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OK, so I played my second Five Men in Normandy solo game today. The mission rolled was “Escort, the bane of wargames and MMORPGs alike. My group of Japanese soldiers is now six strong, but one of the guys is still sick and will not be available. So, Our Heroes decided to escort Nurgaci, an NCO in the Manchukuo Imperial Army and rival to the group, across Soviet lines back to his own unit as a goodwill gesture. Kamave, Daisuke, Itachi, and two new guys were the ones going at it.
They found themselves facing a Russian truck with a machinegun on it (very similar to the one in the first mission, it seems) crewed by a couple of Soviet soldiers, and three other Soviet soldiers prowling in the vicinity. The Stealth rules were in effect, and the Japanese took the first turn. The plan was to sneak up the right side of the board (bad judgement on my part, they should have gone up the left) and on the first turn they were spotted and the alarm went up. Things went well at first, with a Russian guy running off the table due to a double Bailed result, but after that the spray of submachine gun fire from the other two Russians continued to push Our Heroes back. Kamave was the first to go Out of Action, Daisuke was next. The two new guys eventually managed to gun down the Russian sentries. There was, however, a gap between the walls that the machinegun team had a clear view of. Itachi decided to risk Dashing across with Nurgaci in tow, survived the hail of bullets, and successfully exited the oposite table edge in his following turn.
In the aftermath, Kamave made a complete recovery, and Daisuke had a light injury that will keep hm down for three days (the next mission is three days later, so he will be unavailable for that.) Kamave then came down with a cold, incapacitating him for one day but leaving him free to fight in the next mission. He also recieved the “Aggressive” skill. The group tried to acquire a replacement weapon (looking for Ye Olde Machinegonne) but the search was delayed until after next mission.
This game was a lot more rules-intensive than the last game I played. I used much more of the cover rules, the escorting, the sentries, the stealth, and especially recovering from Flinch, Bailed, and Knocked Down results. My big takeaway from today’s game is that submachine guns rule the battlefield when used in numbers. With two Japanese and three Soviet soldiers fielding them, there were a LOT of Shock dice being rolled, and lot of running away involved. The machinegun was a stationary emplacement, so the cover everywhere really reduced it’s involvement to a couple of volleys as Our Heroes tried to cross the gap between the wall and the downed tree.
And that really is a balancing element for heavier weapons in a skirmish game: with lots of cover, a machinegun is pretty useless if it doesn’t have any visible targets. And my board was pretty much a maze of broken walls and a couple of downed trees. Which brings me to another thing, I want more “little” scenic items. The walls and trees are nice, but aside from a couple of burning barrels and a rickshaw, I don’t have any good small scenic bits and bobs. So I am going to make some more, and the next game will be a little more cluttered.
Overall, it was another fun time. I look forward to my next opportunity to play.
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