Juno Beach NAN Green preparations

[Zinkala]

I decided to make a new thread about what I'm planning for our upcoming D Day battle. Any comments and advice would be greatly appreciated. I'll try to keep some notes of the fight and take some pics. I think I'll start setting up the table today or tomorrow. Won't know exactly what I want/need for terrain until I see it on the table.

The basic plan is to do a small campaign over the holidays focused on the Royal Regina Rifles regiment. They're one of the two local regiments where I live. They were in the first wave on D Day and fought continually through the Normandy campaign and afterwards.

The plan is for 3 waves of landings but I'm not sure how many turns between waves. I have the timetable but don't know how that converts into game turns. First wave is DD tanks, AVREs, Centaurs and other engineering assets. 5 minutes later is 2 companies of infantry with engineers and 2 batteries of Priests. H+ 20 minutes later is 2 more companies of infantry along with all the battalion support (AT, mortars and attached HMGs). H+ 70 minutes is heavy mortars and more 6 lbrs and various vehicles which aren't really needed for this battle.

The german forces were part of the 441st Ost battalion and 2nd battalion 73th infantry battalion of the 716th infantry Division. Would you consider either of these conscripts or fortress troops? Or just use Heere stats?

I'm not planning on using any air support for either side as the germans didn't have any and the allied was used earlier and was basically ineffective. Still trying to decide how to handle all the artillery support for both sides. There were 2 batteries of 105mm for off board support for the germans. Also a "field gun" battery that I think must be 155 cm sFH 414. I'm thinking no scheduled fire so they'll need forward observers too.

The canadians had 2 batteries of priests on LCTs and I'm not sure how much cruiser and destroyer support. I'm considering having a large scheduled bombardment at the start of the game and then requested shots afterwards. The priests fired from offshore until the beach was secured and then landed and set up just off the beach. If I include a sliver of the neighbouring zone there was also some rocket launching boats. They're mostly remembered for hitting our own tanks and knocking some out. They landed a FOO with each infantry company and the centaur company. So they must have had something for them to call for.

I have all the infantry and afvs I need but am still working on terrain and landing craft. Think I'm done with bunkers but as it's mostly a city fight I may need a bunch more buildings. I'm seriously considering adding in the flanking zone (a slice of Mike Red) just because it contained several AT positions set up to provide flanking fire across the river into the center of town. They were a major problem keeping canadian tanks from moving quickly through the center of town. I have the AT gun models, more infantry and enough canadians to face them but would need to print a bunch more buildings and a couple more bunkers.

[Zinkala]

We finally got around to playing today. I got sick as soon as the holidays started and spent what little time I wasn't laying around making more terrain for this game. Took a few photos but haven't uploaded any yet. Made a lot of mistakes with the rules because we haven't played in a long time. We're planning on resetting and trying it again tomorrow with a few tweaks.

We used the standard amphibious assault scenario from the rulebook. The table was 5' (150 cm) long and 4' (120 cm) wide set up relatively historically. Not sure exactly what time scale we should use so went with 5 minutes per turn for reinforcements using the historical schedule. The I gave the germans a couple tobruks using mgs in a pillbox for stats and saying they were immobile and enough pillboxes for an infantry company.

I gave the canadians a decent fire mission along the whole bunker line at the start of the first turn and nothing later except for 2 on board priests. The artillery did nothing and I think we need some smoke at least and maybe some naval and 25 lbrs on call. The priests on the table did very little because of poor command rolls and lucky artillery strikes suppressing them.

We called a 10 cm strip of water along the beach a minefield but allowed the landing craft to make their full moves through it possibly taking damage. Between the mines and the antitank bunkers a few landing craft sank. Think the mines were handled ok and the low amount of damage was mostly due to luck. We did allow the mines to suppress the DD tanks so this slowed some of them down.

The DDs and a Sherman crab landing near the right flank in front of the 88mm bunker. 3 Centaurs and an AVRE landed in the middle. Another Sherman crabs and 2 AVREs landed just out of the 75mm's arc on the left. The DDs and Centaurs took out a 50mm bunker in the center and then didn't really move or do much for a couple turns while a crab cleared a path off the beach. The far left group cleared some wire and anti tank trench and suppressed the 75mm gun.

After a few turns the first 2 infantry companies landed. A company in the middle got plastered by artillery as soon as they got off the boats suppressing almost everyone. B company landed in front of the 75mm bunker on the left. On the defenders turn the mgs and infantry along the beach hit A company causing all backs which They couldn't do because of the water so we eliminated almost the entire company. Did we play that right or should they have stayed at the water's edge unless they took too many hits? 3rd wave was supposed to come in but failed it's command roll.

B company and the AVREs assaulted the 75mm bunker taking it. Afterwards I read that tanks can't assault into buildings. But I also messed up the flamethrower rules so it probably balanced out. The DDs and Centaurs started moving to the right and off the beach when we realised we forgot about 2 50mms on that edge which could have been shooting for a couple turns already. For some reason I also decided the tanks could only move 10 cm as well. Crappy command rolls and bad shooting meant the tanks didn't really go anywhere and didn't take much damage.

C and D companies landed where A and B had earlier. B and the engineer tanks started flanking the bunkers and taking them out with assaults. Again I guess I shouldn't have been using the AVREs for this. Time was starting to run out so B and C companies made a run for the back 1/3 of the table. D company took care of most of the remaining bunkers along the beach while getting hit by german artillery.

