Raid On St Nazaire (Tabletop Simulator of Avalon Hill board game)

Below, I have attempted to summarise the turn sequence and briefly explain the important mechanics without going in to too much detail. For those of you that are interested you can download the rules from BoardGameGeek

Turn Sequence

1. Gun/Searchlight Restoration
Dice rolls are made to reactivate guns and/or searchlights affected in previous rounds.

2. Searchlight Illumination
A dice is rolled for each functioning Searchlight to determine which zone it is illuminating. The searchlights make hitting a boat in the next phase easier.
In the first round 2 of the searchlights will autonmatically illuminate the Approach Zone where all the boats are.

3. Naval Attack Phase

a) Harbor Defense Attacks
This represents the harbour defenses randomly firing on the approaching vessels. There is a predesignated hit on the Campbeltown each round followed by predesignated hits on all burning vessels, including the the Campbeltown if it is on fire. Then dice rolls are made against all the boats until a miss happens or 12 hits are recorded!! Yes you read that right, up to 12 hits per round (more if you count the predesignated hits). This and the subsequent Dockside Defensive Fire is quite a clever way of showing how daunting a prospect the approach must have been.

b) British Covering Fire
The boats then get a chance to shoot back at the guns and/or searchlights and can shoot at as many as they like. Each subsequent attact after the first is harder until the play rolls and “end of phase” result (basically a miss).

c) Dockside Defensive Fire
This is a more “focused” element of German fire. Individual functional guns that aren’t adjacent to a commando fire at the closest zone containing boats. The number of guns attacking a zone will affect the chance of success and once again there is a possible 12 hits but this time by zone!

4. Naval Movement Phase
As the name might suggest, this the phase in which the surviving British boats move. Later on in the game some of the German ships will also activate and withdraw to the safety of the submarine pens.

The torpedo boats can launch torpedo attacks against lock gates or Sperrbrecher (minesweeper) and the Campbeltown can ram the Southern Caisson.

5. Loading/Unloading Phase
Commandos are dropped ashore (usually at their designated landing points) and passengers are picked up for return to England. Attempts to land at the designated areas is automatically successful whereas landing at different areas can fail slowing down the commandos.

6. German Activation Phase
The arrival of German troops is rolled for. In the early turns of the game the number and quality of the troops activating is low but as the scenario unfolds this will improve for the Germans representing the increasing reaction to what is now an obvious attack.

7. Land Movement Phase
Commandos on land can elect to move followed by German troops which will move according to specific priorities as laid out in the rules.

8. Land Combat
Land based units attack, starting with the British followed by any surviving Germans and Flak guns.

9. Demolition Phase
In this phase the demolition commandos can attempt to set and trigger demo charges on guns/searchlights or Victory Point targets. If attacking a VP target they must attempt on their primary target first but after that can try for targets of opportunity. VP’s are scored for successful attacks. There is also a chance that German troops stumble upon set charges and remove them

10. End of Turn
Damaged German units combine with other units in their space and the turn counter moves on.

End Game
At the end of the game all the VP’s earned for destroying/damaging targets are added up and points are also awarded for commandos/passengers that escape back to England. To win the player needs to score 70VP and the rulebook points out that in real life the raiders would have “only scored 53 victory points.

Phew!!!