1944 Operation Bluecoat Ambush

Рет қаралды 72,537

2 жыл бұрын

The British breakout from Normandy, Operation Bluecoat, is less famous than its American counterpart, Cobra. In this fantastic 15mm wargame, we focus on the British breakout and the German attempt to defend the critical crossroads of Vire.
Today's episode is a guest post by our fellow wargaming friends at Mark's Game Room, using the Fireball Forward WW2 company-level rules. This exact scenario is available for FREE from the official Fireball Forward website. Learn more about the rules, get the scenario, and watch a detailed game tutorial on their official website: www.fireballforward.com/
Here at Little Wars TV we love showcasing the great work other historical wargaming clubs are doing. If you want to see more from Mark's Game Room in the future, just us know in the comments below! And if YOU and your club want to get in touch with us, just reach out anytime!

Пікірлер: 154

@charlierichardson613 2 жыл бұрын

“So, armed with this knowledge, I headed out to visit the location and write a wargame scenario about these two halftracks.” What a fantastic way to experience history! And something I'm just not capable of...

@JANoll1 2 жыл бұрын

I’m a fan of this new commentary included battle report. Also the video was entertaining and well shot. I’d like to see more of these type of videos. Although I wouldn’t want them to be much longer, 30min is a good length.

@shawnclarke9414 2 жыл бұрын

Also a best of 3 could be very entertaining

@Able_Are 2 жыл бұрын

Yes - everything that Joseph said. Also, I'd've liked a short rules explation.

@sunsettersix6993 2 жыл бұрын

I 100% agree! This was very entertaining to watch! I have always wondered why we don't see wargame replays like this more often on YT.

@christophermilne6545 2 жыл бұрын

@@Able_Are There are tutorials for Fireball Forward here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/btZ6msWDu8nNhn0.html I'm hoping they will post one explaining vehicles, which operate slightly differently. Rules explanations as they play would also definitely help (such as why they are rolling a d20 along with red and white dice). I've played before so understand it, but if you haven't it can be quite strange.

@saltech3444 2 жыл бұрын

Operation Bluecoat was an amazing achievement. It tended to be overlooked even by Montgomery (who spent most of the Normandy Campaign hoping for a breakthrough like that) largely because the battle commenced as a front line initiative by British troops on the spot, rather than something any general had planned. Seizing Mont Pincon and spoiling the Mortain offensive were worthy causes and helped defeat the Germans in Normandy.

@RobJones262 2 жыл бұрын

My Uncle lost his life during Op Bluecoat. Thanks for making this vid, great game. And gorgeous table by the way ;)

@jonasskinner5536 2 жыл бұрын

I rarely have seen play-by-play battle reports done well, but this one really worked. Would love to see more of them

@tonys4341 2 жыл бұрын

Very nice! Like everyone else, love the colour commentary! But it's also instrumental to note that with a good scenario, how few figures and models you need for a good game. Beginners need to see this, as opposed to the (admittedly spectacular) massive games from veteran gamers.

@sean250 2 жыл бұрын

More from Mark's Game Room please, love his videos!

@TimDutch 2 жыл бұрын

This match is another example of the vulnerability of tanks when proper combined arms tactics are not used. The infantry was able to freely attack the armoured units. Of course their positioning also comes into play.

@jonathanpickles2946 2 жыл бұрын

In a role reversal I "took" my parents to Normandy on holiday in about 1980 :) Ian Dalglish, author of the reference book, was a wargamer/ASL scenario designer.

@StatsScott 2 жыл бұрын

Really enjoyed the insights into how you came up with the scenario. The running color commentary was also fun.

@aurthurdent99 2 жыл бұрын

I don't know the rules of Fireball Forward but I really like watching the game in action and the voice overs like a sports commentator. Very cool! I think I'm going to invest in a new rule set. 30 minutes to watch the scenario played out was just about perfect for me. Thanks for sharing!

@nathantudor5763 2 жыл бұрын

Same here. As soon as I finished watching this I purchased the rules 😋

@christophermilne6545 2 жыл бұрын

@@nathantudor5763 I've found the youtube tutorials really helped me to grock the rules, which are a bit different from "regular" wargames: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/btZ6msWDu8nNhn0.html

@christophermilne6545 2 жыл бұрын

I've found the youtube tutorials really helped me to grock the rules, which are a bit different from "regular" wargames: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/btZ6msWDu8nNhn0.html

@TheJoyofWargaming 2 жыл бұрын

This is a really great format for these videos. The addition of the color commentary really helps those of us who are not well versed in the rules or period. Thank you for this video.

