Securing The Storehouse

With a game of 'Five Men In Normandy' under my belt to get the mechanisms clear (or at least consistent in my head), I thought that it would be fun to generate a squad according to the campaign rules and see what stories might drop out of it. Even if they were only good for a couple of game it would be worth the effort.

The rules allow you to randomly generate squads, and then add background and motivation to them. They then take part in a series of fights and you can plot the adventures of each member of the squad, seeing old members leave and new people join.

I decided to take a group of brave Soviets, and using the basic three rolls on the requisite table, got a four-man team -  obviously they were depleted by previous actions. I added in special equipment and backgrounds and got:

Sergeant Alexei Petrov - A former accountant, who now tallies up how many Germans he'd killed with his trusty revolver. He'd joined up for adventure, and had plenty of experience. Fighting at close range had made him an expert at ambush.

Corporal Nikolai Falin - A former factory worker who'd walked straight down to the recruiting office on the day that the Germans invaded and signed up for the glory of Mother Russia. In the few fights he'd been in he'd learned to keep his head down and avoid enemy fire (he has the Evasive Move skill). He was armed with a rifle.

Pvt Grigori Elin - Grigori had originally trained as a ballet-dancer, but like Nikolai had given it up in a burst of patriotic fervour. He'd only been in the army for a short time, though, and had yet to see any real action. He was also armed with a rifle.

Pvt Iosef Gurin - When you're an itinerant farm-worker and work is hard to come by the army offered food and security. That was the sole reason that Iosef was in uniform. All he wanted to do was stay safe and see the war out to the end. He was new to soldiering, but had somehow acquired an SMG for himself, and, much to his compatriots' amusement, carried a nasty looking kitchen-knife.

With two fervent patriots in the squad, morale was good.

Here's the squad before their first action - from left to right there's Nikolai, Grigori, Iosef and Alexsei. Yes, Alexsei does look more like an officer than a sergeant. It was the only pistol-armed figure I had (I must make some more).

They were soon in action, tasked with scouting out and securing a storehouse on a nearby farm to see if it would make a suitable forward command-post. Someone had to go inside and check that there were no booby-traps and that it was generally sound. The Germans in the area were active and aggressive, but the team would be followed up by a larger force, so once they'd secured the objective it was expected that the enemy would fall back to regroup.

I didn't get a photo of their initial position, but our heroes came in from the right. Nikolai took the right flank, ready to fend off any Germans coming from behind the low ride in that part of the battlefield. meanwhile Alexsei, who had decided that he would check the barn personally, led the two rookies Grigori and Iosef along a line of trees towards the objective. 

There were four Germans in the area. Two were behind the ridge and not visible to the team, whilst there were two soldiers behind rocks on the other side of the storehouse and orchard. Nikolai could just see them, but the rest of the team were invisible to them.

The first German moved out from behind the ridge. Nikolai dropped him with a single shot.

Alexsei had reached the end of the line of trees, and now needed to cut across a small area of open ground in order to reach the safety of the storehouse. But the Germans had reached the edge of the orchard, and a burst of SMG fire sent him scurrying for cover behind the orchard wall.

Grigori and Iosef moved up in support. So far the Germans had yet to spot Grigori.

Both sides spent a couple of turns moving into better positions (they both rolled a couple of  Scurry turns which allow movement but no firing). Iosef had both of the Germans on their side of the ridge in his sights now.

Whilst Iosef and Grigori kept the Germans busy, Alexsei moved to the storehouse. An easy win for the team was in sight.

But on the other flank a luger-armed officer had appeared. Grigori missed him, but the officer didn't miss Grigori, who fell, badly wounded and out of action.

Iosef forced the two Germans by the orchard to run for cover with some excellent (or lucky) suppressive fire). However this left his SMG jammed.

Undettered he pressed forward, dodging from cover to cover until he was within reach of the still startled Germans.

Then he went in with his knife. The first German didn't stand a chance.

The second charged over the ridge at him, but Iosef's trusty knife saw that one off as well.

Grigori had moved away from the storehouse door, in order to support Iosef. This allowed the sole surviving German - the officer - to creep round and surprise Alexsei, who was still attempting to secure the interior. Alexsei fired and missed, but the German didn't, and Alexsei was down.

On hearing the shots Grigori ran back and charged at the German with his bayonet, defeating him.

All was looking good for Iosef and Grigori, who could now complete the mission unopposed. However the Germans had reinforcements in the form of another rifleman. He trades shots with Iosef, whilst Grigori went into the storehouse to check on Alexsei and complete the mission.

Iosef kept the German at bay long enough, and Grigori secured the objective. The Germans, as expected, fell back as more Russians advanced.

Grigori and Iosef had survived, but what of Alexsei and Nikolai?

Nikolai was seriously wounded. So seriously that he would be invalided home - for him the war was over. Alexsei, though, had simply been stunned, and a swig of water and piece of black bread saw the wily sergeant back on his feet again, ready to lead his squad.

The squad has completed their mission with only two casualties, so that was a positive result. I then checked what happened in the period between this mission and the next. For some reason Grigori was granted two weeks' leave (despite only having recently arrived at the front), so we won't be seeing him for a while. However the squad also got some new members, who I will detail in the next post. Here they are, though.

In addition, Alexsei's friend in the quartermaster's stores, got them a few extra grenades, and the promise - only a promise, mind - of an LMG one day. 

Who knows what the next mission will be?

(The game flowed really well and I didn't have any real issues with the rules, although I think I'm gleefully interpreting a few things my own way. I tried random events and there were a few, although most didn't have that much effect on the game. I think the key one was towards the end, when Alexsei got a free action, allowing him to reach the storehouse door and get inside before the Germans could do much to stop him.)