Audet's Church: A D-Day Plus 3 Platoon Forward Skirmish

This post is an attempt to remember a solitaire game I played several months back was a busy summer, using the characters generated with the help of Platoon Forward as described in previous posts. The scenario I rolled up with PF was Scenario Card F, a Platoon Attack, and the randomly generated objective as a Key Building. Of course, in a Mad Padre wargame, the key building has to be a church. In keeping with Lt. Audet's abrasive and glory-seeking nature, there would be no way that he would pass up another chance to gain attention. A further assumption of mine was that in the first few days after D-Day, given the historical role of the Chaudieres as rear security, any German opposition would likely be scattered and disorganized. You may feel from this AAR that Audet got off lightly. Perhaps. One gets attracted to the imaginary troops that PF gives you. No doubt in future, Audet's challenges will increase.




07:45, 8 June, 1944 Normandy - within the lines of La Regiment de la Chaudiere,

"Things are going well for us. The Division is ashore, we've linked up with the British, and we're taking ground. Just as importantly", Major Charpentier paused to look around at his platoon commanders, "D Company succeeded in our first tasking yesterday. We took some casualties, but the CO is pleased that we pushed out and straightened our sector. Well done all."

Lt. Denis Audet was hoping to hear the Major praise 18 Platoon for their role in the company attack yesterday, but was disappointed as the OC continued. "Today is maintenance and routine patrolling, but we do have one special job. Our recce platoon heard some motors and noted some vehicle activity here, at Eglise St. Michel. They also report that the church is suitable for an OP that could overlook our battalion lines. I need a platoon to have a look at it and if possible take the church. You were all in action yesterday so I'm asking for volun ..."

Charpentier stopped as a hand shot up. Audet saw Capt. Cournoyer roll his eyes but he didn't care. "My boys can do it, sir."

"Good. Go get the recce brief from Lt. Aubin and report back in an hour with your plan and your support requirements."

Here's the table I rolled up using Platoon Forward's terrain generator.
Canadian side, left to right: Forest, Building, Hill
Center, left to right: Forest, Significant Building, Open
German side, left to right: Open, Open, Swamp

Since it was Normandy I interpreted the open areas to be hedged, and since there is a significant building in the centre, that seemed to require roads and perhaps suggest a road junction. Here's the result.



18 Platoon was sitting near the foxholes they had slept in the night before, eating a breakfast of compo rations: tinned fruit, biscuits, and coffee. Adjutant (French for Warrant Officer) Beaulieu was telling the new corporal, Legros, about his adventures with Legros' pere in a barfight in the last war when Lt. Audet came strolling over with a worrisome purpose. "Have the platoon ready to move in thirty minutes, Adjutant. Light fighting order. We have a patrol."

Beaulieu climbed to his feet, feeling every one of his forty three years in his bones. "Us again, sir?"

Audet grinned and slapped the older man's shoulder. "Us again. Natural choice. We showed them we're the best, eh?"

As Audet walked away, Beaulieu took a long drag on his Players and threw it to the ground. He looked at his corporals. "You heard Clark Gable. We're the best." He shook his head. "Idiot."

By 09:00 18 platoon has been briefed and guided into position by two scouts from recce platoon. Audet had surveyed the ground through binos with in company with recce's Lt. Aubin. He was reasonably happy with his supports. He had been hoping for a tank, but a vehicle from the Carrier Platoon would give him some recce capability and another Bren gun, while the same Vickers HMG team that had worked with him in their last fight had been reassigned. Major Charpentier had approved his plan and now it was time to go.



Lt. Audet briefs Major Charpentier on his plan while the men of two section crouch ready in the hedges on the start line. Command group are plastic figures by Valiant.



This small image looks bigger when you click on it. The blue text and arrows show Audet's plan as follows. Vickers HMG and 1 section under WO Beaulieu will move onto the hill and establish a firebase to cover platoon's advance. With that covering fire, Audet will lead 2 section towards the church at the right moment, while three section with the Bren carrier will probe up the road into the village and look for possibilities to outflank the church posititon.

The black shows the force that PF generated for the Germans. In addition to dummy blinds, the Germans had an infantry section with a Big Man in the church, a heavy AT gun behind the church, two tanks, an MMG section at the crossroads, and a Forward Observer in contact with a four gun 81mm mortar section. Since German resistance would still be firming up just three days after the invasion, my premise is that the infantry and the FOO belong to 716th Div and have orders to hold the church and the village, the other elements belong to separate formations, most likely 21 Panzer Div, and are not attached or supporting. So the two tanks, Pz IIIs, and the AT gun, a towed 88mm, are passing through and have orders to exit the board.

Gefreiter Lothar Schreiber sat on board bench in the little church steeple and listened to the conversation in the street below. Janke, his sergeant was in the street, sharing a smoke with a Luftwaffe leutnant commanding the 88 and crew tucked in alongside the church. Schreiber was impressed at the careful placement of camo netting and twigs to conceal the gun and its heavy mover. He could appreciate the need for it. A few minutes ago a flight of jabos had passed low over head, hunting for targets further inland. For the last three days all he had seen were Tommy aircraft, and he wondered when one would get bored and strafe his steeple just for sport.



