From the German 'Kabinettskriege' - Cabinet Wars: a period of limited conflict from the Peace of Westphalia (1648) to the French Revolution (1789).

Caesar's Camp - Scenario 4, Take 2 - CoC AAR

 Capturing Caesar's Camp, 3rd June 1940 - a pint-sized campaign 

The last game saw the British fail to take La Ferme de Caubert so, to progress further in this campaign they must try again.  Both the Germans and the British start this game with full-strength platoons, the British because they have committed their reserve, and the Germans because they took no casualties in the last game.  As this is the fifth game in the campaign, from now on, whenever the Germans win, they can choose to launch a counter-attack in the following game.

Scenario 4 - 'La Ferme de Caubert'

See the previous post for a description.

The rolls for Force Morale (FM) saw the Germans, again, start on 10, while the British threw worse than last time to start with an FM of only 8, and only one Chain of Command (CoC) point.

The Patrol Phase

Despite John's Brits d6 roll giving them 5 free moves, the patrol phase ended much the same as last time, with all markers fixed in the western half of the table.


However, this time being aware that the Brits were almost certain to be placing a vehicle entry point somewhere along their table-edge I had ensured I would be able to place a JOP at the eastern edge of the farm.  The resulting JOPs (the small national symbols) can be seen in the map below, the yellow outlined 'JOP' being a vehicle entry point.


After JOP placement, comes the selection of support units, and I, seeing how successful it had been last time stuck with my two leIG.18 7.5cm guns and a Pak36 anti-tank gun.  The Brits, benefitting from two additional support points for a second attempt at the scenario, had a total of 18pts.  They opted for: a Carrier section (3 x carriers); a 2" Mortar team; an entrenchment; an off-table Adjutant; and a 3" mortar barrage. 

The Game

The Brits, as the attackers, took the first phase, and, as in the previous game, immediately threw two '6's for a double-phase[1], and deployed a carrier from their vehicle entry point (VEP) and a 2" mortar team from the nearby JOP.


Rolling the command dice for their second phase, they got another two '6's for a second double-phase.  This time they deployed a senior leader (denoted by the red dot on the base; yellow for junior leaders) to coordinate the mortar and maximise its chance of being able to fire when required; possibly a wasteful use of a senior leader?


That was all they could do this phase as the other command dice were '5's giving him more CoC points; NB: I was also gaining a CoC point every time my opponent got a double-phase.

Then the John rolled his command dice for his third consecutive British phase, and rolled two '6's for another double-phase!  This was getting scary, and this time, again with limited actionable command dice, he deployed another 2" mortar team and advanced the carrier.


So now, on his fourth consecutive phase, John finally rolled only one '6' but did get a fairly useful, and CoC point laden: 2, 3, 5, 5, 6.  This saw the deployment of a second carrier and an infantry section.  


All in all, I got away quite lightly there, as despite having the first four consecutive phases the command dice did not provide lots opportunities for the British to do much.  OTOH John had now recovered from the poor die roll that only gave him one starting CoC point, as he now had a full CoC die and was well on his way to a second.

It was now my first phase and fairly strong response was called for.  What's more there was an ideal opportunity as John had overlooked a small part of the hedge, which otherwise shielded him from view, was only a minor obstacle (does not block LOS or provide cover unless in position behind it).  My command dice roll gave me all I wanted to deploy an leIG.18 7.5cm gun team (in an entrenchment) and an infantry section, with a senior commander to coordinate it all.  

I have no photos of this deployment, no doubt totally absorbed in the coming storm of steel I was about to visit on the British caught out in the open.  Storm of steel was the appropriate word as the MG34[2], with maschinengewehr enabled by the attached senior commander, delivered a blizzard of '6's overwhelming any benefit the Brits got from their tactical posture.


The net result of this, plus the HE delivered by the leIG.18, against which a tactical posture provides no benefit, saw the British section take four casualties[3], including the death of the junior leader, and four points of shock.


