Assault on Hill 91: Normandy 1944

Whilst gaming and painting continue ‘a pace’ blogging has sadly slacked off. The weather has also been too nice and cycling to watch on the TV as well. Anyway we played this game a couple of weeks ago. It is based on a scenario from Kampfgruppe Normandy which I have now lent to Steve so I can’t remember the details. As our game is only loosely based on this is perhaps doesn’t really matter.

The Germans, mainly SS troops have taken up a defensive position and the Americans are going to throw everything they have to push them back. Really just an opportunity to get most of my 15mm collection on the battlefield.

An overview of the battlefield, the Americans will advance from the right, the three objectives are marked in red. The Hill, the cross roads and the farm in the distance.The Germans have a number of units already on the table, dug in but they will only be revealed at the discretion of the German commander when they move or fire. Hedges which are no cage will block line of sight unless you are on higher ground or adjacent to it. Both sides have a mix of Armoured infantry, heavy support and quite a bit of armour.

Some units like these Panzer IV’s have already been spotted in the village.

German markers on the hill designating troops as yet un revealed

The Americans bring on two tank troops to start and the Germans move to protect the village

It is obvious the Americans are targeting the Hill so the Germans quickly reveal themselves, they have managed to dig an 88 in in the woods this immediately becomes the focus of the American tanks who are nervous to advance until it is knocked out

More PzIV’s move into one of the orchards and open fire but have little effect

German artillery support a rocket launcher platoon, as we are using bolt action rules these are immediately terrifying and they roll a six first turn 😀

Pnazergrenadiers arrive in the German second wave

Cautious advance by Americans on their left

Not sure how you would spell the noise Nebelwerfers made but i did make an appropriate whooshing sound each time they fired !

On the American left one of the Sherman’s is now on fire

But they have more arriving all the time !

To counter these German Panzer come out from behind the hill

After masses of fire the 88 is finally knocked out

German infantry deploys in the village

Yeah German heavy armour arrives down the road ……

Just in time though as the Panzers are taking a beating

The bulk of the American infantry is pushed enmass down the right , but the Germans have a heavy machine gun platoon behind the hedge which is going to slow them down !

On the German right the Tanks face off in the woods and corn field

The tiger engages the Sherman’s in the centre but is presumably blinded by the smoke as it can’t hit a thing !

The grenadier transport comes under fire from the American right so the troops quickly dismount

German mortars (newly painted like the Nebelwerfers deploy)

German antitank gun strengthen the German right, but already one of the panzers is in flames

Slow but steady the American infantry advances towards the road

The Germans only have a single Panzer and a Stug to defend the left and support the machine gun platoon

Eventually the Americans get the upper hand, the German shooting is terrible, the tiger can now be seen burning on the road out of the village,

The hill however is still proofing impregnable 

The lone Pz on the left is also knocked out and the Americans have called down hell on the heads of the machine gun platoon who are now combat ineffective

The German infantry is spread too thin to cover all the objectives. At this point we called it a day, a very enjoyable and hard fought battle, although the Americans hadn’t quite reached the village or the farm it was obvious they had done enough to claim a victory and would have pushed through in another turn or two. The hill however was just too tough a nut to crack so the Germans have held that at least. Another couple of hours of daylight might have been a different story as the American Sherman’s were looking-ominously like outflanking the position in the near future. On the back of this battle I have ordered a couple more buildings from the same range as we fancy a smaller town type battle at some point.

The following day we had a trip out to Border Reivers wargame show. We had a good time although I would suggest the games on display were perhaps a little disappointing ? Perhaps I should put on a game next year ? We’ll, did get a chance to catch up with several people though which was nice, and with a birthday in the next few days I visited the bring and buy !

The only game that really caught my eye was this splendid SYW using home cast figures.

Lots of loot all of it from the bring and buy. I’ll let you zoom in, but the bargain of the day was the Empress miniatures U-boat complete with crew. I’ve fancied one of these for ages for Sealion Scenarios and I hope to use this in the not too distance future.

I was also gifted these GI’s from Steve who had won them at a raffle in Edinburgh, I quickly changed the bases to match my own Americans and tweaked the painting (things like changing the colour of the helmets) so not much really and they are good to go, in fact they have seen action already !

Somewhere in here I also had a game down at George’s giving his SYW collection a run out.

Colourful and very enjoyable although the British took a beating 🙁

The British became strung out and failed several command rolls, then foolishly tried to charge the enemy in the far woods which was a disaster.

Phew that’s it for now, lots more painting going on and another battle to blog when I get a chance, I can also reveal my next project which has been tentatively started 🤔

Matt