Somewhere in Normandy.... 4th Ed FoW Historical (ish) game

Hi folks,

Dave and Martin have already got posts up showing off this game, so I thought I had better put my pic's up before I forget.

We used the 4th edition Flames of War rules, with my usual few tweaks for random events using tiddly winks, and a little bit of 'roleplay' thrown in - were we tend to do things which make sense rather than strictly follow the rules (we would apply this to any game, not just FoW). Basically for this game I was being the 'Gamesmaster' and controlling the dastardly Germans while Martin played the plucky British Para's and Dave played the swaggering Yanks.

Terrain was a mix of what Dave had and some stuff I brought - mainly hedges from me.

Bottom end of the town

Top end of the town and the bridge

Road into the town, where the Yanks will be advancing

The table looked pretty sweet, we did our best to make it nice and busy.

Wider view of the table

Some wider shots of the town. The Para's had to conduct a night attack on the town, while during daylight the Yanks had to attack up the roads to relieve them. 'Hold until relieved...'

View of the 2nd, wooden, bridge

The game started with a few turns of night time fighting, while the Para's attempted to secure the whole town.

The muzzle flash tokens show what bases have fired at night

Para's use smoke to reduce incoming MG fire

A bit of a mixed melee around the town, with the wooden bridge defenders forming an all round defence. 

2cm German AA holds one end of the bridge, along with German infantry in the other buildings. Para's secure the end closest to the camera. 

Some of the Para units around the town didn't do too much for the game...

Smoke on the German MG42's holding the wooden bridge. 

Fighting rages around the town

However, all the buildings on this side are secured by the Para's

Para's moving up the road to help - German reinforcements came in randomly all over the board, which resulted in some odd situations

Such as a platoon of Panzer IV's rocking up in the rear - thankfully intercepted by some Para stragglers which included a couple of PIAT teams and Gammon Bomb armed Para's. When daylight broke, it revealed a battery of German 10.5cm guns firing on the advancing Yanks. 

Meanwhile, the Para's tee up to try and take the bridge, relying on a wide flanking move. 

The lead two Panzer IV's drive into a Para ambush, the others break around in the close terrain

The Yank recce makes progress up the road, encountering German ambushers on the way. 

The Bridge remains just out of reach...

Those Yanks better hurry up!

But there are a lot of Para's lurking in these hedgerows...

Different focus, showing the terrain from a different angle. 

P-47 doing some sterling work dealing with surprise StuGs!

Great game, lots of randomness going on and the table looked cracking. Great to get newly painted stuff on the board - it was both the Para's and the Yank's first outing, with my German tanks getting their first showing as well.

Hopefully, we'll get some more games soon!