The immediate British response was, as ever, after deploying the final carrier, a smokescreen which can be seen neatly blocking the small length of 'minor' hedge that I could fire through (the rest of the, larger, hedge blocks line of sight (LOS). 


The British infantry section also moved across to the hedge to their left, but that happened after the smoke was laid and I failed to take a photo of it.

It was now the German's phase and they got a double-phase, and what's more I now had a CoC die largely thanks to the CoC points gained from all those British double-phases at the beginning of the game.  I'm usually very reluctant to use up my CoC dice, but this one was immediately expended on ending the turn to get rid of the smoke.  And in the current phase before the smoke disappeared, I deployed my Pak36 to take on the carriers, albeit only one was available as a target.


Much to my amazement I actually hit it, albeit only getting the minimum possible score for a hit.  Nonetheless this was huge leap forward in anti-tank capability as anyone who's followed the previous games will appreciate.  So, I rolled 5d6 to see how many penetrating hits the carrier would have to save - none!  And to rub salt into the wound the carrier shrugged off the attack without any ill-effect (even non-penetrating hits can inflict shock or wounds).  Oh well, "plus ça change".

But now onto the second half of my double-phase, and now the smoke had gone  the infantry were once again hit by my leIG.18 but this only managed to inflict some shock, which would at least keep the senior leader busy.  And to round off the phase, another attempt by the Pak36 to take out a carrier, and again a hit, but again only just (it would've missed if unable to claim the +1 for having hit the target in the previous phase).  This time I managed to get a penetrating hit, but the carrier's armour roll cancelled that out and again there was no effect.

The British in their phase, advanced the carrier engaged by the Pak36 out of the guns field of fire and up to hedge to engage the entrenched leIG.18, inflicting a point of shock.  At the same time, they attempted to lay more smoke on the length of 'minor' hedge but this time failed with both rounds landing in the same place 6" to their left.  And what's more I actually got round to taking a photo at this point.


This photo finally allows me to show the location of the two gun teams, the infantry section is in the barn to right of the leIG.18 entrenched in the gateway to the farm.  The Pak36 can be seen, bottom left, with no targets left after the leading Bren Carrier had advanced up to the hedge, from where it inflicted the point of shock seen on the leIG.18.  All three carriers can be seen to have ended up in a, widely-spaced, single-file column.  The British infantry section can be seen up against the hedge, trying to make itself look small (Tactical).  The British section can't cross the hedge to avoid the infantry gun as the other side of the hedge is covered by the MG34 in the barn which can't see them where they are, leaving them very much caught between a rock and a hard place.  Finally, right at the top of the photo are the two 2" mortar teams with markers indicating they have both expended all three of their smoke rounds, their last two rounds landing on top of each other on the road where it leaves the righthand side of the photo.

The British attack was now looking to have culminated into a deadly stalemate.  The le.IG18 continued to slowly whittle down the section while the senior leader tried to keep their shock down.


Looking to break the deadlock, the British deployed another section against the German right flank, advancing up to the hedge they had occupied in the last game.  


It didn't achieve anything then and didn't now; I had enough forces not yet deployed to comfortably block it if it came any closer.  This left only the carriers, which advanced to suppress the infantry gun, as posing any real threat over the next few phases. 


Bizarrely, the carriers, unperturbed by my Pak36, were repeatedly driven back by the MG34 in the barn that despite being unable to penetrate their armour inflicted shock and forced retreats.  The shock resulted in some failed activations which further diminished the effectiveness of this approach.


As will be seen from the photo above, one of these forced retreats saw a carrier just backed up far enough past the hedge to allow the Pak36 another shot.  And this time I threw a '6' and '4' for an easy hit, and the '6' gained them an extra die roll for penetrating hits.  With no armour save the carrier took two net penetrating hits which saw the vehicle take two shock and the commander wounded (bad things happen).

With the Brits desperate to attack elsewhere, they got another double-phase.  Unfortunately, the other command dice were unkind and they managed little more than recovering some shock, some ineffectual HE from their 2" mortars, and the deployment of their final section down the main road to support the other section as it left the shelter of the hedge, no doubt to force a German response.

