Mission 6 – Attack on Schöneseiffen
2nd January 1945
The Fields of Fire Bulge campaign puts us back in the shoes of a company commander of the 9th Infantry. This time during the Battle of the Bulge. Ben Hull presents us with seven finely crafted missions (4 offensive and 3 defensive), and a handful of special rules to bring across just the right amount of flavor, all contained in a newly designed Mission Book which clearly presents the missions in a new format that is not afraid to take the space to explain things properly.
I’ll be playing through Mission 6, which tasks us with capturing the town of Schöneseiffen. It’s a straightforward 4×4 map, beginning in the forest, with some unknown territory between us and our objectives and a known road in one random column leading to the town.
There’s only one attempt allowed to capture the Primary and Secondary objectives, so there will be no slow-but-sure approach to this one.
Of note is that in the Bulge campaign, all the buildings on farm, village and church cards begin set up on the cards. And special rules note that in this mission, enemy Snipers and Spotters will occupy the upper story of the buildings if possible. Each building also has a cellar which provides good protection, but you can’t fire from inside it.
Our company, made up of three rifle platoons, one mortar section, two machine gun teams and three bazooka teams, is joined in this mission by Arty and Mortar FOs, two 30cal two-step heavy machine guns and a pair of Sherman tanks.
Rifle grenades, smoke grenades, an assortment of flares and colored smoke and the radios are distributed amongst the company. In addition three “Extra Bazookas” are available. I hand them out to 2/1 and 2/2 squads and 1st Sgt. Each comes with three rockets.
1st Sgt also picks up a spare BN TAC SCR300 radio, which will keep him in communication with CO HQ throughout the mission. The rest of the HQs will make do with the unreliable SCR536 radios to try to keep in communication.
The Arty FO is equipped with an SCR610 radio. This can be mounted on a Jeep which is available for the mission, but given the slow terrain, I’ve opted not to bring it along this time. Arty FO will just have to carry the radio on his back.
Because I’m playing this as a stand-alone mission, each platoon is given a random skill each. These are one-off abilities that can be used by any member of that platoon. I get Auto-Grenade, Auto-Spot and Good Training (+1 draw). During a full campaign we wouldn’t get these as we’d be expected to buy our skills with spare experience points.
Talking of the campaign, there are very few Replacements available between each mission, it’s likely that we’d be quite understrength by the time we reach this mission.
I’m playing this mission in Vassal which has handy experience markers on all the units, an automatic Clean Up function for end-of-turn maintenance and ammo trackers on all ammo tracking units. I’ll be playing with actual ammo markers, as that’s the way I like to play on the table.
Mission preparations are complete and it’s time to set off. Our basic plan is to have 1st Platoon approach the Primary Objective by moving up column two while 2nd Platoon approaches the Secondary Objective up column four. 3rd platoon will follow slightly behind in reserve; moving up column three and supporting 1st and 2nd platoons as necessary.
The terrain between us and the town is unknown, but with any luck there will be farms and shrub forests to take cover in as we approach.
Our Sherman tanks will drive up the road and smash up anything they find in the town. They will be supported by a small force led by 1st Sgt made up of the Veteran MG team 2/LMG on loan from 2nd platoon, and two steps of 3/1 squad (the remaining step stays with 1st platoon as an assault team). That along with a spare bazooka guy who looked like he wanted to volunteer should be enough.
It’s important to have infantry to support tanks. Lone tanks without support in the Bulge Campaign are vulnerable to ambushes (severe modifiers if attacked by AT Guns and rocket launchers without infantry support).
The enemy are Green and deploying Deliberate Defensive tactics.
This AAR will be illustrated with screenshots taken generally at the end of each turn after Clean Up. A couple may have been taken before Clean-Up VOF/PDF updates. It can be hard to find a good moment to take a picture of Fields of Fire in action…
Author: Andrew Stead
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