Skirmish Campaign: On the Lamb Part 2

I really need to make my posts closer to the time of battle. Again I don't remember enough to write a full After Action Report, but I am happy to announce that the squad is now back behind friendly lines and receiving a much needed R&R.  In the mean time, I have several projects in the works. Another theater of World War 2 is shaping up in my collection. I have decided to shelve the 1898 alternate history project for now but I am exploring an early Cold War/ Imaginations idea. 

Skirmish Campaign: On The Lamb Part 1

After the loss of Lieutenant Hughes, C Troop still had a mission to complete; getting the wounded tanker back to friendly territory. Word was received that an ambulance jeep would be waiting at a destroyed farm (hex 6-4).  

The farm is still in disputed territory so the meet up will have to take place at night. A flock of sheep has drifted in to the area, as has a patrol of Germans. In the dark it is impossible to tell the sheep from the wolves.

A detachment from A troop stands watch. A machine gunner is dug in at the side of the field and a sniper is perched in the attic. An officer waits to give them their next assignment.   

The survivors of Troop C aren't out of the fire yet.

A Sprue Too Far

After sitting on my bench in various stages of completion for far too long, my British Airborne squads are now table ready. I will not say they are finished because I am not too happy with them and never stop tinkering with my models anyway.

Dragon's Red Devils kit. Another wash would bring out more details. The PIAT gunner will boost the firepower available to my Commonwealth forces. I plan on treating it like a grenade launcher as far as rules go. Please feel free to comment below with any suggestions on that. 

Dragon's 2nd SAS in France kit. I loved these sculpts. They went together very well. I feel I may have ruined their look by adding face paint, but that can be fixed with two coats of flesh tone and a wash.

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Currently on the bench are a few members of the 91st Recon getting a touch up. Many of my American Infantry were built and painted before I developed a little more skill. Also I purchased a package of 1/35 weapons that add some variety to my squads. 

It appears Cpl. Wood has had some contact with the First Special Service Force, during which he acquired a Johnson Light Machine Gun.

My "Up Next" pile. The Japanese will shape out my Pacific Theater figures while the others will finish off my Italian Front collection. I hate to say it but it looks like my WW2 Wargaming collection is almost finished! 

Skirmish Campaign: Stranded Sherman Part 2

The 91st Recon successfully located the lost Sherman but before contact could be made, the tank blundered into a German fortified position. The daring rescue team is now made up of  Lt. Hughes, the ever present Sgt. Cox and his BAR man Cpl. Wood, Cpl Collins the Ranger, Pvt Phillips the grenadier, and the medic Pvt. Mitchell.  The other members of the squad waited behind in reserve. 

November 3rd 1943

As a Sergeant it is not usually my duty to write after action reports but after today's engagement I find myself thrust in command. I have taken it upon myself to write in the late Lieutenant Walter Hughes's journal the record of his death. 

We entered the outskirts of the village of Ponte della Morte and quickly located the tank which we intended to contact. As we approached, a German antitank gun shot from ambush. The shell hit the engine of the tank and smoke poured from its hatches.   

 Lt Hughes and our medic, Pvt Mitchell, rushed to the crippled Sherman and pulled a wounded tanker from the wreck. I led the rest of the squad into cover, taking over an abandoned trench system to our right. Cpl Wood noticed an enemy Squad negotiating the rubble of a ruined building and kept them at bay, emptying his BAR. 

 As the medic helped the wounded tanker to his feet, the brave Lieutenant dove into the burning hulk again, pulling another tanker from the steel coffin. A third attempt was a failure. He jumped out yelling that the fire was close to the ammunition. He grabbed the nearly dead tanker and began to drag him away from the explosion we knew was coming. We all kept our heads down, finding any cover that we could.  

 Cpl Collins held the advancing Germans off but none of us had seen the German sniper who must have been in a building near by. Lt Hughes was noticed as he drug the dying tanker. A rifle shot was heard and he slumped forward, lifeless. Medic Mitchell turned to look but the German gun fired again, obliterating the tank and filling the air with shrapnel.

 We retreated back in to the mountains. The men are still in shock from the days events. As I am in command now, they look to me for our next plan. The decision to press the objective and locate as many allied troops as possible, or to retreat to known Allied lines is is still to be made.

 Sergeant William Cox

C Troop

91st Reconnaissance Squadron

Obviously a disappointing outcome, but that's the reality of a random solo campaign. As the men of C troop are still a ways from Allied lines, even a retreat could bring up some action. The squad is at hex 5-5. Today's battle,marked by the tank was in hex 4-4.

