Operation Grapeshot – A Big Game Battle Report

With the dust fully settled now in the barn, the clatter of dice now quiet, and just myself standing in the middle of it like a sad Pablo Escobar, its time to have a round up of OPERATION GRAPESHOT.

I’ll try and focus on the game itself, but no doubt a bag of nonsense will slip in, with in-jokes that have gone on for too long by far, and all the usual fluff.

The Terrain

With players arriving on the Friday night ready for the game, I decided I’d spend a good couple of hours on Thursday setting up the board for it. The brief was to make it 24 ft wide by 4 foot deep. Having played 6 foot deep games before, though they look absolutely spectacular, they are a pain in the back – literality – and really only work for the mega D Day games.

A second by product of a 6 foot deep table is the absolutely immense square footage of terrain needed for it. 24ftx4ft, at the density of terrain we had, was work enough frankly, and increasing that by 33% would have robbed the game of a couple of key points really.
We had planned for 12ft of the board to be high density city terrain and the other half to be more sprawling open vineyards, difficult to cross rivers and rolling hills to give that Italian flavour.

With the boards set barring a few magnificent detail pieces provided by Jon Trenchard, we were all set. On the day of the game, we ‘blessed the table’ and made sure everyone knew the terrain rules.
Two key parts were:

• the river was representing a river in Italy in April. Now, as someone who is no stranger to an Italian river, the current that can be pulled from snow melt river is absolutely bonkers. Genuinely put my foot in a river that was no more than 12 inches deep at the edge, and was nearly taken off my feet. A standard flames of war hand wave ‘cross test?’ would not be enough. We played this as impassible. There were three crossing points and only a madman would take Schwimmwagens across there… Eddie. 
• We also played hills as true line of sight. None of the curious ‘infinitely tall’ oddities that crop up. If you could see your opponent, you could shoot, albeit with penalty. The Vineyards were low concealing terrain that required a cross check for.

Preamble and the list of runners and riders. 

Grapeshot represents that most mad of moments in the second world war, were everyone arrives for a massive barney. Our game was little different!
Resplendent in entirely painted forces of astounding quality was a grand panoply of toy soldiering.
17 players had arrived with only two unfortunate withdrawals, which was a shame.
So with that, we had 9 players on the allied side, and 8 on the axis who picked up some extra points for their forces to disperse. All drawn from the new “Liberation of Italy” book. 

Axis: 

• Nathan, Static Defenders 
• Lee, Fallschirmjäger
• Benny, Fallschirmjäger
• Harry (Beard), Fallschirmjäger
• Chris, Fallschirmjäger
• Fez, Panzer company MIT SCHWIMMWAGEN 
• Darren, Grenadiers 
• Harry (the younger) Panthers

Allies:

• Martin, British Rifles and North Irish Horse 
• Ryan, Free French 
• Myself, Regia Esercito Bersaglieri 
• Roy, North Irish Horse 
• Jon, Goum force, 
• Tom, US Infantry 
• Will, Polish Armoured 
• Stuart, South African Armoured 
• Andy, US Infantry

The Scenario

Myself and Nathan had been scratching around a scenario for a few weeks and settled on the old V3 Point Scoring TOTAL WAR with some twists as a base. So, we had the following, pay attention at the back please.

Across a 24 foot wide frontage, armies would deploy on an 8 inch back line. Forces could then spearhead up to 12 inches away from objectives and enemy forces. This opened up some early breakthroughs with sneaky or aggressive forces. 

Objectives as shown above were broadly speaking in three lines. Back line, centre, and enemy line. They were placed in thematic locations which included the central church piazza, a car factory, the middle of the cemetery, bridges, tactically important hills, ancient Roman ruins, and a destroyed monastery. 

Objectives could be taken in a standard Flames of War manner, so clear of enemy, starting on and clearing the enemy off by the end of the turn.
Back line objectives were worth 1 point, centre 2 points and enemy back line worth 3 points.
Scoring for objectives would start at turn 2 and finish with a hard cut off at turn 6. This meant both sides had to get the job done in that time. 

Also scattered across the field were 20 micro objectives. If an infantry team landed on these, they could scoop them up and roll 2D6 to get a micro bonus (or blow themselves up on a 1/12 chance…). These would be small things like ‘one team, for one turn, re rolls failed hits’. Not world-endingly good, just little neat things. Everyone used theirs I think, and even got to keep the micro objectives that Jon had kindly printed out. 

Forces were 60% on, 40% off. Reserves were our classic ‘STAGGERED, AUTOMATIC’ rule. Meaning turn one, no reserves. Turn two, a single platoon, turn three, a second single platoon, turn four, all remaining platoons arrive. These are not rolled for, rather they just arrive. This means no one has a sad time because they cant roll a 5+.

Avanti Savoia! Game on!

Right, from here on in, I will try to keep the action at least partially tied up with pictures and memory. Like all good AAR’s, it will be riddled with time inconsistencies, acts of false memory, and moments of zero consequence that we all remember, like Harry (the younger) losing his mind to how absolutely toilet StuH are in the game now.

Turn 1

Axis got the first turn and utilised this to make a daring thrust with recon troops to try and split a wedge between the Goums and the Poles ahead of the river. 

Fez mounted a dash across the river using his Schwimmwagens, clearing the river with all but two. This meant he had a bubble to deploy armour from and thunder run to a back line objective.

While Fez dashed to the end zone, Lee spearheaded into the Genco old town square to occupy the main market place waiting for Ryan’s French to attack. FJ’s swept up into the main square buildings on the axis controlled side of the board. Harry (Beard) positioned his FJ’s carefully overlooking the Strada di Sangue. 

