Bocage Rules

Bocage in Flames Of War Download the Bocage and Bocage Fighting rules as found in D-Day(PDF)… The Bocage is an area covering the southern and western part of Normandy. It is made up of many small irregular fields bordered by the hedgerows that give the area its name. Bocage hedgerows have thick stone banks, formed when the fields were cleared in antiquity, topped by dense hedges of trees and bushes. While the hedgerows are excellent for keeping cattle from straying, they are almost impassable to vehicles and even to troops on foot they present a major obstacle. The area is rural, so most roads are small lanes designed for horse-drawn carts, barely wide enough for a motorised vehicle. The main roads between the towns are wider and more modern, but few and far between. Roads are usually banked up on both sides and lined with trees.  The farmers of the area mostly raise cattle to make the famous cheeses of the region and grow apples to make into potent Calvados brandy. Crops like corn and wheat are mainly restricted to the flatter open areas around Caen.

The Bocage extended 60 miles (100 km) from north to south, and over half of that east to west. Apart from farmhouses, small villages, enclosed orchards, and occasional woods, the entire area of a battle fought in the Bocage should be covered in bocage hedgerows. In Flames Of War, bocage fields are typically 6-12”/15-30cm across by 8-16”/20-40cm long. They are usually entirely surrounded by bocage hedgerows with few gates through the banks. Some fields do not have a gate at all, just an opening barely wide enough to pass a wheelbarrow or cow.

Apart from a few wider main roads, most of the roads in the bocage are narrow lanes. Typically they have bocage hedgerows pressing in from both sides and are not wide enough for anything bigger than a jeep to pass another vehicle. Often the trees from the sides of the lane meet overhead. The farm buildings are usually made of the same grey stone as the hedgerow banks. The tile-roofed houses are rather plain with little in the way of decoration to break their square lines. We have taken the Bocage Rules and terrain modelling from D-Day and created a PDF for you to download. Bocage Rules (PDF)...