Battle Report - 3 Mar 2014 - Chain of Command

Another round of Operation Sealion (with the nod to Andy Johnston's "Seelöwe Nord" novel).

It's September 22nd 1940, and the Home Guard have fallen back on a small farm partway between Carnaby and Fraisthorpe. We went with PatG's latest list, which has been adjusted quite considerably for balance, and Carl, running the early war Home Guard list, had a force value of -12 against Gary's Germans at +4.

We ran the second scenario from the rulebook (and completely forgot that Gary's actual objective is to bypass the farm and get a unit off Carl's table edge!). Carl took as reinforcements a regular Army section, a Vickers, a Lewis gun, some barbed wire and an antique WW1 19pdr field gun. Gary, on the other hand, took a newly-landed Panzer IIID.

Yes. Those are telegraph poles.

The patrol phase was fun - key point was Carl winding up with a jump off point deep in the woods on his right, as well as two around the farm complex.

Gary started out by deploying a couple of sections, and having one rush the hedge and across the road in front of the farm to the back of the milking parlour, hoping to deny Carl the jump off point in the farmyard.

It would have worked fine, had Gary not completely forgotten the jump off point in the woods at the other end of that road...

"Matthews!! Hurry up and deploy the bloody
Vickers, willya!"

...onto which Carl deployed a Vickers team, firing round the corner of the wall onto a very exposed target. Four out of six dead, no shock! The Vickers took some mortar fire in return but escaped unscathed.

The remaining pair of Germans legged it round the building onto the jump off point, whereupon a Home Guard team with Lewis gun deployed upstairs in the farm house, and took out another. The last one, very wisely, ducked into the milking parlour, still close enough to deny the jump off point, which started to become a problem as...

...with a rumble of tracks and overworked engine, a Panzer III started making its way up the road from Fraisthorpe.

"PANZER!!"

Meanwhile, the Germans deployed a section in the field on their left, and made a charge for the hedge near the Vickers. The British deployed both a Home Guard section to counter this and the regular section near the postbox on the corner by the farm entrance (which was protected by barbed wire).

Carl's aim was to try and deal with the forces near the milking parlour permanently, and regain his jump point. The rifle team had a go at the lone German leader, managing merely to wound him, before the Panzer opened up from its stationary position with both co-ax and hull MGs... [Note to self: I am so printing off and collating the army lists, as I missed the fact the PzIII doesn't have a hull MG! There's a running gag going with our CoC games that I should never trust Gary's memory of the rulebook: for once I did...]

The Army boys took quite a bit of shock, copping more from the MG34 in the hedge across the field before they in turn hopped the hedge by the post box for extra cover. Meanwhile, the rifle team next to the '34 kept up covering fire on the farmhouse, keeping the heads of the Home Guard section in there down.

Over by the Vickers, which has pulled back into the wood out of range, the platoon sergeant (whose name, coincidentally, might be Wilson despite this not being Walmington on Sea) decided to do something about the situation at the milking parlour, so hightailed it across the field between him and the farmyard. This took him two phases, after which he wound up pitching several grenades in the window before he finally nailed the remaining German in there.

Carl meanwhile, on the other flank, was desperately hoping to get a 1 amid his command dice, as the Panzer was by now right up by the barbed wire at the farm entrance, and he had a chance of a flank shot (given the 19pdr's measly AP of 2, a front shot wasn't going to work).

About now the German section on Gary's left decided to make a proper go of clearing out the wood with the Vickers in, helped by hitting the section hard with two intersecting fields of fire and then hopping the hedge in close assault. The Home Guard didn't stick around long enough to actually engage in close assault, as the Germans had a 4:1 advantage in dice.

There we called it, it being 10.35. Probably as a German victory, even though both sides had stuff left to d

As ever, a cracker of a game - my thanks to Carl and Gary!

Battle Report - 20 Jan 2014 - Chain of Command

Not, of course, that this should come as any surprise if you caught last night's hasty post and photo. Apologies for the somewhat hurried post, but I was tired and exceptionally grumpy after having had a complete moment of stupid at the cashpoint and left the money I withdrew at the ATM. Hopefully the bank will be resolving this for me.

Anyway... (and with a respectful nod to Andy Johnson's "Seelöwe Nord")...

I should note I've played a little
fast and loose with the local
geography, but hopefully it's
enough to give a flavour.

North is top right.

It's 21st September 1940. The Germans have launched a diversionary attack across the Channel against the South Coast, and the British command have bought it sufficiently that the real attack, at points along the East Coast from Spurn Point to Scarborough, comes as a surprise...

In the sleepy East Coast village of Fraisthorpe, the bells of St. Edmund's Chapel are ringing madly, summoning the men of 3 Platoon, the Bridlington Home Guard, as swiftly moving shapes scramble up the sand dunes off the beach and head for the village. 

Germans!

Looking up the road to Bridlington, with
No. 1 section deployed up against the wall.

Carl ran the Home Guard using my figures, and Gary used his newly-finished early war Germans. The Home Guard used the early force from Pat's excellent list, with a value of -4 against the German's +4. After we'd rolled, this gave the Germans 1 support list, and the British 9. Gary took a medic, and Carl a medic, a Vickers team and a Lewis gun. Even with that, it's a bit skewed towards Jerry - they're Regular, with four 10 man platoons each of a rifle team and an MG34 team, plus a 50mm mortar. The Home Guard have 3 eight man platoons, one of which has the Lewis, plus a Vickers. We did toy with picking the old WW1 vintage 19pdr field gun instead of the Vickers, or a Leach trench catapult instead of the Lewis.

The Germans deploy to the south of
the Burton Agnes road.

The patrol phase actually went Carl's way: he got a nice wide spread of markers along the SW/NE road through the crossroads (the Bridlington road), whereas Gary was a touch constrained along the axes of the coast road and the SE/NW road (the Burton Agnes road).

The initial stages were a firefight across a field to the south side of the Burton Agnes road, between one German section and a Home Guard section and the Vickers, which for a while looked pretty much a standoff.

The last German section rushes up the
Burton Agnes road.

Carl brought on a section further north on the Bridlington Road, and they exchanged fire across the fields with some more Germans lining the hedge along the coast road, helped by some mortar fire from the 50mm down on the shingle up against the sand dunes. 

The last German section (taking advantage of Gary getting two phases in succession), rushed the house by the crossroads, and just made it without being stuck in the open at the mercy of the Lewis gun (which fortunately for them wasn't on overwatch, and had been pinned by MG34 fire from across the road).

It was then Carl's turn to get something ridiculous like four phases in a row, and his aim was to capitalise by getting his last section into the small copse south of the Burton Agnes road and try and flank the German section. Somehow, mostly by some not-wonderful dice rolling, he just barely failed to shock them enough to pin them before handing phases back to Gary.

From there on, it all went pretty downhill. The Home Guard squad at the north end of the Bridlington road went down in a hail of MG34 bullets, and the survivors broke and fled. The Lewis team got wiped out to a man, and the squad in the little copse likewise broke and fled... at which point the British force morale hit zero. The Germans had, by then, lost two officers and a good dozen men, so the Home Guard's action wasn't in vain.

First round to the Germans. As umpire, I think the Home Guard were always going to struggle, but I think Carl was possibly guilty of committing his forces too soon, and perhaps not taking better advantage of overwatch. Easy to say in hindsight, of course :D