The Landings at Safi 1942

 Now this is an old scenario which appeared in the 1994 original (Green book) Rapid Fire, re-configured for use with the excellent Field of Battle WW2, with US Landings in North Africa, during Operation Torch, against Vichy French forces.

the landings at Safi would be quickly followed by a rapid dash to Casablanca......only 220km away according to the local sign...

 This was the one of the first scenarios ever done on the blog (waaay back in Sept 2012), and some of the old terrain for the beaches, crane, landing craft and harbour was brought out and dusted off. Of course that damned Airfix French Foreign Legion castle makes an appearance once more (as do the Legion).

the battlefield...the landings should have taken place at night, but the players had not tackled the rules before, so a few liberties were taken, and the night turn avoided until later in the game.

 

Similar points scoring for objectives - harbour, post office, station, fuel dump and barracks, were in place, though of course FoB allows also for morale being reduced to have one force simply withdraw or surrender.

A wildcat buzzes the battlefield

 Another key was the game length - we pretty much had this done in 3 and a half hours. With Rapid Fire, things take a little longer.

Other advantages of FoB:

• Card driven - battlefield (small c) chaos without being Chaotic.
• The rules handle recce, close assaults, long range fire, and artillery with elegant design and results. 
• Units are companies, and I am concerned with my battalions - MGs, mortar placement, indigenous AT, is all someone else's problem. (Believe me, as I get older, the last thing I want to worry about is that bloody figure with the bazooka, and hidden units, and jeeps with FOs).
• Recce units actually 'recon' objectives and units.
• Artillery Fire is the smoothest, most elegant, and yet fun system I have yet seen.
• I model a real battle, not Sgt Archie and his mates 'aving a go'. 
• Gun calibre and armour etc. grants a bonus to the final combat die (say a D12) vs the defence die of the target (say a D6) - graduations of 3, cause casualties, even rolls cause suppression. It is all derived with one roll. No table of mods, no cross-referencing - dice may increase or decrease in size due to circumstance. Simply elegant.

  

french armour, realising that something is up, starts moving

Yanks hit the beaches

La Batterie Railleuse

The Harbour area

The Harbour assault from US Destroyer Bernacole (a combination of the actual Bernadou DD153 and Cole DD155, scaled for the game)

 

Red and Blue Beaches...landing troops and armour

...a nasty surprise awaits...

US troops manage to get off the beach with a flanking AT Gun

Vichy French troops covering the scrub area by the road, in lieu of attacks toward the harbour

US Armour starting inland

Vichy French artillery - antiquated, yet effective

The US spotter place, caused absolute havoc, being able to spot for 155mm Naval Guns, almost anywhere on the table...moving in the open became a disaster, as they seemed to get both movement of spotting rounds and 'fire for effect ' at all the right times...d12+1 is not to be sniffed at

Moroccan infantry get hammered

French Air appears for a brief, and yet paltry, pass

US Armour is fast and effective today, carefully moving with good infantry support (and excellent movement rolls)

Spotter plane cam

2nd wave troops hit the beaches

Fuel store is captured, one flag goes up, as another comes down

2nd pass of the French Dewoitine fighter, along the line of US troops exiting the beaches

Recce and armour, take down the Foreign Legion AT positions in Safi

...a US Wildcat cuts down Moroccans in the open

US troops close on the objective (that will give them the points they need) - the Vichy French Barracks

Last wave still moving to assist

Bloody fighter won't go away...finally effective in inhibiting the US advance

Assault on the village outside Safi

Legion heading to support the Barracks fight

US infantry assault on the Barracks

...tanks well supported

Seaplane, keeps the Naval Guns hammering, though the US are running out of asset points

  By game end, there was little more that the French could do, and they ran out of morale cards, suffering a morale collapse before the US had to lose more men trying to take the Barracks complex.

Excellent rules, very hack-able, and great for the younger players to see...no BS. around positioning guns, remembering silly little rules, working out nuances that help game-play but are totally non-historical - none of that crap. Just a great game.

Next one will be Operation Starlite - Vietnam '65. The rules already work well for Vietnam, so should be good.