Juno, Sword and Beyond

[MengJiao]

  Here around 8:30 AM in some alternative universe of cardboard, Kurt Meyer is assembling flak and amphibious kuglewagons.  Krug and his bicycle troops and the radar station at Douvres are north of him and Juno Beach is beyond that.  Juno is not an obvious beach of extremes.  The allies had twice the loses in the landing at Juno as the landing at Sword and there isn't nearly as much naval firepower available.  Still it was a large beach and the 3rd Canadian and its attached armor penetrated farther in from the beach than any other amphibious force on D-day.
  Meanwhile, the landing at Sword is going well.  In fact its pretty early and the beach is cleared, though not much has headed inland yet.  My strategy for the Germans is to pull back and survive since a tenacious defense (especially by the 716 division) seems to result more in getting the Germans wiped out rather than slowing down the allies.
  I'm more hopeful about the Germans this time, though.  After all historically the radar defenses at Douvres here held out for more than a week after D-day!

[bob48]

What game is that please, MengJiao?

[bayonetbrant]

looks good :)

[MengJiao]

What game is that please, MengJiao?

  The game is The Greatest Day: Sword, Juno and Gold Beaches .  The game series is the Grand Tactical Series, as developed most recently by Adam Starkweather and MMP games.  Earlier games in the series are Devils Cauldron, Where Eagles Dare and No Question of Surrender.  The Greatest Day uses version 2 of the rules with a lot more radio-net impact on weapons availability and a quicker and bloodier assault system.  The scenario is a home-brewed expansion of the advanced Sword scenario onto Juno with no coverage of the Orne Bridgehead.  All that can happen between Sword beach and the bridgehead is that the bicycle commandos and some airlanding troops can enter.  KG Opplen and Luck and the French tanks are assumed to be enough to contain the airborne troops.  Meanwhile, most of the 21 and 12SS Panzer divisions and most of the 716 static division take on 3 allied divisions and 3 allied tank brigades and 3 commando formations backed up by a lot of naval firepower and fighter bombers.  Should be interesting.

[bob48]

Thanks, meng.

I have looked at the board game versions, but they are way too big for me (5 maps?) and a whole lot of counters! Looks like an interesting system though.

[MengJiao]

Thanks, meng.

I have looked at the board game versions, but they are way too big for me (5 maps?) and a whole lot of counters! Looks like an interesting system though.

No Question of Surrender is pretty small.  And the setting (Bir Hakim Jun 1942) and the events are kind of neat.  There's events and counters for the
Tennis Champion Woman who led the vehicles in the big escape through the minefields -- for example.  But yeah, the D-day thing is pretty excessive.  Supposedly it plays okay on Vassal, but with the assault rules, I'm not sure how that would work (except solo).
Apparently Utah beach is coming up soon in the game sequence (after Crete, which I think I will skip).

[MengJiao]

Thanks, meng.

I have looked at the board game versions, but they are way too big for me (5 maps?) and a whole lot of counters! Looks like an interesting system though.

No Question of Surrender is pretty small.  And the setting (Bir Hakim Jun 1942) and the events are kind of neat.  There's events and counters for the
Tennis Champion Woman who led the vehicles in the big escape through the minefields -- for example.  But yeah, the D-day thing is pretty excessive.  Supposedly it plays okay on Vassal, but with the assault rules, I'm not sure how that would work (except solo).
Apparently Utah beach is coming up soon in the game sequence (after Crete, which I think I will skip).

  10:30 Sword Beach -- 27 Armored Bde is errupting inland.  21 PZ has 88s on the other side of Perriers Ridge.  Meanwhile,  Juno still isn't fully cleared.  its a big beach with much less supporting firepower and specialized armor.

[MengJiao]

  10:30 Sword Beach -- 27 Armored Bde is errupting inland.  21 PZ has 88s on the other side of Perriers Ridge.  Meanwhile,  Juno still isn't fully cleared.  its a big beach with much less supporting firepower and specialized armor.

  11am:  The armored confrontation between 27 Bde and the tanks of 21 pz is approaching.  Historically, the German armor didn't attack up that road until late afternoon and when it did things did not go well.  In fact the inverted bust of Rauch (commander of KG Rauch) is pretty close to a spot from which a single Sherman with a 75mm gun knocked out 4 Pz IVs at about 600 meters.  At about the same time the epically typcial event of a Firefly's being set on fire by a hit occurred and the crew all got out, put out the fire on the Firefly and got back into the Firefly.  This is sort of below the level of the simulation, but the Fireflies are so powerful that inflicting 3 steps of losses on Firefly-containing squadrons is a German victory condition in one of the big advanced scenarios.  But in this case, depending on how the chits get pulled and so on...the 88s may even the odds.

[MengJiao]

  10:30 Sword Beach -- 27 Armored Bde is errupting inland.  21 PZ has 88s on the other side of Perriers Ridge.  Meanwhile,  Juno still isn't fully cleared.  its a big beach with much less supporting firepower and specialized armor.

  11am:  The armored confrontation between 27 Bde and the tanks of 21 pz is approaching.  Historically, the German armor didn't attack up that road until late afternoon and when it did things did not go well.  In fact the inverted bust of Rauch (commander of KG Rauch) is pretty close to a spot from which a single Sherman with a 75mm gun knocked out 4 Pz IVs at about 600 meters.  At about the same time the epically typcial event of a Firefly's being set on fire by a hit occurred and the crew all got out, put out the fire on the Firefly and got back into the Firefly.  This is sort of below the level of the simulation, but the Fireflies are so powerful that inflicting 3 steps of losses on Firefly-containing squadrons is a German victory condition in one of the big advanced scenarios.  But in this case, depending on how the chits get pulled and so on...the 88s may even the odds.

