Five Men in Normandy - Holding at Varaville

I really enjoyed the first game I played in this campaign. So I very much wanted to follow up with a second game while at least SOME of the rules were fresh in my head!? Alas... it's been FOUR MONTHS... and I'd forgotten everything. 

I finally got this on the table because later this weekend I'm going to introduce the system to a friend and I wanted to have the rules straight in my head, so I re-read all the rules (there really aren't THAT many, so that wasn't so onerous a task as I initially thought it might be... I did briefly consider upgrading to Five Men at Kursk... but that DID look like there's a bit more to it, so I decided maybe that's for some other time and to stick to Five Men in Normandy!) 

Tuesday, 6 June 1944, 08:07am

Somewhere in Normandy, East of the Divette near Varaville 

After figuring out where they were in the last mission. The group set out to rendezvous with friendly forces - ideally BEFORE bridges were blown and they retreated back to the Battalion Rendezvous point at Les Mesnil. 

The going was slow, as they tried their best to avoid large groups of Germans that seemed to be swarming everywhere in confusion. It turned out they weren't as far south as they initially thought, more East than anything! The closest bridge they could get to was the one at Varaville that the Canadians were preparing to blow up. 

The arrived at just before 8am while the engineers were still preparing the bridge for demolition - it would still be some time, as they'd had a hard time gathering enough explosive. Sapper Danforth left the group to join the Royal Engineers working at the bridge.

The remainder of LCpl Ching's group was tasked with digging in near a small crossroads of two secondary roads just north of the bridge on the east side of the river and hold against any counterattacks. 

Dug in at the crossroads - with good sightlines down each road and a good view of the field opposite. 

Since Pte. Constable and Pte. Hughes were still sore at each other they had to be split up. Ching also no longer trusted Hughes to follow orders and maintain fire discipline, so Ching, Hughes and Messier were in one slit trench together. Pte. Constable  and Pte Reddy shared the other slit trench.

They spotted an officer of an unknown unit walking up the road with a mug of coffee. Ching tried to wave him down an urge him to hurry to their position. 

Across the field, however, a patrol of Germans were marshalling in the a small copse of wood. 

The Germans opening fusillade with the MG42s was very effective. Ching and Messier were missed, but they decided to hunker down immediately (and could not be further targeted by fire - until activated and popped their heads up. Pte Hughes was and Private Constable were both Down, Private Reddy Flinched. 

The approaching officer was downed on the road.  

On the Paras turn, LCpl Ching Checked on Hughes and found he'd been grazed. Ching applied a dressing and got him back in action. 

Reddy checked on Constable and also found a great big dent on his helmet that had deflected a bullet! 

Messier popped his head up, reaction fire was ineffective, so he opened up with his Bren Gun and caused one of the MG42 loaders to Bail! 

Somehow I neglected to take a picture of this... 

On the following German turn, the other MG42 team fired back at Messier, missing, but he decided to again hunker down!  

With the English properly suppressed a German squad leader and two privates rushed out towards the downed officer. 

On the other flank, two other riflemen rushed across the field for the cover of the hedges, trying to outflank the English Paratroopers positions. 

Ptes Messier, Reddy, and Constable all popped their heads up (and were not suppressed by reaction fire!) and all fired on the trio moving across the field towards the Downed officer. One rifleman was knocked Out Of action, the other two Down, and the squad leader Bailed! 

The Germans had a Firefight round and started with the MG teams opening up, which got all the Paras heads down and Pte Reddy Flinched. 

On the Paras turn, Messier, Constable and Hughes were up and firing (and not getting suppressed!) and their combined fire KOed one of the MG gunners and the other was Down! 

The Germans returned fire... 

All the Paras Hunkered Down again - except Pte. Messier, who was taken Out Of Action!!!

The German officer checked on the Bailed squad leader and he flinched and fled off the table! 

Others moved out of cover to check on their Downed squad mate in the field. 

On the following Paras turn, fire from LCpl. Ching caused one of the Germans down the lane to Bail, fleeing the battlefield. 

Reddy Flinched when reaction fire came a little too close when he popped up to shoot...  

Constable had another great round of shooting took out another German manning one of the MG42s!? 

More Germans on the move when the Paras heads were down. 

On the Paras turn Hughes, Reddy and Constable popped their heads up to fire and all were suppressed by reaction fire! Reddy and Constable both flinched and would not act in the following turn. Hughes bailed. Because he was in good cover he would have to hunker down and check again on their next turn. 

Checking on the Downed German in the field, he was found to only be lightly wounded and got up to soldier on 

More Germans rushing up on the other flank. 

On sneaking through the woods, approaching Constable and Reddy's slit trench. 

On the paras next turn, Reddy and Constable both could not act, because they'd flinched. Hughes tried to rally, but rolled a BAIL result again, and at that point, he did bail out of the slit trench into the woods behind them and fled the battlefield! 

Ching popped his head up to try and fire, but was immediately suppressed (FLINCH!) by the remaining MG42 in action. 

Two Germans went to check on the downed officer, and as they rolled over the officer he shot one of them with his Webley! The other German then shot the officer. 

The surviving Germans moved into cover on their flank. 

Fire from... someone...? took Pte. Reddy Out of Action! 

on the other flank, a solidarly German soldier rushed Constable and Reddy's trench. Constable poked his head up to see what was going on when he heard the footsteps rushing toward their trench. The German kicked him in the face and followed him down into the trench an bashed him three times with the butt of his rifle to make sure he stayed down, then gave Pte. Reddy a kick to make sure he was staying down as well! 

LCpl Ching popped his head up to see what was happening, but was immediately suppressed by fire from the MG42. 