Skirmish Campaign: Stranded Sherman Part 1

After the successful mission in the mountains bordering the Ponte della Morte  valley, Lt Hughes of the 91st Recon moved his men down the valley following the reports of a stranded American tank at the village outskirts. Before they could get off the mountain however, they were ambushed by the angered German sniper whose patrol had been so easily defeated.

The map shows the location of the ambush, hex 5-5. The stranded tank is located in hex 4-4.

Grey chips were distributed across the playing area. When a figure encountered a chip, I would roll to see if the sniper shot, and then resolve the roll. True to his performance in the previous battle, no shots connected and the men crossed the mountain forest with no issue.  

Skirmish Campaign: Mountain Recon

At last! The 91st Recon Squadron is sent back in to action, this time in mainland Italy. The main mission is to locate Allied forces  in the Ponte della Morte valley. It is late fall/early winter 1943 and the mountain valley that lies "somewhere north of Salerno" is often clogged with fog off of the many streams. This coupled with the chaos of war has left a jumbled mess of both Allied and Axis lines. The 91st entered the valley over the mountains, coming into the map at the top right corner. The hex selection dice chose that the first sub mission should be 6-5 (6 right and 5 up), graciously removing and slog over unknown territory without prior reconnaissance. The mission generation dice ruled that a small German recon patrol was headed over the mountains and must be turned back or destroyed. 

November 1, 1943 

Upon arriving in the mountains above Ponte della Morte and begining to plan my infiltration, I was alerted by a runner from General Brasspants that a German patrol was headed our way to scout the mountain trail we had just came over. Calling my second in command Sgt. Cox over to me, I told him to assemble a scouting party to ambush them as they traveled.

Cox chose Corporal Wood, our BAR man, Private Phillips, an ace with a rifle grenade, and Private's Martinez and Harding. Martinez had been located in Sicily by our British allies and returned to the unit. He was itching for revenge against the Nazis. 

Sgt Cox and his patrol set up in the woods overlooking a stream. Taking cover in the rocks and trees they watched as four German Mountain troops carefully followed the stream in single file. 

Suddenly the German point man gave a cry. He had sprained his ankle on the stream bed but his cry startled Cpl Wood who opened up his Browning Automatic. The rifleman with a bum ankle speed limped forward firing his rifle as the scouting force was caught by surprise. Martinez and Harding jumped forward firing rifles to no avail as they scrambled for better shooting positions. The German machine-gunner fired at the movement, wasting his belt.

 The German squad leader aimed his sniper rifle at Cpl Wood but was unable to get a clear shot. Wood fired first, shaking the sniper and one of his riflemen but emptying his magazine in the process. Pvt Phillips made a break for a better shooting position as Sgt Cox rushed the fence with his trusty Thompson. Hobbling Heinrich shouldered his rifle and fired at Cox, who slumped over the fence and lay still.

 The German Gebirgsjager squad started to retreat in an orderly fashion. The cowardly sniper and squad leader made a break while the mg34 covered him.

 Phillips, angered by Sgt Cox being hit, lobbed a rifle grenade into the Germans. When the smoke cleared, the clumsy point-man lay blown to bits, the machine-gunner sat stunned, and the remaining rifleman attempted to get up, even though badly wounded. Martinez felled him for good with a rifle shot.

 As the surviving machine-gunner fled, the men surrounded the Sergeant, he was still breathing. the rifle round had smashed the top of his helmet, shaking him up badly but leaving him physically unscathed. 

I played through the battle using the Fistful of Lead rules for combat and activation. Solo mechanics were a combination of Herkybird's WW2 Skirmish rules , and various Five Men/Five Core supplements. I forgot to remove a joker from my card deck. It had been used in a previous non campaign game as a random event die and functioned as an ace in the card order. When it was drawn, I rolled a random event from the Five Core random event supplement. The poor German had an accident  which set off the entire firefight. I had not planned on using random events in battle but after this serendipitous experience I think I will continue to leave aces in my deck to trigger random events. 

New Campaign

The invasion of Italy has commenced! Axis forces are proving stubborn resistance and Allied troops pay dearly for ever inch of ground. In an unnamed village in an Italian valley, the battle has turned to chaos. Allied and Axis positions are scattered without order and contact erupts into firefights with no objective but to survive. American commanders have sent the men of the 91st Recon Squadron into the jumbled fray. The mission is yet unknown, but the battlefield proves it will be no easy task.