Walking On Omaha - Turn 2 German Fire Phase

On to the Turn 2 German fire phase. We've covered the basics before, so we'll make it a little simpler now.

Here's the East sector and our draw card:

The two fire positions shown are purple and orange, but we're only worried about purple. The position has two counters on it, so it can fire even with the double square on the card. It will also affect armored units under certain circumstances. Again, there are two units, so two targets are determined. There are no Intense targets, but there are units in two Steady hexes, the ones that just landed. In this case, the two targets are the ones to the far right of the picture, which match the target symbol on the card, and the armor symbol means that the tank unit can take a step loss as well. The infantry unit by itself takes no damage because the symbol doesn't match, even though it's a Steady hex for purple. The tank unit directly above it takes no hits because it's in a Sporadic hex and so it's priority was below that of the two units that *did* take hits. Note that had the lone infantry unit matched the symbol, it would have taken a hit first because it was closer to the firing position, and the tank unit in the two-unit hex would have been spared because the infantry unit with it had more steps. Also note that the target designation on the two units that *did* take hits would not have mattered as there were five stacking points in the hex and thus their target symbols would be considered to automatically match that on the card.

Also in the East sector, the Green and Brown positions will fire, although there are no brown positions with units in them, much less US units in a field of fire. That leaves green, and we ignore the letter code as before because it applies to the later portion of the game. There are five units that can be targeted, but since two have already taken hits they are exempt, and so the three units on the right that are on the waterline are possible targets. Or would be were they not in Steady hexes and didn't have the matchin symbol. As such, all make it without damage. Note that the tank unit in the middle took damage landing, not from German Fire in this phase.

Now we check out the West sector, which has it's own card draw, shown at the top. In this case, the relevant colors in this part of the map are blue and purple. I should note that were there multiple blue positions that could fire, all would do so. The result against the Ranger unit is the same regardless of which fire position we use, it's in a Steady hex and matches the symbol so it takes a hit, but only one.

On to the final picture, which concerns only the brown WN position. Again, it has two or more counters in the position (three, in fact), and we ignore the letter. The possible targets are the three along the beach. Note that this position's field of fire extends across the sector boundary line, so while it's fire is determined by the West sector fire card draw, it may end up targeting units in the East sector. In this case, the hexes are all Steady, but only two have the matching triangle target symbol, and one of those is armored and the brown boxes don't have an armored symbol. The result is that the infantry unit loses a step but the two tank units don't.

Note the reduced tank unit to the right of the picture, the one in the orange Intense hex. Had a fire card with an Orange box been drawn, this unit would have been eliminated regardless of target symbol and armor symbol, and it would have been the first to take a hit because of the priority to fire on units in Intense hexes first. However, it got lucky, and perhaps this is the time to get it off that hex.

We aren't at turn 4, so no check for German Arty, and there are no German disrupted units, so that's it for this phase. Next up, the US Engineering phase, which I'm saving for it's own entry since it's the first time we've done it.