Operation Dauntless Unit Preview: Self-Propelled Artillery Both the British and German players have a small number of self-propelled artillery units available in Operation Dauntless. This unit preview will briefly examine these sparse but handy units. British Self-Propelled Artillery The British 147th (Essex Yeomanry) Field Regiment consists of three batteries of four each "Sexton" self-propelled 25-pounder guns (shown below). As part of the 8th Armoured Brigade in Operation Dauntless, these are the only artillery units which are always available to the British player. These SP guns had a maximum gun elevation of 35 degrees, yielding a maximum range of 11,000 yards (about 25-26 Operation Dauntless map hexes). Unlike traditional artillery, these units can both move and fire in a single turn, with a respectable 12 Movement Allowance (up to 24 road hexes per turn).
"The 147th fought as a self-propelled artillery unit using 25-pounder field guns mounted on Sherman tank chassis." (from the Essex Yeomanry Association website at http://www.essex-yeomanry.org.uk/in-the-news/69-military-units-of-essex-4.html ). "147 (Essex Yeomanry) Regiment was converted to 25 pounder guns and landed on D Day to fight through Germany." (from the History section of the British Army website at http://www.army.mod.uk/signals/organisation/8830.aspx ). Note that there are 3 variants of the Sexton, but only the Sexton II was based on a Grizzly (M4A1 Sherman) hull, so these vehicles were the Sexton II's. First built in 1943, Sextons were available in the field from June '44 onward. From '43 to '45, Montreal Locomotive Works manufactured 2,150 Sextons. These were used by both Canadian and British forces. They were first used in combat in Italy, and later took part in the invasion of France and the Normandy battles. During the D-day landings, the Sextons fired from their landing craft as they came ashore, but this fire was near impossible to direct and had a very limited effect. These vehicles are lightly armored, with about 68mm of armor in the front hull, set at a 25 degree slope. The sides and rear hull had no slope, and 38 and 13mm of armor, respectively. What this means in game terms: These units need to remain well behind the front lines, or they will surely be easy prey for lurking German panzers! Below: A sneak peek of some of my latest homemade playtest counters- the British SP 25- pounder "Sextons", shown both on-map and off-map (next page) versions.
Ranged Attacks in Operation Dauntless Ranged Attacks are handled by a 2d6 bell curve in Operation Dauntless. Thus the Ranged Attack Strengths of the three SP gun batteries shown above (RAS = the lower middle stat) do not add up to the RAS of the Regiment. Apart from mortars, all other support from artillery, naval guns, and aircraft are variable and available to the British player via a die roll mechanism each turn. This die roll is modified for time of day as well as date. When Operation Epsom kicks off the following day (June 26th, 1944) the amount of artillery available to the Polar Bears and 8th Armoured units drops off dramatically. But thankfully, this is not so for the Essex Yeomanry guns, which remain firmly in the British player's control throughout the game. German Self-Propelled Artillery As previously mentioned, the British player will need to protect his SP guns to keep them safe from roving German armor. This is a case of game design imitating history, as the British SP guns were normally fielded well behind the front lines, unlike their German equivalents- the Wespe "Wasp" SP 105mm gun, which was frequently deployed up front and used for direct support of infantry units.
Below: Two views of the German Wespe SP gun in action, and destroyed.
Below: Here is the playtest counter for a Wespe battery. These vehicles are from the 2nd battery, 1st (Self-Propelled Group), 12th SS Panzer Artillery Regiment. The 1st battery also consisted of six Wespe SP guns, but per Meyer's account of the German artillery support, this battery was located elsewhere and thus it does not appear in the game. The 3rd battery of this SP group consisted of six Hummel ("Bumble Bee") self-propelled 150mm guns, shown below and on the following page.
Below: The playtest counter for a Hummel battery. Original vehicle artwork for the Wespe and Hummel playtest counters was provided by Michael Evans.
Below: Hummels in Normandy. This photo was probably taken in winter of '43/'44. Below: A Hummel battery in action.
The German player also has a number of traditional artillery (mostly 105mm) and Nebelwerfer rocket artillery available in Operation Dauntless; these will be covered in a future installment. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Vincent Lefavrais, A. Verspeeten, Antonio Pinar Peña, and Ethan McKinney for their kind assistance in researching this topic. Thanks for looking! More Operation Dauntless unit previews coming soon