Event Information Common Rules Missions
St. Mere Eglise - Airborne

The St. Mere Eglise - Airborne Assault mission uses the Airborne Assault or Seaborne Attack, Close-In Fighting, Ranged Support, Airborne Assault Rules, Dawn (page 273), Scattered Reserves (page 269), Unload the Gliders, Seaborne Delayed Reserves, Night Training, Surprise and Prepared Positions (page 264) special rules.

 Your Orders

Allies
The invasion of the beaches were a success, now we need to consolidate the beachhead. Ahead lies St. Mere Eglise, a vital road junction. Your orders are to break through any German defences in this town.

Axis
The Allies have invaded in Normandy and have broken through the beach defences. The town of St. Mere Eglise is a vital road junction, and you must keep the road open to our troop movement and closed to the Allies.

St. Mere Eglise Map

Preparing for battle

  1. Determine which mission to play using the Airborne Assault or Seaborne Attack special rule.
  2. The Axis players place one objective anywhere on the table at least 40cm from all table edges.
  3. The Allied players place two objectives anywhere on the table at least 40cm from all table edges.
  4. The Axis players must hold at least half of their platoons in reserve at the satrt of the game. The remaining platoons deploy anywhere on the table.
  5. The Allied players must hold all platoons, that are not Parachute, Airlanding, Glider or Airborne platoons, in Seaborne Delayed Reserves. They then place additional platoons in Reserve until at least half of their platoons are in reserve, starting with Airborne, Glider and Airlanding platoons.
  6. The remaining Allied platoons are kept ready to enter the table in the first movement step, using the Scattered Reserves special rule.
  7. The Allied players now remove one of the objectives that the Allied players placed.
  8. The Allied players place the Pathfinder marker using the Airborne Assault Rules.

Beginning the Battle

  1. Neither side may make any Reconnaissance Deployment moves.
  2. The Allied players have the first turn, remembering to roll for Reserves in the Starting Step.
  3. Only the Axis are in Prepared Positions, so all Axis platoons may begin the game Dug In.
  4. In the first Movement Step the Allied players move that portion of their force that is not in reserve on to the table as if arriving as Scattered Reserves.

Ending the Battle

The battle ends on or after turn eight when either:
  • the Allied players have Taken any of the Objectives at the start of their turn, or
  • the Axis players starts their turn with no Allied teams within 40cm of an Objective.

Deciding Who Won

The Allied players win if the game ended because they started one of their turns holding an Objective. The Allies have secured the vital road junction.

Otherwise the Axis players win. The road junction of St. Mere Eglise is still in German hands, and mobile forces can be moved through the road junction to counter any Allied attack.

Calculate your Victory Points using the Victory Points Table below.


Mission Special Rules

The St. Mere Eglise - Airborne Assault mission uses the Airborne Assault or Seaborne Attack, Close-In Fighting, Ranged Support, Airborne Assault Rules, Dawn (page 273), Scattered Reserves (page 269), Unload the Gliders, Seaborne Delayed Reserves, Night Training, Surprise and Prepared Positions (page 264) special rules.

Airborne Assault or Seaborne Attack
If the Allied force contains at least one company with any of the words "Parachute", "Airlanding", "Airborne" or "Glider" in the company title, the Allied players will make an Airborne Assault. Otherwise, the Allies will make a Seaborne Attack.

Play this mission if the Allied players make an Airborne Assault. Otherwise play the Mission St. Mere Eglise - Seaborne Attack.

Close-In Fighting
The standard table for bocage or street-fighting battles is half a normal table size (in our case this means a normal table).

Ranged Support
You may hold any platoons capable of firing an artillery bombardment off table. If you do so, the guns, command team, and staff team are not placed on the table. Only the observers are placed on the table as normal. You still use the normal spotting and ranging rules when firing your artillery.
Artillery held off table in this manner have the range and field of fire to hit any target on the table.
As your artillery units are not on table, they do not count as being on the table for Company Morale Checks. Simply ignore any artillery placed off table when calculating whether your company is below half strenght.
If artillery is placed in Reserve, only move the observes onto the table when it arrive from reserve, to hold the artillery off table.

Airborne Assault Rules
The Allied players place a Pathfinder marker on any table edge or corner. When rolling for Scattered Reserves a roll of 2 or 5 will result in a platoon arriving at this table edge or corner.

In the first Movement Step move that portion of your force that is not in reserve, onto the table as if they arrived from Scattered Reserves.

All Parachute, Glider, Airlanding or Airborne platoons arrive on the table from Scattered Reserve. There are no Coup-de-main glider landings in this mission.

Unload the Gliders
During the game all Glider, Airborne or Airlanding platoon may only arrive on the table after all Parachute platoons.

Seaborne Delayed Reserves
Platoons held in Seaborne Delayed Reserves arrive on the table along the table edges between the two eastern-most road entry point, as indicated on the map. You star rolling for Seaborne Delayed Reserves in the Starting Step of the first Allied turn in Daylight, after all Parachute, Glider, Airborne or Airlanding have arrived from reserve.

Night Training
British and Canadian Parachute platoons, Airlanding platoons and US Parachute Rifle platoons may ignore the usual rules regarding movement at night, and may instead move normally.

Surprise
All Axis platoons on the table start the game Pinned Down and all defending armoured vehicles on the table start the game Bailed Out. Platoons may start the game mounted in transports and may not bring their transport forward until they have unpinned.

Victory Point Table
The winning players has lost one or no platoons - Stunning Victory 6:1
The winning players has lost two or three platoons - Major Victory 5:2
The winning players has lost four or more platoons - Minor Victory 4:3
If a winning player started the game with nine or more platoons in the player's own company (not including transport platoons), the first destroyed platoon from that company is ignored when determining the victory points above.