D-Day Beach Assault Events - PDX

[barca]

Here is a Tentative Schedule of D-Day Beach Assault events that RCDD plans to hold in the PDX area. Changes in red, below, as of WED, SEP 4.

• Includes Oregon City.
• Could Include Vancouver if someone can arrange 1 or 2 reserved tables at Fate & Fury Games

NEEDED:

• Playtesters for SEP OCT event.
• Input on which SAT in October to hold playtest (OCT 12 or OCT 19).
• Input/Preference on location for the October event: Guardian Games or Oregon City Geeks and Games
• A hard date for TANKS-giving event (November)
• Volunteers to assist barca in October and/or December events
• Lots of American Rifle/Beach Assault troops brought in by volunteers
• Volunteers to provide forces and Beach terrain for a SECOND beach table? barca has enough fortifications and obstacles for 1 table.
• Fun-loving Participants/Gamers to be challenged by the missions, rules and forces.

D-DAY EVENTS
SEPTEMBER - change: playtest moved to October due to D-Day components arriving later than anticipated.
SAT, SEP 14: Flames of War D-Day Playtest* (75 pts): at Oregon City Geeks and Games

•  11:00 AM-12:00 PM: Setup
• 12:00-4:30 pm: PLAYTEST
• 4:30-5:00 PM: Tear-down

* might include airborne/glider mission
This is a PLAYTEST, not a battle.

OCTOBER
SAT, OCT 12  or  SAT, OCT 19:

Flames of War D-Day Playtest* (75 pts): at Oregon City Geeks and Games
* might include airborne/glider mission

•  11:00 AM-12:00 PM: Setup
• 12:00-4:30 pm: PLAYTEST
• 4:30-5:00 PM: Tear-down

• * might include airborne/glider mission
  This is a PLAYTEST, not a battle.

NOVEMBER
SAT, NOV  2 or SAT, NOV  9: TANKS-giving event (100-125 pts): D-Day "Hit the Beach": at Oregon City Geeks and Games

Date to be determined by final scheduling of the TANKS-giving event.

DECEMBER

UPDATED on SEP 17:

D-Day demo - "Bloody Omaha" and "Day Of Days"
Can you get your unit off the Normandy beach ("Saving Private Ryan")?
Can you silence the battery that is bombarding the Americans on D-Day? ("Band of Brothers")
The Americans invade German-Held France in 1944, by Airborne parachute drop and by sea - Amphibous Assault.
We combine D-Day Omaha Beach ("Saving Private Ryan"), Utah Beach and 101st Airborne para drop  ("Band of Brothers") in these missions: Flames of War D-Day Beach Assault (75-100 pts) + Airborne (75-100 pts)
Flames of War 4th edition rules.
We supply the models and dice. You supply the tactical leadership.

• 10:00-11:30 AM:  Setup - Rose City Dukes Game Masters
• 11:30 AM-12:00 PM: Players - Commander's briefings and special rules
• 12:01 PM: Dice Drop/Ramp Drop/"Stand In The Door!"
• 12:02-4:15 PM: D-Day Battle
• 4:15-5:00 PM: Tear-down/ pack up

 

 

[barca]

Changes in red, above, as of WED, SEP 4.

[ZEKE]

I hope the beach assaults go better than the airborne drops.

As far as I'm concerned,  the airborne drop mission is broken and there is no way any kind of airborne force could ever win against any decent german player. My record is now 0-6 and I have NOT figured out anything that works for the airborne. Until something changes (errata or publications of clarification or how-to) I will no longer play that mission.

[barca]

1 hour ago, ZEKE said:

I hope the beach assaults go better than the airborne drops.

As far as I'm concerned,  the airborne drop mission is broken and there is no way any kind of airborne force could ever win against any decent german player. My record is now 0-6 and I have NOT figured out anything that works for the airborne. Until something changes (errata or publications of clarification or how-to) I will no longer play that mission.

☹️

[fingolfen]

Are you referring to the new missions in the U.S. D-day book?

[fingolfen]

Aside - I'm still working on my festungskompanie - hope to have it done for October... still need some arty...

[ZEKE]

1 hour ago, fingolfen said:

Are you referring to the new missions in the U.S. D-day book?

YES.  

The biggest problem I am having is that ALL units (attacker and defender) start pinned down/bailed out,  and the mission specifically says DEFENDER GOES FIRST.

So, what usually happens is defender deploys as much HMG/MG teams as possible (knowing the american can only start with troops), going first they get 90% of their forces unpinned and start hammering away with at least 4 HMGs (24 dice).  that's a lot of dice.  Next problem is Americans don't get to start dug-in/gone to ground like the Germans so when they fail infantry saves they just die.  usually I lose 1-3 teams per plt getting shot at.

At this point, my strategy is to put the DZ/LZ markers in the corners of the table and hope the troops land off the table and thus placed in reserves, then load up on command cards that can help with getting reserves onto the table.  What troops do land on table MUST get dug-in immediately or DASH out from under artillery markers.

