First Lessons

• Quick Battle
• 300pt Allied Probe
• Infantry vs. Infantry
• Played as allies

Setting

A long, thin battlefield. A road enters from the right and stretches away into the village, where a large building is my objective. There is a row of houses to the right of the road and scattered houses to the left. At my end of the road is a small church-like building with a cemetery atop a small hill. To the left there is a house nestled among a U shaped patch of forest, beyond which is a slight rise containing a few houses. A couple more buildings dot the far edge of the map.

Setup

I have a company of three infantry platoons and a 50mm mortar platoon, supplemented with a Maxim MG and an extra SMG. I begin among some patches of scattered trees with a small house. From the house there is a clear view of the right side of the battlefield so I set up the Maxim there with 3rd platoon in the nearby trees for cover. From the house the Maxim can overwatch a good part of the right side and the left side up to the small forest. That small forest will be the objective of my initial movement. I'm hoping to get into those trees and eventually move the Maxim into the house where he can overlook about half of the village from good cover. First and second platoons and the mortars (4th platoon) are in some scattered trees across from the forest. The extra SMG is there too, under the command of the company HQ. I don't expect to meet resistance this soon, but I'll cross the open space one platoon at a time anyway.

Action

I began with 1st platoon moving across the open into the forest ahead of them. After a minute it was clear that there wasn't anybody in the forest already so I moved 2nd platoon forward also. Once they were situated I moved 1st platoon ahead to the house and to the patch of forest to its left.

At this point I made first contact with the enemy. Infantry on the rise beyond the house was firing. So I ordered one of the mortars (still in their setup area) to area fire on the rise. This was just a forward screen, though, and with superior numbers and cover I quickly canceled the mortar fire as unnecessary.

The action was now taking place beyond the forest so 3rd platoon and the Maxim were ordered forward to more useful positions. The 3rd platoon was ordered to leapfrog beyond 2nd platoon and cover more of the small forest area. As they left cover to walk to the forest they were fired on from long distance down the road, but recovered nicely and proceeded.

I sat tight in positions along the forward edge of the forest and fired on infantry in the houses on the rise as the Maxim moved into position in the house. Around this time I ordered the mortars and extra SMG forward into the forest with 2nd platoon.

Once the Maxim was in place I advanced units from 1st platoon to the nearest house. Fire was coming from the nearby houses as well as from the larger building that was our goal. I positioned two mortars to fire on the objective building and moved one up to where he could support the troops on the rise.

Squads from 1st and 3rd platoon were moved forward to the houses on the rise. They were fairly exposed and came under a good amount of fire but with each house taken more covering fire could be provided. In the rear 2nd platoon was ordered over to the right to the fence line just before the church. Long range fire from down the road suppressed several attempts to cross the road, but eventually 1st and 3rd platoon were keeping them busy enough to allow the movement.

The maxim was moved forward to the first house on the rise where he could fire all the way to the back of the battlefield, but he seemed reluctant to fire without specific targeting orders. The SMG got into the house among the trees and from there had a decent line of sight into the houses along the road. He ended up providing a lot of very useful fire from that position until the end of the battle. The mortar fire eventually set the objective building on fire so I stopped them.

Time was getting on and I needed to move 2nd platoon through the houses to the right of the road to get to the objective. I had a lot of suppressive fire from the houses on the rise to the left, but as I leapfrogged squads from 2nd platoon forward through the houses they still came under a lot of fire. I pressed some units from 1st and 3rd platoon forward and used up my mortar ammunition on any enemy units that got spotted near the objective.

Just before the objective building my men came under mortar fire. I pushed through it hoping it would soon be suppressed, but it didn't stop for several minutes. Eventually my men entered and secured the burning building while 1st and 3rd platoon cleaned up the remaining enemy units along the back edge.

Summary

A major victory in a very minor battle, but I felt I had proceeded reasonably. I knew I was doing something right when I saw enemy units on the rise breaking and running for the map edge. I had a little trouble getting the mortars and Maxim into useful positions and getting the Maxim to fire much at all, but the extra SMG I brought proved to be just what the doctor ordered. I got him into a good position just by luck, but once there he provided very helpful fire through the end of the battle.