Cabinette Wars

Stuttering to Victory at Maltot

Firstly, an apology for getting sucked into the game again and not taking enough photos, hence the use of some dodgy ones.

Game 6

So, with the table all set (see last post) we quickly did some die rolling to see if John's Germans recovered any casualties, and how many SS panzergrenadiers would rock up as reinforcements.  They answers were: none and the maximum possible - John rolling a '6' for reinforcements so gained 15 panzergrenadiers.  With a replacement drafted in for his senior leader, captured hiding in an outhouse in the last game, John's platoon was now organised as follows:

• 1 junior leader with panzerfaust and a reinforced LMG team of 5 men (army).
• 1 junior leader with 2 LMG teams of 4 men and 1 panzerfaust (SS).
• 1 junior leader with 1 LMG team of 5 men and 1 panzerfaust (SS).

My British platoon was fresh and at full strength (36 leaders and men)

The Force Morale saw the Germans start at '10' and the British at '9' and the following patrol phase resulted in the following jump-off points (JOPs).

The British then diced for support, hoping for the generous amounts they had received in the two previous games, but...

So, just 2 points of support for the Brits and 1 for the Germans, who respectively opted for a 2" mortar team and a stretch of barbed wire.  The Germans went first but as the defenders held off deploying until they had a better idea of what the Brits would do.  

What the British did over the next few phases was to deploy a section in the 'Shot-up House' and one in the 'Stone Station' and their two 2" mortars deployed alongside the Station Station

These soon enveloped the 'Old Rectory' in smoke.  Then, with all in place, the final section deployed from the Shot-up house into the road[1] and, in the next phase, started to cautiously (tactically) advance towards the Old Rectory.

The Germans decided to let them come closer before reacting.

At this point, I started to consider how I might cope with whatever he might throw at me and ... ooh err, my chaps were pretty much out on a limb as the other two 'covering' sections in hard cover had pretty poor fields of fire and could offer little support.

Seizing the window or opportunity offered by the delayed German response and the luxury of three attempts to take the objective and win this scenario, I withdrew my platoon to start over again. 

Net result: no casualties to either side and on to Game 7 with the same forces and the same scenario / table.

Notes.

[1.] This was an error, with a section in the Shot-up House I mistakenly forgot my JOP was behind the house not in it, and thus couldn't deploy this far forward.  Luckily it had no real impact on the game. 

Game 7

This time the British got off to a better start rolling a force morale of 9 to the German's 8.  This allowed the Brits to go first in the patrol phase which helped to offset getting only 2 free moves instead of the four they had in the previous game.  As a result, the JOPs were in almost exactly the same place as before, the only difference being a JOP behind the Stone Cottage instead of in it.  

This time, on rolling for support I got 7 points and John got 3 (half the attacker's support points rounded down).  I selected the Churchill IV tank and, as before, an additional 2" mortar team.  John opted for another two lengths of barbed wire and a minefield which, added to the barbed wire still in place from the last game created quite an obstruction:

I took the first phase and immediately rolled an 'end of turn' and not much else.

In my next phase, the first of the second turn, I managed to deploy the Churchill and my 2" mortar teams by the Stone Station as in the previous game.

Then John in his first phase of the game, rolled an 'end of turn'!  However, this early in the game he decided to hold fire and wait for the British to advance into a more exposed position.

After this the action settled down along the lines of the previous game with the British saturating the Old Rectory with smoke while the Germans patiently waited for the British infantry to come out in the open. 

The difference this time was that my two covering sections were in the Stone Cottage as before but this time in the Stone Station instead of the Shot-up House.  Also, the PIAT team had deployed with the platoon sergeant in the Shot-up House and the platoon commander in the Stone Station and my Churchill crept forward not wanting to get too close to all those panzerfausts.  

Now, feeling much happier about the level of fire support available, the section in the Shot-up House once again ventured out into the road and in the next phase went tactical.

