Nuts! Blood upon the Risers campaign - episode #3 - Eviction Notice (scenario #4)

 

Introduction (note - photos at the end)

 I was originally going to try and keep track of each individual German soldier fig as I worked through the campaign (I have named them after various movie characters). However, as they keep getting killed or wounded, I decided to keep the names and just recycle them.

I used a computer-generated die rolling app for the Attributes. Squad AS-B2 had particular bad luck, especially for an assault group. Must be Volksgrenadiers.

Several of my main group troopers have anti-tank mines. The main rules state that you can plant mines before the start if allowed by the scenario. This particular scenario doesn’t specifically state that mines are allowed to be planted during setup. However, since this is clearly a defensive scenario, I decided to allow it. Especially as I don’t have much by way of heavy weapons.

My initial squad has been lucky in gathering troopers (I have maxed out at 14) but not so much at gathering heavy weapons. I haven’t captured anything good either. My main squad has three anti-tank mines and the temporary attachment has one. I decided to plant two mines, saving two of my main squad’s mines for the future.

The rules state that they are planted “in the middle of a section.” Sections 1,3 & 5 are all in my deployment zone, Sections 2,4 & 6 are only partially in, some more than others and none more than 50% inside my deployment zone. I therefore decided that I could only plant mines in areas where the middle point of the section was in my deployment zone. I planted two mines in section 3 – hoping they would cover the road.

I placed one trooper in the center of each of the sections under my control, in order to be able to search for equipment bundles on turn one.

Rules note: The numbers right after the turn identifier are the initiative rolls. In case of a tie, a possible enemy force (PEF) may appear. If both numbers totals “7” the side with the high die roll may get reinforcements.

At the start of the scenario, the two forces looked like this:

Right Flank Gd	Rep	Wpn	Attributes	HG	GG	Other
T4 Shivers	5	Carb	5/6 Steely eye:  +1D6 “In Sight”	1		XX
T5 Dymowske	5	SMG	5/5 Stealthy: Opp -1D6 “in Sight”	2	1
PFC Sonka	4	M1	None	1		X
Stohler	6	BA	2/2 Crack shot: +1(2)D6 shoot (prone)		1	X
Guidas	5	M1	3/1 Initiative: Rep +1 when acting alone	2		X
Left Flank Gd
SSG Rockstar	5	Carb	3/6 Nerves Steel: DB=CO; charge +1D6	1	1	XX
			4/3 Quick reflex: +1D6 “In Sight”
Sgt Kelly	5	SMG	4/4 Rage: +1D6 charge; +1D6 melee	1	1	AT, X
PFC Jones	5	SMG	3/3 Lucky: RR any result 1x scenario	1
Miller	5	M1	1/5 Brawler: +1D6 in melee			AT, X
Skinner	4	M1	6/4 Unlucky: On D1-2, takes friend hit 3”	1		AT, X
Bldng 2DV4
1Lt Law	5	M1	2/6 Hard Nails: 1st KIA = OOF	1
Mansfield	5	.30MG	6/3 Tough: 1st HD = DB
Meredith	5	Ldr	None
Bottom Floor
T5 May	6	Carb	4/5 Resilient: 1st OoF = CO
Moates	6	SMG	1/3 Ball Player: Throws grenade 8”	2
Turner	4	M1	1/6 Clumsy: FM 2bl = ½ move/Prone/CO		1
Gibby	5	M1	None
Outside Bldng
Cpl Daly	4	M1	3/2 Knifeman: +1D6 Melee (throw 4”)
Crapgame	6	Baz	2/5 Greedy delay 1D6 if near loot (-Ldr)			4Bz
Nelson	5	Carb	5/3 slow: only 1D6 on FM		1	AT

 

Group	Germans	Rep	Weapn	Attributes
AS-B1	Cpl Otto	4	MP40	6/3 (tough): 1st HD = DB
	GF Katczinski II	5	Kar 98	1/1 (agile) No fast move penalty
	Baumer	4	Kar 98
	Kropp II	3	Kar 98
	Kemmerich	3	Kar 98
	Forst II	4	Kar+GL
AS-B2	Sgt Steiner III	4	MP40	5/4 (Slow): -1D6 on “in sight”
	Cpl Kruger	3	MP40	4/6 (Runt): -1D6 in melee
	GF Kern	4	MP44
	Anshelm	4	MP44
	OG Kroner	4	Gw43
	Gerhardt	4	Gw43
	Bauer II	5	Kar 98
	Westhus III	4	Kar 98
	Muller II	5	Kar 98
	Kranz II	5	Kar+GL
AS-C1	OGF Reisenauer II	4	MG421	6/1 (Stone cold):
	Hollerbach II	4	MG421

 

Turn 1: 6/6 (no PEF) – then 3/2 Germans

Stug #1 Arrives (The Germans were VERY lucky with their StuG rolls, never failing one. You start with a 5+ on turn #1, 4+ on Turn #2 etc.).