Limbered 88mm gun and heavy mover, carefully tucked behind the church. I've had this model for years and never used it until this game. ESCI, I think.


"He's been gone too long." The Luftwaffe leutnant was peering up the street, hoping to see the military policeman return on his motorbike. The chaindog was route control for this sector, and had held the gunners in place while he went to check that the route further inland was safe for transit.

"Be nice if you could stay, sir. We could use your support. Same with the Panzer boys." Janke pointed to the orchard across the road from the church, where two Pz IIIs, also heavily netted and concealed, were parked, their crews lounging about.

"Sorry. Got to get back to my unit, wherever they are. Been wandering for three days now, ever since the Tommies arrived. And as for the Panzers, while, they don't talk to the likes of us air force types."

Schreiber was about to chuckle at the joke when Moller, number two on the MG42, elbowed him and pointed out the belfry to the south. "Actung! Tommies on that hill."




1 section and the attached HMG move onto the hill and come off their blinds.

Beaulieu heard the first rounds of MG tearing the air above him. They were shooting high. He had expected the Germans to have opened fire earlier, but perhaps some sentry had been snoozing. "Get to the crest and let 'em have it. All fire on that church." Now rifle fire was coming at them as well, and gouts of earth were kicking up closer to them. Cpl. Legros and his Bren team had already flopped down and seconds later started chugging out rounds at the church. The riflemen of One Section joined them and Enfields began cracking. Two of the Vickers team arrived a moment later, toiling under their burdens, and began setting up their weapon. Their third man lay crumpled twenty feet back. Beaulieu raced over to him, retreived the heavy ammo boxes, and staggered back to the machine gunners. "Spray that f'n church good."

The sound of fire to his right was Cpl. Matthieu's signal to start 3 section moving on the road to the left of the church. With the Bren carrier leading the way in a cloud of exhaust, he and his men cautiously went forward, some hugging the walls of a ruined brick cottage, others crouching behind the carrier. Within minutes they realized that they had walked into the firelane of a machine gun, and three section was pinned.

Inside the church it wasn`t much better. Schreiber and his LMG crew huddled for dear life behind thick stone, keeping well away from the open spaces in the belfry. The fire from the hill had picked up and wasn`t stopping. Through the din he was aware of a young landser calling from the stairway. `Sgt. Janke is dead, corporal!`
Verdamnt! `Well, keep shooting!` he yelled back, then cringed as another burst of 303 lashed the steeple.

The Germans took an unlucky break early on when their Big Man in the church, Janke, was killed. Presumably he looked out a window at the wrong time. The character of Schreiber would be the replacement if the dice favoured it. Meanwhile, as 1 and 2 sections and the HMG under Audet and Beaulieu remained active, peppering the church, Matthieu would not have his card come up for many turns, effectively taking him and three section out of the game.

The German 88 had its card come up several times and did the sensible thing, pulling away from the church and towards the German rear, where it safely exited despite a few shots from the Bren. The two Pz IIIs followed. Without an effective infantry leader in the church to coordinate with them, they did the sensible thing and retreated off the board edge, since this was an assembly point on a road move and not a staging area for combat. One tank did take a shot at the Bren carrier which was visible down the road, and while the shot was a near miss, it convinced the driver that escape and survival was his best bet. His exit only seemed to convince Matthieu and 3 section to remain invisible and under cover.



Gefreiter Schreiber watches from the steeple in dismay as the second PZ III pulls out of its leaguer and heads away from the fighting.



PZ III covers the withdrawal of the towed 88 and fires a shot at the Bren carrier.



Which promptly flees back down the road and off the table.

Leutnant Gunther Horst and his radio operator had been driving cautiously towards Eglise St. Michel, following instructions from the day before to identify an OP to direct the fire a section of 81mm mortars. His major had said something about stabilizing the front line but as Horst heard small arms fire he had doubts that there was any front line. Signalling his driver to halt, they left the kubelwagen amidst some trees and crept forward until he had a line of site on the village.



The FOO Lt. Horst sets up in the woods with a line of sight to No 3 section.



Mortar shells begin to fall on No 3 section (background) while Audet starts 2 Section towards the church.


Matthieu and his section flattened themselves against walls and buildings as mortar shells began to fall nearby. The corporal could see from the postures of his men and the expressions of a few nearby that they were thoroughly pinned. He wasn't going anywhere, but he lifted his head briefly as he heard a new sound, tank tracks. The reassuring shape of a Sherman appeared in the roadway (a random event generated an Allied reinforcement).



Through his binoculars, Audent could see fragments of stone flying from the walls of the church as the Vickers gun continued to lash it. The rate of return fire from within the church had fallen off considerably. Now was the time. "Follow me, les boys!" Once again his men were sprinting behind him. There was a brief burst of Spandau fire from the steeple, and a man staggered and fell behind him, but they were through to the wall now. "Grenades, ready and ... now!" A flurry of grenades were tossed through the windows, with bangs and screams. A soldier kicked the door down and Audet stepped forward, Sten gun spraying. There was no return fire, the nave of the church was littered with six field gray forms, sone still, some moaning. "Kamerad", a voice called from the steeple stairs. Gefreiter Schreiber and his surviving No 2 had had enough. Minutes later, WO Beaulieu on the hill twatched his lieutenant wave jauntily from the steeple. "F*** me, he did it again!"

