Farmhouse Assault!

The first game at my new place was an exceptionally brief affair, using one of my favorite small scenarios, which is from what to my shock is now considered an old set of rules (Two Hour Wargames's MG-42, a demo version of Nuts!, 1st ed. and thanks to the wonders of technology, available via the Wayback Machine).

 In this case, I fielded four British paratroopers, led as always by Lt. Hardcastle.

Hardcastle and company reach the edge of the woods and observe two German sentries.

The sentries are oblivious to what is about to happen.

I used One Hour Skirmish Wargames for the rules. It might seem an undersized game for OHSW, but multiple move actions by the same figure chew up points quickly, so at worst, the downside is two moves per figure, instead of one, or points unspent. 

 

Unfortunately for the Germans, their random deployment per the scenario had the MG team and NCO heading to the house from the woods, so no cover bonus when being shot, and then a poor card draw on their phase (an ace) left them stuck in the open. 

 

It turned out that the British were all skilled shots, drawing high cards, and the Germans were poor at avoiding damage: the British had downed the sentries, claimed the farmhouse (killing the sentries) and the small woods across the road, and also downed the machine gunner and the NCO, by the time the first Joker came up and the turn ended. 

 

I decided it wasn't worth checking the status of the remaining downed figures - they would have been in the open and that stretched my suspension of disbelief a bit too far.

For giggles, I tried MG-42 as written and then remembered why I had given up on the idea of trying Nuts! until the 2nd edition. 

 

It played fast -  a hallmark of THW - helped, in part, because I have played THW games many times and understand, to a degree, how it works.  If you're not familiar with their rules, you may not want to start with this old, and less clearly written, demo set.

 

I played three initiatives, but the Germans again had issues: failing In-Sight opportunities, missing when shooting, and being knocked out of the fight whenever they were hit. The base movement range is far more generous than OHSW, and so it took no time at all before the paratroopers were storming the one remaining German (a Rep 3 sentry) and I decided he'd surrender.

This scenario would probably work well with Fistful of Lead and I will give that a try soon.