75th Anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino and Northern Italy (Gaming The Battles)
3rd Battle for Monte Cassino - Assault on the Town (Turns 1 and 2)
The view from the NZ left flank
The middle (behind Green Platoon and Tank Platoon 2)
And the NZ right flank, where Orange platoon face an abandoned farm house beyond the barbed wireNZ Turn 1:
The three smoke bombardments arrive quite far up the German half of the battlefield so won’t impact play this turn. Otherwise, with no German units currently discovered by the NZ forces, all that can happen is an advanced. Red platoon is able to reach the barbed wire in front of them.
German Turn 1:
A quick measure shows that three deployment points are within 20” of NZ forces. A random draw puts the 3sqd Fallschirmjager platoon in the lone building, a blank for the deployment zone in the road and an MG Nest in the garden of the building just off the road (see the tactical map below). All of these units start this round pinned however the 3Sqd is able to lay down some serious fire on Orange Platoon and despite causing any casualties, is able to pin them in place.
Tactical Map at the end of Turn 1
End of Turn 1NZ Turn 2:
Only one smoke bombardment is in any place to worry the current combatants, landing in the road just further up field from the MG Nest, the other bombardments land further back.
Orange platoon rally but stay in place to avoid the huge volume of fire the 3 squads of Fallschirmjager are able to throw out. At least by staying put, they gain some additional cover bonus. The Universal Carriers move up alongside Orange to provide some additional firepower.
The Engineers advance up the road to trigger the possible minefield laying between the defences – it’s a blank, so nothing to worry about there. Otherwise, the remaining units advance apart from the Mortars that set up ready to fire – they range in on 3sqd and pin them in place but fail to cause any casualties. The Universal Carriers have more luck and their .50cals are able to dig two teams from 3qd out of their bullet proof cover and destroy them.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the advance, Tank Platoon 2 (T2) fire upon the MG Nest and get a lucky shot through, destroying the nest at the first attempt!
German Turn 2:
The NZ troops have not advanced far enough to trigger any more deployment markers so the German player cannot try to bring more troops into the battle.
The 3sqd Fallschirmjager unpin and continue to fire upon Orange Platoon, killing one team. With no other units on the table, this is the end of the German turn!
In the below pictures, you can see the MG Nest in the back garden of a small house, Red Platoon at the barbed wire and the view of the 3 squads of Fallschirmjager dug in at the farmhouse as Orange Platoon and Tank Platoon 3 advance on them.
End of Turn 2
Real state of play
Great table @redvers – As always I live the overhead “situation map” as well. I like how your table physically narrows toward the German side. Great game mechanic, this takes away the Allied options along the flanks and seems to force them into the narrow front, head-on attack that often characterized the Italian campaign and Monte Cassino in particular.
Probably frustrating for the Allied player, though. 😀 Although it gives the Germans the proper leverage of defending key terrain with a very small force.
Thanks @oriskany. Now that I have a reasonable collection of models, I’ve been spending some time upgrading the scenery to help with the immersion. I’m working on painting the buildings at the moment – some of the ruins you can see in the photos are the ‘work in progress’. I need to look at my roads as well, I’ve just solved the problem of cheap, flexible and easy to make roads, so I’ll be working on those shortly. The narrowing wasn’t planned but did make the game far more challenging. The random deployment for the German’s certainly made the difference… Read more »