Epilogue: The Canadian close assault on the church was an amazingly lucky run of sixes, and wiped out the defending rifle section. With two of the three LMG crew surviving in the steeple, there seemed to be little point in further resistance. THe advent of the Sherman was enough to scare off Lt. Horst and the MMG team at tbe crossroads. Lt. Audet had his church and his casualties had been amazingly light. One killed from the supporting Vickers crew, and two riflemen lightly wounded from 2 section during their assault on the church. A very small bill for a decisive victory. In the next post, we'll see how Audet fares in his quest for recognition and promotion. Thanks for reading, and blessings on your die rolls. MP+

D Plus Two: Continuing with Platoon Forward

Members of Le Regiment de la Chaudiere preparing to go ashore on Juno Beach.

After a long absence, I've had time to continue the story started with Platoon Forward and Lt. Denis Audet, a vain, ambitious and brave young commander of 18 Platoon, Le Regiment de la Chaudiere, who won his first action on 7 June, after landing on Juno Beach.

Using PF to generate this platoon, the original commander of 1 section was Cpl Francois Yergeau, a likeable and cheerful young man with a bent for mechanics thanks to working on the family farm. Yergeau also spoke some English, an asset in a Francophone battalion within an Anglophone brigade. Unfortunately, Cpl. Yergeau was killed seconds into the platoon's first engagement, an assault on a hill some ten kilometres inland from Juno Beach, as part of the brigade's consolidation on 7 June.

Yergeau's death required a replacement character, so I used the PF system to generate Cpl. Jean Legros.

Personality: Coarse
Motivation and Interest: Position (wants to get ahead)
Combat Temperament: Bold
Combat Leadership: Level Two Big Man
Background: Son of a military family

So Cpl Legros is quite a fighter, but no choirboy. A good soldier to take over 1 Section, which lost another rifleman in addition to Cpl Yergeau. With his coarse temperament, military background and low rank, a perfect backstory for Legros is that he is the son of a veteran of the Great War, a sergeant who served with the Chauds in the trenches. He's a natural ally for the platoon sergeant, WO Beaulieu, himself a Great War vet who likely is a friend of Legros' dad.

So Audet is lucky in his NCOs. All three section leaders and his Warrant are all Level 2 Big Men in Too Fat Lardies terms, so they are all good soldiers. However, Beaulieu doesn't like Audet and his two cronies, Matthieu and Legros, will side with their Warrant. The more scholarly Cote, who is also ambitious, is likely to seek his Lt's patronage. A talented bunch, but some interesting potential for undercurrents and tensions.

Now to run through the Platoon Forward after-action checklist. The result is that a player character has been noticed, one of the squad leaders, who turns out to be Cpl. Matthieu of 3 Section. A further roll shows that Matthieu has been noticed by the men in his section, and another roll shows it is a positive reaction. Interpreting that result, Matthieu has just lead his men in their first action and he performed reasonably well as a leader. Finding the wine and chickens in the captured farmhouse didn't hurt his standing either. So, Matthieu's popularity goes from 0 to +1 (in PF popularity ranges from -2 to +2). Seems like a minor result, but we shall see how it figures in subsequent actions.

I also decided to check the character of Audet's boss, and so invented the character and the name Michel Charpentier, the Major commanding D Coy.

Personality: Idealistic
Interest: Government
Combat Temperament: Even
Combat Leadership: Level 1
Background: Average family
Special Skills: Fluent Anglophone

This, the Major is a good staff officer but no skilled soldier. As an idealist, he is that rare Quebecker who believes in the war as one of liberating the homeland of la France, and wants to see the sons of Quebec fight well and earn their place as equals in Canada. Perhaps he has even preached such sermons when addressing the men of his Company, who doubtless listen indifferently. He's travelled outside of Beace to become fluent in English, perhaps working for a big Anglo-owned firm in Montreal. The Battalion CO has his eye on the Major for a possible staff job with Battalion or as a liason to Brigade, but wants him to get some combat experience first.

His even temperament allows him to tolerate Audet's Egotistical personality somewhat, but the ambitious young Lieutenant is not his favourite platoon commander. However, Audet has shown the major in his first fight that he can get results.

Audet Takes His Hill: First Game With Platoon Forward

Troops of Le Régiment de la Chaudière move through Beny-sur-Mer on D-Day - more on the Chauds on D-Day here.

The following is an imagined account of a fictitious battle fought using the Platoon Forward campaign generator and the Troops, Weapons and Tactics rules by TFL, written with the greatest respect to the historical units mentioned.

