Tag bounce the bogen

This sixty-second burst of WW2 WeGo action leaves map square 29, 4, 5 and its environs reeking of cordite, limonene, and pinene. The citrusy terpenes waft from conifers violently pollarded and pruned by 25-pounder rounds.

Before the war the village of Nottingheim was something of a tourist magnet. The big draw wasn’t the castle, it was the famous Eichhörnchenhaus and its unusually tame residents. As CMBO doesn’t include an ornate squirrel tenement among its building…

Three HE rounds traverse the River Bogen during this sixty-second slice of Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord. The first across is 76mm in diameter and, apart from upping the pace of a gaggle of retreating German OAPs, achieves little. The second…

From their resolve and fighting prowess, you wouldn’t guess the four-man German team next to the railway bridge has a combined age of 263. The plucky band of Deutsch pensioners is led by a hard-of-hearing forester called Franz, a veteran…

The warriors that traverse the rail bridge during Turn 8 are all sprinting Tommy infantrymen. The munitions that whip across its mossy stonework are far more diverse. Speeding 9mm, .303, .50 cal, 20mm, 40mm, and 95mm rounds ensure the south-west…

Volkssturm militiamen biding their time in camouflaged foxholes close to the rail bridge espy an irresistible target early in Turn 7. Unfortunately for Sergeant Venison, the target in question is him and his bank-traversing half-team.

The Brits attempt to cross the Bogen in Turn 6. Well, five of them do. Not long after Sergeant Venison’s half squad commences a daring dash across the rail bridge, they start taking fire from their ten o’clock. A party…

Pb + potato mashers + persistence = palpable progress for the POWs this turn. Dale’s Dozen ends the sixty undisputed kings of Nottingheim Castle. The fact that the German MG team weathered several grenade blasts before expiring makes Dale’s lack…

Yet to issue an order in this year’s play-by-comment Combat Mission game? Now would be a great time to get your feet wet. In the final moments of this minute-long turn, the Comment Commanders’ force doubles in size. All of…

First blood to the bouncers! Captain Dale’s hurty half-dozen surprise a German sniper team halfway through the turn then find themselves hurling lead and stick grenades up one of Schloss Nottingheim’s ornately carved staircases.

Corporal Whitehand ends turn 2 surrounded by armour. Fortunately for him the close-range stuff is bipedal, medieval, and empty, and the more distant specimens are currently unaware rogue American POWs are at large in the castle.

Splendid – we now have enough volunteers to begin Bouncing the Bogen! In Turn 1, thanks to orders issued by half a dozen game Cornerites, kit jangles and leaf springs flex on the heavily wooded western side of the river,…