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.
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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.
- 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]
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.
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