Cpl Otto (MP40) and his squad (5 riflemen and an MG 42 team) advance into the hedgerow, where he becomes visible to 1LT Law in the building and SSG Rockstar in a nearby hedgerow giving flank support. The paratrooper fire is devastating: 2 KIA, 4WIA (including Otto) & 2 leaving he battlefield. Only Obergefreiter (OGF) Reisenauer (MG 42) survives.

However, the covering fire provided by Cpl Otto allows Sgt Steiner and his men to approach the building unobserved. Although several of the men get caught up in attempting to negotiate the hedgerow, Pvt Westhus manages to throw a grenade through the window, Killing Mansfield (MG gunner), wounding Meredith (loader) and driving 1Lt Law back from the window.

American turn:

1Lt Law drags Meredith downstairs. Law, passes his “Man down” test and carries on.

Pvts Guidas, Nelson and Sonka search for equipment bundles. Guidas finds a .30 MG, the other two come up empty.

Turn 2:  2/2 (PEF#1 in sector 6), 1/1 (PEF#2 in sector 5), 6/3 Americans

With an initiative roll of six, no American groups can move, except for Guidas, who has an initiative bonus when acting alone.  Guidas is therefore able to secure the .30 MG.

Germans

Stug #2 arrives; Stug #1 moves cautiously down the road.

Sgt Steiner and the rest of his group finally make it through the hedgerow and move up to the rock wall near the building. OGF Reisenauer rallies.

Turn 3: 5/4 Germans

Stug #3 arrives. Stug #1 hits a mine and is disabled. Stug #2 moves up behind #1 cautiously.

Sgt Steiner and his group cross the wall and take cover behind the building. OGF Gefreiter heads towards Steiner, but stays under cover to avoid the fire from Rockstar’s group.

Americans

Nelson and Sonka rejoin their groups.

T4 Shivers decides to investigate PEF#1, and sends T5 Dymowske to investigate the PEF #2. The troopers apparently were not cautious enough as the Germans win both “In Sight” tests to see who gets “the drop” on the other.

Shivers discovers an enemy scout (Pvt Borchert – MP40), whose fire drives him back behind the hedgerow. Dymowske discovers an anti-tank gun and crew! As GM I decided the gun was too close for HE (opposite sides of the same hedgerow), so the crew opens up with their rifles, driving Dymowske out of the hedgerow and causing him to take cover in a nearby building.

Hearing the commotion, Pvt Guidas tosses a hand grenade over the hedge, wounding one of the gun crew and causing the others to retreat from the gun.

In the Center, 1Lt law decides that with all the Stug’s on the road, the building is “too hot to hold” so he orders the men out and to take cover in the hedgerow behind. Seeing this, SSG Rockstar and his group fall back to the same hedgerow.

Using the building to screen himself from Steiner’s group and the gaze of Stug #2, Crapgame comes out of the hedgerow and gets a flank shot that destroys Stug #2 with his bazooka.

Turn 4: 5/4 Americans

 Having dispatched StuG #2, Crapgame returns to his earlier position behind the hedgerow.

On the American right, Shivers & Dymowske recover; meanwhile, Pvt Stoler enters the building and takes up a position on the second floor.

Pvt Guidas decides to follow up the retreating gun crew. He spots, the crew, takes aim with his Thompson, >click< out of ammo. With, no other choice, Guidas draws his trench knife and charges. He kills one and wounds the other two.

Germans

StuG #4 arrives. I originally thought about trying to push StuG #1 out of the way, so that others had room to pass, but after StuG #2 was destroyed, I decided that most tank commanders would try a different approach. Consequently, Stug #3 decided to avoid the ambush site and try its luck with the hedgerow – but it got hung up.

Sgt Steiner checks the building and finds it is now empty, so he starts to move around the left side.

Turn 5:  4/4 (PEF#3 in sector 6), 3/2 Germans

Stug #5 arrives. At this point StuG arrival is guaranteed.

Stug #3 moves across open country and hits a mine, but it does no damage. Stug #4 follows the path of StuG #3, so is able to negotiate the hedgerow more easily.

Scout Borchert pope out of the hedgerow, but this tine Shivers is ready for him and drives him back. Sgt Steiner is unable to get his group moving.

Americans

Lt Law and the bazooka crew ease out of their hedgerow and take cover behind disabled StuG #1. From his perch on the second floor, Pvt Stoler, the best shot in the company, scores a hit on OFG Reisenauer, knocking him out of the fight; however, return fire from the rest of the squad drives him back from the window.