Seems like the Americans should be either - goes first, or DOESN'T start pinned down.

Best I've done in a game was knocking out 2 units (arty and recon, easy to do)

[barca]

19 hours ago, ZEKE said:

Seems like the Americans should be either - goes first, or DOESN'T start pinned down.

With the American Para's being more aggressive than the German Heer Infantry in Normandy, I would tweak the mission by changing "DEFENDER GOES FIRST" to read "ATTACKER GOES FIRST", before changing anything else.

If that was not enough to re-balance the mission, then step 2 would be to not pin the paras. But I think that the first change would fix the pinned condition, for most American units.

[Souldier3]

I'm going to try and attempt the airborne mission tomorrow. I'll give feed back. Wish me luck!

[barca]

14 hours ago, Souldier3 said:

I'm going to try and attempt the airborne mission tomorrow. I'll give feed back. Wish me luck!

“Paratroopers, like professional baseball players, acquire certain superstitions,” he said. “With me I have always stuck a cigar in my mouth when about to make a jump and my men all know it. They take it for good luck.”

Quoted from "D-Day: Paratrooper from Upstate New York is the first to land in France" https://www.newyorkupstate.com/binghamton/2019/06/d-day-paratrooper-from-upstate-new-york-is-the-first-to-land-in-france.html

Guy was a pathfinder. Great stories

[fingolfen]

I should have fortifications and a German force together by sometime in October (likely late)

[Souldier3]

42 minutes ago, barca said:

“Paratroopers, like professional baseball players, acquire certain superstitions,” he said. “With me I have always stuck a cigar in my mouth when about to make a jump and my men all know it. They take it for good luck.”

Quoted from "D-Day: Paratrooper from Upstate New York is the first to land in France" https://www.newyorkupstate.com/binghamton/2019/06/d-day-paratrooper-from-upstate-new-york-is-the-first-to-land-in-france.html

Guy was a pathfinder. Great stories

My opponent is bringing ALL tanks. So that would not be a good measure of how the mission is balanced. I will have to wait for another opportunity to test the air assault mission.

[barca]

2 hours ago, Souldier3 said:

My opponent is bringing ALL tanks. So that would not be a good measure of how the mission is balanced. I will have to wait for another opportunity to test the air assault mission.

😕

[barca]

UPDATED on SEP 17

[barca]

BTW, also planning a D-Day mega battle on SAT, the 6th of June, 2020: 5 tables, 4 forces

2 beaches (1 Amer and 1 Brit or Canadian), 1 airborne table, 1 inland panzer counterattack table* + 1 staging table for the many models.

*We will compress the timeline on one table to include a German armored counterattack. See "Stopping The Panzers" by Marc Milner.

That way, the Germans can do something other than defend.

 

[barca]

phyfor88:

I have germans, landing Craft and DD-tanks for D-day playtest.

Can u provide Amer Inf, or Proxy brits for this list?

If not, I will proxy Americans using Russian figs.

FACTION: Allied, NATIONALITY: USA – Formation #1, Reference: D-Amer (D-Day American)
Target size:  75 || Target Mission: Fubar (D-Day American)
Formation / Support    Company/platoon    Teams    Upgrades    pts    unit pts    
Veteran Assault Company (D-Amer, p. ?)    6 units                    
    Veteran Assault Company HQ     Cmd SMG x2    none    2    2    
                        
    Veteran Assault Boat Section     Rifle x5, Bazooka x2, 60mm mortar x1, flamethrower x1    none    12    12    
    Veteran Assault Boat Section    SAB    none    12    12    
    Veteran Assault Boat Section    SAB    none    12    12    
    Veteran Support Boat Section    Rifle x4, 81mm mortar x1, HMG x1    none    6    6    
FORCE SUPPORT                        
    Veteran M4 Sherman (75mm) Tank Platoon    M4 Sherman (75mm) x4    none    17    17    
Command Cards                        
            Command Card:  DD-Tanks @0    0    0    
            Command Card:  Naval Gunfire Support @12 pts    12    12    
            Command Card: ‘Dutch’ Cota @2 pts    2    2    
Final Total                    75    
Inventory:
•    Rifle tm x15
•    Cmd Rifle tm x4
•    Bazooka tm x6
•    60mm mortar tm x3
•    flamethrower tm x3
•    81mm mortar x1
•    HMG x1
•    M4 Sherman (75mm) x4
•    LCVP landing craft x3
•    DD Sherman, with flotation Screen (optional) x4

 

[barca]

On the Fubar Mission, we misread the limits of the "Hinterland Zone".

The Hinterland Zone is the green area of the sketch map, or everything that is NOT the Beach Landing Mat.

The dotted line (on the sketch map) separates the Attacker's table half and the Defender's table half for scoring purposes. The dotted line has nothing to do with deployment.