Club Night - I Ain't Been Shot Mum, another go at Carentan

After the game on Tuesday where the Germans got shot to pieces in the open, I had another bash at the scenario at the White Hart with James and Mark.

As mentioned previously, this scenario was inspired by the episode of Band of Brothers where in the "Carentan" episode the US Airborne are defending one hedge-line and the Germans another until the Germans launch an attack across the field supported by armour.

The US forces remained unchanged from the earlier game:

US Airborne

Company HQ

Big Man #1 - Lvl 3

Big Man #2 - Lvl 3 

Rifle Platoon

Big Man #3 - Lvl 3

3 Rifle sections each of 8 men

60mm Mortar with 2 men

Bazooka with 2 crew

Rifle Platoon

Big Man #4 - Lvl 3

3 Rifle sections each of 8 men

60mm Mortar with 2 men

Bazooka with 2 crew

Machine-Gun Platoon

Big Man #5 - Level 2

2 MMG sections each of M1919 MMG with 5 crew

Bazooka with 2 crew

The US Airborne had the following cards added:

• Dynamic Leader
• Low on Ammo

The German forces were beefed up as follows:

German

Company HQ

Big Man #1 - Lvl 3

Big Man #2 - Lvl 1 

2 MG34 with 5 crew

Grenadier Platoon

Big Man #3 - Level 3

3 Grenadier sections each of 8 men

Grenadier Platoon

Big Man #4 - Level 2

3 Grenadier sections each of 8 men

Grenadier Platoon

Big Man #5 - Level 3

3 Grenadier sections each of 8 men

Grenadier Platoon

Big Man #6 - Level 3

3 Grenadier sections each of 8 men

Mortar Platoon

Forward Observer

4 80mm mortar sections each with 4 crew

Tank Platoon

Big Man #6 - Level 3

2 Tiger 1E

The Germans had the following cards added:

Machine Gun Bonus

Out of Fuel

The Germans also started the game with two stonks.

As previously, the table was set up with a hedge-line for the US Airborne to defend, the right flank was covered in light woodland, a road with ditches either side ran diagonally along the table and some enclosures and standing crops littered the middle of the table. The Tiger Platoon would arrive on the third turn of the blank card.

Mark would take the Germans, James the US Airborne and I would officiate and generally get in the way.

Initial US deployment

Initial German deployment

The pre-game stonk went quite well for the Germans, one M1919 MG section was on six shock, a 60mm mortar had one dead crew and two shock and two Airborne sections were each on six shock.

Mark had sent three platoons of Grenadiers down through the woods on his left flank. A single platoon and the two MG34 from the headquarters would draw the Americans on his right. This allowed Mark to pin the single US platoon on his right with these troops while the three platoons on his left would be able to try to overwhelm the single US platoon.

Up against the odds

The German platoon on the right, as could be expected  did suffer quite badly against the emplaced Americans, but they held in place and did prevent James from reinforcing his right flank.

The German mortars never successfully arrived, so we could not gauge their effect on the game. However, both Tigers did turn up and assisted in pinning the US Airborne left flank.

Tigers arrive to hold the right flank

We did not have time to play to a conclusion, but as we wrapped up we could see that the game was much more balanced than previously with two whole platoons on the far right lined up against a single section of paratroopers.