Lt. Denis Audet ran a comb through his brilliantined black hair and then replaced his helmet at what he assumed was a jaunty angle. He glanced at his notes again from the Company O Group and then walked over to where his NCOs sat under a tree in one corner of the shell scarred orchard where D Coy made its home. His two youngest section commanders, Yergeau and Côté, stood up first, followed by Matthieu and then, finally, by the oldest man present, Beaulieu, the platoon warrant. Audet noticed the way Beaulieu leisurely lit a cigarette before standing up, but decided to ignore the gesture.

"Right, boys. D Coy hasn't seen any action since we landed yesterday, but that's going to change. We've got orders to push our sector of the line out eastwards and tie in better with the North Novas. Major Charpentier wants us in these woods on the far side of this hill, anchored by the little orchard here and the farm here. We got a tank from the Fort Garry Horse assigned to us, plus a 2" mortar from Coy and a Vickers HMG from Regiment, so we shouldn't have any trouble handling Jerry."

Côté looked worried. "Sir, I heard that it was tanks that hit A Coy last night. We going up against tanks?"

"No. IntO says it was guys in halftracks from 21st Panzer Division but they're over to our left. We're facing the same lousy infantry we pushed off the beaches yesterday. We saw them in the POW cages as we moved inland, remember? Should be no problem."

Beaulieu looked unimpressed. It wasn't us who cleared the beaches, he thought, it was the Queen's Own, and they paid for it. "We got artillery, sir?"

"Just the 2 inch is all. Regiment wants this attack done by 16:00. No time to tee up artillery. OK, Matthieu, your section moves on this hill, covered by the Vickers. Yergeau, to the right of the hill, covered by smoke from the mortar. I'll give you the tank since the Garrys are Anglo and you can talk to them. Côté, work your way up that little stream and use it to cover your approach to the farm. Beaulieu, you help them coordinate on the right, I'll stay with Matthieus' boys. We go at 14:00 so make sure your boys are ready. I want to show the Major that we're the best in D Company."

As Audet moved off, Beaulieu flicked away his cigarette. "Watch out for Clark Gable, boys. He wants his medal fast. Keep your heads down and look out for your boys."



Audet's force. Infantry are a mix of Revell, Raventhorpe and Valiant. The Sherman is a Corgi diecast. I assume that Canadians are average troops, since they are well trained rookies. Hopefully they'll get better. To reflect the fact that the Canadians are fresh and eager to fight, I gave them the Commonwealth Rally card.



Left side of the table as generated by PF. A swamp on the Canadian left, fields in the centre and a small orchard on the German right. Germans have an A blind behind the hedge visible to the left of the hill, a B blind ieach in the orchard and in the woods in their table centre.



Centre and right side of the table as generated by PF. Hill in table centre, woods beyond it in the German centre, farm on the German left side, small stream on table left. Farm has a German B and C blind, wood has a German B and C blind.

At 14:30 hours, Sgt. Beaulieu watched Yergeau give the signal for his rifle team to follow him towards the wheatfield to his front. The Sherman from the Garrys roared into life reassuringly behind them, while Yergeau's Bren team covered the wheatfield. At the same time, the 2" crew chugged out three smoke bombs to begin covering Yergeau's advance. "Too far in", he told the 2" crew, "bring it back 100 yards."

At this point I began checking the German blinds, using the Platoon Forward system. The Germans had an A blind each on the hill and in the wheatfield. Since they are in effective range as soon as the Canadians step off, they are checked and revealed. The hill has a German LMG team, which I assume is dug in. The wheatfield has a full squad, with the German platoon commander, who turns out to be a Type 3 Big Man, Leutnant Mittner. I decide the German force is from the 716th Infantry Division, which has been roughly handled since the invasion began 36 hours ago, and so the Germans are just average troops.




Lt. Mittner's troops rise from concealment and open fire on the rifle team of Yergeau's first section. Figures are AB Miniatures. Their first shot is lucky, just 1 kill but a roll of a 1 on 1d6 says it is a Big Man. The hapless LSgt Yergeau goes down, and another roll says its fatal.

Beaulieu was watching through his field glasses as Yergeau began motioning to his riflemen to take cover, then pitched over on his back. "Tabernacle!" the old sergeant cursed. Yergeau's men were taking fire from the hill as well, and he heard the ripping sheet sound of the German LMG up there, a more terrible noise than the rattling of the MGs he remembered from the trenches. The tank commander had already ducked down into his turret, and an HE round exploded in the wheatfield, followed by the tank's coax MG. Beaulieu had only the faintest idea where the Germans were in the wheat. Yergeau's Bren team was silent, gazing in surprise.





German LMG team on the hill. Models are old ESCI figures cut in half to appear dug in. They've already a taken a hit and a wound from the Vickers, and soon will be KOed.


The 2" crew had switched to HE bombs and was dropping them on the edge of the wheatfield. Beaulieu could hear the Vickers thudding away, but the LMG on the hill had fallen silent. He could see green figures now in the wheatfield, flitting back into the smoke which was now covering them. Yergeau's Bren team was still silent, his riflemen prone. To his right he couldn't see Matthieu's second section since they too had gone to ground. The old sergeant ran forward in a crouch, beckoning the Bren team to follow. Only a few shots went past him as he arrived at 1 Section to find Yergeau lying prone, his chest torn with MG42 fire. "He's dead, Sergeant" said Private Therriault, his face shocked. "F'n right he's dead. Forget him and f'n do your job. Look to your f'n front."



