Battle Report - Push on Caen

As promised, here is the battle report from our live streams Push on Caen Bolt Action WW2 game.  This is a big game that I expected to take a while --- we played it in about 6.5 hours from start to finish which I think is not too bad considering we move at a leisurely pace.

The battle is underway with the Canadians
(North Nova Scotia Highlanders)
support section taking position on the larger hill.

Push on Caen

This scenario sees the British and Canadians pushing into the outskirts of Caen.  I abstracted a bit with the British providing the armoured support (since I have several Cromwell tanks in my collection - which the Canadians didn't use) for the North Nova Scotia Highlanders.

Sidebar:  Oddly enough, my long time girlfriend at the time when I was in the Canadian Army was in the Nova Scotia Highlanders.  The North Nova Scotia Highlanders are now a reserve unit that was renamed the Nova Scotia Highlanders after WW2.  This regiment saw extensive action throughout D-day - including having several of their captured troops murdered by the SS.

Ok, the scenario that we played.  You can see the map below showing 8 foot by 6 foot table setup.  The British moved onto the table on turn 1 from any point of the "bottom" length of the table edge (looking at the map below).

The Germans get two minefields that they determine the location of in secret before the game begins.  In our game the first minefield was the woods located near the cart tracks on the left side of the map.  The second was the area 6" ahead of the trench and machine gun position to the right of the road near the buildings of Caen.  When entered, if advancing, the unit takes 2 hits (roll for damage).  If running, the unit takes 4 hits.  In either case, the unit takes 1D3 pins.

Due to allied bombing the day/night before, the main road to Caen is blocked with destroyed German vehicles as noted on the map.

Scenario Map

The German OOB is for the 12th SS, all veterans, and included:

• 1 x Officer (+1 cmd)
• 1 x Medic
• 1 x MMG Team
• 1 x Medium Mortar Team
• 3 x Infantry Sections (1 x SMG, 1 x LMG, 2 x Assault Rifles, 2 x Panzerfaust, 4 x Rifles)
• 2 x Panzer III

1 of the infantry sections was mounted in a SdKfz 251 half-track and moves onto the table with the German counter-attack forces.  The counter attack forces start entering the table at the start of turn 3 through the 2 foot short edge section nearest the top of the map on the right side (they enter through the edge of the woods).  The German counter-attack forces are:

• One of the infantry sections from the list above in an SdKfz 251
• 1 x Stug
• 2 x Panzer IV
• 1 x Tiger

The Tiger enters the table from the edge of the table, on the central road through the buildings of Caen.  The rest enter through the woods on the right side of the map.  On turn 3, the Panzer IV's show up - on turn 4 the Stug, SdKfz 251 + infantry section, and the Tiger show up.  These reinforcements must enter with the first German dice pulls from the orders bag.

The British OOB is:

• 1 x Command Sherman FireFly
• 1 x Sherman ARV
• 2 x Tank Troop (1 x FireFly, 3 x Cromwell) - one of these troops enters as reinforcements on turn 4
• 1 x Tank Troop (1 x FireFly, 3 x Sherman)
• 2 x Recce Armoured Cars

The Canadian OOB is:

• 1 x Officer (+2 cmd)  + Rifleman + Dingo
• 1 x Medic + Ambulance Truck
• 3 x Infantry Sections with M3 Half-Tracks (each section with 1 x SMG, 1 x LMG, 8 x Rifles)
• 1 x Support Section (3 x Bren Gun Carriers, 1 x Medium Mortar Team, 1 x MMG Team, 1 x PIAT Team, 1 x Light Mortar Team)
• 1 x Churchhill Tank - enters on turn 3 as reinforcement

There you have it --- and large amount of stuff!  The British/Canadian objective was to secure the trenches on the outskirts of town - the SS objective was to stop them from securing those trenches.

Pictures below of the battle.  Normally I take a lot more pictures, but the live stream had me distracted and I posted a bunch of pictures of the setup already (can see that here).

John also managed to snap some pictures as well with his phone ...

All done.  If you tuned into the live stream I hope it wasn't too terrible (a little rough for our first attempt - we have lots of ideas on how to improve, including using multiple cameras at the same time for different views).  Thanks for reading!