And a response was duly delivered in Spades as the Germans also got a double-phase.  The infantry section that had just crossed the hedge was promptly decimated by the deployment and fire from a German infantry section and the second leIG.18.  In total they lost four casualties, again including the junior leader, and seven shock, leaving them pinned, exposed, and without a leader to recover them.


At the same time on the other flank, the British senior leader lost his battle managing the shock on the infantry section as they took another three casualties and became pinned. 


With their Force Morale now down to 4, reducing then to only four command dice the British accepted that their attack had failed and withdrew.

With so many pinned personnel this was never going to be easy.  The consequent dicing to determine who successfully withdrew and who was captured or dispersed, saw a senior leader and a rifleman dispersed (will miss the next game), and five more riflemen taken prisoner (permanent losses).

The Butcher's Bill

While the German's only casualty was single rifleman (I forget where[4]) who would return to duty the game after next.

The British by contrast had lost two junior leaders and twelve riflemen as casualties, not counting the five taken prisoner).  Of the riflemen, six would return to duty (RTD) in time for the next game, if required, 3 would RTD for the game after that and the remainder were permanently lost.

So, if required to refight this scenario in the next game the platoon would be reduced to:
  • 2x Senior Leaders (a replacement covering for the dispersed snr ldr).
  • 3x Junior Leaders (two being promoted from the ranks as inferior jnr ldrs).
    • [with just one command initiative and a 3" command radius]
  • 13x Riflemen to man the Bren guns or 2" mortar, or serve as riflemen.
    • [13, and not 15, as 2 are promoted to replace the dead jnr ldrs]
If not required to fight until the game after next, the dispersed senior leader will take over from his replacement and a further three riflemen will RTD.

Post Mortem

As said after the previous playing of this scenario, this one is really hard for the British to win, but they didn't seem to change their approach much.  This made life easy for the Germans who could sum up the fight as "they came on in the same old way and we defeated them in the same old way".     

The British did select a mortar barrage as one of their support options, but it never got used as they kept it in reserve for a more deserving target.  Picking the best moment to use a reserve is really important but to get defeated without ever employing it has got to be a mistake - as a paid for support asset it's a case of use it or lose it.  On the topic of mortars there was also no attempt to replenish the 2" mortars with smoke rounds from the nearby JOP.  It might not have yielded up any ammunition but was surely worth a try.

Another questionable action was continuing to press on with an attack when it had already stalled so badly.  Had they withdrawn sooner they would be in a much better situation with a less depleted platoon for another attempt - and a further two support points for a total of 20pts.

If anyone out there has won this scenario as the British, or has some ideas on how best to go about it, please do let me know in the comments section.

Next Scenario...

The next game will not be a repeat of this scenario as I, the Germans, having seized the initiative by winning this game have chosen to launch a counter attack against the British platoon from game 4 which is now in reserve at Villers.  I will have a fresh platoon and plenty of support, which could even include a Stuka strike.  We have this game scheduled for about two weeks hence.


Notes:

[1.]  Although I call them 'double-phases', it would be more accurate to describe them as securing the next phase, as John's three double-phases in a row only gave him four consecutive phases and not six. 

[2.]  It really was all about the MG34, as the barn only had apertures enough for the MG34 team and two riflemen.

[3.]  The apparent discrepancy in the number of figures, dead and alive, arises from not using a one-man Bren gunner to replace the two-figure base yet putting the correct number of upturned casualty figures in place for the photo.

[4.]  This AAR was written up the day after the game and my memory of what happened, and when, gets rather fuzzy by then.  It's not helped by my often forgetting to take photos when the action is at its most frenetic (just when you really need them).  I am constantly in awe of how 'The Tactical Painter' manages to put together the 'professional' AARs that he does.


