Five Men in Normandy - Landed and Lost!

Well... SIX Paratroopers in Normandy...

I'm off on ANOTHER tangent for the moment. I can't even begin to trace the route that brought me to here, but I ended up picking up PDFs of Five Men in Normandy and Five Kilometres from Leipzig - both from Nordic Weasel Games on Wargames Vault. Both authored by the same designer that did Five Parsecs from Home and Five Leagues from the Borderlands. 

(The Anachronistic use of Kilometre in "Five Kilometres from Leipzig" only bothers me a little...)

For some reason, Five Men in Normandy struck me as something that NEEDED TO BE PLAYED!!!

Tuesday, 6 June 1944, 2:56am

Somewhere in Normandy

Due to some wild evasive maneuvers the plane had to make and high windspeeds, LCpl Ching's stick ended up scattered far and wide and, and no where near their official drop zone. For starters LCpl Ching landed in swamp. He did not remember seeing any swamp on any map he'd looked at in any of the weeks studying them before the drop. 

He found on member of his section that had been hit by some shrapnel that had taken half his head off... He found another trooper he did not know who had gotten tangled in gear and parachute and  got bogged down in the thigh-deep water and drown.

When he finally found a member if his section - Pte Messier, the section Bren gunner. LCpl Ching nearly got shot, having started Pte. Messier when he dove into a ditch beside him. They were unable to locate the No. 2 or No. 3 from the Gun Team - with the barrel bag and all the extra ammunition for the Bren. The two could not figure out where they were, but decided they were, at least, a fair way south of where they were meant to be. Pte. Mesier kept wanting to charge off in the direction of any distant gunfire they heard. LCpl Ching had to reign him in and point out they had no idea who was shooting at whom, or how far away they could be. They needed to focuse on rendezvousing with their own units to carry out their mission objectives for this first day on the ground in occupied Europe! When they could make out the moon, they tried to head north, which they hoped might bring them into contact with other members of their unit - or, at least, to the coast!?

They eventually they ran into a few other riflemen. One, Pte. Reddy, was from another platoon in the same company. Another, Pte. Hughes was a rifleman from C Company. The third, Pte. Constable was from one of the British 8th Parachute Battalion!? Finally they ran into Sapper Danforth from the Royal Engineers Who was very dismayed about losing all of his demolition charges that he was to bring to the train bridge at Bures!?

At one point they ran into two American Pathfinders!? Neither party was sure of where they were - and neither was sure which group was further off course, but at least ONE of them was way off, for sure... The Americans and Canadians (and British) eventually parted ways, the Americans heading West, the Canadians continuing North. 

Later they ran into a Lieutenant commanding one of the other platoons in their company. He also had little idea where they'd ended up, but at least he had MAPS! Regardless, they did not seem to be anywhere near any of the bridges they were tasked aiding the Royal Engineers in destroying. They eventually came across another group of Canadian Paratroopers near an abandoned farm. The officer decided to set up a CP and tasked groups to go out in different directions, locate others and send them back towards the CP, determine any enemy locations and troop strength, and report back ANY sort of landmark that might indicate where on Earth they were?!

To the west it looked like there was a low hill that might have a good vantage point to observe things. Also a road wound in that general direction. LCpl Ching's group was tasked with scouting ahead to the hill and see what they could see and keep an eye out for any road signage that the Germans hadn't already destroyed. 

Ching's group stuck to the fields alongside the road, where they could, as much of it was thick mud. As they approached the hill they realized there was a building and a crossroads nearby that could be investigated. But also it looked like there might be Germans guarding the crossroads... 

Approaching the hill and crossroads from the East. LCpl Ching broke the unit up into two groups. Sapper Danforth, Pte. Reddy, and Pte. Hughes would approach the crossroads through the woods on the north side of the road, while Ching, Messier, and Constable would approach through the woods and fields on the south side of the road. 

He'd given the groups strict orders to approach stealthily and NOT to engage if there were Germans present until the Lance Corporal could assess the situation and numbers of enemy. Only on his signal (by opening fire) would they assault any position. Otherwise they would regroup back at a burnt out barn a half mile down the road to the east they'd found in their approach after an hour. 

LCpl Ching's group moves to the edge of the woods. 

DAnforth's group does likewise on the other side of the road... they spot sentries that were on the top of the hill having a good look at the chaos in the distance! After a moment they headed back down the hill. 

When the Moon slipped behind some thicker clouds and all got very dark. LCpl Ching ordered his group to try and rush forward across the field to the hedgerow. 

