Game 4 - Pont de Mouette - The Assault Commences

Whilst the Royal Marine Commandos start to scale the cliffs, the first unit of Paratroops is dropped from above, albeit a turn or two late. The first such 'stick' is grouped bang on target with the exception of the weapons canister which lands in a mined area covered in barbed wire. As can be seen below a Roll of 1 meant that both the canister and the unfortunate Para who had been volunteered to pluck it from the wire were removed from play.

More Commandos disembark from the landing craft. Further and repeated rolls of 1 indicated that the supposedly agile Commandos had fallen whilst scaling the cliffs. Jo's defenders were simultaneously cutting the ropes from the grapples at the top of the cliff adding to the injury count. Surviving soldiers are evacuated to the LCA.

More units of Paratroops land and head towards the barracks complex (foreground).
In the distance the British 3" mortars are now firing smoke to try to disrupt the activities of the 'Heer' troops in the bunker.

I would point out that Communications between the Para Commander (Craig) and myself had to be routed through the Umpire (Ted) using a notebook, as the Mk 38  Radio Sets we were using for communications within the game were deemed unreliable. A plethora of 1's (despite changing colours of D6 on several occasions)  meant that the only radio transmissions that were decipherable amounted to the ever helpful ' Climb the B***** cliff Nige ! and the response of  ' I can't, I keep falling off !'

After a second support canister was lost to a minefield a Para unit emerged at the far end of the Bunker and put paid to the mortar unit that had set up in the weapons pit. Finally Commandos started to reach the summit of the Cliff and localised superiority forced the few remaining German troops back into the bunker.

The terrain looks as awesome close up as it does from a distance.

The Paras started to take casualties from the MG nests in the bunker and sought cover in the dead ground at the bottom of the wall.

As dawn breaks the Paras are on top of the barracks complex and Commando and Paratroops have cleared the area around the bunker. In the distance the gliderbourne support troops have finally made it to the table with their Maquis guides.

The next game is planned for a week tomorrow. This was our first outing using Bolt Action rules and I think we were all happy with them. The predictability of IgoUgo has been broken and there is a clear advantage in keeping units in game, if only to maximise the order dice you have available.