Operation Luttich with Rommel

A little less than a year ago I put on Operation Luttich using a modified Field of Battles: WW2.
It was huge, and it bogged down badly.  I blame me partly for putting too much terrain on the table, but I also wanted to try and streamline the rules to allow for a faster play game.  Then Rommel by Sam Mustafa came out.  I gave them a test drive with a couple of generic scenarios and then put them away.  Over the last couple of weeks I've been working my way solo through one interpretation of operation Luttich based on that game last year.  Here are some photos and after action report.

The German side with three elements representing the 1st SS, 2nd SS, and 2nd Panzer divisions.  I should have made the Panzergrenadier battalions elite - boo boo number one.  One of the German elements didn't have artillery, but the parent unit had two Nebelwerfers.  Sadly they started out too far away to help with the assault in the beginning.




The American side

Combat Command B of the 3rd Armor plus the 119th regiment of the 30th infantry in reserve.

The scenario was set for 16 turns.  No American air power was allowed for the first 4 turns to simulate the fog that started this battle.  The Americans rolled a d6 until they rolled less than the turn number for their reinforcements.  They joined the battle in the nick of time.

Initial assault of hill 314.  I gave hill 314 and hill 285 three prepared position markers to make them tougher to take.  The Germans never made it to hill 285, focusing their assault on 314.

The abbey got their attention also.

 Flanking around St. Barthelemy

 Unoccupied Romagny is occupied by the Germans.

 Another attempt at hill 314.

Americans counterattack to protect their vulnerable artillery.  I'm using my usual "unloaded" markers to indicate "tipped" units, or as I like to call them - "spent."  For road movement I used my truck stands to indicate units were spent.  The spent units had to be touching the truck stand.

Overall German position.  They have Mortain and Romagny.  I set the victory conditions to whoever held 3 of the 5 urban areas.  The Germans could hope for little more.  In the upper right you can see them trying to flank the American positions and again get at those vulnerable artillery plus the undefended Juvighny.  It almost worked.

Then American reinforcements arrived.

Hill 314 fell!

Saint Barthelemy also fell, but was quickly retaken.

The Abbey fell.

American artillery made the Germans pay a heavy price for this.  I made all American artillery "Parent," meaning they could support any unit without penalty.

 The Americans counter attack with just 2 tank companies into a town.  They need a 3 or better to inflict the two hits necessary to eliminate the badly battered German companies.  With the help of two airstrikes and artillery they succeed.

 The Germans desperate to retake the one town they need for victory.  We were in overtime, and the game could end at the end of any of these turns.

 They don't succeed.  Some end game pictures showing final positions.  The German flanking force coming back over the bridge.  All rivers were treated as "soft ground." The bridge space could be left without being spent if you left into either of the squares the bridge was facing.  Reading about the terrain around Mortain, this was an issue for armor in particular.  Hmmm, that could be another special rule.  Only have soft ground effect armor.

 You can see on the left that the Screaming Mimis moved up.  They really made a difference for the Germans.

My second big error was allowing the american armor and armored infantry to move two spaces to retake Barthelemy.  Since the second square was urban, this shouldn't have been allowed.  I might have done this earlier in the game for the Germans too.  It might have significantly effected the outcome.  Oh well, I'll do better next time for my multiplayer mash up featuring an American armored division and infantry division versus some German Panzer and Panzergrenadier divisions.  It could have up to 10 players on a 5 by 9 foot table - oh my!