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| The Germans advance on the 'Corridor of Death'... |
First off, we set up the board. The terrain for this Scenario is pretty challenging, there are lots of high walls and several buildings, and we had to improvise somewhat by using low walls for high ones.
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| The board from the German side |
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| ...and from the British point of view |
The plan was relatively simple. I still had to roll for the missing parts of my platoon, namely a final bren team, a 2" mortar team and my PIAT team. If any of these failed to show, we would have to try and delay the German attack using a Naval Bombardment. I rolled for my PIAT, 2" mortar and final bren team, and only the 2" mortar turned up.
The Naval Bombardment disrupts the germans for one campaign 'turn', and they may not use that platoon immediately. However, there is a risk that, for 5 support point of the Brits total 7, it may not happen at all (if I rolled a 1 on a D6!) I rolled a 6, and the bombardment took place. Of course, when I rolled for the Bren and the PIAT team they still didn't show up. But it wasn't wasted, as the Germans now only have 6 campaign turns left to win Scenario 5, plus I get a free entrenchement for every turn the Germans are delayed.
The plan is to have three layers of defence. Although I could work off the map to draw up these lines, until we had set the table up I wasn't sure how this would actually happen, or what my support choices would be.
Lt Ding was glad that the 2" mortar had finally turned up, after being dispersed during the drop. His platoon was still short of bodies though, and they desperately needed time to organise the defence of the outskirts of the village. The Lieutenant called over the Naval officer who had been assigned to his company. "Lt Danby, do you think you could get hold of Warspite and get her to shell our previous positions? Jerry are forming up for a push and I'd like to hold them off for a while" he asked. A few minutes later, the telltale whistle of 15" shells told Lt Ding that his request had been successful, and he felt glad that the map readers had done their maths correctly. The earth shook with each impact, causing dust and dirt to fall from the rafters of the house he had chosen as his platoon HQ. He could well imagine the effect it was having on the Germans forming up.
The Naval Bombardment disrupts the germans for one campaign 'turn', and they may not use that platoon immediately. However, there is a risk that, for 5 support point of the Brits total 7, it may not happen at all (if I rolled a 1 on a D6!) I rolled a 6, and the bombardment took place. Of course, when I rolled for the Bren and the PIAT team they still didn't show up. But it wasn't wasted, as the Germans now only have 6 campaign turns left to win Scenario 5, plus I get a free entrenchement for every turn the Germans are delayed.
The plan is to have three layers of defence. Although I could work off the map to draw up these lines, until we had set the table up I wasn't sure how this would actually happen, or what my support choices would be.
The first line of defence is south (top of the map) of the orchard walls. The germans would haveto move at least two phases through the fields on my left flank. On the right though, buildings and walls would favour the attacker. The road would be blocked to line of sight by smoke. We agreed before hand to use the advanced 'line of sight' rules for HE into buildings, in that Sam couldn't just fire on buildings unless he knew someone was in there, either because he had seen them go in or they had fired on him. Whilst this may seem harsh from a game perspective, I certainly wasn't going to be having men stick their heads out of buildings with a Schlepper on the loose, and I don't think the Germans under von Luck would have been randomly blowing up buildings without due cause.
The second line of defence was between the orchard walls and the southern buildings. I was happy to let sam take the southern buildings, as I was sure I could use the surrounding buildings (out of sight of the Schlepper) as a fire base, and use the elites in 'hard cover' to hopefully win the firefight.
Then, if this area fell, I would fall back (assuming I had bodies left) to the area I had designated as the 'Alamo', the three buildings in the bottom corner, where it would be fierce hand to hand combat. I had to hold the germans up, at the very least to cause some major casualties. These men of the 2nd platoon were expendable.