@CoryJMcNeil 2 жыл бұрын

Felt like the World Series of Wargaming, just needed the running odds of victory calculator graphic for both sides, Great Job!

@SundborgModelRailway 2 жыл бұрын

Loved the "sports commentators" :-D

@ericturner7173 2 жыл бұрын

Loved the colour commentary. It really added to the video. Very entertaining. Thanks for posting !

@andrewdad10 2 жыл бұрын

I loved the play by play commentary. That was an amazing way to showcase this battle report.

@markgrehan3726 2 жыл бұрын

Really enjoyed this, ticked all the boxes and the off-table commentary was awesome well done to all involved.

@samb2052 2 жыл бұрын

Great to see some Fireball Forward at last. Excellent video production and AAR format.

@oblomovbruce9979 2 жыл бұрын

Glad to see Fireball Forward get some love and a video! Look forward to gaming this scenario (eventually).

@jumpmaster82nd. 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent job boys! Good, historic scenario and set up nicely! Hope you have more to roll out!

@richardglady3009 2 жыл бұрын

Great video. I love that you visited the actual location of the scenario. I like the detail you discuss as you set up the game. Thank you.

@brunswicklord6365 2 жыл бұрын

The lush flat green field was just too much for the British infantry not to park up the half tracks, brew a strong cup of Typhoo Tea, get out the cucumber sandwiches and have a jolly good game of cricket. Unfortunately it was "Howzat" for the Shermans. Knocked for six and couldnt avoid the follow on. Well at least the companies first eleven are doing somewhat better in the field, currently 45 for no loss off 10 overs.

@scalehistoryslc819 2 жыл бұрын

I very much liked this one! The game was entertaining but the commentary just elevated it even higher! The Brad Pitt cutout super imposed on Alex was top notch

@joeokabayashi8669 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent format! Bring on more of these, please.

@ilmarsgromuls7467 2 жыл бұрын

This format was fun! Thank you!!!

@davecrater878 2 жыл бұрын

Amazing job at both scenario design philosophy and construction of the game itself. Thank you.

@LittleWarsTV 2 жыл бұрын

I love how Mark and his guys found the spot where that historical 1944 photograph was taken of the burning halftracks. Such a cool inspiration for a scenario.

@dancingpotplant 2 жыл бұрын

A really engaging game and some of the best commentary. More please!

@FingonNZ 2 жыл бұрын

Great video, AAR and commentary! Well done!

@AUGUSTOOCTAVIO1 2 жыл бұрын

Really nice job! I enjoy the commentary report and the explanation of the rules! Its a big plus!!

@matiaq 2 жыл бұрын

I have to echo the many comments below: BRILLIANT commentary which helps newbies like me have a better understanding of the game as well as lending the video a lot of energy and humour. Well done, team 👍🏼

@chriscookesuffolk 2 жыл бұрын

Superbly presented aar, Chris from Model Dads.

@DeePsix501 2 жыл бұрын

Wonderful stuff as usual Mark!

@slartybartfarst55 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent game. And great format with the commentary

@JohnWise-vg3zj 4 ай бұрын

Great job on the miniatures and play area!

@PalleRasmussen 5 ай бұрын

Tell your father that if he likes the Normandy so much, WW2TV with Paul is a must to follow. Paul is an English historian and Normandy Guide and he has various expert guests to talk on lots of WW2 subjects- many of them obscure. But most of all, Paul knows his Normandy.

@gwggamingwgaravaglia 2 жыл бұрын

my favorite table top episode of ALL TIME ! 5 thumbs up ;)

@Apocolovids 2 жыл бұрын

The combination of commentary and battle footage makes it abundantly clear how Tom Clancy found the inspiration from wargaming to write Red Storm Rising. Awesome stuff

@frankdonatelli343 2 жыл бұрын

Another fantastic video from you's. Happy Easter friends.

@christophermilne6545 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for posting this! FBF is such a great system. The tutorials are A1, and I would like to see more around how Snipers, vehicles, and special terrain works. It's fast, and allows company level operations but at a smaller level that most "company" level :)

@LJ-gu2dj 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent video, great commentary and looks like a great game!

@hamsteronthepaintingtable6465 2 жыл бұрын

Loved this scenario and game play, lets have more 👍🏻😊

@stuartliddle7228 2 жыл бұрын

Great battle report, easy to follow and lovely fair play.

@Stumptonian1 2 жыл бұрын

Interesting scenario - added the rules to my wishlist.

@chrisrobinson196 2 жыл бұрын

Really fun video, great players and fun commentary.

@stevenwynn819 2 жыл бұрын

Great video, Mark!

