Attack on Lorient - First test game

U Boat 505 being repaired in Lorient Dock

After many weeks preparing, we finally had our first playtest of our new demo board for our Attack on Lorient Submarine Dock 1942 game. We had a couple of challenges as we needed to have 6 x 600 point armies and 3 objectives.

The Armies:

Allies:

Commandoes by Sea

These fellows arrive by rubber boat (6 inches movement) and can grapple up 6 inches from a fixed point in one turn.
HQ 2 men, 4 squads (6 men: LMG, 2 SMG, 3 Rifle), Sniper Team with "Up and at 'em" special rule.

The view from the Police Station

The commandoes come by sea

Commandoes by Land

These fellows come in from the right hand side of board when looking at the dock from the beaches. Same as other force but replace Sniper with MMG team.

Partisans

HQ, 1 squad of Veteran Guerillas (LMG, SMG, 6 Rifles),  3 Partisan squads (LMG, Pistol, SMG, 7 rifles), MMG team.  They have the modified special Partisan rule of 2 Bombs set into the War memorial in front of the police station. If one goes off, the memorial and second bomb is destroyed.  Basically it is 2 chance for the bomb to work.

The secret weapon stolen from the British

Battle on the U Boat

The German Defenders

Kriegsmarine

The ship Captain, 2nd Lieutenant HQ, 4 squads Kriegsmarine (LMG, SMG, 8 rifles), Regular MMG. 2 squads are patrolling at the start of the game, the rest are asleep in the Hotel or houses near the submarine, MMG set up on ambush.

Port Defenders

HQ, 4 regular Heer (LMG, SMG, 7 rifles), MMG. 1 squad within 6 inches of winch house guarding secret prize, another on patrol anywhere, MMG set up on ambush.

At times, assaults are rubbish

SS Reinforcements

HQ, SS Veteran squad (LMG, SMG, 6 rifles), 2 Heer Regulars (LMG, SMG, 8 rifles), MMG team, Sdkfz 222. These guys come in from edge near the church, top left corner.

"We killed someone!" - newbies celebrating their first kill

The Objectives

Background:

On return from a secret mission (so not recorded in the history books) U 505 was hit by a RAAF plane and severely damaged. The U boat was carrying 3 stolen prototypes from a British Research Laboratory, codenamed Ironsides. 2 were destroyed in the bombing and the surviving Ironside is stored in the Winch house.  The U boat contains the plans for the German Secret laboratory to which the Ironside is destined.
Meanwhile Father Pierre is in custody in the prison with information critical to the resistance.

1. The Commandoes by Sea and Kriegsmarine must control the submarine superstructure in order to get the location of the German secret laboratory.
2. The Commandoes by Land and Port Defenders need to capture or retain the surviving Ironside stored in the Winch house. 
3. The Partisans and SS are in a rush to get into the Police Station and rescue/interrogate Father Pierre.

How did the game go?

We had a couple of new players who volunteered to help us out: my daughter and my son's girlfriend.  Neither had played before and so were a good testing ground for the game.  They played the Port Defenders.

The only way to protect the prize

2 Commandoes vs 5 remaining Kreigsmarine

The game began in Night time and from turn 3 we rolled to see if dawn broke.  The game stayed in night time until turn 7! This really meant lots of close combat as ranged shots were very difficult having to roll for the options to see at longer ranges.
The game worked well.  We will make some fine tuning of some of the forces, but the battle was pretty well balanced. The Germans retained control of the Ironside, while the Commandoes captured the U boat and the Partisans rescued Father Pierre.
We are ready for our first public playtest at The Combat Company Warehouse next Saturday 21 March from 10am.
Once we have done some more testing we will publish a full scenario as usual.

Update:

We now have created a video walkthrough of the table. Enjoy!