 A second german company came in as reinforcements on the right flank. They were scheduled for the 7th turn but didn't show up until the 9th. They managed to block the DDs in the center of town and suppress some of the infantry trying to cross an intersection on the left flank causing a traffic jam.

In the end the germans lost their 1st company and all of the beach defences except the 88mm bunker. It killed a couple boats and suppressed a few tanks and was ignored by the canadians because I couldn't seem to hurt it early on. The canadians lost over half their infantry and a few AFVs. Close to a quarter of the canadians made it into the end zone but we never actually calculated it accurately. Very close to a draw with maybe a small edge to Canada even with the massive infantry losses. Seemed fairly balanced with all of our mistakes.

We are thinking about is that the anti tank bunkers that were the main beach defense weren't all that effective. They didn't have a separate HQ and so only shot at close range once per turn. We also forgot to take away any saves from the landing craft if they were flanked. It might have helped some. Single guns can't do enough damage to knock out a unit. So they sometimes suppressed someone. And dumb question time can we target units in a bunker with A/P? I'd assumed we'd need A/T but I haven't seen that in the rules tonight. AFVs at close range would be much more effective with A/P.

Hopefully we make less mistakes and have a better replay.

[Big Insect]

We finally got around to playing today. I got sick as soon as the holidays started and spent what little time I wasn't laying around making more terrain for this game. Took a few photos but haven't uploaded any yet. Made a lot of mistakes with the rules because we haven't played in a long time. We're planning on resetting and trying it again tomorrow with a few tweaks.

We used the standard amphibious assault scenario from the rulebook. The table was 5' (150 cm) long and 4' (120 cm) wide set up relatively historically. Not sure exactly what time scale we should use so went with 5 minutes per turn for reinforcements using the historical schedule. The I gave the germans a couple tobruks using mgs in a pillbox for stats and saying they were immobile and enough pillboxes for an infantry company.

I gave the canadians a decent fire mission along the whole bunker line at the start of the first turn and nothing later except for 2 on board priests. The artillery did nothing and I think we need some smoke at least and maybe some naval and 25 lbrs on call. The priests on the table did very little because of poor command rolls and lucky artillery strikes suppressing them.

We called a 10 cm strip of water along the beach a minefield but allowed the landing craft to make their full moves through it possibly taking damage. Between the mines and the antitank bunkers a few landing craft sank. Think the mines were handled ok and the low amount of damage was mostly due to luck. We did allow the mines to suppress the DD tanks so this slowed some of them down.

The DDs and a Sherman crab landing near the right flank in front of the 88mm bunker. 3 Centaurs and an AVRE landed in the middle. Another Sherman crabs and 2 AVREs landed just out of the 75mm's arc on the left. The DDs and Centaurs took out a 50mm bunker in the center and then didn't really move or do much for a couple turns while a crab cleared a path off the beach. The far left group cleared some wire and anti tank trench and suppressed the 75mm gun.

After a few turns the first 2 infantry companies landed. A company in the middle got plastered by artillery as soon as they got off the boats suppressing almost everyone. B company landed in front of the 75mm bunker on the left. On the defenders turn the mgs and infantry along the beach hit A company causing all backs which They couldn't do because of the water so we eliminated almost the entire company. Did we play that right or should they have stayed at the water's edge unless they took too many hits? 3rd wave was supposed to come in but failed it's command roll.

B company and the AVREs assaulted the 75mm bunker taking it. Afterwards I read that tanks can't assault into buildings. But I also messed up the flamethrower rules so it probably balanced out. The DDs and Centaurs started moving to the right and off the beach when we realised we forgot about 2 50mms on that edge which could have been shooting for a couple turns already. For some reason I also decided the tanks could only move 10 cm as well. Crappy command rolls and bad shooting meant the tanks didn't really go anywhere and didn't take much damage.

C and D companies landed where A and B had earlier. B and the engineer tanks started flanking the bunkers and taking them out with assaults. Again I guess I shouldn't have been using the AVREs for this. Time was starting to run out so B and C companies made a run for the back 1/3 of the table. D company took care of most of the remaining bunkers along the beach while getting hit by german artillery.

 A second german company came in as reinforcements on the right flank. They were scheduled for the 7th turn but didn't show up until the 9th. They managed to block the DDs in the center of town and suppress some of the infantry trying to cross an intersection on the left flank causing a traffic jam.

In the end the germans lost their 1st company and all of the beach defences except the 88mm bunker. It killed a couple boats and suppressed a few tanks and was ignored by the canadians because I couldn't seem to hurt it early on. The canadians lost over half their infantry and a few AFVs. Close to a quarter of the canadians made it into the end zone but we never actually calculated it accurately. Very close to a draw with maybe a small edge to Canada even with the massive infantry losses. Seemed fairly balanced with all of our mistakes.

We are thinking about is that the anti tank bunkers that were the main beach defense weren't all that effective. They didn't have a separate HQ and so only shot at close range once per turn. We also forgot to take away any saves from the landing craft if they were flanked. It might have helped some. Single guns can't do enough damage to knock out a unit. So they sometimes suppressed someone. And dumb question time can we target units in a bunker with A/P? I'd assumed we'd need A/T but I haven't seen that in the rules tonight. AFVs at close range would be much more effective with A/P.

Hopefully we make less mistakes and have a better replay.

All sounds good and very interesting that it worked out the way it did. Thank you for sharing.
You can target Bunkers with AP - but it can only potentially suppress the occupants.

Cheers
Mark

[Zinkala]

Good to know about the bunkers. Hopefully we'll get another game in today.