Below you will find the second in a series of designer’s notes articles from The Last Hundred Yards series designer Mike Denson. In this segment he will discuss initiative and the activation cycle in LHY. You can also find this article on his ConsimWorld Community page. Enjoy! -Rachel
Below you will find the first in a series of designer’s notes articles from The Last Hundred Yards series designer Mike Denson. In this segment he will introduce the article series and discuss the time lapse system in LHY. You can also find this article on his ConsimWorld Community page. Enjoy! -Rachel
September 1944 – Groesbeek Heights, Holland. By the second day of Market Garden, the German High Command was desperately calling for counterattacks by any forces available. Near the small town of Beek, scattered units from the 82nd Airborne had captured a wooded hill that offered excellent observation and fire positions over the surrounding countryside. On the morning of the 20th, Kampfgruppe Becker, hastily organized from multiple ad hoc units, began its assault against Hill 759. The crucial struggle for Devil’s Hill was just beginning.
Able Company, 504 PIR
0530 18 September, 1944
Near Neerbosch, on the Maas-Waal Canal
Holland is flat, no two ways about it. On Sicily it was the heat. In Italy, it was the mud. But here in Holland, it is the complete lack of cover. Pool-table flat, pancake flat, you get the picture. Scouting the position before we jumped off, Murph (1st Lt. Murphy, 1st Platoon leader) and I could only spot one low rise to provide any defilade on our approach march.
The plan was simple — stupid simple — I guess. 3rd Platoon and our MG team, under 2LT Smith would take up positions on top of the “hill” to our left, acting as base of fire. 2LT Cherry, with 2nd Platoon, would be our backup, in the very likely event that the whole plan “went south.” And my buddy Murph drew the short straw, as usual. He would take 1st Platoon straight down the road toward Bridge 10.
The introduction of airborne units to the LHY series raised an interesting question: What was important to model Airborne units during WWII? Essentially, the challenge was how to model the difference between these elite units and the regular units depicted in LHY. We asked some military experts and they cited that an important distinction is that the elite unit selection process identifies people with a high appetite for risk and a penchant for action. That makes them more likely to get up and do something (for example: have initiative, recover under stress, provide the flanking effort, provide squad and platoon leadership, etc.). Elite unit training is therefore more demanding of such people and intentionally designed to produce esprit de corps and to reinforce their risk-tolerance and penchant for action.
