Esposito ’44 – 2 The Bridge at Isigny (8 June)

 

A World War 2 campaign, based on the Memoir 44 boardgame, the M44 Campaign Hero Rules variant posted by Ian Finn on BBG, the Game Master’s Apprentice (GMA) deck and some other ideas collected in Doubt and Bravery. The heroes of this story are:

Private Esposito – Egoistic
Corporal Mc Ray – Righteous
Private Young – Idealistic

Sessions will be narrated in first person as Esposito’s diary. In-character text in italics.

This battle is based on Memoir 44 scenario Pegasus Bridge.
This is a gaming campaign: don’t expect historic accuracy.

We join a major push towards the interior. Our targets are two bridges, and our company is assigned to the Western one.

We move forward and we find the bridge protected by two German units: one is firing from a wooded area, the other is closer to the bridge. Our forces are superior: Young’s platoon rushes forward towards the bridge, while our platoon fires towards the bridge with all we have. We do a great job at it, basically annihilating the Jerry’s. The other platoon easily occupies the bridge: target achieved!

The enemies in the wooded area are also overwhelmed with heavy losses and forced to retreat. Things do not go so well on the the other attack front: we were unable to conquer the second bridge, but heavy looses were inflicted to the Germans, though we took many casualties as well.

It ended with a victory for the Allies, 4 Victory Points to 1.

All characters take +2 bravery for the victory. McRay gains an additional +1 for contributing in destroying the German unit on the bridge. Esposito passes his promotion roll: Bravery reset to 0.

McRay collected money from Young for his bet: indeed he killed several Nazis today. Mac is angry not only because Young was the first to make it to the bridge. Diplomatically, I shared with both of them my last pack of Lucky Strikes and things are again good between us.

Esposito ’44 – 1 The Beach (6 June)

A World War 2 campaign, based on the Memoir 44 boardgame, the M44 Campaign Hero Rules variant posted by Ian Finn on BBG, the Game Master’s Apprentice (GMA) deck and some other ideas collected in Doubt and Bravery. The heroes of this story are:

Private Esposito – Egoistic
Corporal Mc Ray – Righteous
Private Young – Idealistic

Sessions will be narrated in first person as Esposito’s diary. In-character text in italics.

McRay and Esposito are ready to climb the cliff. Allied casualties inflicted by the advanced pillbox. The other American lost unit will be hit by artillery

We reach the beach near Point du Hoc. I am scared as hell. A nasty pillbox on a protruding rock takes down many of our comrades but thanks god it’s at the opposite side of the beach: where we are it’s much more manageable. I follow Mc Ray, who rushes forward screaming: he seems excited to be finally shot by the Germans. Our platoon is the first to reach the cliff, but when we climb up with are faced by a wall of fire: more German pillboxes. The Sergeant is killed. We retreat to the beach while the other platoons climb up: a mess. On the opposite side of the beach, things go well, we see GIs blowing up the pillbox on the rock.

Young takes part to the final attack, while McRay and Esposito are still below the cliff

After a while, we can the signal that we can climb up: the Germans have been killed and some surrendered.
When we camped, Young told us how his platoon blew up one of the pillboxes. Everyone is making fun of us, for retreating back to the beach when the Sergeant died, but not Young. He was not mean, though he was somehow shocked by the fight, like myself.

[The scenario was played with ordinary allied units instead of rangers, yet it was an easy win for the attackers: 4 VPs for the allied vs 2 VPs for the Germans. Each of the three guys takes +2 Bravery for taking part in the victory]
[GMA: a prophecy fulfilled]
Yet McRay had the stomach to ask Young 5 bucks, since they bet on who would be the first to climb up the cliff. True, our platoon was the first one up the cliff, but we immediately rushed back. Young paid without a blink: cool guy. And McRay put forward another bet: who will kill more Germans tomorrow. Young agreed without any enthusiasm. I obviously stayed out of it: these bets can only bring us bad luck, I say.

[I rolled for promotions: the target is less than Bravery on a d10. As expected, all failed]

Situation:
Esposito – Rank:Private, Alignment:Egoistic, Bravery:2, Doubt:5
McRay – Rank:Corporal, Alignment:Righteous, Bravery:2, Doubt:2
Young – Rank:Private, Alignment:Idealistic, Bravery:3, Doubt:2