Thursday night game; Assault on San Marco.

Any similarities to an actual battle are entirely intentional.

The monastery of San Marco broods above the desolated town below.  The Allies have also secured Papal authorisation to bomb the monastery if it is required.

Background

It is late September 1943 and Kesselring, the German commander in charge of Axis forces Italy is desperate to slow down the Allied advance from the Salerno beachheads which threaten to take Naples and Rome in one bound.  He has tasked a reinforced parachute battalion with holding the strategic position of San Marco and imposing at least one days delay on the American advance.

General Mark Clark has been commended with holding on at Salerno against determined German counter attacks and he is desperate to resume the advance ahead of General Montgomery's 8th Army. American forces took heavy casualties and his only immediately available mobile force is a recently landed motorised infantry regiment which he has reinforced with a company of tanks and a regiment of artillery. He has tasked this force to take and hold the monastery and town of San Marco which dominates the Appian Way and the surrounding countryside.  The town has already been bombed in advance of the attack and there is a further option of carpet bombing the monastery.

Order of battle

See Spearhead TOEs for fuller details.

United States

1x full 1942 infantry regiment plus 1 x company of Shermans.
(optional; 3x FOOs and 1x regiment of 105mm.  Carpet bombing of the monastery.)
Command radius regardless of number of troops in a battalion is 9".

German

1x 1943 parachute battalion reinforced with a company of engineers, 1x PAK 40 platoon and a SP Gun platoon.
(optional 1x FOO and 1 x battalion of off table artillery)
All units may begin the game dug in.  Command radius is 15".

Objectives and Terrain

There are three objective points.  1x point for taking holding the lower town (the rectangle in the lower right of the picture).  1x point for taking the upper town and lower level of the mountain.  1x point for taking the upper level of the mountain and the monastery.  Americans require 3 points for a win and two points for a draw.  Any other result is a German win.

All of the mountain area except the road and monastery is mountainous terrain - see my previous post for rules.  Any troops on the mountain are out of supply.

Any unit that cannot trace a line of supply to their base line via open terrain or the road is out of supply and will suffer -1 in combat and direct fire.

The rectangle in the lower left of the picture is open ground except for the walled enclosures which are village sectors.

The lower town area will count as woods for movement, spotting and cover whilst the BUAs are town sectors.

The upper town area is rough ground for movement, units count as in cover for spotting but do not count as in cover when fired at.  The BUAs count as village sectors.


I have used varied terrain effects in the different areas to illustrate the flexibility of the terrain boards. I am hoping this small but detailed battlefield will give us an interesting game and a chance to try out some new mechanics for imminent operational games.  As usual I have tried to create an asymmetrical balance but please let me know if you think I have missed anything.