Spearhead - Bloody Bocage scenario played with 6mm

Game with Stephen with Spearhead, which is one of favourite WW2 sets and my 6mm kit both of which are neglected seldom seeing any table action (2019 last game !) although I did use them quite a lot in pre-Blog times.

As I had actually painted up (first brush work since early 2020 !) some nice Adler British Infantry I have had for years it seemed proper order to blood them.

I decided to use one of the published scenarios from the western front book entitled 'Bloody Bocage' which pits British 3rd Infantry Division with support from 27th Armoured Brigade against 21st Panzer in June 1944 in Normandy.

Essentially this is two Infantry and one Tank Battalion a side with some support Platoons. Germans getting some Engineers, and 88mm Flak and a Pak40 whilst Brits get 3 'Jabos' (these done no real damage with their bomb loads) and 60lb Artillery battery. One German PzGr Battalion was also classed as Veteran.

This was an excellent game of which we managed to play the full 12 turns and........wait for it........drum roll........ a game I actually managed to win !! not often I get to type that.

Stephen did not realise until too late that the victory conditions were such that I could win just by having a presence at game end on his half of table, even though in last turn I had 2 Battalions break (1 Infantry and the Tank Battalion) due to failed morale tests but I had 2 infantry companies on my left firmly ensconced in a field system to carry the day. 

Game played really well and we only had a couple of small queries re terrain and support shooting and considering we have not used rules for awhile this was unsurprising and we resolved them fairly quickly.

The Germans were tough especially when in cover as British usually needed a 6 just to surpress whilst Germans were able to kill Brit infantry rather easily.

The Shermans suffered from PzFaust and longer ranged PzIV fire with only the Firefly Platoons able to inflict damage on enemy PzIVs.

Spearhead is a grand tactical, broad brush approach to WW2 but it just simply works with low rules overhead and yet plausible outcomes. Lacking tactical detail of similarly scaled (1 stand = 1 Platoon) rules such as Test Of Battle but it plays much quicker.

Hopefully we will use these again in near future especially the excellent Scenario Generation system from the NZ chaps. My 6mm terrain and kit needs a bit of a re-fresh in many cases.

Hard to believe I have been using these rules since 1995 publication when they were a quite a revolutionary set, crikey I feel old..........................

The battlefield from Allied entry edge (quite stylised rendition of Normandy)

Brits advance with 2 Inf Bttns on left. German veterans defending those bloody woods

Brit infantry starting to suffer (yellow = Suppression)

British Armoured Brigade initially in Reserve on right

Brits pushing forward.

British armour 'unleashed' as Panzer IV Bttn appears (from off-table reserve)

Things getting heavy for my infantry in centre but I have occupied key fields on my left

British gaming winning high water mark on left (This Bttn was my only one to survive)

Panzer Battalion advances

Their 75mm L48 able to outreach puny Brit 75mm (18" range to 12")

Brit armour swarming around wood

Their lack of infantry support meant the PzGrs were dangerous opponents in field system

Some of the jolly nice little Adler chaps I painted up and based.