The sentries gathered at the sandbag emplacement for a brief discussion. 

When the Sentries started down the road away from them, Danforth, Hughes and Reddy moved out of the woods, using the crest of the hill as cover, maneuvered to the top of the hill.

The moon came out from behind clouds and the whole area lit up... There were three German soldiers in plain view down the road clear in the open... they weren't going to get a better chance... so Hughes opened fire, the other two on the hill followed suit. One German was killed and another winged and knocked down in the road. Two others were set to flight by the sudden violence - running all the way back to the building they were billetted in. One of the two broke and fled out the back door running for his life. 

 Pte, Constable moved up to the hedgerow. The German in the street who had been injured was just recovering. A few shots from Constable encouraged the German to scramble over/through the hedge. 

Ching moved up and sprayed the hedgerow opposite which set the German to flight, around the building and through the fields opposite... 

Pte. Messier joined the other two at the hedgerow and observed the building to see if anyone popped their head up. One did and threw a grenade at them! It sailed far over their heads and exploded harmlessly out in the muddy field behind them - spattering them with a bit of muck. Fire from the Bren and Sten guns encouraged the German to hide back inside the house. 

Meanwhile down at the crossroads, Hughes asked the others to cover him and he rushed down and tossed a grenade into the sandbag emplacement. 

When Hughes snuck up to peer into the emplacement, the Feldwebel, hunkered down within took a shot at him with his MP40! Hughes ducked and then put a bullet through the German. And then three more, just to be sure! 

Hughes started taking more fire from the second story window of the house. 

Ching and Messier took this as an opportunity to climb over the hedge, one at a time while covering each other... hoping the occupants were all distracted by the explosions and fire at the crossroads - at least one was firing that way... 

A second German was clearly still in the house and popped up at the window to shoot at Messier, hitting him in the arm!

At the crossroads fire from the house had obliged Hughes to fall back across the street and take cover with Constable. 

Meanwhile Ching charged into the house! On the main floor he filled the German crouched by the window full of lead. Then he charged up straight up the stairs to engage the German shooting out the Northside window. So startled was the German he couldn't even react and Ching took him down with a short burst from his sten gun. 

LCpl Ching and Pte. Messier made a quick search of the house. They found some old letters that were left behind when the place was abandoned - confirming the address. Searching the bodies of the "Germans", the papers they carried seemed to indicate they were actually Polish...? 

Constable and Hughes did a quick search of the crossroads and sandback emplacement. The Germans had indeed torn down the road signage... but being lazy, had just tossed it in the ditch where it was discovered by Constable. This further confirmed their location. 

Still up on the hill, Danforth and Reddy had a good look around and were able to identify a few features in the distance and take a bearing on them.

The group regrouped and compared notes and decided to head back. LCpl. Ching expressed his disappointment at the group on the hill NOT waiting for his signal. After it was determined it had been Hughes that had opened fire, he and Constable got into a heated argument, Constable insisting it was a rash decision that could have gotten them all killed! 

They bickered all the way back to the temporary CP at the farmhouse. 

More troops had made their way there and with the information that LCpl Ching's group was able to provide, a route of march was established and the lot of them moved out to the Northwest to try and regroup with the 8th Parachute Battalion which should be trying to blow up bridges across the River Dives.

What's going on...? 

I played out this scenario using Five Men in Normandy from Nordic Weasel Games. I picked up the PDF the other day and it seemed really interesting and I had a lot of stuff I could just use right away without any modifications (though I DID rebase the Paras, so I could put names on the bases... It's something I want to get to anyway...)

I thought the system would be fun to play out a little campaign of Canadian Paratroops in Normandy - given the chaotic nature of the drop, the system seemed perfectly suited for playing out the adventures and escapades of a small group of troopers dropped way off course and deep behind enemy lines.

I started with rolling up a random section and got two with sten guns, three with rifles, and a bren gunner. 

I called these guys "seasoned" even though they'd never seen actual combat - I figured it would reflect their more intensive training. 

I rolled for some specialist equipment and got a Medical Kit and Boots that Actually Fit. Both are one use and then gone and can be used by anyone in the section.

I rolled for skills and got Alert and Brawler. I assigned Alert to the Bren gunner and Brawler to one of the troops with a Sten Gun and called them a Lance Corporal. 

Rolling for known people I got two Allied Soldiers and one Officer from Own Unit. Initially I wasn't clear if these joined the unit...? but later I found events that allow a known character to join a unit, and so these are just people that have been met that COULD join in... 