Caesar's Camp - Scenario 4 - CoC AAR

Capturing Caesar's Camp, 3rd June 1940 - a pint-sized campaign 

After the first three scenarios we have come to the main German defence line so the fighting starts in earnest.  Both my Germans and John's British start this game with a fresh platoon, because I withdrew quite quickly from the last scenario from which neither of us took casualties to our core platoons.

Scenario 4 - 'La Ferme de Caubert'

In this scenario the British have to either break the morale of the German defenders or take two of the four buildings in the farm complex - see scenario map below (North is at the top of the Map).


The rolls for Force Morale (FM) saw the Germans starting on 10 and the British on 9, with an additional d6 roll giving the British 3 Chain of Command (CoC) points at the start of the game.

The Patrol Phase

Our initial Patrol marker deployment is shown below - we both had 4 patrol markers, I stacked two together in the middle and John stacked two at the bottom of the photo.

John rolled a '1' on a d6, getting only one free move before the Germans went first in the patrol phase as they had the higher Force Morale.  The completed patrol phase saw all the markers fixed in the western half of the table.


And consequently, the jump-off points (JOPs) were also confined to the western half.  One German JOP, marked by a black star, is inside a farm building; and the British JOP highlighted with a yellow arrow is not a JOP but a vehicle entry point as there are no roads on the British table-edge.


The placement of the vehicle entry point induced a degree of panic as, having not remembered there might be one, I had no JOPs to cover any approach from that direction.  Had I given more thought to my JOP placement I would've placed one at the eastern edge of the farm - too late to do anything now; hindsight's a wonderful thing but foresight would be better.

For my support options I went for maximum firepower and selected two leIG.18 7.5cm guns and a Pak36, despite the latter's terrible performance in the last game.  At 4pts each, these three items used up my entire allowance of 12 support points.  John chose, but did not reveal to me at this point, the following 16pts worth of support: a Carrier section (3 x carriers); a Vickers MMG, a 2" Mortar team; and, an off-table Adjutant. 

The Game

John as the attacker took the first phase and promptly two '6's for a double-phase - was this going to be an omen?

the Brits wasted no time and in the first of their phases brought on a Carrier with Boys Anti-Tank Rifle (ATR) and senior leader from the vehicle entry point ...

... and, simultaneously an infantry section and Vickers MMG from their forward JOP on the western table-edge.


British doubled down in their second phase, with the rest of the Carrier section deploying to join their senior leader[1] ...


... and the deployed infantry section doubling forward to the hedge with the Vickers placed on overwatch to cover them.


I was faced with threats from two directions, one of which, thanks to my poorly placed JOPs, I was unable to respond to.  So, deciding now was not the time to hold back I decided to focus on quickly defeating the threat I could counter.  And, thanks to an extremely handy command roll, I was able to deploy both 7.5cm infantry guns, an infantry section, and a senior commander to coordinate them ...


... to target the Vickers which seemed the greater threat.


This may seem like overkill, but overkill was what I was aiming for to try and crush these targets before the carriers could do too much on my other flank.  And, it worked a treat, with the Storm of Steel bonus for both guns firing HE and the deploying section's MG34 benefitting from maschinengewehr.  The Vickers, the target of all this firing took one casualty and seven shock which pinned it on the verge of breaking.


John immediately countered in his phase, first by firing his section behind the hedge at one of my guns, killing a gunner but inflicting no shock.  Then, he deployed a senior leader and both 2"mortar teams.  The former immediately rallied 3 shock off the Vickers team, while the latter heralded the arrival of an all too inevitable British smokescreen to block off my line of sight to the Vickers.


Frustrating as this was, it meant that with the British entirely focussed on saving these troops, they were unable to advance their carriers.

And then, in the next German phase, I got a double-phase!  With the Vickers being no longer available as a target I brought on another German section (with MG08 in place of MG34[2]) ...


... and fired everything I could (one leIG.18 and part of the other German section were not blocked by the smoke) at the British infantry lining the hedge in this phase and the next!  

