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.