While the adrenaline was up, the German leaped out of the first trench and charged LCpl Chings position. He put a bullet into Ching and then another and then one into Messier, to make sure he stayed down... 

And that was it... 

They'd been SO CLOSE. 

To succeed in the mission, they had to take out or otherwise render half of the German patrol Out of Action, Down, or fled the field... at the point Ching was taken out FOUR Germans had been taken Out of Action, and two had fled the field... I'd half hoped that Ching might get lucky and take out the German assaulting his slit trench (Ching had the Brawler skill, so it was even odds!) then one more lucky roll taking one down or out of action would have seen the Germans flee! Alas... 

The results of all the pre-game rolls - to determine the mission, etc are outlined below... and after that all the results of the post game rolls...

Pre-Game 

I hadn't ROLLED for Sapper Danforth to leave the section... it just seemed like that was a thing that should have happened when they arrived at the bridge... he was an engineer, elements of his unit were there preparing the bridge for demolition. 

I'd thought of giving the section an immediate replacement - as there would have been other paras milling about having arrived at that objective point... but I didn't... partly because my slit trenches only held three! (I guess I could have broke out the other two-man slit trench... but they all take up a lot of space and i wasn't sure where I'd have put it at the crossroads...) 

I'd set out an alternative elapsed time between missions (normally you roll for how many DAYS pass between missions, I was rolling for how many HOURS!) I rolled FIVE hours and rolled that they'd have made it to Varaville. Everything else was on the tables as laid out in the rules. 

People: Non combat military personnel

Any of the mechanics, administrative personnel, medical staff and other military types required to make a war run on schedule.

The officer with a cup of coffee... I'd planned to come up with a name and occupation for him... buuuuut... 

I did determine before the game that he'd lost all of his stuff in the drop. Some friendly French farmers took him in and hid him from some patrolling Germans, furnished him with some coffee and when neighbours reported there were English Paratroopers a few fields over at the bridge over the Divette, they sent him on his way! 

Mission Type: Military Mission

Location: Crossroads 

Mission: Initially I rolled "Secure" but I thought Defend would be more apropos. 

Objectives: The defenders must render at least half the attack group ineffective (bailed, captured or out of action) at any one time. Once this occurs, the attack is broken up and the mission successful! 

Enemy Force: Rolled on the Force table, but with three extra rolls!

1. One figure with MG42
2. One figure with pistol (that can be the loader for the MG42)
3. Two figures with bolt action rifles, one with G43.
4. One figure with bolt action rifle, one with pistol (officer leading the group!) 
5. Two figures with bolt action rifles
6. Two figures with bolt action rifles
7. One figure with MP40
8. One figure with bolt action rifle, one with MP40

So... 

• 8x bolt action rifles
• 2x MP40
• 1x G43
• 1x officer with pistol
• 2x MG42 crew (gunner with MG42 and a loader with a pistol) 

Yikes! 

(Oh... whoops.. I realize now I'd misread my notes before the game and though that was TWO MG42 teams... not two drew with ONE MG42... Eh... probably wouldn't have made THAT bid of a difference...?) 

Battle Condition: Fancy Meeting You Here

A random character known in the campaign is in the battle area.

If they can be reached and escorted off the table, get a positive morale die and a roll on the Specialist Gear table.

I decided this should be the newly rolled Non-Combat Military Personnel (The Officer with the Cup of Coffee)

POST GAME

Well... what to do here... they lost... and were ALL out of action!?

I figured the most likely scenario would be that any that survived would have been taken prisoner by the Germans. 

I did roll for Hughes to see if he was accused of cowardice and court-martialled and he was not, so I said he'd rushed back to the bridge and reported that they'd be overrun. A larger patrol was sent out and only found the bodies of LCpl Ching and Pte Messier and the rest were gone...

Injuries:   

So I rolled to see what happened to all. I decided since they lost, there was a much higher chance they'd have been killed and rolled a kill die for each and on a 6 they were automatically Killed in Action - Ching and Messier were Killed in action. 

The officer miraculously was not seriously injured, physically and made a full recovery, but the violence of the action left him a broken man, mentally scarred for life. He survived the rest of the war in a POW camp, but took his own life only a year after being returned to England... 

Pte. Constable received a serious permanent injury that crippled him for life. 

Pte. Reddy was seriously injured and died in a POW camp.

Morale:   Rolled SIX negative morale dice! Ended with Morale -2! 

Campaign Events: 

War struggle - The battalion has suffered set backs. Roll a negative morale die (no further reduction to morale). Add an additional enemy figure during any missions, until you've won two.

Reassigned - A random soldier is reassigned to another unit, sent home to aid in propaganda tasks or otherwise removed from the campaign. Wish him the best and roll a positive morale die. (this kind of happened BEFORE the game, with Sapper Danforth... and after the game with Hughes rejoining his original unit...!?) 

Well, where do I go from here!? 

Part of me just wants to say "welp, I guess that's it!" and say I've had my fun, I tried it out, and maybe I should go back to playing my Five Parsecs From Home campaign. I'm starting another Five Men campaign tomorrow with Orion, so maybe that's enough... 

Part of me wants to roll up a new squad for Pte. Hughes to join (using Five Men at Kursk?) and follow his path through the rest of the war...? I figured he lied and said both Ching and Messier had been killed before he bailed - and conveniently did have a bullet wound himself! But maybe the -2 morale follows him in the form or rumours that he was a coward and fled a firefight, leaving fellow soldiers to die and be captured...? 

We shall see... 

I've updated the Five Men in Normandy Campaign Page for now...