THURSDAY GAME: NORMANDY CLASH.

With Aidan still studying and temporarily unavailable to stage FOW games, Rick and I decided to dust off an old friend, in the shape of Blitzkrieg Commander. This is WW2 games system based on Warmaster mechanisms. We haven't played for a year or two. We have played using 10/12mm figures and latterly using Axis & Allies miniatures.  
 
At Rick's suggestion, we played using FOW 15mm figures. We used the BKC 2 rules, which we hadn't used before but we were familiar with the concepts from BKC. We made three changes: Hits were kept at the end of a turn; an HQ or CO could issue a rally order to a unit to remove one hit and, when firing, one unit was nominated as a firing unit, each other unit firing at the same target added one dice rather than all it's dice. These were intended to speed up the game. 


Set during the US advance south, the US troops are mopping up behind the spearhead; the Germans trying to find the US flanks. This was a 2000pt meeting engagement with mobile deployment.



An overhead shot early in the game.

 

 A  US platoon advances. The German advance units are just visible in the background, in the shape of a Stug.
                                          
The Early turns saw the US force, composed entirely of infantry, move swiftly forward along the entire front. The German Kampfgrupe was finding it difficult to coordinate the different units, leading to little or no forward movement (US passed most of their command rolls, the Germans few).

 US move against the German motorised platoon. The Germans managed to get into position, but poor die rolls meant they advanced no further.

The US continued their advance against the disorganised Germans. They had air support in the form of two Mustangs, one of which was driven off as it attacked a Stug. The second attacked the German AA destroying it. This unit was also having an effect on the US centre. It's removal cleared the way for a US advance. The German centre infantry platoon was overrun.

The flanking US infantry with support from the centre, attacked the German motorised platoon. The survivors can be seen disappearing out of harms way. The Germans had reached their break point. Resulting in a US victory.

As well as taking the photos, Rick ran the US forces.

It was a good game. The Germans had poor command rolls, even throwing a blunder at one point, but the poor initial deployment didn't help! The rule changes worked well. Having hits staying meant a bit of thought was required about whether to rally a unit or move it out of the line. Restricting supporting units to one die didn't seem to effect firing effectiveness and casualties.

We will try them out again, no doubt, in the next game.