Operation Goodwood - Day 3, July 1944, with Field of Battle WW2

 Another great FoBww2 game - introducing my nephew to the rules this time (he won as usual), and with the result that he wants to use the rules for every theater of WW2. Who am I to argue with that?

this scenario was based on that appearing in the 1996 'Clash of Armor' scenario book: 'Rommel's Battles', and represents day 3 of Operation Goodwood with the British drive toward Vimont.

German armour lies in wait for the Irish Guards

 I still keep coming back to these; each element on the table representing a company allows large battles to be fought, and though Brent Oman is working on a new set which allows the two levels below this to be fought (units as platoons, then squads in three variants of the same rules), the mechanisms will be consistent and exquisite.

To summarise :

• Card draws dictate the turn sequence. A British unit might be held up in getting to the point where it is needed with poor command rolls re. movement - as the turn sequence is not rigid - but 'fluid', which we read about in accounts, where confusion reigns and time is 'elastic'. This is not a random dice roll that has units 'sitting pretty' (BP, I am looking at you) - the card deck is engineered to describe the command superiority or otherwise, with movement only  rarely stymied, or sometimes enhanced dependent upon the opposed roll mechanism. 
• Unlike other rules, where the designer reads historical accounts, then attempts to distill that experience into a 'rule'...here the mechanism is key to everything that follows: an opposed roll of multi-sided dice - e.g. a d6 vs a d10 - with the result dependent upon the difference between the two, AND whether ODD or EVEN, dictating push-backs, hits, disorder...all in a single opposed roll between the players. Elegant does not begin to describe how fast and intuitive this is. It removes the need for mods, results tables, more mods, and stupid little dice mechanisms that lie outside the core of the rules.

There may be an issue with the Typhoon/Tempest's roundels ;)

 

• Hence, that mechanism comes first, and distilling the historical account into that mechanism is key - so there are no side rules, few separate systems, and no requirement to 'squeeze every last piece of innovation from what you can do with a bunch of d6'. Multi sided dice combine all the provability and all the odds into single rolls with no bs. d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 etc.each with its own probability curve.
• Morale works off hits taken, and morale card tests when army morale is breached...this can make for tense moments. Today, both sides reached army morale around the same time, with leadership rolls for card draws, and morale swinging many times in tense action. The swing of  this initiative is key to the game, and very reminiscent of battle accounts in terms of  'narrative'. A word which we all love now , it seems, but rarely understand.
• Combining the cards, the nature of command into the deck, the dice mechanisms, and modifiers based upon moving dice types 'up' or 'down' and you quickly realise that the simplest concept designs are invariably the best, making for 'simple not simplistic' and truly 'playing the period, not the rules'...in this case.  Genius.

British Infantry moving early on the left flank at Emieville

An attack on the centre early on, which would last all day

Bitter fighting in the woods

Laying smoke on the left flank to allow Guards' armour to move up

Panzers are waiting

The British right suffered German counter attacks, which despite being stymied a number of times, eventually paid off

The British centre and right

Armoured casualties on the British left at the Chateau St Pierre Oursin, where the British hung on, and eventually forced the panzers back on Vimont

At last, British air offers some respite, eliminating two companies in the open.

Troops surge through the gap on the British left, but matters are very tense as morale starts to dwindle

Flanks breached, bit not broken

Another German counter attack against the weakened British right

...armour pours toward Vimont - but it's too late, as the British fail their first army morale roll...

...and finally withdraw.

There is some rumour, that the next game...might be Prochorovka...