AAR: Normandy Firefight: My Wife's Revenge!

Behind the scenes of this innocent looking building.......Trouble is brewing in the form of British Infantry!

    Not to scare anyone, but my wife has done it again! She has learned some more rules! And in this case, these were the Normandy Firefight rules. We had tested them out together last Saturday. On that game, we decided to handicap some of the rules such as, reloading or Automatic weapons. We, even, completely forgot pinning all together. This was really an accident, because we forgot our cheap "penny" pin markers. Cheapness is a great thing sometimes.
      So all bets were off! It was a new year for us which must translate to new rounds of winning for my lovely lady. Kalissa has five British Infantrymen versus my five German Fallschirmjagers. In Normandy Firefight, we discovered several things of interest. One, there was nothing mentioning Assault Rifles. Since, one of my men was armed with a FG42 Assault Rifle, we agreed that this would be rated as a semi-automatic with a 20 round magazine. I was going completely off memory. If I'd known how effective Submachine guns in this game, it would have gave it that rating. Also, Normandy Firefight only covers Germans and American troops and weapons. Rifles were easy to change. For the British Sten guns, we used the same statistics as the German MP40. The whole premise of the Sten gun was to be able to use same ammunition as the MP40 anyway. Maybe, they will publish another book for other factions. I am sure the Japanese would interesting with swords.
   Since this game records every action and some jobs such as reloading take up to two actions or turns to do, this game can be real dangerous and unpredictable. Also, the multiple actions are the main reason to have little figures, so you actually feel compelled to name you figures. After all, they actually matter is such a small skirmish game.
    Here was the rundown of characters in our game:
For the Common Wealth:
    1. Sgt. Charles Lockwell with his trusty Sten Gun!
    2. Pvt.  Patrick Blackwell and his Sten Gun.
    3. Pvt.  Mitchell Thompson and his rifle.
    4. Pvt.  Stephan Bronson and his rifle.
    5. Pvt.   George Fairfax and his rifle.
For the Fatherland:
    1. Sgt. Vincent Vogel with an MP40.
    2. Pvt.  Allen Boosvelt with a KAR98 rifle.
    3. Pvt.  Junger Wilhelm with a KAR98.
    4. Pvt.  Alexei Vedder with a KAR98.
    5. Pvt.  Bobbi Altermann with a FG42 Assault Rifle.
  All men above had two grenades and no other weapons, though you can arm them with knives and pistols for close-quarter combat. In the case of the game, we played from corner to corner. The first two turns in this game was a running race. Normandy Firefight should be played in smaller tables, but honestly, I have not to the point of making smaller tables, since I was making terrain for a tournament and for future larger games at conventions. But I will eventually break down and make one. Damn you, war gaming hobby I love!
    The first few pictures are the table itself. I am aware that this can be looked upon as Terrain Porn. You are welcome! The rest of the pictures might explain some of the action. Enjoy!

There has been a few statements about my Volkswagen. Despite not really being released to the public by the Fatherland, I like adding the extra touch. It is made by Company B miniatures. I have also had this theme for a blue and red car for my 15mm Flames of War tables.

The British are on the outside of the hedgerow. There are special rules on moving through hedgerows. You have to roll to see how many turns it takes you to move through these obstacles. If we'd followed the 8" deployment, Kalissa would have had to fight these in the beginning. We modified it to 12"  due to the larger table.

German deployment.

The British advance!

The Germans move in.

That stupid flowering bush caused a hiccup for German movement.

This looks like a good spot, but not really.

The British dominate the stables.

Pvt. Patrick Blackwell thought he had a good spot, but could not see the enemy!

Despite all of the firing, Pvt. Junger Wilhelm took a head shot at 40% damage for peaking around the corner!

Pvt. Allen Boosvelt finds himself in terrible trouble. He has been shot three times in the legs with a Sten Gun by Pvt. Patrick Blackwell. However, Blackwell was also hit in the knees at 50% damage with a rifle shot! It looks like Sgt. Charles Lockwell will save the day flanking behind the car.

Victims of British fire. Pvt. Alexei Vedder was killed in action after giving his position away. Several Sten Gun rounds got him. The other on the corner was Sgt. Vincent Vogel who accidentally exposed himself to several British.

 

Out of luck and ducking, Boovelt manages not to get hit!

Pvt. George Fairfax opens a door and enters the small building in hopes of flanking the Germans.

Pvt. Mitchell Thompson is the master of fence cover. After numerous shot fired upon him, he does not receive a scratch!

Sgt. Lockwell tries to take the wounded German, but Pvt. Boosvelt  is not down and out. He manages to swing his rifle to cause 80% damage to the leg, breaking it!

      The whole game still ended with a British Victory. It was calculated that Kalissa inflicted 580% damage, which included two killed Germans. The British had 130% damage with no deaths. Some British just will not feel the same after the war. If anything, the Germans were glad that they were not fighting Russians. Again, truly a good game. As I mentioned before that it is a little heavy on details. I think that our friend, Hugh enlightened my experience with this game. While my wife was still calculating the damage, despite knowing of my figures ultimate demise, Hugh said that part of the fun is knowing the craziness of the way they died in combat. Sgt. Vincent Vogel lost both legs and took a shot in the left arm and torso. I don't think there was ever a roll with Kalissa rolling all three hits with submachine guns! Again, good game!