Nuts! Blood Upon the Risers campaign - episode #4 Rail Walking

May 08, 2024

Nuts! Blood Upon the Risers campaign - episode #4 Rail Walking

Rail Walking (Photos at the end)

Scenario: After getting a few men back from the medics and a few replacements, Rockstar’s squad is at full strength again.

The mission takes place around an elevated stretch of railway along the Merderet River flood zone. There are several sections of woods along the railway. The objective is to keep the enemy from breaking through the lines and opening up a way to attack St. Mere Eglise from the south.

At Start	Rep	Wpn	Attributes	HG	GG	Other
SSG Rockstar	5	Carb	3/6 Nerves Steel: DB=CO; charge +1D6		1	XX
			4/3 Quick reflex: +1D6 “In Sight”
PFC Jones	5	SMG	3/3 Lucky: RR any result 1x game
Stohler	6	M1	2/2 Crack shot: +1(2)D6 shoot (prone)
Miller	5	M1	1/5 Brawler: +1D6 in melee			AT, X
Guidas	5	M1	3/1 Initiative: Rep +1 when alone	2		X
Return from Hospital
Sgt Kelley	5	SMG	4-4 Rage: +1d6 charge/mele
T4 Shivers	5	Carb	5-6 Steely eye: +1D6 in sight test
T5 Dymowske	5	SMG	5/5 Stealthy: Opp -1D6 “in Sight”	2	1
Moates	6	SMG	1-3 Ball Player: Throws grenade 8”	2
Skinner	4	M1	6/4 Unlucky: On D1-2, takes friend hit 3”	1		AT, X
Reinforcements
Cpl Bechtold	5	M1	6-2 Tank Killer: Rep +1 close assault
T3 Seid	5	Carb	6-1 Stone cold: +1D6 react/ nevr OG
Mumey	4	HMG	5-4 Slow React – 1D6 on In Sight
Simpson	5	Loadr	2-1 Coward: treat DB as HD

Rules: This is a solo game and a good one at that. However, one of the issues with solo play is that you don’t have anyone to help you understand things, so one of the things I do in these write ups is to note where I had some rules questions (or forgot something altogether) and the solutions I came up with. Hopefully someone finds that helpful.

Set up:

The German entry point is in the Northwest corner (sector 2); the American entry point is in the right center (sector 3)

1058^th Grenadiers: The Germans started the game with a small squad: Lt Meyer (MP40), Sgt Steiner (PPSh), a medic and two riflemen.

The1/507^th started with a two-man scout team (Cpl Bechtold (M1) and T3 Seid (Carb)) in the woods opposite the German entry point. Because of the woods and the raised railway, neither can see the other until one climbs up on the embankment. Hmm, maybe I should have had one of the scouts climb a tree for better vision (Like Lipton did in Band of Brother during Normandy). But I didn’t think of that.

SSG Rockstar has decided to split his group in two. Sgt Kelley (SMG), T4 Shivers (Carb), Private Stoler (M1 & crack shot), Private Miller (M1) and the .30 MMG (Mumey and Simpson) will take up position in the woods immediately in front of the entry point.

SSG Rockstar (Carb) will take T5 Dymowski (SMG), PFC Jones (SMG), Private Moates (SMG), Private Guidas (M1) and Private Skinner (M1) along the edge of the flood line and join up with the scouts.

Turn1: PEF in sector 5, then American initiative (3/2)

Rockstar leads his group at the double towards the woods in sector #2.

Cpl Bechtold moves his scout team to the top of the railway (in order to see into the woods) and drops prone.

Sgt Kelly organizes his defense in the woods.

Germans;

Plagued by indecision, Lt Meyer councils with Sgt Steiner on what to do.

Turn 2: German Initiative (3/1).

Lt Meyer slowly moves forward, Because of the darkness, he is still not spotted by the American scouts.

Americans:

Rockstar Fast Moves to the woods, although Skinner falls behind.

Sgt Kelly send Pvt Miller to investigate the PEF

Turn 3: German Initiative (6/2)

A German MG42 team arrives (by special scenario rule).

Yet again Lt Meyer does not move, but this does allow the MG team to catch up and join his group.

Americans:

Rockstar organizes his defense of the woods. Kelly holds his position.

Pvt Miller identifies the PEF as Lt Bertinck and five riflemen, one of which has a grenade launcher. He quickly ducks back before he can be seen by the enemy.

Turn 4: Double sixes – no PEF, then 4/3 Germans – reinforcements.