  11:30am:  Just when things started looking a little better for the Germans -- wouldn't you know it -- naval gunfire lands with perfect timing and then in a very rare event Kurt Meyer (leading KG Meyer of the 12th SS) gets killed.  Strickly speaking that would knock out KG Meyer for the whole turn (except for 3 direct command or divisional move points or basically next to nothing), but I've decided to go easy on the Germans, substitute Lais from 711/346 for Kurt and not mess up the command structure of the whole 12th SS.  Lais has a smaller radius and attachment values, but KG Lais is pretty small and marginal at the moment anyway and maybe the same stray 16inch shell that killed Kurt did some damage to his part of the radio net as well.

  And here's a kind of hieroglyphic mock-up of that unlikely scene:

[MengJiao]

Right

2pm and the Germans have a line that should hold for a bit.  I had to break some rules and let 21 PZ cover the 12SS sector, but other than that, things are pretty historical in terms of how far the allies have gotten:

[bayonetbrant]

So no Panzers from Calais yet?

[MengJiao]

So no Panzers from Calais yet?

  Never at all in this game (the longest scenario ends on the 13th of June).  However apropos panzer arrivals (or non-arrivals), On D-Day most of the 12th SS was just east of Caen, either avoiding things such as the 6th Airborne and the 21st Pz and air attacks or dealing severely with some dummy parachute landings.  The main forces of the division didn't even begin arriving in the actual invasion area until the night of the 6th/7th.  So they won't turning up for 4 or 5 turns, by which time the Allies will have landed another infantry division and another armored Bde.  I guess I will resurrect Kurt Meyer when his KG arrives (with new radios if not a new Kurt).

[MengJiao]

So no Panzers from Calais yet?

  Never at all in this game (the longest scenario ends on the 13th of June).  However apropos panzer arrivals (or non-arrivals), On D-Day most of the 12th SS was just east of Caen, either avoiding things such as the 6th Airborne and the 21st Pz and air attacks or dealing severely with some dummy parachute landings.  The main forces of the division didn't even begin arriving in the actual invasion area until the night of the 6th/7th.  So they won't turning up for 4 or 5 turns, by which time the Allies will have landed another infantry division and another armored Bde.  I guess I will resurrect Kurt Meyer when his KG arrives (with new radios if not a new Kurt).

  A little after 5pm.  This is the most solid part of the German line.  Farther to the west, the Canadian 7th Bde is moving steadily through the 12 SS sector.  I'm going to have to bring in the first major elements of the 12 SS about 12 hours early -- which was historically possible if Rundstedt had not sent them after the decoy parachute attack or if allied air attacks had been less effective.  Otherwise the battle will go right off the available map space.   I could have added the part of the Villers-Bocage map that comes in to the south, but its too late!  The SS will just have to get up there and block the allies.

[MengJiao]

So no Panzers from Calais yet?

  Never at all in this game (the longest scenario ends on the 13th of June).  However apropos panzer arrivals (or non-arrivals), On D-Day most of the 12th SS was just east of Caen, either avoiding things such as the 6th Airborne and the 21st Pz and air attacks or dealing severely with some dummy parachute landings.  The main forces of the division didn't even begin arriving in the actual invasion area until the night of the 6th/7th.  So they won't turning up for 4 or 5 turns, by which time the Allies will have landed another infantry division and another armored Bde.  I guess I will resurrect Kurt Meyer when his KG arrives (with new radios if not a new Kurt).

  A little after 5pm.  This is the most solid part of the German line.  Farther to the west, the Canadian 7th Bde is moving steadily through the 12 SS sector.  I'm going to have to bring in the first major elements of the 12 SS about 12 hours early -- which was historically possible if Rundstedt had not sent them after the decoy parachute attack or if allied air attacks had been less effective.  Otherwise the battle will go right off the available map space.   I could have added the part of the Villers-Bocage map that comes in to the south, but its too late!  The SS will just have to get up there and block the allies.

  So about 6pm and the 21 PZ recon arrives a few hours early (three turns early in game turns) and drives to the western edge of the 12SS zone -- at least one armored car company does (just south of Sequeville-en-Bessin).  The rest of the battalion is some way to the east.  This leaves hardly any of the 21 PZ forces east of the Orne, but maybe the 6th Para is still busy blowing bridges, knocking out coast batteries, capturing vital bridges and digging in.  With night and the 12SS coming, maybe the Canadians will stop and do some digging in themselves.

[MengJiao]

  So about 6pm and the 21 PZ recon arrives a few hours early (three turns early in game turns) and drives to the western edge of the 12SS zone -- at least one armored car company does (just south of Sequeville-en-Bessin).  The rest of the battalion is some way to the east.  This leaves hardly any of the 21 PZ forces east of the Orne, but maybe the 6th Para is still busy blowing bridges, knocking out coast batteries, capturing vital bridges and digging in.  With night and the 12SS coming, maybe the Canadians will stop and do some digging in themselves.

  Its 7pm.  The Canadians and the 2nd Armored Bde off to the west have not stopped despite the arrival of the 21 Pz recon and the expectation of the arrival of KG Meyer (or at least new radios and some long faces) on their front.  In general the allies have not gotten as far as they did historically since I've shifted 90% of 21 PZ to this front and illegally used them to cover 12 SS front as well.  Still, all that may not be enough since the 51st British Army Division is starting to arrive this turn AND naval gunfire is the obligatory first chit this turn (since it was pulled last and not played at all last turn).  As long as the allies stay in tight command control, the sheer number of formations (each with command points to spend or not from the Divisional pools) and the weight of artillery fire and air strikes is going to make life difficult for the Germans.   The allies have to be careful not to use all their command points since a certain number need to be kept to force defenses to hold against opportunistic counter attacks.  Anyway here's the 7pm situation on the 3rd division front: