Capturing Caesar's Camp, 3rd June 1940 - a pint-sized campaign
This is the seventh game, not counting the counter-attack at Villers, and thus the last game in this campaign.
Scenario 4 - 'La Ferme de Caubert'
As this is the fourth time we've fought this scenario, other than a quick photo reminder of the table (below), I shan't describe the set up but get straight into pre-game activity.
You may spot this photo as being from the last AAR on this scenario, because ...
... it seems my last post, 'HizHut[1] Admits the 21st Century', was a little premature, and I haven't mastered my new mobile phone yet. It didn't occur to me that the phone camera only had an optical zoom. So, during the game I was using the zoom to save moving around the table and increase the depth of field. The net result is that many of my photos turned out to be very low resolution, see the photo below of (spoiler alert) the sniper that John deployed in Phase 5.
So, with the apologies for the poor-quality images out of the way, it's on to pre-game business.
First up, John had to reorganise the remnants of his core infantry platoon that was down to 2 senior leaders, 3 inferior junior leaders (all recently promoted as replacements) and 9 men. Two of the junior leaders had served in the previous action and thus needed to test to see if their men now accepted them, which would mean them ceasing to be inferior. A d6 roll of 3+ was all that was required, but ...
So, with no fully effective junior leaders, John chose to man his 2" mortar, and put the remaining 7 riflemen in one team, both under a junior leader; leaving one junior leader unemployed and unused.
Then we chose our support options. With 12pt.s, I went for: an leIG.18 7.5cm infantry gun with 5 crew and a junior leader (4pt.s); an MG34 MMG with 5 crew (3pt.s); a sniper (2pt.s); and Adjutant (1pt.); and, two entrenchments for a team (1pt. each). I also had two emplacements still in place from the previous game, but they were to the west of the farm so didn't feature in this game. I was also entitled to another free entrenchment for continuing to defend the same scenario, but I forgot and went without, not that it would've changed anything.
John's Brits, with 22pt.s, selected: 1x mortar bombardment (5pt.s); 2x infantry sections (4pt.s each); 2x Bren Carriers with a 2-man Bren team and junior leader (3pt.s each); 1x sniper (2pt.s); and, 1x Adjutant (1pt.).
The rolls for Force Morale (FM) saw the Brits start with an FM of 10 to the German's 9. The Brits also rolled for starting CoC points, and received 2.
The Patrol Phase
I placed my patrol markers as before in front of the farm that I had to defend.
John surprised me by starting all his patrol markers, in two stacks of two, towards my right (western) flank.
The Brits d6 roll, as per the scenario, gave them 3 free moves to start with, and with the higher force morale they also started the patrol phase proper. When we'd finished, with all patrol markers locked down, it looked like this.
Which gave us the jump-off points (3 each) shown below.
The three British JOPs are visible in the above, and John's hand can be seen placing his vehicle entry point. Also visible at the bottom of the photo is one of my JOPs that I had no choice but to place in a fairly exposed position; the other two being in the farmyard (out of shot to the left of the photo).
It seemed John had decided attacking the farm from the west offered the best chance of success. With the existing entrenchments all being the other side of the farm and the La Haye Barn having no apertures facing west it made a lot of sense. Unfortunately, it was also on that side that I had been forced to place a JOP in a fairly exposed position.
The Game
The Brits, as the attacker, took the first phase. The description of each phase is headed by: the phase number, the nationality of the active side[2] and the command dice scores in parentheses.
1BR(3,4,4,5,6): and the British started the action, depoying support section No.2 in the thicket by the road.
2GE(1,2,3,4,5): a useful CoC point but IMO too early to respond.
3BR(2,3,3,4,5): No.2 section doubled forward, a disappointing 4"(!), along the hedge, after which their junior leader removed one of the points of shock taken for moving at the double, albeit I can't see the remaining shock marker in the photo.
4GE(1,2,3,5,6): again I chose not to react.
6GE(1,3,5,5,6): judging it was time to act, I deployed my leIG.18 7.5cm gun in an entrenchment and opened fire on No.2 section; to no effect. Not a great start, but early days.
7BR(2,2,2,5,6): No.2 section's Bren team engaged the leIG.18 also without effect thanks to their entrenched position. Then the No.1 section, the 7 riflemen and an inferior junior leader from the core platoon, deployed behind a hedge (towards the top of the photo below) ...
... and immediately put down suppressing fire on my gun.
8GE(1,2,2,3,4): the leIG.18 switched its fire to the Bren Carrier but just missed, with what would've been a hit but for the incoming suppressive fire. It was clearly time to deploy more troops to prevent my gun from being overwhelmed. First, a sniper deployed in the Small Barn and shot at No.1 section killing a rifleman. He was joined in the Small Barn by the German II section who also targeted the No.1 section. The Brits hit the dirt, but II section, who always seem to shoot well in this campaign, still managed to kill two riflemen and inflict a point of shock.
The hedges along this track have always seemed to attract the British infantry in these games and every time they have paid a heavy price for being there.
Then, rather foolishly I deployed a senior leader in the Small Barn - I should've deployed him at the same time as II section and he could've used his initiatives to improve their fire - not that there was much room for improvement.
9BR(2,3,6,6,6): the first double-phase in the game, and also an end-of-turn! The Brit's carrier advanced and fired at the leIG.18, inflicting a point of shock. No.2 section's Bren team also fired at the gun but without effect. The turn then ended, but there were no consequences this early in the game.
10BR(1,2,2,4,6): and a British Forward Observer (FO) was deployed heralding the arrival of a mortar bombardment. The sighting round landed on target and the bombardment commenced with immediate effect, but only inflicted a single point of shock on the leIG.18. All the other teams, now pinned inside the Small Barn, escaped unscathed.
While this was happening the Brits deployed another full infantry section (No.3) by the carrier at the junction of the track with the road (see photo above).
11GEÌ(1,2,3,3,5): with everything pinned down by the mortar bombardment, I deployed my entrenched MG34 MMG team in front of the La Haye Barn to keep applying pressure on the British No.1 section. It just managed to inflict a point of shock on them. The only other action was by the leIG.18's junior leader who removed the shock from the mortar bombardment.
12BR(1,2,3,4,5): the '1' had to be used to maintain the bombardment, which failed to inflict any harm on the well-protected Germans. The Brits then advanced No.2 section along the hedge, but it only managed to go 2" leaving it rather exposed crossing a gap.
Then, they deployed a senior leader by the thicket behind No.2 section ...
... and a second carrier from the vehicle entry point ...
All this can be seen in the overview photo below, bar the newly deployed carrier which is just off the top of the image.
13GE(1,1,3,6,6): a double-phase, but with the bombardment pinning down all but my MMG there didn't seem much I could do with it. Nonetheless, the MMG, despite being suppressed, managed another point of shock on the beleaguered No.1 section.
14GE(2,3,4,6,6): another double-phase! Nice, but frustrating while still under mortar bombardment. With the MG34 MMG no longer suppressed, I deployed a senior leader with them so they could fire and benefit from the 'Maschinengewehr' national characteristic. And this time they killed a rifleman as well inflicting a point shock on No.1 section.
15GE(1,2,4,4,4): the senior leader directing the MMG managed a repeat performance, killing another rifleman in No.1 section, which with the further point of shock, pinned them.
16BR(3,4,5,5,6): without a '1', the Brits had to spend a CoC point to bring down the third and final round of the mortar bombardment. This final round was the most effective yet, inflicting a point of shock on II section's Rifle team in the Small Barn and killing two of the leIG.18 gunners.
Also, taking advantge of the fact that the Germans under the barrage would still be pinned in their next phase, the newly arrived carrier drove flat out towards the German MMG. At the same time the Brit's senior leader directed No.3 section to suppress the MMG, and No.2 section to advance further along hedgerow. All this can be seen below, including the carrier which having advanced flat out now just appears at the top of the photo.
17GE(1,1,2,3,6): while the bombardment had finished, the effects, in terms of troops being pinned, linger on until the end of this phase. Thus, most of my troops were still unable to do anything. As a result, all I managed was to remove the shock from my leIG.18 and, with the MMG, to put another point of shock on No.1 section in an attempt to break it. So not much change, other than the removal of the barrage at the end of the phase.
18BR(1,2,2,5,6): and the rapidly advancing carrier continued speeding towards the MG34 MMG with the intent of overrunning it. To stop this, I spent my only CoC die to spring an ambush with the rifle team from the, as yet, undeployed III section.
The team successfully posted a grenade into the carrier which killed two and inflicted a point of shock, but no 'vehicle shock'. The British junior leader survived but the gunner and driver were killed (we assumed the leader would neither be drive nor manning the Bren). What happened next was subject to quite a bit of discussion and rule searching. In the end we decided the vehicle would stop, as continuing without a driver seemed wrong. Also, we agreed that the leader could spend two initiatives to extract the driver and take his place. We were unsure about this and will be posting this as a question on the Chain of Command forum.
Anyway, with only the junior leader surviving, John took a Bad Things Happen Test for his team being wiped out, but British Force Morale remained a resolute 10.
The British No.3 section again suppressed the MMG, that the carrier had been trying to overrun. No.2 section also fired at the MMG, but despite getting ten hits only managed to kill a single gunner. That ended the phase and the German ambush team withdrew (mandatory as they were part of an undeployed section). This left the table looking like this (NB: the ambushed carrier is almost completely obscured by a tree).
19GE(1,1,2,3,6): taking stock of what John had deployed, it was clear that all but one point of his support was now on the table. With no more surprises in teh offing, I deployed III section in and around the farm - the LMG (MG08) team behind the wall and the rifle team entrenched in front of the La Haye Barn.
This was a risk as it created a large bunched target (easier to hit), but I reckoned everyone being in hard cover made it an acceptable risk. II and III sections immediately rewarded me by inflicting 2 kills and 5 shock on the British No.3 section.
20BR(1,3,4,6,6): was this double-phase going to allow the British to unpick my hard-won edge? First, the junior leader in the ambushed carrier removed the body of the driver and took the wheel.
Then, the platoon's 2" mortar deployed and immediately dropped a smoke round directly in front of the leIG.18 completely blocking its line of sight (LOS) to any target. Finally, the platoon's second senior leader deployed to remove three of the shock from No.3 section (two shock remaining). The next photo shows the situation with the 2" mortar and junior leader at the bottom near the JOP, and the senior leader in the road near No.3 section.
21BR(3,3,5,5,6): the junior leader with the 2" mortar directed them to lay more smoke, successfully blocking the line of sight for the occupants of the Small Barn. And, with the other '3', the junior leader in the carrier avenged his team by overrunning the MG34 MMG (the loss of the MMG team caused German Force Morale to drop from 9 to 7).
22GE(1,2,2,3,5): the German sniper in the Small Barn (able to use a LOS from anywhere within 3" of his position) fired at No.1 section and inflicted 2 shock (shock from sniping is doubled) which saw them break and rout.
John spent a CoC die to avoid the test for this so British Force Morale remained unmoved at 10.
The German II section then fired, with the added assistance of its junior leader directing Maschinengewehr, all against No.3 section. This saw the death of a Bren gunner, a rifleman, and another 2 points of shock.
Then after ending my phase and taking photos while John rolled his command dice, I realised I had completely overlooked the rogue carrier overrunning my positions in front of the La Haye Barn!
23BR(3,3,4,5,6): the recently arrived senior leader continued his task of removing shock from No.3 section, but with one of his initiatives he ordered the 2" mortar to lay some more smoke. This final smoke round blotted out the LOS of III section's rifle team entrenched in front of the La Haye Barn by the overrun MMG position.
Then, for the first time in this campaign, we had a close assault, as No.2 section burst through the smoke to put the leIG.18's crew to the bayonet.
The action wasn't very bloody, the entrenchment greatly reducing the attackers' lethality, but the crew fled and German Force Morale fell still further from 7 to 6. No.2 section, who took no losses from fight, quickly consolidated on the position, occupying the abandoned entrenchment with their rifle team.
At this point, we realised we'd forgotten the rule about British smoke, that individual smoke rounds within 6" of each other link up to form a continuous screen. The smoke was suitably amended as shown below.
24GE(3,3,4,5,6): I was starting to feel the pressure at this point, although surprised that John had not tried to overrun III section's rifle team in front of the La Haye Barn. Later when asked, John said he'd thought the chances of infantry evading the overrun were much better than for a crewed weapon so opted to bring up other units instead. Anyway, this offered me an opportunity for some pay back, and III section's junior leader moved his men up to the carrier and directed them to post another grenade inside.
This finished off the junior leader inside who surely deserved a posthumous gallantry award for his efforts. However, his sacrifice upset the troops, and British Force Morale dropped from 10 to 8.
Next, II section's leader ordered them out of the Small Barn and into the farmyard. The MG34 team managed to exit the building, but the rifle team who had to descend to the ground floor remained inside.
The junior leader then ordered one of the MG team to throw a grenade at the No.2 section riflemen in the gun entrenchment. The grenade landed on target, killing one and inflicting a point of shock. The nearby senior leader then instructed them to throw their last two grenades. One fell short but the other killed another rifleman.
II section braced itself for the inevitable reply.
25BR(1,2,4,4,4): the two British senior leaders took two of the '4's. The first, to remove 2 points of shock from No.3 section and get them to double towards the farm ...
... and the second to direct the 2" mortar to the nearby JOP to obtain some more smoke rounds after having exhausted their initial supply.
Unfortunately for the latter, there was no 2" mortar ammunition to be found.
Then, combining the '1' and the '2', No.2 section's junior leader directed them to throw two grenades at the German II section in the farmyard. The first grenade was fumbled (on a double-one) killing two of his own men who also suffered a point of shock. The second grenade successfully sailed over the wall into the farmyard but only inflicted two points of shock on their opponents.
Once again it seemed the dice were determined to thwart John at every turn.
26GE(1,2,3,4,6): the sniper now switched his attention to the British No.2 section (again courtesy of being able to trace a LOS from anywhere within 3") but this time without effect. II section's junior leader directed his MG34 team inflicting 2 shock on No.2 section's rifle team. At the same time, the senior leader in the farmyard ordered the rest of II section out of the Small Barn to form up by the entrance and removed two points of shock. Meanwhile III section seized on the opportunity afforded by the smoke to withdraw back inside the farmyard.
27BR(1,2,4,5,5): No.2 section's junior leader decided to pull his men back from entrenchment behind the smoke screen and onto the German JOP to capture it.
This would make an end of turn a double-edged sword as while it would remove the smoke blocking fire and the routing No.1 section, I would also lose my JOP.
Elsewhere, No.3 section was doubled forward (11") by the senior leader with them who also removed the resulting shock.
28GE(1,4,4,5,5): gave me a CoC die to play with. That, and the '4's allowed my senior leader to launch II section in a counter-attack against their opposite number (No.2 section) to retake the JOP. A second Close Combat, but this time one with a very one-sided result, the Germans inflicting 6 hits for only 1 in return. The British Bren team was wiped out causing their Force Morale to drop from 8 to 7, and the 11 shock broke the section with the resulting rout sending British Force Morale tumbling still further from 7 to 6.
At this point I declared I would be ending the turn with my CoC dice and thus the routing No.1 and No.2 sections would be removed along with the smoke. With two junior leaders leaving the table British Force Morale spiralled down from 6 to 4 to 3, leaving them with only three command dice.
At this point John basically left with only one section and a carrier against my full platoon so conceded the game and the campaign.
I only have one photo of the situation at this point. I put this forgetfulness down to the excitement of the final phase, together with John conceding and the realisation that he had little time left to pack up and get home.
The Butcher's Bill
As the final game in the campaign this is largely academic. But again, all the German casualties were among the support teams, with both the MG34 MMG and leIG.18 teams being lost in their entirety.
The British lost a carrier and its LMG team, plus 5 men from the core platoon and 6 from the support sections. Strangely, none of John's infantry leaders were wounded or killed, something which had been happening with monotonous regularity in previous games.
Post Mortem
I think it's all been said before, but John's ability to throw the most atrocious dice is little short of unbelievable.
More importantly, the principal observation was that this was a thoroughly enjoyable set of games and, after a short break, another campaign is very much on the cards.
Notes:
[1.] Although the 'Cabinette' in the blog name refers to my cabin, I've sort of named it 'HizHut', but I'm not going to change the blog name now.
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