There are backgrounds and motivations that can be rolled for. It is suggested that at least those characters with skills be rolled for and others can be rolled for later as they are "revealed". 

I rolled Farmer for the Lance Corporal and Working Class for the Bren Gunner. 

For motivations, I rolled Family for the Lance Corporal and Glory for the Bren Gunner... 

Then I started weaving the narrative together... I decided the Lance Corporal and Bren Gunner would actually be from the same section. The others would be from other units that were equally lost behind enemy lines and were met up with and formed an ad-hoc unit to carry out actions. 

Just to make things interesting, I decided the Bren gun would have low ammunition. 

I thought the first batch of scenarios could be follow-up scenarios - representing a series of encounters through out the night of the drop and following day or so until the unit made it to the Rendezvous Point at the Le Mesnil crossroads. 

As follow-up missions, the troops don't really get to rest and recover or gain new equipment between action scenarios.. Although... reinforcements could be found in the form of just finding other lost Paratroopers... resupply could be in the form of looting corpses...? I don't know... we'll see.

Currently I'm working with the following rule I made up: At the beginning of each scenario I'll roll a d6. If the number is LESS than the number of scenarios played I'll say they've made it back to the RV point and get some limited rest and resupply... 

Also the first scenario(s) are in darkness. I thought I'd roll for a random visibility as the moon slips in and out of cloud cover at the beginning of each turn (3d6"). Targets that shot in the previous turn, but are beyond the current visibility range, may be shot at, but only with Shock Dice. 

Instead of 1+d6 days between missions, these first ones will be 1+d6 hours. Sunrise is 6am. 

IF the unit survives these initial missions and makes it back to the Rendezvous Point, the riflemen will return to their respective units and I'll roll three more times on the Force tables to see how many of their original section made it back to the RV to reunite with them. At this point one of them will gain a skill and backgrounds rolled and new specialist equipment acquired - if any of the initial equipment has been used.  

For the first scenario I rolled a Military Mission (decided that the Officer from their own unit would direct them to do something). I then rolled a Scouting mission - the objective of which is to get within 3" of each of three objectives. Thinking of the terrain I have access to, I decided this could be the top of a hill (to get a look and see if they can figure out where they are), a crossroads (to see if there is any signage that might indicate what road they are on), and a building to see if there is anything that can be found there. 

I decided to add Search Rolls at each - to see if any clues are found. 

The Opposition I rolled were six sentries... that would be sitting on each objective. Two at the crossroads, two on the hill, and two in the building. In my minds eye, I imagined a bored squad of wehrmacht conscripts (possibly from occupied countries in Eastern Europe) being tasked with guarding a cross roads on the night everything went to shit. Three were probably sleeping in the house - which I decided had been abandoned - while the other three were at the crossroads until all the shooting and explosions started. Now two remained at the crossroads, which two went up to the top of the hill to see if they could make out what was going on around them. The other two are still resting in the building. 

There is a squad leader with an MP40, the rest have bolt action rifles.  

For circumstances I rolled a Stealth Mission - so our heroes are sneaking up on the sentries who have to check to see if they spot them... 

The battle was then played through using the Five Men In Normandy rules. I'm not going to do a blow-by-blow, roll-by-roll of what happened when I've already wrote a narrative description of what went down... which I hope is more interesting anyway. 

AFTER THE BATTLE

There were NO INJURIES to roll for the unit! I had an extreme run of lucky rolls... and catching people at less than 12" and in the open was very handy! 

I did roll for ONE event - Argument - Hughes and Reddy - they don't like each other anymore... but it didn't come to blows or lower the morale of the unit. 

Rolling to move the clock forward, the next action wouldn't be until after 8am - well after sunrise. 

Rolling for morale - I had five dice for a successful mission and not taking any casualties - which resutled in a +2 morale. These are points that can be expended each game to prevent a figure from hunkering down or bailing. 

I've started a page to keep track of all the battles and Characters:

Five Men in Normandy - Campaign and Characters 

I'm really liking this system so far. It has fair bit of similarity with Five Parsecs from Home and Five Leagues from the Borderlands (and Five Kilometres from Liepzig!) - all of which I would like to explore further... I think I might carry on with this campaign for a bit though, as I've got it started and some momentum and have VERY LITTLE I have to do for prep for any scenarios as I have LOADS of painted WW2 figures and vehicles. 

Just wish I had some better buildings...