@redmist1122 2 жыл бұрын

Wow...just blown away on this video overall! Love the intro, I enjoyed the commentary as to explain the rules a bit. The graphics were spot on too. Not a player of this game system, but it can easily be converted to Chain of Command 4-player game. Will this be a new format for LWTV game videos? I'm good with either one. Thanks again for a entertaining video. Take care.

@pod1977pod Жыл бұрын

This format should be standard. Makes it very watchable!

@frankday8720 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Mark, great video.

@joshburton4062 2 жыл бұрын

Very cool inspiration for this game, with the on location photos paired with the historical photos. Using the actual locations terrain and some vehicles from that spot is a great touch. I do have to say that I would take the actual scenario back to the drawing board though. You took a picture of two knocked out German vehicles and turned it into a scenario that I personally didn't ever feel like the Brits had a chance. A tight turn limit in an ambush game like this really makes it almost impossible for the attacker. I also have to say that while for the most part I didn't mind the commentary, I thought they stepped over the line a few times being overly mean to the British player.

@SimonJohnOwen 2 жыл бұрын

Agreed, I don't think the British player had any chance in this one

@waltdog123 2 жыл бұрын

Loved this!

@markmatzeder6208 2 жыл бұрын

That tall ship watching in the background is cracking me up

@billd2635 9 ай бұрын

Thanx for this. More please.

@Kili121416 2 жыл бұрын

Great battle report, well presented.

@willy03yo 2 жыл бұрын

awesome video!

@M_Holien 2 жыл бұрын

Really enjoyed it thanks for posting. Counting the days down to HCon. See you there.

@majormuckup373 2 жыл бұрын

Good vid, thanks for posting

@scottmellon4549 2 жыл бұрын

That was a great battle report. I'm usually bored, but the 'announcers' were awesome.

@HeavyH2006 2 жыл бұрын

Interesting set of rules. I’ll check them out. A great scenario. Big thank you & happy Easter to all!

@LittleWarsTV 2 жыл бұрын

We are big fans of Fireball in our club. We "discovered" them about a year ago, though they are quite a bit older! Reminds me a lot of an updated version of Crossfire.

@HeavyH2006 2 жыл бұрын

Yeh Crossfire is my go to rules. Good to know.

@marshallwhitlock6240 2 жыл бұрын

@@LittleWarsTV My god I would LOVE to see a Little Wars video featuring Crossfire.

@jerfurdt1118 2 жыл бұрын

Another great video. It’s good to see other the War from Allied point of view.

@Joel-ym3ij 2 жыл бұрын

The Large red D20 is a ‘spindown’ style dice. One side is all the low numbers, other side is all high. Not allowed in some tournaments with other game systems because they generally aren’t as fair. Enjoyable game otherwise. Thanks

@andygass9096 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent presentation ,Master class on how to make a war game interesting to non war gamers

@billmasters385 2 жыл бұрын

I wish there had been a few more turns. It would have been interesting to see f they could have held the town and exited eventually, although that would have also left those British troops that remained very vulnerable.

@TheRendar 2 жыл бұрын

Great video ! Please do more on the channel.

@robertdelaney4332 2 жыл бұрын

Enjoyed the video and the format. But so Americans to go out of our way to learn about the British actions in ww2 only to have the commentary turn it back to american Brad Pitt Fury references for the British 😁

@jefflamb5218 2 жыл бұрын

Loved this, having a play by play man and a colour commentator worked for me?

@kindermord 2 жыл бұрын

Top stuff!

@polaris30000 2 жыл бұрын

It's always interesting to see a historical or semi-historical reenactment play out. A friend and I recreated the latter half of the Battle of Arnhem with the benefit of hindsight. I played the Germans advancing on the town and him the British commandos defending. Despite knowing how things went and him knowing that he needed to get close and put his superior close range fire to use, I still ended up absolutely stomping him by playing to the strengths the Germans had.

@johnmichael3740 2 жыл бұрын

Really interesting game, may try to convert to CoC. This video was well put together. I hear Fireball Forward is a good ruleset, but as I get older it is harder and harder to play multiple different rulesets as I get them confused!

@Vlad65WFPReviews 2 жыл бұрын

Scenarios in which you have to drive a good length of the table against units in ambush is ALWAYS a very very tough assignment. Both playing and watching I almost never see the attacker being successful - and as one player mentioned, time constraints add to the difficulty. Nice looking game, though.

@davidgeister 2 жыл бұрын

Bravo!

@ndyaarthurmartha8748 2 жыл бұрын

I've played similar games, the way the damage is shown is cool.

@peterfiser 2 жыл бұрын

Production quality is out of this world, as if Mark spent some years on the telly or something.

