5 Men in Normandy Campaign - 25 Platoon, D Company, 2nd Oxf.Bucs Regiment

This is a report of the first game in my WW2 campaign using the 5 Men in Normandy rules by Ivan Sorensen.

I have chosen 25 Platoon, D Company, 2nd Oxf.Bucs Regiment as my unit as they were part of the glider drop on Pegasus bridge and this seemed like a good place to start, the action begins shortly after the capture of the bridge itself.

Using the force generator I came up with
Corporal Caine - Sten gun
Private Jackson 08 - Bren Gun
Private Parr - Sniper rifle and a Trench knife, also has the Stealth trait
Private Baalam - Lee Enfield
Private Chamberlain - Lee Enfield, also has the Brawler trait
Private Windsor - Lee Enfield
Private O'Donnell - Lee Enfield
Private Watson - Lee Enfield

The mission was to capture an enemy soldier, an outpost centred on a ruin was picked, to cover their approach a smoke screen was dropped between the enemy and the jump off point.
German forces were considered hidden at the start so could not be targeted.

                                                                          Game Start

Privates Chamberlain and Windsor hopped over the wall and made a dash toward the hedge line using the smoke as cover, as Windsor veered toward the field in an attempt to flank the ruin he was spotted by a sentry and brought down with a snap fire shot (1d6 scoring a result on a 1 or 6).
The next turn saw the Brits getting a Scurry result (each turn you roll 1 = Scurry allowing everyone to move, 2-5 = normal so 2 activations to either move or shoot for one figure, 6 = everyone fires) which was unfortunate as the smoke dissipated, any opposing forces who could see a scurry move were also eligible to move afterward, on their next activation the Germans also got a scurry which in turn triggered another round of British movement.

Turn 5

Turn 5 saw Jackson put down suppressing fire against the hedge with the Bren (normally 1 kill and 1 shock dice but as he had an assistant within 1" he was allowed to fire 4 shock dice instead then move to next target within 4" with 1 fewer dice then finishing with 2d6 against the third target, while Chamberlain lobbed a grenade which scored a 1 on the shock  and 6 on the kill dice effectively putting 3 figures out of the game.
In their turn the German NCO spray fired with his smg causing privates O'Donnell and Watson to run back to the wall and dive over it into cover, a grenade was also thrown but it bounced away for no effect.

Private Chamberlain then climbed through the hedge to capture an enemy soldier while Parr shot the enemy NCO putting him out of action and forcing the next closest grenadier to Flinch (Hunker down, no move next turn but may shoot), when activated he threw the last of his grenades putting Cpl Caine and Private Baalam out of the fight.  Chamberlain then starts escorting his prisoner back to friendly lines while Jackson continues putting down suppressive fire forcing one enemy to Bail (retreat 12" to cover - in this case the ruin) while the last grenadier again Flinched.

In what turned out to be the last German activation they rolled a 6 which meant everybody fired, the easiest target was Chamberlain who took a hit and fell just short of the safety of the wall, in their return fire the German was knocked out by a shot from O'Donnell who passed his recovery roll.

On their last activation the remaining Brits ran out to recover their fallen squad mates while the Bren stayed on watch.

Last turn

 5 Men in Normandy revolves around the campaign part of the rules so in the after action phase the following happened,
Anyone Out of Action made a roll to see what the effect was, Cpl Caine was fine, just a bit of concussion, pvt Baalam got an impressive scar but was fine, Pvt Windsors injury was superficial but he now has a mental scar (result is 1 negative morale d) while Chamberlain is being shipped home to recover and it is estimated he will be back in 26 days.
Next two random events were rolled which resulted in Cpl Caine picking up an entrenching tool and the section Bren being broken which means pvt Jackson will be using a Lee Enfield in the next action.

Lastly a skill is rolled and assigned which gave Cpl Caine the Right Place trait allowing a 2" move on turns where he is not activated.

Morale
3d6 for successful mission
1d6 Capture enemy
-d6 for Windsors mental scar
-d6 for Chamberlain being out of action

Count each 1 and 6

Net result was +1 so 1 shock effect may be ignored in the next game.

This is a great system for low level action where you get to progress your force in the campaign or even for pick up games where you have an hour to fill, I played this action solo and had no issues keeping track of everything which ticks a lot of boxes of what I want from a game, it was played on a 2 x 2 table with 14 figures.

Follow the link for more details

http://igg.me/at/5mennormandy/x