pushing the Shermans up the middle did very little good except to get them shot up, and I should have directed more effort at taking both woods first, then using them as jump-off points for attacks on the hilltop position - the centre was just an open killing ground which I blundered into. Having said that, wearing the von Kleist hat, perhaps I should have put all my Infantry and MGs 'up front' in the two woods to give the British a harder time attacking them, keeping the hilltop as a firebase for the artillery, A/T gun and mortars. 

Final situation : if only that M3 had stayed back..

Conclusions:  the main one was that I had a lot of fun! I was very happy with Bob's rules, which might well be described as  'deceptively simple'.  Within a few moves I had memorised the Shooting and Close Combat dice modifiers, and could almost instantly work out the 'to hit' score for each unit. Movement rates and ranges are also very simple, especially counting in 'Grid Areas' ( hexes, in this case). 
I found the rules subtle, as well as simple.  I liked the 'pinning' concept which felt true to modern combat, and makes combined assaults work in the right way - one unit can try to 'shoot in' another's attack, hoping to 'pin' the defender and allow a close assault to go in with better effect. See the example of German Infantry unit No.2, which could not retreat for fear of losing its cover, but then had to take an SP loss and suffer pinning, allowing its attackers to storm in. You can 'unpin' a unit , but it takes a whole activation, and can't be done if adjacent to the enemy.   

Machine gun units with their 3 dice for shooting can be particularly deadly against 'soft' targets - but cannot kill tanks, to which they are vulnerable in close assault, having only 1 dice then.  Armoured Transport protects its passengers against infantry fire, but only at ranges over 2 grid areas, and woe betide them if hit and suffering SP losses, as these affect both transport and passenger units. The British lost 4 SPs this way when their M3s were shot up by German MGs and mortars - significant casualties. One thing I would think about adding to the rules would be some concept of 'spotting' - as it stands, units in woods for example can presumably be fired on with no requirement to 'spot' them first, even if they have not revealed their position by opening fire. Bob does have rules on 'line-of-sight' when firing, and he has rules for the use of smoke - which was another thing Colonel Badger needs to go back and revise !

So there we have it: my first WW2 game since the 1970s - which were closer in time to WW2 than we are now to the 1970s. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and hope to do more, as the descendents of my Seven Years War commanders continue the family feud up and down Italy. I hope you've enjoyed reading my account, and if considering 'The Portable Wargame' , I hope it's been useful!  

Keep well, everyone, until  next time.