"Vacqueville '44" is a historical scenario from the 2014 TFL Summer Special, courtesy of the the man himself, Nick Skinner. I suspect it may have been sitting in his files a while, as it's clearly an IABSM 2 scenario, so a bit of tweaking was called for :D
Short summary: the US on their way inland from Omaha Beach have to deal with a German strongpoint in the hamlet of Vacqueville (just south of Vierville-sur-Mer). The Summer Special has a nice map, but I provided Carl and Tom (the Americans) with a reconnaissance photo from NCAP with some suitable annotations from which to form a plan.
AndyB took the Germans, who are very limited in terms of command, and rigged a fairly spirited defence, helped greatly by channeling the Americans around a minefield placed SE of the main farm complex to the SW of the farm track just before it pierces the hedge. He had a tripod MG42 and a PAK 38 firing from the south-westernmost buildings to discourage the Americans from end-around-ing in that direction, which pretty much meant the American attack was through the orchard to the NE of the farm.
One American platoon wound up pinned against the SW/NE hedge, while one came up the bocage-lined road and the other worked its way through the orchard from the SE. Their main problem proved to be a couple of infantry sections, one in the whitewashed house, one against the bocage. While the later was relatively swiftly reduced to zero actions, it did give the approaching platoon something of a bloody nose.
ACHTUNG! MINEN! (MINEFIELD FROM A BRILLIANT IDEA COURTESY OF JOHN BOND)
FARM BUILDINGS NEAR THE CAMERA ARE 4GROUND, THE FAR TWO ARE 3D PRINTED.
By the time that first German section had retreated in disorder, the one in the whitewashed cottage had started to give a very good account of itself, causing most of that approaching American platoon to be very keen to keep its head down.
About then the turn card finally put in its sixth appearance, and the telltale rumble of armour could be heard. Sadly, not German. To add insult to injury, the American FOO finally managed to get some sense out of the battery of 105s on the other end of his radio, and (fortunately fairly inaccurate) shelling began.
THE AMERICANS HAVE THE ORCHARD, BUT THE GERMANS IN THE WHITEWASHED COTTAGE AND THE CARRIAGE BARN DO HAVE A PRETTY GOOD FIELD OF FIRE...
Sadly that's about where we had to leave it - we're definitely getting quicker with IABSM, and the practice definitely improves matters, though I will be switching from the official QRS (which misses a whole load of small special case rules that happen a lot) to the one from the Sgt Perry's Heroes blog.
Not sure who'd have won this: if the Panzershrek team made it to a suitable vantage point in time, I think the Germans might have been in with a shout, if nothing else because there'd have been a blazing Sherman or two blocking the road. Andy B did a great job holding off the Americans as well as he did.
Mike Whitaker