In the very next German phase, they rolled another 'end of turn' and the smoke covering the British section in the road promptly vanished, and me, without a CoC die to my name, unable to do anything about it.  In the German's next phase, John, after rolling two '6's(!) on his command dice, used his CoC die to spring an SS LMG team ambush[1] from the far side of the crossroads, to make the most of the opportunity, especially as all my covering units had lost their overwatch status at the turn-end. 

Lady Luck, obviously felt sorry for me as John only managed 2 kills and one point of shock; one kill on the Bren team and other turned out to be a light wound on the section leader (I'm using the red pin marker to remind the section leader is wounded). 

My luck held as I rolled a '1' on the bad things happen test meaning there was no impact on my force morale.  At this point John decided not to withdraw his ambush team but leave it in place to take advantage of a third turn on the trot.  Just to rub it in, his command dice for his third phase on the trot rolled another two '6's!!!  But just as he was feeling he could do no wrong, Lady Luck promptly sucker-punched him in the gut as the LMG team failed to score a single hit (5+ needed at effective range)!    

In his fourth consecutive phase he finally threw less than two '6's but the LMG and supporting riflemen managed another kill and point of shock on the exposed section.

In retrospect 2 dead, a wounded junior leader, and 2 points of shock seemed a small price to pay for three rounds of MG42 fire in the open.

At last it was my phase, and with a rather spiffing command roll, I could get in some retaliation.  Firstly, the senior leader in the Shot-up House took off both points of shock from the shot-up section and told them to fire back and see if they could roll the '6's necessary to hit the elite SS panzer grenadiers.  And yes, they could!

The section in the road was then promptly screened again by some more smoke before their shooting was added to by the section in the Stone Station and the Churchill firing high explosive (HE).  This left the SS looking a bit subdued with one dead and just one point of shock short of being pinned.

Realising they had bit off more than they could chew the SS LMG team tried to fall back and rally, the German platoon commander (senior leader) even deploying into the church to rally off more shock.  However, their movement dice betrayed them and left open to more fire, and saw them pinned and dropping like flies (photo taken after the German phase that rallied off all the shock). 

The end was inevitable...

...the resulting bad things happen tests for a section wiped out and a junior leader wounded, and then killed, saw the German force morale plummet from 8 to 4!  The Germans now had only their senior leader on the table which would make deploying any more troops more problematic. 

Feeling a lot more confident, the British now set about restoring their smoke screen to cover the resumption of the weakened section's tactical advance to the Old Rectory; this time accompanied by the senior leader (platoon sergeant) and the PIAT team.  This elicited no response, so in my next phase the sergeant seized the bull by the horns and ordered his men to double up to the Old Rectory.  A good set of movement dice saw them advance right up to it, close enough to shut down the JOP inside.

With Old Rectory occupied the only exit from church holding the German senior leader was covered leaving the senior leader inside trapped (again!).  Also, as the JOP in the Old Rectory had been captured the Germans would have to think twice before using their CoC die to end the turn to remove British smokescreens.  The Germans decided not to deploy any more troops at this stage so the Churchill fired HE at the church and in one blow inflicted 3 kills, killing the senior leader inside.  

John spent his CoC die avoiding the morale test, but I then played mine to end the turn which removed his captured JOP bringing the German force morale down to '2'.  this meant I could remove another of his JOPs and he was reduced to just three command dice.  At this point John conceded and the campaign was won.  And to finish, a quick view of the field of battle at the end from German side (the absence of smoke is due to my ending the turn with a CoC die to eliminate the JOP I had captured).

So ends our learning campaign, I think this last game has reinforced the need to eliminate the other side's armour, if they have any.  John had a few opportunities to try, but they were risky.  On the other hand, the price of leaving the Churchill to do its own thing was catastrophic.

Now, after a short break we'll have to start another campaign.

Notes:

[1.] As an ambush is only a single team, I think we might've made a mistake in deploying the junior leader with it, but as it was a one-section team it doesn't seem unreasonable.