The resulting spectacular firing dice rolls[3], inflicted 4 casualties, including killing the junior leader, and 13 shock!.  The section promptly broke, routing back to where the senior leader, busy trying to rally the Vickers team[4], was standing (he is why there appears to be too many figures compared to shock markers for a rout).


And in close up.


Annoyingly, I didn't track Force Morale during the game so I can't provide a countdown as the bad things happen tests chipped away at the British FM.

The response to this German double-phase, was a British double-phase!  I was surprised when the first thing John did was to deploy another section to advance past the fleeing one - this can't have been good for the men's morale.  Rallying off some shock used up their only other actionable command die.


The second part of the British double-phase saw lots happening.  First the new section advanced to the smaller hedge behind that previously occupied by the routing section.


Then, switching to the British right, the carriers advanced, and a CoC die was expended to advance a JOP and deploy a section alongside them.


Now, with a CoC die of my own, I was finally able to move one of my JOPs across to the eastern side of farm and deploy my Pak36 to engage the carriers.  


It was time to put the disgraceful shooting from the last fight behind us, I rolled the 2d6 to hit a carrier ... 


... and missed!

The next few phases passed fairly quickly with both sides being limited by 
some fairly unhelpful command dice rolls like this one.


To be honest, I got swept up in the game at this point (again!) and took few photos so I'll just give a broad outline of the end-game.  All the action revolved around the attack by the British right; their left being held in check by the infantry guns and a German section (one of the two German sections previously deployed against the British left was moved over to help occupy the farm).

As the British tried to press forward with their carriers and infantry, the Pak36 managed another two shots, both misses!  Luckily for me the return fire from the carriers was equally dismal as more British smoke appeared.  What broke the stalemate here was the deployment of the final German section and its MG34.


Not only did the MG34's maschinengewehr catch the British section in the open and wipe out their Bren team, but the Pak36 finally hit a carrier inflicting two shock and wounding the commander.  The resulting bad things happen test dragging down the British Force Morale.


With John forced to focus on removing shock to keep his troops in action there was little retaliation.  And then, m next phase saw the MG34 pull off another tour de force courtesy of Storm of Steel, ...


... the resultant pinning of the British section supporting the carriers saw John decide to cut his losses and withdraw.

Withdrawing can be tricky with pinned troop, and while the riflemen all got away their junior leader was taken prisoner.

The Butcher's Bill

While the German's had taken no casualties (apart from one gunner from an IG.18), the British had lost 10 men and a junior leader captured.  This means that as well as the junior leader 5 men are permanently lost, 3 more will miss the next game, 2 will return to duty (RTD) immediately.  

John decided to retire this platoon to his reserve in the town of Villers and use his fresh reserve platoon from there for his next attempt on La Ferme de Caubert.

Post Mortem

This is a hard scenario for the British to win, with much open ground to cross and the Germans able to field a lot of support weaponry.  That said, I felt there were at least two points where the British slipped up.

First, the deployment of the second British section to replace the first, after that had routed, posed little threat, achieved nothing other than reinforcing failure.  Why, without any additional support, could it be expected to do any better than the previous section?  Much better to throw it against the other flank away from the death-dealing 7.5cm infantry guns.

The carriers, that posed a significant threat, had an opportunity to shut down the JOP after the Pak36 had deployed but hung back.  Then two of the carriers took advantage of the smoke to avoid the Pak36 leaving one to take it one by itself.  This was a clear violation of the principle of concentration of force.  

Whether avoiding these mistakes would've been enough to overcome this strong defensive position is uncertain, but clearly didn't help. 

Next Scenario...

This will be a repeat of this scenario as the British, with a fresh platoon, must win the La Ferme de Caubert scenario before they can progress to the final scenario where they need to capture the chateau to win the campaign.  However, as a repeat attack, they will now be allowed two more support points for a total of 18pts.  

The German force will be unchanged as they took no casualties and will receive the same level of support (12pts).

We fought this next game immediately after completing the one described above but the AAR will have to await my next post.


Notes:

[1.]  This was an error as only one vehicle is allowed to deploy, per entry point, per phase.  But we both missed it.