Platoon Sergeant Beaulieu rallies first section.

Lt. Mittner decides to use the Tommy smoke to cover his retreat to the farm on the German right where there is good cover and some more German blinds. Beaulieu with 1st section and Matthieu with third resume the advance. The Fort Garry Horse tank commander, being a rookie, advances into the wheatfield just ahead of 1st section, and is now visible from the wood at the German centre. I check the B blind there and it is an AT gun, which fires twice and misses. The Sherman's card comes up, he spots the gun and misses his return shot. After the next Tea Break card, the AT gets its card first, fires, and neatly brews up the Sherman. No more armour support for Audet!



Heavily camouflaged German AT gun prepares to fire - gun and figures from the old Matchbox kit w the Opel Blitz truck.


Audet was satisfied that the MG42 on the hill was silenced. He motioned Côté to bring two section forward and rush the hill, but they had only taken a few steps before they met rifle fire from a hedge to the left. He ordered the Vickers to shift fire and a moment later heard Côté's Bren team join in. Within a minute the German fire had noticeably slackened. To his right he could see his other two sections moving forward in rushes, despite black smoke beginning to rise from the tank. Audet sensed that this was the time to move. After ordering the Vickers to continue spraying the hedge, he ran to where 2 section's rifle team was lying and pointed to the hill, "A l'assaut les boys!" The troops began to rise. They were actuallly following him, just like in the movies!


Audet had a good run of Tactical Initiative Cards and good dice which put him, his signaller, and two section's rifle team on the hill. I had given Audet the TW&T Heroic Commander card to reflect his bold and ambitious nature. This card soon came up and I decided Audet would use it to throw grenades down on the German section to his left, at the risk of an increased chance of him being hit on any return fire kills. Fortunately the German section had no Big Man, and after a few turns of being raked by rifle, Bren and Vickers fire the survivors accumulated enough wounds that they broke and ran.





Audet bravely but rashly throws a grenade at the German section below him. Revell figure.

Leutnant Mittner's section had gained the farm and lined the hedge, tying in with the HMG team stationed there. He could see two Tommy sections advancing on him, moving warily as the HMG and his LMG team opened up. Pretty soon return fire from the Tommy Bren guns was lashing the hedgerown, and one of his LMG team was down. Mittner cursed as the Tommy mortar bombs began to fall in the paddock, and threw himself down when one exploded 10 metres away. When he looked up, two of his HMG crew were moaning on the ground and the tripod was knocked over. This was bad. He sent his rife team back to the farm buildings, directing the fire of the LMG to cover him. Sparing a glance to his right, he could see the PAK team hauling the gun into the woods towards the waiting truck. His light mortar in the wood was firing sporadically at the hill, which meant Tommies were there, which explained the PAK pulling out. Time to go.

When the German MG42 ceased fire, Matthieu's three section rushed the hedge to cover the paddock. They'd lost a man approaching the farm when the HMG first opened up, but were otherwise ok. Beaulieu could now see two section on the hill, and noticed no fire from the wood beyond it. One section's Bren team appeared to have silenced or driven off the German mortar, and the Jerry infantry was now in the farm buildings. Perhaps they'd gone? He moved up the hedge with one section's rifle team, at right angles to Matthieu's section, only to receive MG42 fire from the hayloft of the little barn. One of his boys was down, clutching his stomach. Too hot here. Beaulieu had the riflelmen drag their comrade back into the wheatfield, where they were sheltered from the LMG and could observe the wood and the farmhouse.



Canadians envelop the farm but sensibly do not try to rush it. Beaulieu on the left with 1 section's rifle team, Matthieu on the right with 3 section. The black dice indicate number of kills suffered.

Lt. Mittner had had enough. He had one intact section, and the Tommies had cut him from the rest of his platoon. It was up to the SS and the Panzer boys to win now. His landsers were going to fall back, find what was left of battalion, and regroup. The Germans slipped away from the farm. On the hill, Audet watched his riflemen move into the wood and wave that it was clear. From the farm to the right, Audet saw Beaulieu wave in indication that the farm was secure. Audet turned to his signaller. "Send to Company that we're on the objective."

"Farmhouse is clear, Sgt", Matthieu reported. "Found some wine and a couple of fat chickens, too. Shall we keep that intelligence to ourselves?"

"F'n right", Bealieu replied.






Audet watches as 2 Section's rifle team approaches the wood. LSgt. Côté provides overwatch with the Bren team.

The Canadian entry into the wood on the German centre was the end of the game. The Germans had two C blinds, but rolled poorly on both. There was also a B blind in orchard which turned out to be a third German section, but without a Big Man to lead them. I determined they would only engage OK to Good targets in close range on the Tea Break card, but that circumstance never happened, and seeing their second section near the hill chewed up and the survivors passing through their position in flight, they retreated as well.