@filipinorutherford7818 2 жыл бұрын

At 9.28 did the guy just drawing the card look at the next card on the top of the deck and put it back? Naughty naughty.

@filipinorutherford7818 2 жыл бұрын

@@charlemagne5377 Ok its in the rules ha ha.

@CZ350tuner 2 жыл бұрын

In the "Panzergranate" ruleset, the Sd.Kfz.250/9 player have the option of pumping up to to 10 rounds of 20mm. autocannon burst fire into the bare 38mm. flat side armour of the M4, with a 6% chance of penetration with each PzGr.39 APCBC-HE shot hit & 28% chance of penetration with each PzGr.40 APCR shot hit. Only a few rulesets allow autocannons to fire in bursts, some with diminishing accuracy penalties with each round fired, making them more realistically effective.

@algiz21 2 жыл бұрын

awesome! but i do wish you had used the jagdpanther vs churchill scenario which mark felton made a video about.

@alejandroojeda1129 2 жыл бұрын

Very new to this channel and will watch the rest of the video later. But I just had to comment where did you get those minis and what is the scale? They look amazing. Would definitely be interested in buying a couple and doing a similar paint scheme if there is some type of guide.

@Urlocallordandsavior 2 жыл бұрын

Do the War of the Spanish Succession or the Wars of the Roses!

@WARdROBEPlaysWWII 2 жыл бұрын

Agree with other comments here, great format.

@michaelmanning5379 2 жыл бұрын

Awfully big dice for such wee models. A great scenario. I'd like to try this with my 20mm models

@ericgray6227 2 жыл бұрын

Great Bat rep!

@Myke... 2 жыл бұрын

now the players need to swap armies and try the scenario again

@jmaccsarmiesofmiddleearth 2 жыл бұрын

Great vid. Massive fan of fireball forward its the rules we use at our club. Did they do the tank moral check when the first one brewed up?

@lunchmoneydnb 2 жыл бұрын

what is this awesome i have just stumbled upon...

@taccovert4 Жыл бұрын

This is like "Mystery Wargame Theater 3000"

@stevemercer952 2 жыл бұрын

Very good video and very enjoyable. If you'd like to find out how british armour and infantry really worked in Normandy I would recommend you read 'Tank Action' by David Render who was a tank platoon commander in ww2 and speaks from experience. We'll done for a good video.

@steveholmes11 2 жыл бұрын

I also recall games where an opponent forgot the victory conditions.

@mathiasgustum858 10 ай бұрын

Nice! btw, what kind of mat are you using as a base for the terrain? :)

@theofficerfactory2625 2 жыл бұрын

This is basically a wonderful example of what happens to tanks who go against infantry unsupported.

@stevepetersen7697 2 жыл бұрын

Isn't the purpose of infantry in this kind of operation to recon and deal with enemy infantry so that the armor WON'T get ambushed?

@mikemhz 2 жыл бұрын

Yeah I was thinking how I'd play it. My spidey senses would tingle near the hedgerow, so I'd send some infantry left and right to clear forwards.

@johnwayneeverett6263 2 жыл бұрын

Great.

@marshallwhitlock6240 2 жыл бұрын

Curious what scale this is? At first I thought 15mm but now I doubt myself.

@mikemhz 2 жыл бұрын

I'm impressed by how similar this feels to the Men of War PC games

@brucewilliams4152 11 ай бұрын

What is missed the British not only fought the paneer divisions but beat them in a battle of attrition. When the break out finally came 30corps were the fastest advancing unit any where in the allied army including patton

@WARdROBEPlaysWWII 2 жыл бұрын

Seems like a nice small game

@orbitalair2103 2 жыл бұрын

looking at the scenario card, what is the scale/size of the map play area? of each square? thanks.

@rwcowell 2 жыл бұрын

Brad Pitt was a "Bad Brit" despite the panzerschreck taking him out. I'm sure Angie Jolet will be heartbroken by that. The German panzerschreck operator deserves the Iron Cross for his heroics. Overall, pretty cool game. Looks like it would be fun to play.

@SimonJohnOwen 2 жыл бұрын

I think this scenario was almost impossible for the British player to win, the victory conditions were too harsh and the time limit was too tight.

@Redwhiteblue-gr5em 2 жыл бұрын

Note to British. Send your infantry in first to engage the German infantry. Then the tanks

@miked9655 2 жыл бұрын

Maybe fan submitted games with our favorite wargammers providing commentary. Love to have them scratch their heads as I just headlong charge into anything in front of me!

@Lewismarty1 2 жыл бұрын

Would love this! Would be a great patreon reward