Tuesday 16 July 2019

Heroes on the Table

A couple of games of Heroes of Normandie, only the second time it has been played at the club.

I pre-selected two 200 point forces of Americans and Germans, and Dave M and Mark set about wandering the bocage.



Despite both being new to the system they picked up the rules quickly and I was surprised how quickly the first game ended given that 200pts is a decent size for a game.

The Germans were given a more 'veteran' feel; more mobile, plenty of MG's, tanks busters and a sniper. The Americans had better armour (if you could describe an M8 Greyhound as armour), a mortar for indirect fire, and more troops, plus Clint as a Hero.

Mortar fire was decisive in the first game, with three consecutive rounds landing without scatter. Mark also learnt that light woods, while better than no cover, is no match for a hedge as he came out worse in a firefight. So a decisive victory for the Americans.

Dave M kept forgetting to activate Clint, with his autonomous hero action. Mark forgot to use his sniper as well and didn't use his 'veteran' rerolls effectively.

The second game, with adjusted board layout, was much closer. The Germans used their transports to capture the Victory Point locations early in the game. The Americans caused more damage to the Germans and used their armour to take out the transports, the Germans just failing to take out the armour with a panzerfaust that scraped the paintwork. The Mortar was nowhere near as accurate this time.

On the final turn, I tried to encourage Dave M to do or die with Clint to capture the middle Victory Point location. He had the opportunity to soften the target up with suppressive fire from either his 50cal or vehicle MG but chose to fire for effect with no luck. So Clint heroicly defended his shrubbery instead.

The Germans clung on for victory, the additional location counteracting the points for lost troops.