End of game, Audet has a successful first engagement under his belt. He can report to Maj. Charpentier of D Coy that he's secured his part of the company objective. Pity abut the tank, but that was the green crew commander's fault, getting ahead of his supports. Otherwise losses are light. Too bad about Yergeau, he was a good man and well liked by his section. One killed and one wounded in 1 Section, one man wounded in two section. Not bad. He wished someone of influence had seen his heroics with the grenade on the hill. Tant pis. All in all, the war was off to a good start for Denis Audet.


Next post will describe the aftermath of the battle according to Platoon Forward, plus a recap of how some real players fared in the same encounter.

Platoon Forward Gets the Mad Padre Blessing

Kudos to Joseph Legan for writing Platoon Forward (PF), and kudos to Richard Clarke of Too Fat Lardies for publishing it. Briefly, PF is a companion package that would work for many small-unit WW2 wargames, allowing you to generate characters, generate tabletop encounters, and tie them together into a campaign. As I've seen several other folks say online, there's nothing new here - it is reminiscent of RPG systems going back to GDW's Traveller (hands up if you're old enough to remember that game) but Joseph was the first to sit down, write it, and make it work.

I got sold on PF for two reasons. First, I totally suck at coming up with scenarios. I sit looking at an empty table and all my toys stuck in boxes, and despair of thinking up something balanced and interesting. PF solves that problem neatly. Second, it offers a very nice solution for players who, like myself, don't have wargames opponents close by and have to resort to solitaire gaming. PF allows a series of solitaire games to be strung into a campaign where charachters can, if they are lucky, survive and gain skills from battle to battle. Joseph's own blog, where he describes the adventures of one his little soldiers, Sgt. Buffo Bustamanti, showed me how much fun it could be.

After buying PF as a .PDF download from the TFL site (no postage, no wait time, sweet!) it was easy to figure it out. Well written and edited. All I had to do was decide whatmodel kit I wanted to use it with. I have a lot of late war German and Commonwealth, less Russian. I'm Canadian so that was pretty simple. My platoon leader would be a young lieutenant newly arrived in Normandy. I was pretty sure that Mark Zuelkhe's book Holding Juno could flesh that out. Next, to decide on the Lt's unit. To make it interesting, I chose the only French Canadian regiment in the
Can 3rd Division, La Regiment de la Chaudiere. The Chauds were a crack prewar militia regiment from the Beauce, a rural region north of Quebec City, the only Canadian Frnacophone unit in the Normandy campaign and often overlooked next to the fabled VanDoos. Being in the Canadian Forces myself, I have lots of Franco names to draw on. Thus, Lt. Denis Audet was born.

Proceedng to the character generator in Part 1 of PF, I find that Audet's Personality is "Egotistical", which can be a disadvantage as the campaign continues since that makes him unlikable to other Non Player Characters (such as his company or regimental commander) who can influence his career. Making things worse, his Motivation is "Position". Since the Chauds were a Francophone unit, I thought I'd check to see if he knew English, making it a "likely" outcome on PF's "All Knowing" events table since Audet has been part of an Anglophone brigade and division for several years now. Surprisingly, the die roll said no, he's not fluent in English. Fortunately he rolled well as a soldier, a Level 3 Big Man in Too Fat Lardie terms. Finally, there was nothing remarkable about his family of origin back home.

I didn't warm to the idea of having this guy as my first character in PF, but after thinking about it, a personality came together. Audet is a handsome young man with some natural soldiering and athletic ability, the son of a modest small town business owner back home. Since he's from rural Quebec he never learned English and he's sensitive about the fact that languages don't come to him easily. His skill and aggressiveness on the regiment's hockey team helped him get a platoon command. He is fearless on the ice and doesn't shy away from hard hits, so he's brave enough. Audent has done well in the training years in England, though his vain and ambitious personality have won him few friends. No matter. He wants to do well in the war, earn some medals and promitions, go home to Beauce a hero, get ahead in business and maybe go into politics. Audet loves to go to American movies, thinking he looks like Clark Gable and wears his hair accordingly, even if he can't really follow the dialogue. Going to Normandy for the Invasion, Audet will command No 18 rifle platoon in D Coy of the Chauds.





Audet thinks he looks at least as handsome as this guy.















Now for the supporting cast in 18 Platoon. His platoon warrant officer is Jean Beaulieu, whose personality is Glum and his motivation is Hedonistic. He is a Level 2 Big Man. Those traits led me to imagine Beaulieu as an old soldier, a WW1 veteran who stayed in the militia and never expected to get called up into another war, hence his glum disposition. As for the hedonism, he likes a soldier's comforts as obtained and traded through his cronies in the Warrants and Sergeants mess. Beaulieu recognizes Audet's ambition and wants no part of it. He won't let himself or his boys get killed for this guy to get ahead.

Now for the three section leaders.

1 Section: Cpl. Francois Yergeau is Optimistic and his motivation is Engineering. He is a natural mechanic from keeping his father's tractor and baler running on the farm. He can speak enough English to get by. Level 1 Big Man.

2 Section: Sgt. Pierre Cote is Scholarly and his motivation is Position. He can speak English well - he learned it at seminary but when the the war came he left his studies to enlist. Now that he's seen the world, he would like to get ahead in it as something other than a priest. Level 2 Big Man.

