Having been 'getting round to it' for ages, I thought I'd better finally have a go at putting on a game using some of my 'D-Day Dodgers' WW2 Italian campaign troops, and try out the basic Rapid Fire Reloaded rules. Previously I had staged a British assault on the (entirely fictional) hamlet of Monte Lucedelsole, somewhere in 'Sunny Italy' - hard to believe that was in June 2020! On that occasion Colonel Badger's force had failed to capture the position, so it seemed logical for the Tommies to have another go.
This time the perhaps dubious honour of attacking will be given to the 1st Battalion West Suffolk Regiment, and the defence provided by the 1st Battalion, 960th Grenadier regiment of the Wehrmacht - the glorious exploits of both outfits being again mysteriously absent from any official records of the conflict.
First, a view of the position, perhaps as seen by a British airborne observer ( North is at the top ):
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| Monte Lucedelsole defences from a British view |
First of all, I should admit that it doesn't look too much like Italy! My next move in this project must be to acquire or make some more appropriate scenery - Cypress trees, olive groves, vineyards, perhaps? And maybe a less green and lush table covering too - a little more Mediterranean style. But for now, let's imagine it is rainy autumn in Italy, and try to ignore those rather Northern-looking trees.
The German battalion has three infantry companies and have deployed No. 3 Kompanie divided between the Western wood and hedge behind it, No.2 Kompanie holding the central hedgeline and the scrub-covered hill, and No.1 Kompanie in the Eastern wood ( on right of picture). Meanwhile the Battalion HQ, and the 4th (Heavy) Kompanie with its MMGs and 81mm mortar are entrenched on the hill along with their Infantry Gun Kompanie with its 75mm gun - a useful piece of kit. Finally the A/T Kompanie with its PAK 40 gun is secreted behind the Western wood, in case British armour advances up the road. The latter is unlikely to see much use, however as the West Suffolks have no tank support today - I am keeping it simple in my first game, this is pretty much a straight infantry fight. With the Heavy Kompanie and the Infantry gun, the German commander must be confident of giving good account to any attacking formation - and all his troops are initially concealed from the view of any intruders advancing from the South ( I have made some of them visible in the picture of course,just for convenience ),
Without further ado, here come the West Suffolks on Turn 1:
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| Enter the West Suffolks.. |
It looks quite a challenge for the West Suffolks, essentially assaulting a postion held by a force at least equal to theirs, but I think this does reflect the reality in Italy 1943-45, where the Allies often did not have overwhelming numbers to throw at the Germans. What they did have was good artillery support, so accordingly I have allocated a Battery of 'off-board' 25-pounders, with a Forward Observer unit mounted in a Bren Carrier. I seem to have forgotten to place the FO in this picture(!) - they arrived just behind 'C' Company. Many of the British will have been seen immediately by the defenders, but are as yet out of range of their infantry weapons and/or using some of the hedges etc to block line-of-sight.
With British Bren Carriers approaching pretty close to both woods - in fact within 6 inches, which meant that the rules allowed the British to automatically 'spot' any troops there - could the German infantry lurking at the treeline let rip at them? The rules have a useful mechanism which provides for just that - as long as they have not already moved/fired in their turn, the defenders may interrupt their opponents turn with Ambush Firing . Therefore, the first shots were fired as both 3 Kompanie and 1 Kompanie let rip at close range - using both normal infantry weapons and Panzerfaust ( a 'one shot' weapon, but this was as good a time as any ). At the West wood, 3 Kompanie's Panzerfaust managed to miss, but their rifle and LMG fire scored a hit which (rather crucially) disabled the Carrier Platoon's vehicle-mounted machine gun (VMG) - so it could not return fire. At the East wood, 1 Kompanie's Panzerfaust operators aimed better, scored a hit and damaged the Battalion HQ Bren, but did not destroy it - I imagine the Panzerfaust round must have glanced off the armour somehow! The riflemen and LMGs did better, inflicting one hit and thus also disabling the Bren's VMG. All good fun, and a learning process with the rules - the British carriers got close to the woods to spot the German troops within, and got into the cover of hedges, but in the process were rather shot up, and lost their VMGs, and therefore their ability to return fire! Perhaps it would have been better to have advanced a little more slowly - at up to 12 inches they could have taken a test, rolling 1D6 (needing a 5 or 6 to succeed ) to spot the Germans in the woods. Probably the latter would have opened fire anyway. but would not have been able to use Panzerfausts - the British carriers would most likely have got off more lightly, and may have been able to return fire, the Germans having revealed themselves by firing. A nice lesson on tactics, and a bit of 'learning the ropes' of Rapid Fire Reloaded.
Next, the British could fire - but those carriers were no longer able to! Only a couple of figures of 'A' Compamy were able to 'draw a bead' on 3rd Kompanie in West Wood, but their shooting was good: they rolled a 6, inflicting the first figure loss on the defenders ( old school figure removal - I rather like it!), and that completed the Britsh turn. Over to the Germans, who moved no units but were able to let rip with a small storm of fire. 3rd Kompanie shifted their attention to the West Suffolks' A Company and did well (rolled 5 and 6 on 2D6) , removing 2 figures. From the hill the Heavy Kompanie's 81mm joined in, zeroing-in on their British 3-in mortar counterparts. With HE 'direct fire' you roll 1D6 to hit, then for an 81mm mortar it's 3D6 for effect against hard cover, 5 or 6 to 'kill' - they inflicted 2 kills. BUT a crewed weapon with 3 crew has to lose all 3 in one turn to be eliminated, so Gerry needed another hit - at which point, I realised later, I didn't notice that mortars fire twice per turn... oops! The German infantry gun joined in, but rather crucially missed, and the British mortar crew lived to fight another turn - to make things fair, I allowed them only one shot in their next turn. At the East wood, German 1st Kompanie kept up their fire on the damaged Battalion HQ Bren carrier, but could score only 1 hit, not enough to knock it out - an open-topped AFV requires 3 hits from infantry weapons to be eliminated.
So battle is joined, with those rather hasty Bren Carriers having taken a bit of a pasting, but at least establishing that the two woods were defended! To be continued - I'll leave you with a picture from Turn 2, the West Suffolks continuing forward, with the Carrier Platoon and Battalion HQ unsurprisingly dismounting from their battered carriers:
I have probably given far too much information here, having covered only the opening turn(!), but I am treaiing this as a sort of revision aid/discussion document for the RFR rules : which so far, I find I like well enough. Everything is very simple and seems pretty logical: you are rolling one or more D6 to hit, and with artillery/mortars you then roll variable numbers of dice for 'kills'. Mortars with 2 shots per turn should be pretty deadly, as was indeed the case - I just need to remember that rule! The spotting rules made sense too- and I think this is crucual in a WW2 game. You aren't allowed to speculatively fire at say, a wood, but if you get close enough to see any occupants, or if they fire first, you can let them have it - that simple rule works for me.
That's where things stand at the moment - 'real life' has intruded rather, but I hope to get the game finished tomorrow. Will the West Suffolks be able to prevail, given their artillery support? Or will the 960th Grenadiers stand firm? I hope to report the outcome in the next few days. Until then I hope this has been of interest to those who haven't tried these rules - and in the meantime keep well, everyone.