The allied turn was similarly thrusty as we moved crocodiles up into the centre squares to cover. Infantry picked their way through the streets (or rode on the back of spearheading Recce Universal Carriers in Martin’s case in some top sneaky action!) into covered positions ready for a large scale assault in turn two. The key would be to hit hard and fast, occupy the objectives and start scoring points. 

Stuart and Will started their near perpetual smoke barrage to stop the panthers from reaching out and robbing them of their much needed 76mm guns. 

Turn 2

Fez thunders through with his Panzers leaving his objectives clear….

The objectives are not sticky. They need to be held!

Its okay though, as Tom on our side has done exactly the same! 

Fez opens up in the centre with Panzers against Polish armour and everyone whiffs against each other. 

FJ artillery opens up on the line against French and Italian troops. Backed up by HMG’s shooting, Harry’s FJ’s now occupy the Strada di Sangue. 

With the smoke in positon Harry’s Panthers find it hard to draw a bead on the American forces moving up through the timber yard. 

The Goums start their ascent of the central hill while supported by accurate mortar fire which hits the Schwimmwagens trapped in the river. It takes out a couple of stands, and in classic style, the recon forces bug out. Thus proving once again that Schwimmwagen is the Axis Apex Predator. 

With their flanks protected by all the combined armies smoke deployment, the 76mm armed Shermans and M10 GMC’s roll up to take on Harrys Panthers. ‘Don’t roll 1’s or 2’s!’ and poor old Harry loses three panthers in very short order!

Meanwhile in the centre, Harry and I lock horns. Smoke deploys down the Strada, my Crocodiles open up and incinerate a bucket of FJ’s down the buildings. Bersaglieri blow the bugle and mount the charge. A swirling back and forth claims the lives of half the platoon of FJ’s and near the entire platoon of Bersaglieri. This was frankly…. just the start.

Turn 3

Both sides were now racking up points and bringing more reserves to bear.

Will, Stuart and Andy on the Allied right flank methodically start picking their way up, while Darren thrusts into the monastery. The centre hill suffers a huge amount of bloodshed as Goums head up there against the static defenders. Chris is now pushing his FJ’s into the Cemetery to prepare to take the blown out church objective.
Harry and I throw another assault at each other which causes another vast amount of bloodshed. Streams cross as Lee bails a Crocodile with a lucky Pak40 shot from down the street, allowing Harry to capture it.

Ryan and Lee engage in a short range firefight over the centre piazza while Ryan brings up 105’s to be used in a direct fire capacity, only for them to be mortared, bailed and then routed in the next turn.

Turn 4/5

Turn 4 and 5 blurred into one really for me in the centre. The right hand flank was now commencing its attack in earnest, but because of their methodical approach, they were ostensibly a turn behind the main thrust. Fez was in control of a back line objective while he and Will strapped pillows onto their fists and gently bopped each other and failed firepower tests.

Chris was pushing into the cemetery now to hold it, but coming perilously close to the angry AVRE from Roy’s North Irish Horse. Roy played a blinder of a micro objective ‘re roll misses for one team’…. Well that one team was an AVRE! Chris’s FJ’s turned rapidly into powder under a flying rubbish bin full of plastic explosive. Ryan’s’ 76mm Shermans had turned a Zug’s worth of Lee’s Semovente inside out in a single round of shooting. Yikes!

Ryan was preparing for a last turn attack on the big piazza while Harry and I were rapidly falling on our knees. Losses were now massive. The pair of us had little left.

Turn 6

Genuinely at this point it was getting close to company breaks on big swathes of the board. Forces were getting spent. Harry had lost his company of Panthers. Ryan was losing infantry in the streets, as was I. Fez’ had been repulsed on the back line, but the centre had fallen to the Axis. 

In a final series of assaults, Ryan’s infantry smashed into Lee’s FJ in the big Piazza market and dislodged the paratroops from their position, by killing them dead! We started to ping the barnacles off their positions, but with the time running out, it was going to be close.

As the clock ticked down to the end of turn six, the scores were getting tallied up…. The final total 

Axis 59pts

Allies 58pts. 

The absolute narrowest of margins. Never seen a game like it. Yes if we played another turn the allies would have leapt ahead, but the key point was…. we didn’t! 

The butcher’s bill in the Strada di Sangue though was one I’ll not forget. I lost two full platoons of Bersaglieri and their overall commanders, along with three Crocodiles and three Universal Carriers. Harry lost a large and medium platoon of Fallschirmjaeger. The total losses were 32 stands of infantry removed over the street. Absolutely bonkers.

Wash Up

We finished the game at around 3pm, having beaten the tar out of each other. Tiny incremental point scores here and there, hellacious street fights, absurd luck in one way and then another. As Darren said, it’s the stories we make in that collective story telling experience that makes games like this spectacular. We remember moments like the street of blood, or Martin sweeping his troops on UC’s in a daring tank ride to secure a church. Tiny actions in 20 meter square courtyards of farm houses. I can imagine my Bersaglieri crossing the street covered in plaster, bricks, and the fallen, stacking up with MAB38’s chattering in their hands while .303 and 7.92 cracks and whips past them. Its games like this that tell the story. 

We are blessed with a cool location to play in, but honestly, if you have a village hall that can be hired, getting a crew of mates together for a mega game with multiple commanders, tonnes of cool terrain and a slap up meal at the end of it can absolutely bring a game from being ‘a bit of good fun’ to a phrase that Andy said at the end, after two days of toy soldiering. ‘That’s without a doubt the best wargaming weekend I’ve ever had’.

And honestly, I’ll take that to the bank any day of the week.

Next year the Patreon event for Shoot and Scoot is set to be Stalingrad.
It’s open to Patreons of the podcast, as well as the regular barn denizens, and is set to be another belter.

– Mike