The British troops first drove to the west to cover their flanks. There they secured some town hexes with crocodile tanks. But after that the SS tried to retake those town hexes with Gren units supported by some tanks, and inflicted some great damage to the Rif units who where SUPPOSED to defend the west flank!!

Now some of the British troops where trapped between the smal west town and Cheux, so they choose to attack Cheux. The Rif units supported by crocodile tanks stormed to the town, but the attack broke when two 105mm demoralized some Rif units.

Now the British player failed the main attack he tries to regroup his troops to launch a new attack. But again the SS prevents this by attacking the retreating British units.

When the game ends the Brits are still in the same position as the started, they couldn't even capture one town hex of Cheux. The German player wins!

The Brits started out well, getting some air and units forward to spot OBA in. But things took a turn for the worst when an event took out the arty supply, this removed the considerable British artillery support. The British still had air support, but not nearly enough make up for the loss of OBA. The result was the two British battalions had to grind out an advance against well dug in opposition. The British had armor, but the Germans had considerable AT support and armor reinforcements. The Germans engineers, with some extra infantry support, were rock solid, forcing the British advance with its reinforcing battalion, in to the center, where it was relentlessly chewed up. The British achieved no objectives, German victory.

Note: Score will be denoted by (x-y), where x=German casualties, y=British casualties.

Solitaire Note: Pre-plotted artillery. To make this somewhat “random” I chose 6 hexes (Cheux) and then randomly rolled which would get hit each turn. If a hex with no units was chosen, then the British could activate a different unit for their impulse.

THE BATTLE

0745 - 0800

The British forces advance southward toward the German lines. Rain and soggy ground slows the armour advance to a crawl. Artillery strikes hit Cheux hard causing the first casualties of the battle. (3-0)

The 9th Cameronians are on the west with the 2nd Glasgow Highlanders advancing in the east.

0815 – 0845

The Confusion (Fog of War) allows for little advance over the next 45 minutes. The Cameronians advance but are hit by artillery and HMG fire. (3-4)

0900 – 0915

The Glasgow highlanders charge and take their first casualties. (3-6)

The whole German line is now firing on the advancing Scots. A Bren is hit by a 50mm AT Gun. The German morale is too high! They won’t break as the British casualty count begins to mount (3-10). Two platoons of Crabs (Flail Tanks) arrive in the north to help deal with the minefields.

0930

The 7th Seaforth Highlanders appear in the north.

The Glasgow Highlanders are hit hard but manage to assault the Germans. British Crocodiles (Flamethrower Tanks) slowly advance down the sodden track.

With casualties mounting, both the Cameronians and the Glasgow Highlanders lose cohesion (down to 7/7 morale!)

Germans AA Gun battery in the west eliminated by British HMG fire. This is the first German casualty from direct fire. (18-4)

0945

British continue to get pounded (21-4). They call for air support but the Marauder is ineffective.

I will no longer track overall British casualties, but only formation casualties to determine cohesion

1000 – 1030

British Crocodile, supported with Scottish engineers wreck havoc on the eastern town. (25-7)

Approaching “half-time” the British push hard on both flanks sustaining more heavy casualties.

The Seaforth Highlanders about to relieve the Glasgow Highlanders in the east.

1045 – 1115

Germans continue to hold the line against heavy weight of the British advance. The PzIVH platoons of the 5th and 8th Panzer Companies, 12th SS Panzer Regiment arrive to provide some armour support in the west.

The Crabs are hit by 75mm AT fire.

The front east is beginning to fall to the Scots. (Germans up to 11 step losses). But, the overall advance is too slow and too minimal. Victory is beginning to appear hopeless for the British.

1130 – 1145

Crabs find a safe path (decoys) in the German minefield line. One is eliminated by a German 75mm AT Gun.

Crocodile with Infantry support eliminates the Germans holding out in the northeast. The Crocodile is out of fuel.

1200

Anti-Tank Gun crew routs under fire.

Germans are hit hard by British armour. They begin to fall back as the PzIVH reserves advance.

1215 – 1230

Cameronians are through with the aid of the Churchill VIIs. PzIVH set up to their south behind a hedgerow ready to attack.

An armour battle in the west begins with both sides suffering an armour reduction.

German reinforcements, 15th Company 25th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment arrives.

The British have taken way too many casualties. They have insufficient numbers to take Cheux in the hour and a half to go.

