The Ox has landed: Pegasus Bridge Coup de main

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As suggested by Paullus, I have used the "Quick Setup" button to randomise the British set-up.

Apart from a lone squad far in the south, scatter could have been far worse: the B** leader (Major Howard, I suppose) will have to make run south to join the attack, but in the meantime I can recon the two closest VPs, using the brush hexes as cover.

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British Turn #1 - End of Movement Segment.

No Germans spotted, in the advance segment the British units will advance in the brush (north) and in the empty trench (south).

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British Turn #1 - End of Advance Segment

A 37mm AT gun guards the north side, a D leader with 2 Conscript squads and a MMG is in a wood building on the south side. Both my stacks have some cover: the 37mm should not be too dangerous, but at 2 hexes even Conscripts can be dangerous (especially with a MMG).

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In the German turn #1, the air is filled with lead, but there are no casualties on either side.

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British turn 2 - End of Movement Segment.

The two HS in the trench fire the PIAT and the 2" mortar on the house, and fail to inflict any casualties

On the north side of the road, the C* leader and one of the squads are OOC, so the remaining squad assault moves adjacent to the 37mm AT gun, which fires but with no effect.

Major Howard charges the AT gun from the north: the gun does not fire (it has no remaining ROF) and the crew also decides not to fire.

The rest of the British forces move towards the bridge as quickly as possible.

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British Turn 2 - End of Advance Segment

The crew is killed by Advancing Fire, and the British advance in its trench and take the first VP hex [:D].

In their next fire segment - provided they survive the fire from the MMG stack - they can deliver no less than 22 FP with a 0 DRM on the conscripts and - hopefully - neutralise them.

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British Turn 3 - End of Movement Segment

In the German Turn 2 the Conscripts - proving they are just badly trained conscripts [:D] - do not fire on the British killer stack. They cause some trouble to the HS in the south side trench, killing a C leader and breaking a HS, but fire from Major Howard's stack breaks them all.

In the British turn 3, Major Howard and his stack run for the bridge, stopping before the east bank. Given the enemy deployment on the west bank, it is likely that there are Germans in both trenches and in the Café Gondrée as well. Moving in the VP hex beyond the bridge will give them an excellent -2 shot.

This stack has two options:
1) Assault Move in Turn 4, take a -1 DRM fire in the Movement Segment and fire in the Advancing Fire segment at half firepower.
2) Advance now in Turn 3, take a 0 DRM fire in the German Fire Segment and fire at full effect in the British Defensive Fire.

Of course, the above mentioned DRM do not take into account any possible Leadership DRM: according to Stephen Ambrose's book about Pegasus Bridge, the garrison commander was with his mistress at this time. On the other hand, even a D* leader could ruin my day.

I'll go for option B: the game is only 5 turns long, and if I survive, I won't have to spend turn 4 just to take one hex.

In the meantime, the rest of the British units surround the broken conscripts.

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British Turn 3 - End of Advance segment

[Huge sigh of relief] [;)]

There is only a single German stack in the Café Gondrée: a C leader and three Conscripts. Unfortunately, Major Howard's stack is their only possible target.

The Conscripts in the wooden house were eliminated (surrendered) in mass.

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German Turn 3 - End of Advance Segment

Thanks to a stroke of luck Rico will not fail to mention as long as I live [:D], the German fire has no effect at all.

The British return fire, conversely, breaks all the Conscripts as well as their leader.

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British Turn 4 - End of Movement Segment

The British spread on the east bank: they take both trenches (and discover a German stack that fires with no effect) and surround the broken conscripts.

Major Howard's stack gets ready to advance in the Café Gondrée and a C* leader with a HS waits until it can enter the north trench in the Advance Segment without taking the Residual fire.

On the West Bank, a couple Hs guards that approach against possible German attacks.

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British Turn 4 - End of Advance Segment

The Conscripts in the Café Gondrée have been eliminated through failure to rout, and the British now control all the VP hexes.

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German Turn 4. British Turn 5

In the German Turn 4 and in the British Turn 5 nothing happened, except an inconclusive firefight between the British in the north trench and the Germans on the hill.

German Turn 5 - End of Movement Segment

The German launch a last-minute counterattack (blue arrows), which is stopped by heavy British fire (red arrows).

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German Turn 5 - End of Advancing Fire Segment

The few surviving Germans fire on the British units in the north trench and manage to break some, but this is inconsequential, since they won't be able to advance in the VP hex.

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End of Game

The game ends with a British Major Victory.

The scenario is quick to play and very enjoyable (thanks Paullus [&o]).

Thanks to its variable deployment it should pose a different challenge every time it is played. If the British make a bad landing, they are going to lose 1 or 2 turns to approach the bridge, and this will force them to take higher risks than I had.

Even though the final loss ratio is 14:1 (and the single British HS loss occurred in an Administrative Segment), this is mostly due to sheer luck (the failure of the German Conscripts to inflict even a single casualty).

I am going to take the German side, which I think should be much tougher to play: I'm sorry, but there will be no AAR, since it takes a really long time to take all these screenshots and notes.

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From the German side... this is going to be the shortest AAR ever published.

German Set-up

The human player has very few forces: the 37mm AT gun, a D* leader and three Conscript squads, one of them armed with a LMG.

The 37 mm must set up on the West bank, in the trench north of the road.

I also set up the German squads on the west bank, with a single squad in the trench south of the road and the others in the wooden building near the bridge end. With hindsight, I should have placed them in the Café Gondrée, so as to have a free field of fire to open ground hexes.

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The game was short and bloody (for the Germans).

Most units were OOC for their whole - and brief - life in the game: I only managed to fire once with my squads (with no leader directing the fire and without the LMG, of course [:)]) and twice with the 37mm. The most severe casualties I managed to inflict were a couple of "Pinned" results. The 37mm died on turn 2 and at the end of turn 3 there were no unbroken German squads remaining (they were all eliminated due to failure to route in the British turn 4).

Despite this, I managed to get a Minor Victory [:D] because the AI units - even though there were no surviving German units in the game - did not advance to take the VP hexes on the East bank [&:] [&:] [&:].