Operation Overlord Game 2 - Beach Landing

Matt and I have been pushing to get in a beach assault for the Operation Overlord campaign at WWPD. Because of busy schedules and a rush to finish up mini's for a beach assault we are just now getting the mission in, even though the beaches have already been taken in the campaign.

This is the first beach landing for Matt and me and took a long time to get set up. But was a lot of fun to play.

British invasion force, minus the commandos.

That is a lot of tanks.

Matt spearheaded the invasion with his English 3rd Infantry Division.
His force consisted of; three infantry platoons, a commando platoon, assault pioneers, a breaching group, three crocodile flame tanks, an assault field battery and naval gunfire from a light cruiser. His force was around 1725 points.

Fortifications!

I didn't have all the nests I neede, so I used the guns to represent the type of nest.

I defended the beaches with a Festungskompanie from the 726 Infantry Division.
My force was a fortified platoon with a 7.5 cm FK pillbox, a Pak 40 pillbox, two HMG pillboxes, two HMG nests, a Pak 38 nest, and a 2cmm AA nest. Then two grenadier platoons, three Marder I's, a full French 155mm Artillery battery, four minefields and four barbed wire entanglements. I was right at 1500 points.

Such a nice secluded beach village.

Main street.

I set up the board with no real knowledge of how this mission works and in the end really messed myself up, :). I now know to leave room behind the seawall to place my obstacles, trench lines and plenty of room for my bunkers, haha.

My cramped deployment, it was difficult to keep the bunkers 2 inches apart.

Pak40 pillbox, the best.

Former French 155mm guns, they were very effective.

Then on the horizon... invasion!

Landing craft sighted!

The current was to strong and the tank landing craft had to try again.

Luckily for me the breaching group in the first wave missed the beach and had to come in with a later wave. So the assault engineers, a infantry platoon and the commandos hit the beach.

The infantry come ashore.

The initial assault, and a bogged landing craft.

Commandos forward.

The preliminary bombardment had my entire force pinned, but I had only lost a few teams. Matt's initial assaults were stopped by the HMG bunkers, although the Veteran Commandos almost got through.

MG fire was devastating.

I then unpinned most of my platoons and raked the beaches with MG42 fire. The British infantry platoon was wiped out by the artillery and HMGs. The next turn Matt received no reinforcements and the infantry hunkered down on the beach waiting for the tanks to arrive. And the next turn, arrive they did! The breaching group is here... to breach.

After a couple of turns on their own the tanks arrive to support the infantry.

Not a single bog.

Flails are just cool.

The tanks moved up, none bogging. At this point I definitely made a mistake, I thought the ARVE's were awkward layout, and we didn't check it. Turns out they can't move and shoot at obstacles, but could have gotten a shot off at the HMG pillbox. Shooting from the Shermans was ineffective and the Commandos were beaten back, the Engineers used their flamethrower, but were pinned by defensive fire as well.

Tanks getting hammered.

The CiC is all alone... and won't last the turn.

In my turn I wiped out the pioneers and took the commandos down to two stands. The bunkers and artillery killed a flail and bailed the others. Both platoons stayed on the board.

The last commando has jumped the wall into the trenches.

The only thing left is one ARVE and one commando.

Matt then destroyed a section of the seawall and a HMG bunker with the ARVE's. The commando's were finally able to get into the trenches although they were knocked down to one stand. In my turn I took out one ARVE and destroyed all the Sherman flails.

It was at this point that we had to pack up since we were playing after work and it was getting late. It was the start of turn five and things could have went either way. The seawall was breached and Matt would be guaranteed to receive at least one platoon on his next turn, but it was a long way to go to the objectives.

All in all a really fun game, but our unfamiliarity with the mission keep us from finishing it, we will fight another beach landing in the future.