In the previous installment of this series we talked about some of the influences that went into the framing of the Solitaire TacOps campaign system. This connects operational planning with tactical decision making. The impacts at both scales directly affect the player’s ability to win or lose the campaign. This article will use an actual play session to show how this plays out on a single map of the campaign.

Historically the first urban map was reached on the evening of December 20, 1943, 14 days into the campaign. Solitaire TacOps as a system is less about recreating that history, and more about giving players the historical conditions to make their own decisions. As such, in the open campaign a player can arrive at the edge of Ortona earlier or later depending upon their performance through the regional maps. Those prior decisions and the results from them will determine which formation will be the first to arrive, which itself can have a huge impact on the outcome.

As happened historically, I arrive at the urban section of the campaign with elements of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, which suffered many casualties during the regional battles at San Leonardo and The Gully. The two companies that make it to the edge of town are all the regiment has at the ready. It would take almost half a day to bring up another formation, and potentially come at the cost of weakening another position. More importantly, it would give the Germans more time to reinforce their defenses, so the Loyal Eddies have to commit their companies to the planned morning assault. That commitment puts the integrity of their whole regiment on the line.

The support available to the Loyal Edmonton units is limited. The armor units are still making their way to town, as is the division’s anti-tank regiment. They have some mortars and machine guns, and there has been a sniper team traveling with them for a few days now. They manage to coordinate some division artillery support, but it will require an observer to radio in a target from the field. It is under these circumstances that the Loyal Eddies go into action.

Playing any map begins with making a plan for how you will get to your objective. Here I decide that B company will enter the map first. This allows D company to arrive as a follow-up with a better idea of the situation. If B is able to draw the Germans’ attention, D may be able to exploit an exposed weak point.

Unfortunately B draws a little too much attention from the sniper two blocks away. In this part of town there are fewer buildings, so the German sniper is able to get clear shots at Eddies. This slows the assault and alerts the nearby German infantry, who delay the Canadians just long enough for the smoke screen used on the German machine guns to dissipate – suddenly the Canadians are under heavy gunfire from multiple directions. It is not a good start, as the Canadians have lost the element of surprise and taken early casualties.

I make two important decisions to turn the situation around. The first is probably one of the most important lessons to learn – taking casualties makes you less effective. To mitigate that, sometimes you have to use activations to move your casualties to the rear. In this situation almost all of the stacks in B company were carrying casualties, reducing their combat effectiveness and ability to move. By pulling the wounded back to cover, the stacks are able to engage more effectively.

The German defense is able to concentrate fire on the Eddies which leads to them suffering heavy casualties in the early turns of this engagement. Twice they have to use their activations to pull back casualties before they are finally able to take the initiative and move their machine guns forward to cover where they can lay down the firepower needed to challenge the German defenders.

The second important decision was to radio for D company to enter the map. Fortunately D company was laying in wait with the observer that has the radio to call in an artillery strike. Upon hearing how many wounded B company has suffered from the sniper down the block, they immediately move to spot it. All of these radio calls have ranges of outcomes, including  outright denial and delays. In this case the guns have been prepared to target somewhere in the area and were just waiting to hear the precise spot. There will be a few minutes of a delay, but the barrage is on the way.

With this acknowledged, D company wants to move up as close as they can so that they are in position to assault as soon as the barrage lifts. There isn’t a lot of time, so they maneuver rather quickly into place trying to clear the area as they move so as not to leave themselves exposed with Germans behind their line. In front of them the barrage destroys the building with the sniper unit, but it is a lot of firepower to use for just a single target.

In the next article we will see how well the Eddies are able to exploit this opportunity, with the German machine gunners on the run, and the artillery barrage possibly taking out the German sniper.

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