The skirmish was a US platoon moving forward to capture a french farmhouse.
The US had 3 8 man squad(1 Squad Leader, 1 Assistant, 1 BAR and 5 rifle), with a Lt. and Sgt aid. All were regular.
The Germans were defending with 2 6 man squads. Each with an MG34 and loader, 1 NCO with SMG and 3 riflemen. They were elite.
I ran the U.S., and have to say that luck was on my side this day.
I could deploy my troops on either one of the two sides away from the barn. I decided to deploy everyone on the same side. I send 2 squads up the middle, and one on the right flank with the platoon command. The Germans decided not to deploy inside of the barn, but instead to put one squad in the hedge row in front, and one on their far right defending against that board. They deployed in ambush.
1st Turn.
U.S. forces move to the first set of hedge rows and stop. They make spotting rolls but don't see any movement.
2nd Turn.
(Since the Germans were all on ambush, I just activated one squad at a time without drawing cards)
U.S. 1st squad splits. The ASL along with BAR and loader stay behind to give cover. They spot, but don't see anything. The rest of squad uses one action to cross hedge, and second to move forward.
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| 1st squad moves out |
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| 2nd Squad crosses the hedge |
US 3rd squad does the same as 1st Squad.
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| Germans open up! |
The US second squad who were on ambush see the incoming fire, and open up. A hail of rifle bullets and BAR rounds fly at the hedge miraculously scoring a hit. The loader for the German MG is heavily wounded and out of action.
3rd Turn
The U.S. first squad activates. The BAR team opens fire and scores 1 KIA and 1 Light Wound. The KIA is on the MG gunner, and the Lt. Wound is on a rifleman. The German MG team is out of action already! Things not looking good for Germans. The rest of the squad rush across the field.
U.S. 2nd squad activates. The BAR team fires but does no effect. The infantry team moves out across the field.
U.S. 3rd squad activates, and continues across the field. The platoon leader joins them.
German 2nd squad activates, and judging by the sound of gunfire to their left, realizes that they are in a bad position. They come off of ambush and move to the hedge row facing the road.
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| Back to the barn! |
German 1st squad finally activates. For their first action they fire on the advancing Americans, and they all miss! They then fall back towards the barn.
4th Turn
U.S. 3rd squad activates and moves forward to the hedge in front of them. They make a spotting roll but see nothing.
GE. 1st squad activates and falls back into barn.
U.S. 1st squad activates and moves to the hedge. The BAR team moves to join.
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| U.S. Closing in! |
GE 2nd squad activates and reaches their new hiding place. They spot, but see nothing.
5th Turn.
German 2nd squad activates first. They spot and see 2nd squad advancing, and so the 3 rifle men open up fire, they wound 1 U.S. troop who then panics and runs screaming (1st U.S. casualty!).
U.S. squad 1 activates and spends all actions firing (BAR team uses one action to move into position before firing). The hail of fire is too much, and one of the German soldiers who was previously wounded takes another wound and goes down.
GE 1 activates and fires at the U.S. troops in the hedge, but have no effect.
U.S. 3rd Squad activates and moves to the hedge. The GE MG team spots them and activates it's ambush. They wound one soldier who breaks and runs.
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| U.S. casualties on left flank. |
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| Both U.S. wounded can be seen. |
U.S. Squad 2 activates first. The broken soldier continues to flee despite everyone's effort to stop him. Everyone else moves forward. The rifle team up front reaches the hedge and fires at the German rifles who had fired at them, but miss.
GE squad 1 and commander activate. They fire, but have no effect. The one rifle and 2 SMGs just won't penetrate the hedge rows!
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| Rushing the barn! |
U.S squad 1 decides to rush the building. The BAR plus ASL and loader give covering fire, but has no effect. The assault team crosses hedge and moves towards the building.
GE squad 2 activates. The MG team continues to unload. They force 2 morale checks but both are passed. The rifle men fire at U.S. squad 2 but miss.
US squad 3 opens up on the German MG. The first action the BAR team moves to the hedge while rifles fire to no effect. The second action, the hail of fire strikes the loader for the MG team heavily wounding him and taking him out of action.
7th Turn
GE 2nd squad activates 1st. The MG team (or man) fires on the U.S. 3rd squad. The U.S. squad leader was exposed as he tried to give his men orders, and is cut down. But then, the MG jams! The riflemen fire at U.S. 2nd squad, but no effect.
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| German 2nd squad faltering. |
GE 1st squad activates. The commander joins them. 2 SMGs and one rifle pour lead on the advancing assault squad. 1 man is filled with holes from multiple hits. Another falls before him, but it is not enough!
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| Assaulting the barn. |
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| Time to go home! |
U.S 2nd squad activates. They open fire at the German 2nd squad riflemen. Both of the 2 riflemen are cut down. The German gunner and squad leader fail their morale check, and decide that there are better places to be.
Aftermath.
This game was a lot more one sided than I would have expected. The Germans had bad dice rolls, and jams at the worst possible times.
The US had 2 men wounded who broke and ran for cover. They had 4 other men killed, including a squad leader.
The Germans had much worse casualties, including the two POWs
