Day of Days (Brecourt Manor) with CROSSFIRE

 I've been keen to get some WWII action on the table and what better way to celebrate a belated 80th anniversary of D-Day than with a game of Crossfire featuring my 15mm US Paratroopers and newly re-based Germans.

I used the scenario from the "Fireball Forward" rules which, as it turns out, needed a little bit of tweaking before making itself into a Crossfire scenario.  

The famously shaped hedgerow containing the German HMG position is upper-left.  Some of you may remember the trenchline from the Ulianovo scenario.  I used it and added some modifications to support the Brecourt Manor assault.

German guns firing on Utah Beach!  Each German gun represents its own "position" that is outside of the trench-line and susceptible to reactive fire.

Battery defense platoon!  Georgians?  Regulars?  Fallschirmjaegers?  Nothing fancy in this game.  I just made them regulars.

The Americans are rated as "Veteran" in Crossfire, which makes them about as good as you can get.  

The machine gun platoon sets up along the hedgerow!

The action begins immediately against the Battery Defense Platoon in the "V Shaped Hedgerow" and the Screaming Eagles of Easy Company as the American .30 cals open up and start suppressing everybody!

German suppressed HMGs!  The squad in the foreground is still unsuppressed - all of the firing at this point is coming from the hedgerow in the upper right of the picture.

While the HMGs are suppressed, LT Compton and LT Winters move their men up to the hedgerow, preparing to assault.

The paratroopers make their way over or through the hedges and into the trench!

And the rest of Easy Company follows their lead.  So far, so good.  Solid base of fire element and all of the maneuver elements are in play!

The German defense platoon has an HMG in the trenchline along with 2 other sections.  The firing has them alerted, but their commander holds them back, fearing more Americans will come from a different direction.

V-Shaped Hedgerow to the left, bristling with firepower.

With the HMGs in the "V Shaped Hedgerow" suppressed, Winters decides it's time to assault the first gun position.  Winters is my Company Command stand in this battle, and so by the Crossfire rules he is authorized to initiate close combat.  I gave both him and LT Compton "+2" modifiers wich is the best you can get as a leader in Crossfire.

Winters and his accompanying rifle squad dash into the gun position, only to be react-fired by remaining un-suppressed squad in the "V-Shaped Hedgerow".  Winters is suppressed and his rifle squad is pinned at the gun emplacement for Gun #1!  The initiative switches to the Germans, who promptly and very successfully rally both of their HMGs, one of which has a bee-line to the first gun position now occupied by Winters and his rifle squad.  Winters is already suppressed and of course the HMG kills him and then trains its fire on the rifle squad, eventually eliminating it as well.  

Winters is killed in action!  Command goes to LT Compton now.  Can he take out the gun position?

Compton and his 2 x rifle squads hold their position in the trenchline while the American MMGs try to suppress the German HMGs in the V Shaped hedgerow.  The American shooting is good and it actually suppresses both of the German MGs... again!  What is with my dice rolling today!!

Compton's assault goes in against Gun #1.  Remember that German rifle squad in the V-Shaped Hedgerow, the ones who were previously unsuppressed who suppressed Winters and his Rifle Squad?  They now open fire on Compton and his men and score the exact same score as they did against LT Winters - COmpton is suppressed and one of his Rifle Squads is pinned in place as they go in to assault Gun #1.  Initiative switches to the Germans again.  They successfully rally both HMGs again, which both successfully open fire on Compton's men - with disastrous results.

I decided to tweak the scenario a bit at this point.  Units have way more staying power in "Fireball Forward" than they do in "Crossfire".  Perhaps 3 HMGs for the Germans was a bit too much?  I remove one HMG but nothing else.  Re-running the scenario 

This cursed squad made the Americans miserable in both games!  Iron Crosses all around for these Landsers.

LT Compton is also killed on his way to assault Gun #1 in Game 1.

Game 2 sees a shuffling around a bit and a tighter American deployment so they can form more "Firegroups".  The MMGs work over the German HMG and eventually knock it out with excellent shooting and incredibly the German squad in the V-Shaped Hedge goes "NO FIRE" meaning they attempted a reaction fire and missed completely.  The Americans have the run of the field as the remaining Battery Defense Platoon cannot shoot through any gun positions and so have the wait until the Americans close with them.

The Americans knock out the Gun in close combat.  and I should hope so because by Crossfire standards, the gun crew gets a -3 to their roll (-2 for Crew and -1 for "Green).

Compton leap-frogs over Winters and takes out Gun #2.  The German squad is still "NO FIRE" and I'm thinking the good guys are going to win this thing.

Approaching Gun #3 Winters' men are pinned by the German HMG.  A couple rounds of inconclusive shooting later, and the German HMG goes "NO FIRE" - Winters and his squad assault it immediately and destroy it.

Winters rallies his squad at Gun 3 and prepares to assault the German HMG while Compton and his men will assault Gun 3.

The White Bead is a NO FIRE marker as I was too lazy to fish out my actual NO FIRE Markers...

The Screaming Eagles promptly dispatch the HMG crew in the trenchline while Compton eliminates Gun #3.

As soon as the US PAratroopers lose the initiative, this white bead comes off of the German squad in the V Shaped Hedgerow and they're back in the war.

and they immediately start shooting up Winters and his men, suppressing the rifle squad.

With a huge advantage in quality and numbers, the Americans still manage to lose this close combat by rolling a 1.  Guess what that means?  Yes - Winters is killed again!  In Crossfire, when a side loses close combat, all participating squads in the close combat are eliminated.

Once again, LT Compton is in command of Easy Company.  He goes on to suppress the Squad in the V Shaped Hedgerow, and eliminates the remaining German squad in close combat.  The destruction of Gun #4 is a foregone conclusion and I call the game.

LESSONS LEARNED

Like so many other battles before it, I think the lessons learned here probably have more to do with coming up with a scenario than any tactical lessons learned.  Everyone knows how much I love Crossfire as a game, but it is very unforgiving.  I think the Germans could have kept their other HMG if I would have given the American paratroopers smoke but I wanted to go with what was in the scenario in Fireball Forward.  

Anyways, reducing it to a single HMG in the V Shaped Hedgerow was a good move as it allowed the American attack to develop (and for me to reacquaint myself with the rules again).  I also forgot LT Spiers' reinforcing rifle squad as well in both games, which may have turned the tide here with the introduction of another Veteran-rated American squad and another +2 leader.

One thing I'll say, though, is that I think small games of Crossfire with a handful of platoons on the table is definitely the way to go and this approach supports solo games very well.  6 squads per side and an HMG or 2 still can give a heck of a tactical challenge.  I think I am going to take a crack at re-writing this scenario for Crossfire and possibly putting in a few more bells and whistles for both sides.

Anyways, it was great returning to battling in NW Europe in 1944 and I have not played any good Normandy battles in awhile.  I think I'll peruse the Fireball Forward rules for additional scenarios to play with my US Paratroopers.  Stay tuned for more battles with the US (and British) Airborne, and Crossfire.

CURRAHEE!