Lt von Witzland (MP40) arrives with an assault squad: Gefreiter Kern (MP450), Obergefreiter Reiser & Pvt Volk (both StG44), Obergefreiter Kroner & Pvt Gerhadrdt (GW 43) and four riflemen (Bauer, Westhus, Muller and Forst), the last of whom has a grenade launcher.

Note: Witzland has a higher Rep than Meyer, which means he moves first each activation. Because Meyer has been moving quite slow so far, this has resulted in traffic jams when Witzland caught up.

Lt Meyer has finally moved far forward enough that he is spotted by the scouts. However, seeing they are outnumbered, the scouts drop back under cover of the railway before they can be seen in return.

Lt Bertinck does not move.

Americans

Bechtold and Seid fall back and join Rockstar at the edge of the woods

Pvt Miller makes it back to Sgt Kelly and reports the sighting of the enemy patrol.

Kelly redeploys Stoler and Shivers to cover that approach.

Pvt Skinner searches for an equipment bundle, but comes up empty.

Turn 5: American initiative (6/2)

American cannot move

Witzland has caught up to Lt Meyer, and since Meyer yet again refused to move, Witzand joins both groups together and takes control.

Lt Bertink moves cautiously to the just hsort of the crest of the RR tracks.

Turn 6: American initiative (6/3)

Again the Americans cannot move (but there will be a lot of action this turn)

Witzland’s group crosses the crest of the raised railway and is spotted by Rockstar who is ready for him. Rockstar wins the initiative and fires first.

Grenades are thrown and weapons fired, when the dust settled and the firefight was over, the results (including “Man Down” tests were:

	1/507^th PIR	1058^th Grenadiers
Killed	Seid,	Rohleder
Wounded	Dymowske, Bechtold	Sgt Steiner, Kranz, Leer, Mutz
Hunkered Down		Lt Meyer, Reisenauer, Kropp, Westhu, Gerhardt, Kroner, Reiser, Muller
Ducking Back	Rockstar, Jones, Guidas, Moates, Skinner	Lt Witzland, Hollerbach
Good Order		Kern, Bauer

Rules note: I don’t know if this is a correct reading or not, but I decided that two consecutive “Duck Backs” (DB) equal “Hunker Down” (HD) (for example if a figure gets a DB during the firefight and then a second DB as a result of the “Man Down” test)

A second firefight erupted on the left flank between Shivers and Lt Bertinck. Shivers won the In Sight Contest. After reaction tests, the results were as follows:

	1/507^th PIR	1058^th Grenadiers
Killed	Stoler
Wounded		Lt Bertinck, Dorgmann, Katczinski, Kemmerich
Hunkered Down	Shivers
Ducking Back	Miller
Left Battlefield		Baumer, Forst

Turn 7: German initiative (6/2)

Germans no movement

Americans: Rockstar rallies his men and gathers up his wounded

Turn 8: American Initiative and reinforcements

American “Reinforcements” turned out to be a single soldier (T5 May – carbine) marching to the sound of the guns

Rockstar and his group fall back towards Sgt Kelly, bringing their wounded with them.

Sgt Kelly rallies T4 Shivers

Germans:

Lt von Witzland leaves Lt Meyer and the rest of his “Hunkered Down” force behind and joins up with Kern and Bauer, bringing Hollerbach (who has picked up Reisenauer’s MG42) with him.

Germans:

Medic Maurer gives treatment to Sgt Steiner, but the does not improve.

Turn 9: American initiative (4/1)

Shivers has rejoined Kelly and Rockstar continues to move towards him as well.

Germans

Lt Witzland and his small group continue on with the mission.

Turn 10: German Initiative (2/1)

Lt Witzland and his small group continue on down the RR line

Medic Mauer tries to treat Pvt Leer, but he succumbs to his wounds.

Americans:

Rockstar and his men finally enter the woods

Turn 11: American initiative (3/1)

Rockstar has organized his men and they hold their position in the woods

Germans:

Witzland and his group stumble into Rockstar’s ambush. There are no survivors.

End:

Although there is still one turn left, with no German forces left on the table, victory goes to SSG Rockstar

Casualty List:

Killed: T3 Seid, Pvt Stoler

WIA: Cpl Bechtold, T5 Dymowske,

Bechtold will return in time for the next mission, Dymowske (2^nd wound) will have to sit one mission out

The situation at start. The numbers refer ro the sector numbers.

Germans enter in sector #2, the Americans in #3. The scouts have set up in the woods at the top in sector one. The two lines down the middle are railroad tracks, the blue areas are flooded. Note the railways are elevated.