O Group - 'Advance to Hill 192' Normandy scenario played

Game with Stephen today at mine using O Group and trying one of new Normandy scenarios 'Advance to Hill 192' set mid July 1944 in the American sector.

I picked this scenario as I wanted to give my Fallschirmjager an outing (not seen light of day for eons) and interested to see US troops in action.

Scenario has a worn FJR Bttn in defence with 2 FJR companies supported by usual mortars and artillery with an MG42 section a couple of PzShreks and a Stug III (in reserve), with an additional FJR platoon of 'Tank Hunters' and a not often seen Puppchen light gun. Germans could also avail of using 2 Predesignated Artillery Aim points (allows stonk on a terrain feature without having to have LOS)

Yanks have standard full Bttn of 3 companies with mortars and artillery supported by 2 x MMG sections a platoon of 2 x 60mm mortars and 2 Troops of M4 Shermans (in reserve arriving T3 & T6).

The advancing fire trait of the US infantry is pretty good (do not lose the -2 dice when firing on move at cost of reduced movement) and their 60mm on table mortars are decent extra support and combined with flexible reserves and another trait of having a Aircraft Spotter (allows one re-roll of a failed Artillery roll) they are a quite potent on attack.

The FJR count as PzGrenadiers (the Tank Hunter platoon as standard infantry but with a bonus in combat with AFVs) so usual extra hit on double 6 roll and re-roll of 1 miss if vs spotted target, has potential but subject to vagaries of dice whereas US moving fire is a constant.

Lots of decisions to be made regarding order usage and still not quite sure when is optimum point to deploy units onto Combat Patrols whether on attack or defence as once you are seen you soon draw lots of fire but you cannot do much with just patrols.

The shooting system is very slick and whilst pretty broad brush it suits this level of game.

We really enjoyed the game today and learnt/absorbed a good deal more of the O Group system and its nuances. And whilst we still feel O Group is a bit limited in its scope it certainly does work really well within those defined parameters ie 1 full Bttn plus support vs a reduced Bttn plus support.

I do however wish that the scenario maps showed exactly how many fields to include and their location rather than the standard 'the table should include several' as never sure of using too many or too few or just where they should be ?

Did not finish the game (too much waffle as ever) but FJR were getting worst of it with 1 Fubar and another on its way after several losses including the Stug with the US pretty much still intact (lots of shock but no actual losses).

Overview from FJR right at start (not many units on table but several Combat Patrols)

US Platoon occupies wood on their left

As another deploys of a Combat Patrol into farm

With 3rd Platoon of this Company taking some Shock from my mortars in a field

FJR MG42 opened up on them as well but did nothing before dying tout suite

FJR in ambush in trenches engage from orchard

Some more shock on US units (but FJR were taking actual casualties)

FJR Platoon on left reduced to 2 stands (lost 1 stand plus attached PzShk) and soon wiped out