Operation Goodwood - Normandy 1944, BBB for WWII

My good gaming buddy Bob has many virtues. He is hugely knowledgeable about WWII weapons and tactics. He has a very fine collection of virtually all the armies of WWII in 1/300 scale, very well painted and complemented by equally attractive terrain. And he always cooks excellent sausages for lunch. So when he invited me over to join him and Simon for a Sunday wargame to test his adaptation of "Bloody Big Battles" for WWII, naturally I accepted.

The scenario was one we had visited before with other rules with unsatisfactory results: Bourguebus Ridge, from  Operation Goodwood, July 1944, the British attempted breakout east of Caen. Simon attacked with two British armoured divisions and an infantry brigade, while my motley collection of German bits and pieces tried to stop them.

British tanks smash through between Bourguebus and La Hogue,

while 1 SS Pz (top left) does something irrelevant.

The game scale was 6" = 1km, 1 turn = 2 hours, and the base unit was a battalion. Thus Simon had something like 8 armoured units (British tank regiments) and 3 infantry battalions, with 2 off-table artillery regiments in support and occasional air strikes. The Germans had just 1 genuine infantry unit, 1 pioneer battalion, 2 Panzer battalions (one very weak), a StuG battalion, 2 AT battalions, 2 artillery battalions and some rubbishy Luftwaffe artillery.

The game mechanisms were essentially the same as BBB - 2D6 activation rolls to move, add up firepower points and roll 2D6 for effect on the BBB combat table, close assault done on opposed D6 - but obviously with some significant tweaks for the very different weapons and warfare. It was quick and slick enough that we fought this 8-turn representation of a major WWII battle to a conclusion in 4 hours, on a 4'x5' table.

I conducted a fairly aggressive defence. I immediately committed von Luck's Kampfgruppe forward into Cagny, on the left flank of 7th Armoured Division, to try to slow them up. Unfortunately that just attracted the full attention of the newly arriving Guards Armoured Division. It took a couple of turns for the Brits to chew up von Luck but it meant that when the King Tigers of 503rd SS Heavy Panzer Abt turned up on the same flank, there were no infantry for them to work with, and they got swarmed by Shermans.

In the centre, the makeshift hybrid tank destroyers of 21st Panzer did sterling service for a while, severely punishing two British tank regiments. This success went to my head and I sent the tank destroyers forward to smash aside the remnants, which they did, but that exposed them to be attacked front and flank by the next two and destroyed.

My only other significant mobile reserve was a mighty battalion of 1st SS Panzer. This had turned up on my left and that's where I kept it, preventing any British advance on that side but not wreaking any major carnage. The loss of von Luck and of the StuGs not only opened up space for the British tanks to push into in my centre and right, it also left me nothing to counterattack them with. On the last turn, a regiment of 7th Armoured brushed aside a few Luftwaffe gunners, drove off my PaK battalion, and planted itself astride the road that was the British victory objective. I was unable to kick them out and had to concede the game.

I think my poor troops paid the price for me fighting a 20th century battle with something of a 19th century mindset. With any unfamiliar rules there's always an element of getting to grips with how the troops interact, and of learning the necessary time-space appreciation; but I hadn't really assessed the relative combat values (or lack thereof) of some of my units that looked big but weren't clever; and I was too keen to push everything into the front line, and too careless about keeping reserves.

But who cares who won - the game was a lot of fun, plenty of tactical challenges, and it looked great. And the rules felt right. The plan now is to test them with a very different scenario: more infantry, more open terrain, more asymmetrical opponents (maybe early Eastern Front?), and see if the rule mechanisms need major adjustment or just minor tweaking.

Let's take my defeat on the chin and add it to the year's tally:

Played: 22
Won: 10
Drawn: 4
Lost: 8