Welcome back to Firefight Fridays. Last week, in the thirteenth article, I talked about the seventh scenario, “To the Last Man, to the Last Cartridge”. This was Firefight Tactical’s Cherbourg scenario and got into some claustrophobic urban fighting. This week we are getting into some claustrophobic rural fighting with our St. Lo scenario, “Hedgerow Highway.” Despite what I said last week, we do have to cover some new rules this week. Let’s start by talking about elevation!
It’s Over, I Have the High Ground
Elevation provides a fun wrinkle to terrain in Firefight Tactical. Elevation is a unique concept because it is not a terrain type itself, but rather it modifies terrain cards that are on it. During setup certain zones will be listed as being at either elevation level 1 or 2. These are represented by separate cards which are dealt into the battle grid. The starting terrain or FoW is then dealt on top of those cards, a bit askew so you can see the elevation icon beneath them. Effectively all terrain in Firefight Tactical is at elevation level 0 (no card underneath), 1, or 2.
Elevation differences provide no modifiers to rolls, however they have a large impact on LoS and how to treat intervening terrain cards. First, if two zone are at the same elevation level, and LoS passes through a zone at a higher level between them, LoS is blocked. Next, if two zones are at different elevation levels, but there is no zone between them that is at the same elevation level or higher than the higher elevation zone, they do have LoS to each other. In such circumstances, all terrain that is between the two zones is treated as open terrain for the purpose of Terrain Effects Modifiers when making a check. Finally, when moving from lower elevation terrain to higher elevation terrain, the higher elevation terrain is always considered to be Stop terrain.
Highway to Hell
The Americans desperately needed to capture the city of St. Lo so that they could break out of hedgerow country and employ their armor and mechanized infantry to liberate broader swathes of France and put the Germans on the retreat. Unfortunately, the hilly, bocage heavy terrain around St. Lo made the effort impossibly difficult, as did the German Fallschirmjäger who had been tasked with its defense. On July 15th, the 30th Infantry Division of the XIX Corps of the American First Army enacted a plan to seize a crucial crossroads on the Periers to St. Lo highway. This was planned as a narrow assault through a valley lined by ridges, due to concerns that movement on the ridges would be more easily spotted. Three Infantry Regiments formed the spearhead of the attack, backed up by the 743rd Tank Battalion. Despite best laid plans, they encountered hard resistance from the 14th Fallschirmjäger Regiment. They were further backed up by the 902nd Panzer Grenadier Regiment which was in the process of being evacuated after heavy fighting days prior, but was still present in the area.
Line of Scrimmage
Hedgerow Highway is a slugfest. The objective here is to cause enough casualties to force the enemy to withdraw. Once again, the American’s have superior assets while the German’s have superior placement. The big wrinkle here is that the map is bordered by higher elevation positions. With good defensive terrain, these zones will be the focus of a lot of hard fighting. That being said, Hedgerow Highway is a big 35 terrain card battle grid, so both players will have a lot of room to attempt to outmaneuver each other. The map is naturally divided into 4 sections by the presence of hedgerows, that will be fought over in sequence.
Break Out
The American’s have the unique problem in this scenario of having the superior firepower, but not having the ground to use it optimally. The Germans are so well dug in that they will make you pay to even get your units onto the map. The key to victory here is to get your best assets into whatever positions you can as quickly as possible and win the fight for the first hedgerow. Once this is done, use your superior mobility granted by your armor to speed to the next one and maintain the pressure before the German player can get into a new position. If you can push the German player to their edge of the map, they stop having terrain to retreat into and will start taking heavy losses. Until then though you are far more vulnerable than they are. Steady pressure will be better here than taking a lot of risks that ruin you in the long run.
In the Bush
The German’s have a similar challenge defensively in Hedgerow Highway to what they had in last week’s scenario. The German player’s biggest advantages here are the hedgerows as defensive terrain and Fog of War. Much like last week’s hunt for the bunkers, this week the American’s are having to stumble through the hedgerows looking for the meat of your forces. Make sure your position is not obvious. It is important to keep the American player jumping at shadows. It will make them advance much more cautiously, which is to your benefit. The more terrain you have behind you, the more options you have, and the less terrain that is behind them the more mortal they are. Set up as many ambushes as you can, and don’t forget the high ground. A few well-placed units in an unexpected position in the high ground can cause big problems for the American units moving through the valley.
Artillery Takes Center Stage
That is it for this week. Hedgerow Highway is a good “complete” scenario that has all the bells and whistles in it. Next week we will be moving on to “To Hill with You”, the Mortain scenario. For the first time in a while we will see the Americans on defense, horrifically outnumbered by German infantry and armor, but with incredible artillery support. See you then!
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Author: Sam London
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