Purple Heart Draw Date One Part One.

As suspected the village was very lightly held with either two squads or Dummy Units (special counters that could be real units or fake). I have driven these units out of the village into the bocage behind it. Before the scenario comes to an end I will have the answer. Overall I was very pleased with my progress around the village and in front of the draw as I should have just about the whole area under my control at the end of the scenario. Martin brought down 80mm Off Board Artillery (OBA) and with the help of the shots drifting broke two units and then caught on of the broken units with the second round of fire but my unit rolled snakes gaining me a Heat of Battle roll. The result was them going Berserk but with no known enemy this was hanged to battle hardening and they went from 1st line to Elite, nice.

 

On my right flank Martin showed up as heavily defended but set far back. This has allowed me to take a lot of ground I would have expected to fight over and saved a lot of time. The defending force has only engaged me a small amount and where he has stood to fight he has mostly come off the worse as I have far stronger FP but he has managed to get his broken units back behind the front line so should get them back. I on the other hand have lost a couple of squads mostly to a HMG that is set up way back but lead by a 10-2 leader (that's 10 minus 2, the larger the minus the better the leader and goes up to -3). He also opened up with a 75L ATG that took out a M4 (Sherman) but I am happy with the loss of units to ground covered. My lucky escape was getting the 105mm armed M4 hit by a hidden P'Shreck but the round was a dud.

 

Area shown is just where action has happened.

My 80mm Mtr OBA has yet to land but I have a spotting round in play. Martin through his routing of broken squads and movement of other units has shown that I have a couple of routes safe from mines and wire which will allow me to make further gains on my right flank. However the bridge is heavily wired and has both anti tank and anti personal mines in place making it quite difficult to attack across. So I will have to decide between a few of tactical choices:-

a. Attack through the draw which could also be heavily fortified and will be a probable death trap.

b. Smoke the bridge area and send in troops to clear the mines and wire which will take an age and possibly under arty fire.

c. Use heavier OBA to try and clear the wire and mines and hope not to destroy the bridge!

d. send future attacks round te draw and force the Germans away from enough of the draw I have options in later dates.

e. A mix of some or all of the above.

 

I have at least one more turn (a 1 on a D6 would stop the game at that point) failing that 50% chance of two more turns  with 33% chance of a third and 16% chance of four turns (A disaster for the Germans).

 

When the scenario ends a front line is drawn between where my forces have advanced to and where German strategic points are located.Then we will spend points on reinforcements and go at it again. Martin has done well on keeping his force complete but he needs to stand and fight soon as he is losing too much ground and if I turn his left flank I have running space. I can't risk losing another tank this scenario and Martin may still have armour hidden somewhere on the map as well as other guns. Each move forward runs the risk of running into hidden units, mines or wire or even a mix of all three! This keeps the excitement levels high. I search with odd units that allows others to move with more confidence but sooner or later I will hit his main line of defence and then it's going to be a hard pounding. Next report will be in a weeks time.