The Farm - 1st Mission Italy After Normandy

Part One

The Germans are rapidly withdrawing from Rome through the farmlands of Vitterbo – June 1944.

Situation

Your Squad is ordered to scout up to the farmhouse.  You have been traveling so far without incident.  A delaying force of the enemy is estimated to be settling in 3 miles to your left, but they may have outposts anywhere. The area is modest farmland.

From far away, while on the road, you could see the two-story farmhouse, smoke rising from the chimney.

Patrol Mission

June 14^th 1944

Sergeant Lindsey, me, and four others of us headed left to creek crossing. Corporal Pamaroyan and the other five headed to the right. They were going to check out the farmhouse while we we’re going to check out the other house.

We hoofed it up to the crossing, Shelton lagging behind as usual. Smith and I were in front with the Sarge right behind. As we cleared the other side of the creek, we saw some Germans coming out of the woods up ahead. They saw us too. Smith and I got the drop on them and we opened fire. We dropped two of them, but a few more fired back. We continued to fire, but they kept coming. As a second squad came into view, the Sarge ordered us to hightail it out of there.

Later on Wolke, who had been with the Corporal, said he saw 30 or more Germans himself so Corporal was quick to tell them to sneak away. Not sure about what’s so important at that farmhouse, but I’m glad the Sarge ordered us out of there. That didn’t last too long though, as the Sarge just came by and said we were going back in tomorrow. This time we’d be taking 2^nd Squad with us.

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I had split the Squad into two sections. One would head up the right side of the board and check out the farmhouse. The other would cross the creek and check out the other house.

We activated first, the Germans scoring too high to activate.

We fast moved, with Shelton (Rep 3) only passing 1d6 so he was left behind a bit. As we hit the other side of the crossing, one PEF was resolved. Passing 1d6 on the new IAN PEF Resolution Table meant another d6 roll. 1 – 4 would be like the one in NUTS – resolve the remaining PEFs with 3d6, while a 5 or 6 could be Civilians or Partisans. I scored a 4. 

Next turn the Germans went first and the PEF in the woods came out into view. Rolling to see what it was resolved as, I rolled 3d6, passed 2d6 and we had Contact. Another roll on the Reinforcements Table and we had run into a whole Platoon.

Rolling the In Sight, we won and fired. One dead German and one Out of the Fight German was the result. That didn’t faze them and they returned fire. After a second round, Smith ducked back. The Germans moved their 2^nd Squad into view and another In Sight was taken. I won, as I was the only one that could see. I ducked back.

There’s a new rule in Italy After Normandy called Ending a Mission – Retreat. You can decide to leave the table if you feel you can’t win. Where the rule kicks in is the NCO or Officer that ordered the retreat could be forced to answer to the higher ups – called Paying the Piper. Lindsey rolled 2d6 on the Pay the Piper Table and lucky for him, he fast-talked his way out of it.

The other excellent thing about Italy After Normandy is each Mission has detailed outcome results. Not only based on whether you succeeded or failed, but also how well or badly you did when succeeding or failing. In this case, having failed, we were sent back in the following day – this time with 2^nd Squad on an Attack Mission.

I had set up the table to take pictures and started. But as the game ended so quickly, I thought I'd just write this one out. Hopefully, the next one will go better.