[2.] Don't look too closely as, lacking an MG08 model, an MG34 is being used.

[3.] In the second phase this included the only two riflemen able to fire in one German section scoring two kills!  And this was when the British were in hard cover (pinned in soft cover).

[4.] Possible another error here as the senior leader appears, from the photo, to be in command range but not close enough to be attached to the Vickers so can't rally off shock.  But this wasn't noticed at the time and there's always the possibility that this photo wasn't taken exactly at this point in the game.

WiPs and Butchered Bits

With the WW2 items finished it's time to do some more vintage 20mm Napoleonics; in this case the French 4th Hussars, courtesy of a very kind gift from a fellow blogger (Hinton Hunt Odyssey).  I had been trying, without success, to obtain some of these figures since I had been seduced into this vintage madness by 'The Hinton Spieler' back in 2017.   So, having finally obtained some, they have been fast-tracked to the front of the painting queue.

Now, as is ever the case with vintage OOP figures, comes the inevitable cleaning up and repair of the castings; plus, converting some rank and file into command figures that were sadly lacking in the Hinton Hunt range.

First up the horses.  These have been cleaned of any flash and had any holes from in the castings filled with Milliput. 


The filling is rather simple but cleaning out the excess metal between the horses back legs would be a real bore without my trusty Dremel rotary tool and grinding bits.  As I didn't take any 'before' photos of this process, here's one of a handy one-piece casting showing the problem next to one of the 4th Hussar horses that was free of this flaw.


The troopers, seen in the first photo, now need cleaning up and the following photo shows the figures selected for conversion into an officer and trumpeter, ...


... together with one trooper who needs his sword repaired, the photo below showing the missing point that needs replacing.


The 'butchered bits' in the title to this post are standing by to be cannibalised for these figures; including a Newline Design trumpeter - trumpets are just too fiddly to fabricate from scratch.



To command these hussars, I've included a personality figure in this painting batch, and who better to command a regiment of hussars than the man himself, General Antoine-Charles-Louis, Comte de Lasalle.


I hadn't originally intended to do any mods to the figure but his right hand resting on his thigh was just begging to have a pipe added as I've never seen an illustration of him without it.  

That's all for now, but these will take some time to complete so there will probably be another WiP post before they are completed and ready for a full-dress parade. 


WiP Complete - 3 Rare Tanks

With various jobs around the house complete I was able to focus on finishing the three tanks I started some time ago.  They are rare-ish because few were made in the case of the Tetrarch (100-177) and Panzer II Luchs (100); and the more numerous Panzer III was reduced to a handful of survivors by the late-war period which I game.  They are all 1/76 scale, white metal kits, by MMS Models.



The A17 MkVII Tetrarch, in this case the CS version, is intended to support my Airborne platoon and is painted in a two-tone brown camouflage pattern.  I had thought it was going to be pretty dull when I put it together but I find the finished look rather pleasing.



The Pz II Luchs, this was a nice kit although there were some casting flaws but it captures the rather 'cute' (can tank be cute?) look of the original.  The markings, for a 9th Panzer vehicle in Normandy, were a real pain.  The red, four-digit serial goes over some vision slots and decals refused to adhere to this uneven surface.  So, I had to paint these freehand, not great up close but from a distance they're okay.



The Panzer III, Ausf J, is one of my favourite tanks and I've painted it up as one of the training tanks forming Panzer Kompanie 'Mielke' at Arnhem.  That unit had several Pz III of various different marks not all of which are known so I've taken the liberty of assuming one was an Ausf J.  I've given it the serial number '28', as what I've read says they had black two-digit serial numbers on the turret and one of them was '29'.  The commander seems to be doing his Usain Bolt impression, what that's all about I'll leave to the imagination.



And finally, an even rarer flight of fancy.




ADDENDUM: I perhaps should've pointed out that the Airborne flashes on the Tetrarch are my first attempt at printing my own decals.  Didn't do too good a job of varnishing them before use to protect the ink from the water - but live and learn.