Colonel Wittmann I am clearly not
Gaming the 75th Anniversary of D-Day
I am playing Normandy 44 Gold by John Tiller Software and
the Wargame Design Studio.
Yesterday, I played the “Proving them wrong” (June 13)
scenario about a half dozen times as the Axis and didn’t come close to
replicating the historical result for the Battle of Villers-Bocage. I suffered major defeats, lost half my tank
strength and never inflicted more than eight lost vehicles on the enemy. My best scenario result was a draw (I seized
both objectives and held them because the Allied AI regrouped and ran out of
time).
My not reaching the historical victory of 30+ destroyed vehicles
could be because of my command ability, (Colonel Wittmann I am clearly not), but
I think it has more to do with the limitations of this operational game. Wittmann’s advantages came from the
application of his force on a tactical level, achieving surprise and German
tank superiority. The combination of
these factors enabled Wittmann and his platoon to destroy 12+ tanks in under 15
minutes. I barely managed 8 destroyed
tanks in 10 hours. Maybe the results can
be adjusted by improving the Tigers’ even more, or by lowering the unit quality
of the Allied forces even more.
That said, I played the hell out of this scenario and almost
achieved a minor victory. I just didn’t
come anywhere near the historical combat result.
Some other thoughts
I am a fan of smaller scale JTS Panzer Campaigns scenarios
due to my personal limitations on gaming time.
“Proving them wrong” is a short 5 turn (10 hour) scenario. The map is 12km by 10km (postage stamp sized
really), and the highest elevation points are 200m. You can see below that the French bocage
country is well represented with the graphic choices by the game
designers.
The Germans have a superior but smaller armored force (reflected
in the Victory Point totals below).
Wittman’s tanks are “A” quality and 7th Armoured’s Fireflys
and Cromwells are C quality. There is no
artillery support for either force. The
German infantry has an advantage in quality and quantity.
As I said, I tried this scenario multiple times and the best
combat result that I achieved was when I isolated, then disordered the
defensive force on Hill 213 before finally assaulting it.
During that play-through my Tigers spent the first few hours
of the battle pounding the Hill from 1-2km away (Tiger range is 2 hexes) while
I moved 3.130 Abt. from Panzer Lehr into place.
The assault pictured below occurred on turn 3 and it took two more
assaults to reduce the force on 213, but I ran out of time before I could
secure the objective.
If I was going to play this scenario again, I would attack
Hill 213 first, rather than attack the town of Villers-Bocage and Hill 213
simultaneously (this was my strategy for every play through).
Concentrating and then attacking with that
much infantry and Wittmann’s supporting tanks should yield the 50-point
objective with minimal loss.
During your planning, keep in mind that Villers-Bocage is
only worth 20 victory points and is vulnerable to forces occupying the higher
ground west and south of the town.
The map included within the game for this scenario has
omitted the label for Hill 213, even though it was a key part of this
battle. I have added the label, and you
can download the revised map file here.
You can also read the actual scenario description below:
Villers Bocage, west of Caen: The 13th of June will forever
be remembered in the annals of armored warfare as the day when so few defeated
so many near the little Norman town of Viller-Bocage. Elements of the 4th City
of London Yeomanry, of the 7th British Armoured Division, the famed
"Desert Rats", had halted for mid-morning tea after executing a left
hook in the drive for Caen. Unfortunately for them they were about to face a
small battle group of the 101st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion. But this was no
ordinary battlegroup! This was the famous German Tiger Ace, Michael Wittman. A
Veteran panzer commander with 117 tank kills on the Russian Front. Wittman was
not a man to worry about odds in an attack and as he seized the opportunity is
said to have stated "They're acting as if they'd won the war already.
We're going to prove them wrong". [Size: mini; Length: 5 turns]
A related, much larger scenario of comparable length is the
7 turn “Caumont Gap” scenario pictured below.
I intend to play this scenario, but for my last D-Day
anniversary post, I am going to switch games and share my thoughts on a
user-created scenario for Command Ops 2 covering the same battle called “XXX
Corps’ Right Pincer.”
Comments
That said though, it is pretty easy to get a victory as the Germans in this one.
First clue is in the victory conditions, even taking both VC hexes won't even yield a Draw, so you need to concentrate on killing the English. Grabbing the VP-hexes should be a by-product of killing the units in them, not the other way around.
Second clue is in the English force composition. They have very little infantry, so they can't defend what they have. A vehicle-heavy force in bocage will not only suffer from Combined Arm penalties (i.e. half-strength) anyone defending against them will get the terrain-value added to their defense-strength. Obviously the reverse is true as well, so don't assault without the necessary infantry-support.
Third and final clue is in the scenario-length. 5 turns means you have to push hard.
As with all the PzC scenarios, the time-limit is so tight you have to throw 'normal' tactics out the window, and rush the targets.
So your initial plan is actually the right one, go for both targets simultaneously.
5 turns doesn't leave you time to go for them sequentially. It also means you'll have to use Travel mode to ensure that you surround the VP-hexes with ZOC so they Brits stay where they are. Don't move next to the enemy, or end your turn in Travel-mode (obviously) but make sure the net is tight.
Cutting off the supplies means the defenders drop a morale-level. If they fire they're out of ammo, meaning another drop in morale. So suddenly you're looking at A-morale SS assaulting E- or F-morale defenders. And since Morale and Fatigue in PzC are very effective force-multipliers, the end result is pretty much foregone.
Turn 2 is used for moving into Assault-range, and then it's simply a question of repeated assaults to murder the surrounded Tommies.
Don't even worry about the company of enemy armor outside the target-zone. Two platoons of Fireflies and a platoon of Cromwells isn't going to make a dent on a German infantry-battalion in bocage.
Only played this scenario once, but ended up killing/capturing 19 enemy tanks and 145 men for the loss of 33 men, 2 Tigers and a SdKfz251/10. Annoyingly a single Disrupted, Out of Ammo and Surrounded Cromwell stubbornly refused to leave Villers-Bocage within the time limit robbing me of a major victory, so I guess a minor one will have to do.