Scenario #2 Hedgerows and Hand Grenades

Place : Normandy, France
Date :  July  1944

A description of scenario 2 : Hedgerows and Hand Grenades from the GMT Games board game Combat Commander : Europe

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Setup

Sgt. Smith was in the center with the MMG and 2 squads, Hubbard was on the US  right with the mortar looking down the road, and Blenkinships men were leaderless on the left.  

The US had drawn a double exit points open objective so Blenkinship, taking advantage of his free deployment,  was off at the other end of the map ready to exit and rejoin his squads.

The Germans had setup a defense in depth, with a strong presence in the center of the map around objectives 3 and 4  ; Rattenhaus was in objective 3 with a squad, along with a squad in the adjacent building.  Esser was in the bocage surrounded field to the right of Rattenhaus with two squads.

To the rear  the two German HMGs were positioned in a strong second line of defense, with Biermann and Schrader.

Opening Salvo

American artillery dropped dense smoke which drifted right onto objective 3. As a result the Germans fell back from the farmhouse complex without firing a shot! Esser and his squad remained behind in the bocage, rather exposed, as a forlorn hope.


Blenkinship moved off the map and scored a quick 4 VPs and waited patiently on the Time track to rejoin the action.

Sgt. Smith in the center  took advantage of the German tactical withdrawal and scrambled  forward into the objective 3 farmhouse. This was a 4 VP swing as each objective was worth 2 VPs. Smith and his men were relieved to take the first objective without a fight.  Just as they moved in , a breeze sprang up and cleared the smoke exposing  German conscript squads on the road outside the farmhouse, that had been tardy in their withdrawal. Excellent timing , for the Americans...
The nearest conscript squad  was rapidly broken and then routed off the board with a "12", a stroke of bad luck that brought Blenkinship onto the map to rejoin his squads on the US left flank. The other Conscript squad was also broken, and met the same fate a couple of turns alter.

Smoke blows away , exposing a target rich environment 

Rattenhaus, having fallen back from the center to the HMG line, took his squads to the German left and was looking for an opportunity to move off the map.
Hubbard  and his two squads were blocking this exit, but were in the line of fire of the German HMG so were feeling a little under matched.

Chaos in the center!

Smith, now securely installed in objective 3 along with the MMG ,  called in artillery on the German HMG in objective 5. The  US MMG was able to join in on occasion. The conscripts manning the German  HMG  and Biermann were quickly broken and only saved by the timely arrival of Herzog, who helped them to rally successfully. However their rally was brief and they were broken again and routed out of the woods. Allied airpower then added to the German misfortune and broke Esser , who had been sitting quietly in his bocage fortress all this time.  The German squads with Esser managed to fall back with a Rout roll leaving Esser broken and isolated. Shortly thereafter a sniper took him out! The Germans best leader eliminated without making a significant contribution to the fight.


All this time Schrader and the other German HMG traded fire with Hubbard and his mortar team rather inconclusively.



Smith moved out of objective 3 into the bocage surrounded field recently occupied by Esser and started to move threateningly toward the broke Biermann

Things at this time were looking very bleak for the Germans.  A run of lucky events and a dearth of German recover cards  had taken their toll. But then a rare foray by the Luftwaffe struck lie a bolt from the blue and broke Sgt Smith  his MMG team and accompanying squad. Then, the US discard looking for a Recover card triggered a German reinforcement : an SS squad!  In what turned out to be a fortunate move  for Sgt Smith at least, he was routed out of the way as the  SS squad   moved in to melee, and with a couple of ambushes obliterated the central US weapons team and squad ,along with the MMG. The US center now only comprised a broken Sgt Smith. The US steamroller had been stalled.

A lone US squad detached from Hubbards group  and  moved back in to objective 3, by way of objective 4 to confront the SS squad, and  to distract them from the still broken Sgt Smith.  Blenkinship was also moving in to cover Smith from the US right in a race to save Smith and plug the hole in the US lines. The SS squad decided to leave Smith alone and meleed the nearby US squad in objective 3. Neither side had been able to prepare any ambushes, but the US held the initiative. It was not needed as  the Germans lost the melee by  the closest of margins. Smith breathed a sigh of relief and then recovered. 

At this point the Germans were three units away from the surrender level and had lost their best leader and one HMG. But they were not out of the fight and the Time marker was only on 4 (out of 8).  The VP marker was hovering around zero.

However time had run out for the players and so an honorable draw was called.