Turn 6: 3/2 Germans

Stug #6 arrives

StuG #4 spots Shivers before he can react and fires a round into the protective hedgerow. Dymowske and Sonka are wounded and Shivers drops back under cover.

The other StuGs continue their move across country to the exit area.

Scout Porcher pops out of the hedgerow again, but is gunned down by Pvt Guidas.

Americans

Guidas determines that PEF #3 is only a rumor. T4 Shivers rallies.

Lt Law and the bazooka team attempt to get closer to the StuG column, but they are spotted by Pvt Gerhardt from Steiner’s group and are driven back.

Turn 7: 5/2 Germans (reinforcements)

StuG #7 arrives

Lt v. Witzland and four riflemen arrive on the main road.

Sgt Steiner leads his men from the side of house into the open where they immediately get into a firefight with SSG Rockstar. Pvt Skinner prepares to throw a grenade, but fumbles it with disastrous results: Skinner and Sgt Kelly are wounded, whereas Cpl May and Private Jones are driven back from the blast.

SSG Rockstar barely survives his exchange with Steiner (saved by “Star Power”) and Pvt Nelson retreats. The Germans got the worst of it, with two killed, one wounded and two more retreating; however, they still have Steiner and four others left.

Feeling that he is about to be overrun, Sgt Rockstar orders a charge before the Germans can return fire. When the dust settles, Rockstar has suffered two more casualties (Turner and Moates), but have eliminated Steiner and his squad.

Americans

Law and the bazooka team again try and get a shot off on one of the StuGs, but is spotted by StuG #5 – so they duck back under cover.

T4 Shivers and what’s left of his group fall back to the exit point before they are cut off by all the StuGs. Meanwhile, SSG Rockstar rallies his men.

Turn 8: 6/4 Americans

The Americans are unable to move, bad time to roll a six.

Germans

Yet another StuG arrives (#8). The Americans are about to be overrun

StuG #3 gets hung up on the final hedgerow; StuG #4 and the others close up.

Von Witzland freezes and cannot move.

Turn 9:  6/2 Americans – still can’t move, a really bad time to get stuck.

Germans

Another day, another StuG I am running out of models.

StuG #3 clears the Hedgerow and exits the board. StuG #4’s turn to get stuck. There’s a bit of a StuG traffic jam, but there isn’t room to deploy without risking being flanked by Law and his bazooka team.

Turn 10: 4/3 Americans: reinforcements (an MG team) too little, too late

All Americans are now heading towards the exit line. Cut off from the rest of the squad by the StuGs, T4 Shivers and his group break up and try and make their way back to friendly lines.

They stopped the infantry, but were unable to cope with all those StuGs. Nevertheless, a victory for the Americans – but just.

 Fina Note: This is my 3rd time playing this scenario. The first time I was still learning rules, so made a bunch of mistakes which made me want to redo the entire campaign. The second time through I learned a valuable lesson: Make sure you put your bazooka in the hands of your best trooper. I had randomized it before, and he ended up with a Rep of 4 - and missed three shots.

End:

Awards -  Bronze Stars

SSG Rockstar, for leading the charge against Steiner

Pvt Guidas, for single handedly destroying an AT gun

Casualty List:

KIA: Pvt Mansfield

WIA: Sgt Kelly, T5 Dymowske, PFC Sonka and Pvts Meredith, Moates and Skinner.

MIA: T4 Shivers

The view from the German start line. SSG Rockstar and his group are behind the hedgerow top center, whereas Lt Law and his group are in the building.

Pvt Guidas recovers an equipment bundle amoung some friendly cows

Sgt Steiner and his group have trouble crossing the hedgerow, but they have to be cautious not to expose them to Rockstar's group.

A possible enemy force (PEF) appears amoung the pigs.

Steiner's group approached the house

T5 Dymowske discovers an anti-tank gun. Pvt Guidas is just finishing up recovering a .30 at lower left.

Crapgame, covered by the house on the left (oops - forgot to put roof on before I took picture), flanks StuG #2. I call him "Crapgame" in hommage to Kelly's Heroes and because the figure has every piece of loot I could put on him.

Guidas takes on the AT gun

Law and company take cover behind destroyed StuG #1 waiting to ambush Stug #3. StugS 1 & 2 are so badly damaged they look like a T34 and Pz IV, respectively.

Shivers and his group looking down the business end of Stugs 3 & 4. I only have one 25mm StuG so I had to proxy my 15mm stuff

The firefight between Rockstar and Steiner

StuGs trying to negotiate that last hedgerow. Law looks impotatntly on as he is unable to cross that short distance to get a shot at some juicy flanks

Far too many StuGs to handle with just one bazooka and a few rounds.