3 Section: Sgt. Louis Matthieu also is Egotistical and his motivation is Wealth. He and Beaulieu are tight since he's a natural scrounger and trader and manages to get a lot of creature comforts for Beaulieu and his cronies. Francophone only. Is sure that there's a way to get rich out of the war. Level 2 Big Man.

So there's our cast of characters for a Platoon Forward campaign. A mixed bunch to be sure, but there's some human interest there. suddenly they're not just anonymous toy soldiers. Audet and his men are headed for Normandy and will be landing in the second echelon on D-Day. We'll see how they manage.

Good Fences Make Good Cover

(With apologies to Robert Frost)

Stone fences are a useful bit of tabletop terrain. They are commonplace in many rural and agricultural areas (NW Europe, eastern US)and they make good cover for infantry. I recently finished these terrain projects, stone fences by two different manufacturers.

First is a resin stone fence by UK manufacturer Hovels, ordered through a US distributor, Michigan Toy Soldier. I had a good experience with their customer service, and would recommend them to others had I not discovered, while googling their link, that the owner of MTS was recently sent to jail for defrauding the Amex card of Peter Jackson, LOTR film director and toy soldier fan. No Mad Padre blessing for Michigan Toy Soldier!

I bought four straight sections (about 8" each) and four corner sections for ACW gaming, and they look like this, though I can't imagine why a farmer would want a totally enclosed field! Maybe a gate or something is in order.



Painted them gray, failure of imagination. At first I did some in brown with drybrushed ochre and yellows, since not all rocks are created gray, but it didn't look right.

To show scale, here's the fance with some old RAFM 25mm figures behind them.



Also, last year while I was visiting The Dragoon, a great toy soldier store near Barrie, Ontario, I picked up a set of Italieri 1/72nd scale plastic stone walls, which gives you a lot of modular pieces, both intact and ruined. As with other Italieri terrain kits, the plastic is sturdy and the detail is pretty good. I opted to make two sets, one an intact fence for a paddock or gate, which I could drop on the table, and the other a semi-ruined fence, for which I created a permanent base with a piece of MDF board.

For some reason, the next three pictures are huge. Sorry bout that.



To give you a sense of scale, here's the finished terrain piece with some 20mm Jerries.



And the two pieces with a very tasty Britannia miniatures PzKwIV which is primed and waiting its turn in the paint shop.



I'm hoping to get these terrain models into a battle and an AAR here soon.

Lard Evangelism: An I Ain't Been Shot Mum First Game

After just over a year's hiatus, madpadrewargames is back. Well, maybe. No promises. But a post now seems like a step in the right direction.

Last night I had three officer colleagues from CFB Suffield over for a wargames night. They were James, a gunner captain who works for our Range Control section, Matt, an armour captain who works in our G3 planning cell, and Kevin, a construction engineering captain from our G4 group. Not a lot of gaming experience - Matt, the youngest, had played some Warhammer 40K and Squad Leader, the others some board anr role playing gaming over the years, but that was it. All are Afghanistan veterans, who have all heard shots fired in anger, so I was curious to see their reactions. After some of my wife's delicious chili and cornbread, a tasty bottle of Chilean red plonk, and some decent BC Tree Beer, we headed downstairs to the wargames table.


The game I wanted to introduce them to was I Ain't Been Shot Mum which I've mentioned here before. This flagship game from UK publisher Too Fat Lardies, sets a benchmark for simulating leadership, friction and the fog of war. The scenario I chose was a LArd-written one, "Over the Hill" - you can find the player briefings for this scenario here on the UK Durham Wargames Club website. A Commonwealth infantry company with a troop of supporting armour is tasked with clearing a low ridgeline defended by elements of the SS Hitler Jugend Division during the Normandy campaign of 1944. It's a challenging table to reproduce on the tabletop because it calls for hedgerows everywhere.

It was also a challenging table to reproduce photographically as well, since the only camera I had was my iphone and it wasn't really suitable. There are only a few naff photos in this AAR

Due to figure constraints, I could only represent two of the three British infantry platoons (I could put two platoons on the table thanks to the commission I gave my friend James Manto, whose work I am quite happy with),



Battlefront late war Commonwealth infantry painted by James Manto.

so I reduced each of the two SS defending platoons by a full section each. James took the defenders - I think the gunner in him liked the fact that his assets included the FOO with a supporting battery of 105s. James choose to spread his two understrength platoons in a wide arc across the middle of the table. The advantage of this deployment was that he would use his half sections as tank killers, counting on their Panzerfausts to kill the Allied armour on the road. His plan was to pull the sections back and consolidate them back into platoons once they made contact. The downside, as I warned him, was that his isolated half sections would lack the firepower to go toe to toe with enemy infantry, which indeed would be their downfall.