1245 – 1300

Armour battle continues in the west with the Panzers holding back the British tanks. The Crocodile platoon is eliminated. In the centre, British armour reaches Cheux as the Highlanders push through!

1315

Running out of time the Churchills are forced back by the PzIVHs in the west. The frontal attack against Cheux begins with a combined force of armour and infantry.

1330

The German front line is almost completely eradicated now with only the two entrenchments still holding out. But they delayed the British effectively as time is almost up.

1345

With 30 mins left, the PzIVHs head into Southern Cheux, and the Allies admit defeat.

GERMAN MAJOR VICTORY!!!

Aftermath

A very bloody first couple hours for Operation Epsom. The 9th Cameronians and 2nd Glasgow Highlanders are almost completely decimated.

The SS front line was also effectively destroyed, but they managed to hold back the British long enough while the German armour and Reserves held the town of Cheux.

Scenario Rating: 3/5. A pleasant start to Beyond Normandy. A fairly intense battle with lots of interesting units and special rules. Fairly complex by Panzer Grenadier standards recommended for experienced players. This battle took approximately 5-6 hours to complete. I would have rated this a 4/5, but I believe it is a fairly difficult battle for the British to have a chance at victory.

The game started off badly for the Germans loosing their offboard arty due to an event (how could I know that they wouldn't need it at all to win this scenario..). Onward the two- pronged British attack went, down the hill and into the valley. The 2nd Glasgow sustained heavy losses (15 steps) but managed to capture St. Mauvieu and La Gaule by noon. In the meantime the 9th Camorian took the western approach hindred more by terrain then by enemy fire. By the time they reached the 120 platform west of Cheux it was already 12:30 and way too late to reach all goals. The coming of the 7th Seaforth Highlanders straight down the middle wasn' t much help, because the 12th SS Pioneer put up a stiff fight in which they just refused to retreat on Cheux. Notably the 81mm and the 75mm ATG and their leaders were candidates for some Iron Crosses. Major German victory, no doubt. There was no way the Brits could've taken all town hexes before 14:00.

If the scenario weren't so unbalanced it could be rated a 4.

This scenario needs a thorough preparation for the Brits that's for sure, but even then I doubt the Brits will be able to win this one.

Author	waynebaumber (Germany)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Germany
Participants	unknown
Play Date	2022-10-14
Language	English
Scenario	BeNo001

This game was played between Tony R and myself. The title is a little harsh on Tony as he was the commander of the British forces on this occasion but I am sure he will forgive me. As the title suggest this scenario is an assault by the 46th Infantry brigade on the 12 SS Division on the opening day of OP Epsom. We did not play with British formation cohesion rules (life is pretty tough for the Brits as it is) we did use FOW. The game should start with a Brit pre-planned bombardment but this failed to occur because of communication problems, the Brits still advanced in a very determined manner, overrunning a German forward observer post but already losing more steps than the SS. Then the rain became heavy so all air support was cancelled, the slow movement rate of the British Churchill armour support was not helped by the weather either. A successful German counter attack on the British left flank at 0915 stopped the attack on that flank for a few hours as the units regrouped, an hour later the attack on the other flanks was repulsed, so after 10 game turns both flank attacks had been repulsed and Brit losses were 4 times that of the German losses. Still Bangla tried to push on, but there were now several quick turns due to FOW which meant his slow moving tanks would find it hard to get into the action at any stage. The game now turned into a waiting game for the Germans as the Brits regrouped for a final assault, this final attack happened at 1315 far too late to swing the game back to the Allied side, losses on both sides were heavy the British armour finally arrived but were blown away by extremely accurate fire form the MkIV's (lucky shots 6 shots @ 11/12 to kill I rolled two 11's and a 12). The game ended with the Germans about to counter attack and retake some lost ground. Not a great scenario though we had some fun playing it, its a very hard task for the British to roll up the better morale more firepower SS defensive line. We will swop sides for our next BN game.

This went unexpectedly well for the British as they managed to turn both SS flanks early in the game. I chose to pull the SS back toward Cheux, but they proceeded to suffer heavy casualties in the process. British artillery was very effective at disrupting and demoralizing the SS which gave them more freedom to advance without fear of opp fire. The British were then well positioned to attack Cheux well before SS reinforcements began arriving. The SS ended with a strong counterattack gathering in the area to the southwest of Cheux.

I'm not a fan of all the special rules in these early BN scenarios. I'm thinking of scrapping the formation rules entirely since no other game uses them that I have seen. I'm willing to give up a bit of historicity in the interest of faster play.