This game was the penultimate PG contest of a 7 scenario mini-series comprising the 9th SS Hohenstaufen versus the British in Operation Bluecoat in Normandy from the BSS book. I'm playing the series against Alan Sawyer over Skype and there have been some memorable struggles so far. To the report.

The last scenario I played against Alan was the 'return to Lutrebois' from Winter Soldiers, and to be honest, this was a similar set-up in that it was once again a more numerous attacker trying to take a defended town with those town hexes having to be controlled and casualties determining VC's. This time, it was the Germans on the attack.

1800 hours: The Hohenstaufen troopers have to advance on the town of Montchamp from the east and decided that the main point of attack would be a thin strip of Montchamp that jutted out towards the east. This would allow an advance with a minimum of British fire to face. The British (or Welsh guards) placed their MG's here and the SS made sure to group their own MG's with a supporting Panther platoon to lay down a heavy fire on this part of the town. Despite attaining a 22 col attack on two turns, the resultant morale checks were passed by the Welsh, thanks in large part to a charismatic LT that was controlling the area (2 morale factor). Meanwhile, in order to stop any wide flanking movements, a company of Guardsmen were sent northwards out of the town into the wooded area to hold off any SS advances there. Both sides OBA, though annoying was generally ineffective up to this point.

1845 hours: Casualties to both sides had thus far been negligable (0 each) and made the 'Deadly' title of the scenario seem a little ironic. However, a small chink of success was gained by the SS when some much lesser SS rifle fire, albeit lots of individual bursts from the advancing SS Grenadiers finally caused disruption amongst one of the Welsh MG platoons. In response, the other MG platoon barked out some fire at SS infantry making feinting runs and with their attention distracted, an SS platoon managed to gain a position outside Montchamps building line. With stick grenades hurled into the buildings, this platoon hustled into the Welshmens MG positions and commenced house-to-house fighting.

1900 hours: With German reinforcements quickly rushing to this toe-hold in Montchamp, the Welsh MG units took the decision to pull out of the assault here as a group, and did so cleverly and without casualties. One platoon made their way to the town centre, whilst the other positioned itself outside the northern approach to the town. It was these MG's that were then attacked by other SS troops advancing into Montchamp and these MG's that became demoralised with the second attack upon them. Other Guardsmen became casualties in the northern wood area when German OBA finally hit the mark and also left their leaders here stunned too. Welsh infantrymen made a brave counter-attack to save the MG's under pressure, but the Hohenstaufen also reinforced the melee. It was a bloody finale here when the SS wiped out 3 of the 4 British steps in one round of assault. The scales seemed to be tipping ? This was confirmed as the Hohenstaufen began swarming round the edge of the whole town and were also reducing the Guards units in the nearby woods.

1930 hours: The British in Montchamp were now surrounded with little chance of any counter-attacks being made. The British in the woods were also cut-off from their mates in Montchamp and without decent leadership. As another step of infantrymen were lost, the British commander realised that any further resistance was futile, and just like the real battle, the Welshman left the town to the Hohenstaufen.

This game was decided by turn 7 of 12 with the Hohenstaufen racking up 20pts to just 4pts for the Welsh Guards. Having played the Lutrebois game recently, this seemed very similar. However. one must rate a scenario on its own standing and therefore give it a standard '3' value. Good fun as always !