Welcome back to Firefight Fridays. Last week, in the twelfth article, I talked about the sixth scenario, “Bloody Gulch”. This involved a rules dump on vehicles. Now that we have covered all of that, virtually all the game’s core rules have been covered. We can instead start jumping straight into the scenarios. This week we are talking about “To the Last Man, to the Last Cartridge”, our Cherbourg scenario.

A Hopeless Defense

As American forces moved up from the base of the Cotentin Peninsula, they completely isolated the German occupied port city of Cherbourg. German Lieutenant General Karl-Wilhem von Schlieben was responsible for the Cherbourg garrison and had been told by Hitler to hold “to the last man, to the last cartridge”. The German forces primarily made their stand at Fort du Roule, located just south of the city proper. A multi-day combined assault from naval assets and the American 4^th, 9^th, and 79^th Infantry Divisions finally took the fort and left the Germans waging a desperate urban battle utilizing harbor fortifications in the city. The last of German garrison surrendered on July 1^st.

A Game of Cups

Our scenario focuses on the 4^th Infantry Division moving into Cherbourg from the southeast after the fall of Fort du Roule. I had mentioned before that this is one of my favorite scenarios, and that has a lot to do with its objectives. In Cherbourg, the Germans are significantly outmatched and are tasked with holding 3 bunker positions within the city until the timer runs out. What is so different with this scenario is that the bunkers’ positions are secret and randomly determined. At the start of the scenario, a sub terrain deck is constructed using the normal terrain deck and the three bunkers, which is then dealt to specific columns of the battle grid. As a result, the Americans have no idea where their targets are, and while the German’s do, they didn’t pick their positions. This creates a lot of head games around the fog of war in this scenario. Just because the Germans placed all their units in one area of the map does not necessarily mean that is where all, or even any of the bunkers are located. The Americans win if at the end of any turn, all 3 bunkers are revealed and are unoccupied by German units.

Nowhere to Run

As with a lot of defender scenarios, setup is crucial to the German’s success here. Your strategy will depend heavily on where the bunkers ended up being placed during the battle grid setup. If they are all clumped together, your job will be easier (at least during setup). If they are spread out, you will have a number of decisions to make. Firstly, is one of the bunkers in such a poor position that is worth letting it go? Remember, the American has no idea where they are, so having an undefended bunker in a poor position will often take longer for the American player to find and secure than if you gave away its position by committing to it. Concentrate on the 2 (3 if you’re lucky) bunkers that will be the easiest to defend. Further, do not stack your units all on and around the bunkers. Look at the most likely paths the Americans will take to them and place your units to make them pay for each zone they advance.

Once play actually starts, your job will be more straight forward. Delay, delay, delay. If you see the chance to eliminate a unit you should certainly take it, but it is much easier to just keep pinning units and make the American player waste dice to rally them. The biggest concern you should have is the American artillery. Do not over stack your units (except in the bunkers) and take every opportunity you have to pin the American leaders, thus limiting their chances to call in artillery.

No Stone Unturned

In this scenario you as the American player are on the business end of the aforementioned head games. You have access to much more resources than the German player and you shouldn’t be afraid to use them. While it will be tempting to head directly to the zones where there are the most German concealment counters, take a more methodical wide front approach. This serves two functions. For one thing you will be more likely to find underdefended bunkers. In the likely event you have taken out the key German assets but realize a bunker is still missing, you will be in a better position to quickly search it out. The other reason is that cracking bunkers is hard, and requires excellent positioning to go in for the assault. By spreading out you will be more likely to find the best terrain for your approaches and be able to hit the bunkers from at least 2 sides.

Your greatest assets will be your artillery and your Sherman tank accompanying your units. They are both your aces in the hole for the same reason, destructible terrain. Most the terrain in this scenario has at least a good TEM for the defender. If you have to clear each building you encounter that contains enemy it will be hard for you to have enough time to find the bunkers. The threat of destroying key structures also keeps the German player from stacking in them too much. Don’t be too aggressive with either your leader or your armor. Hold back until you find open sight lines to the most dangerous enemy positions and then take them out.

Stop and Go

Wow, these go buy much quicker without a rules write up. We are officially in the second half of the scenarios that will be in the box, so from here on out they will be more complex tactically and contain a lot of combined arms. Next week we are moving on to St. Lo for a goliath-sized scenario, “Hedgerow Highway”. Time for a serious armor scenario! See you then.

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