Matt and Kevin put their two rifle platoons on either side of the road and rushed the armour foward ahead of them, with the support platoon mounted in Carriers on the road behind them. They plotted their three prep fire barrages, or stonks, and I rolled the results secretly. Here's a nice example of the fog of war feature of the game when an umpire is present. The Allied players never learned the result of their bombardment until after the game, so they were whinging about how they didn't hit anything. James didn't learn the results either at first. Since his OP was near the AT gun position, it was two turns before he learned from a survivor that the Pak75, his ace in the hole against Allied armour, was gone, and he never learned that one of his platoons had lost a half section from the bombardment until it was engaged.


After the preliminary bombardment, no sooner did they come enter from the table edge they were in contact. James was very lucky with his Panzerfausts, He killed the lead tank, a Sherman Firefly, immobilised a second Sherman with track damage, and rolled an incredible 12 on two dice to fire a shot between two Bren Carriers into the Company Commander's Carrier. I decided this was an automatic kill on Niner Actual, and the two platoon commanders would have to step up and take the battle forward.

Coaxial fire from the surviving Shermans and fire from the Bren Carriers raked the hedgerows and got some lucky hits on the Panzergrenadier half sections. James discovered that subsequent shots from his half sections, once they were under fire, even unaimed suppresive fire, were not as likely to succeed as he hoped. As his isolated half sections took casualties, they also could not withdraw as quickly as he hoped, and were easy prey for the two Canadian rifle platoons as they pushed forward.

The first German fire mission from the 105s arrived at a preplotted point on the road, catching the Support Platoon in its carriers. A 2" mortar team and its Carrier were destroyed, and another Carrier had its intrinsic Bren gun destroyed. From this point on, Matt and Kevin would groan each time James' FOO card was drawn, but James also discovered that due to the randomness of the card system and the uncertain end of each turn thanks to the Tea Break card, the artillery card was not drawn as often as he liked and thus his artillery was not as deadly as he hoped.

The two Canadian platoons now pushed forward, No 1 moving to the left of Ferme Valee, the terrain feature in the centre table, with No 2 moving to its right. 1 Platoon was bumped by the second SS platoon, and took some casualties, but the scattered German half sections did not do much damage and were easily brushed aside. No 2 platoon began taking fire from two German MMGs situated behind Ferme Valee, which elected to fire while the Canadians were still behind a hedgerow. The protection doubtless saved 2 Platoon from destruction in the open, but as it was one one section was pinned and took so many wounds (in IABSM wounds really reflect loss of cohesion). Matt and Kevin brought up a Vickers team from the support platoon, which along with its Bren Carrier started duelling with the German MMGs. Matt and Kevin were shocked by the deadly effect of the German MMG bonus fire, but decided to leave the one section pinned behind its hedge to absorb fire and moved their two unengaged sections of No 2 Pl to seize Ferme Valee and take the MMGs from another angle.

THe allied armour was not proving too helpful. Matt and Kevin kept missing the "6" on 1d6 to get their immobilized Sherman back in the fight. The second Sherman suffered some engine damage when caught within the template of James' second 105 fire mission, but gamely continued. It's coax fire proved murderous, killing Panzergrenadiers each time he fired. That coax gunner was easily the Allied star of the game.



Last mobile Sherman supporting No 1 Platoon as it pushes towards the ridge.

Towards midnight we called it a night. Because we never gave the British a set number of turns to achieve their objective, the battle would have likely gone their way. Here are the final British dispositons:



No 1 Platoon and supporting Sherman on the left, taking the turn in the road leading to the ridge. They have brushed aside the German platoon facing them. In the centre, two sections of No 2 Platoon prepare to assault Ferme Valee while its third section on the right duels with the two German MMGs. James was trying to call a 105 fire mission down on Ferme Valee, and that might have messed up No 2 Platoon. However, No 1 was mostly intact, had good leadership from its Big Man, and was poised to rush up the road. Assuming its engine kept working, the supporting tank would have leant weight to 1 Platoon, assuming it did not fall prey to the Panzershcreck team, but that was really the last unit James had available to contest the ridge. His two understrength platoons had been shredded and scattered, and his plan to have them engage, delay, and then fall back on the objective had not worked. In retrospect, Matt and Kevin wished they had mounted one of their two rifle platoons and tried to rush it forward, since they felt the support platoon was not of great help to them and tied up their transport capability.

Final verdict, likely Allied victory. All players seemed to enjoy themselves. James fought a good delaying battle, given his lack of familiarity with the rules. Kevin and Matt were punished at first for leading with the armour, but they handled the infantry well, keeping their platoons together to use one section for a firebase and then another for close assault. All three liked the rules, enjoyed the elements of uncertainty, and felt it was more real than an IGO UGO format. I suspect they will be back for more and one even expressed an interest in getting his own rules set.

Rabbits in His Basement

No rabbits in my basement, but that's the name of a blog launched by a friend. For several years James has been amusing his friends with wise and funny takes on life in his emailed "Adventures of Rubberman". His blog promises more of the same as well as shots of his painted miniature wargame figures (he does some nice work), like these finely painted Victorian era Scots infantry:



James has his own painting service which I've used and happily recommend. He is also the mastermind behind Hotlead, SW Ontario's best miniature wargames convention, which runs every year at the end of March.


Good work, James, keep the posts coming.