Not having the PIAT might be an issue if the Schlepper or some Halftracks trundled up, so I went for the PIAT team as a support choice, along with a bren team (to shore up my half section). My final three points went on a flamethrower team, as I figured if it got down to the buildings they would have a better chance of putting some shock and kills on the germans. I organised my platoon as follows -
2 x Senior Leaders
Sniper
2" mortar team
PIAT team (support)
1 JL + Section of 2 Bren teams + 3 rifles
1 JL + Section 1 Bren team (as support) and a rifle team of 5 rifles.
1 JL + team of 3 Sten guns
1 Flame thrower team.
The Sten section were my 'kill team' made up of the remaining sten gunners from the rifle teams and third bren section. Their job was to hold the 'Alamo' and use their devastating close range fire (16 dice at close range!) to finish off any depleted german sections that came too close.
Not a great deal of bodies, but at least it was 33 all in, compared to the previous games 14 and 19.
Sam had a full platoon of 3 Grenadier Sections, a Shrek team, 2 Senior leaders (one as a support choice), a sniper, a mortar spotter, and the Schlepper (all as supports). 36 bodies, 6 MG42s and plenty of long range HE.
Sam then rolled for the german 'Free patrol' moves, getting a 5 which enabled him to bring his 3 patrol markers right down the road, getting 2 of them 24" from his start off point. Straight away my '1st Line of Defence' was looking likely to be overran quite quickly!
After the patrol phases, I kept my Jops back intentionally as I assumed the Germans would deploy a Werfer Barrage again, and I had seen on other games that this can be somewhat nullified if the Germans take four or more phases to move to contact, you can hopefully build up a CoC dice and clear the barrage. Sam placed his JoPs quite far back as well.
We rolled for Force Morale, the Germans getting +1 on their roll due to von Lucks impression of the campaign so far, and the Paras getting +2 because - well, because they are Paras! We both rolled 6's, so both sides started with a FM of 11. This could be a long game!!
Sam went first, opening with a double phase, and the germans brought on a Senior Leader, a section and the Schlepper. With the Werfer Barrage still ringing in the paras ears, the only thing I could deploy my first phase was the 2" mortar, who promptly began to drop smoke on the road in front of the Schlepper.
The German Mortar Observer turned up and called up his battery. I've been here before, pinned under a German mortar 'stonk'. I know that he's not got great lines of sight but he can see straight into my 'Alamo' position.
I've deployed my Platoon Sergeant in there as well as my shorter Bren section, and I need to start moving people. FInally the sniper turns up and I get a line of sight straight down the road. I can only see the Schlepper moving down the road (through the smoke) and the enemy mortar observer. the sniper fires,but sniper misses. Must be all that smoke!
The next few phases are a bit odd - the Germans can't get any 1's to activate the mortar barrage, and I build up some 5's but can't do anything else until the germans commit. Two more german sections turn up and start scaling the walls and moving through the fields.
I get another section on, my double bren section on the left flank and start moving them up to the Germans, although we have several walls and hedges between us. Although I could set up in overwatch I would only get one shot at the germans as they jumped over the walls, and then I would be on the receiving end of whatever was left, so I kept well back.
Whilst the German FO couldn't call in his mortar barrage, my sniper repeatedly fired and missed, he must have had 5 shots at him and all he managed was some shock (which the FO ignores anyway!).
In the end, Sam decided to bring another Senior Leader on to 'encourage' the mortar spotter to bring some fire in. He duly did this, rolling directly for effect, and although the barrage was slightly off almost half of it (9"x18") slammed down onto the 'Alamo'.
Having got (mostly) everyone on regardless of the Werfer Barrage, and the Schlepper had no one to shoot at, I had to get the Germans to commit, so my section of two bren guns on the left flank leaped over the wall.
There was a single section of germans on the other side of a hedge, although strangely they didn't open fire. Indeed, in the german phase they moved into a better firing position instead of firing, which was very odd. I had a CoC dice, but had failed to notice Sam had also got one. In my phase, I pulled the Para section back over the wall, hoping to entice the Germans to follow, but instead Sam played an 'interrupt' and opened fire on my section with the full force of 2 MG42 and 3 rifles. Ouch!
We took 5 casualties and the Junior Leader took a wound as well, taking one of his CI's. Luckily the hits had only caused one shock, and the battered section finished their move over the wall.
However, the german section were now within about 15 inches of my left JoP point, so I used my CoC dice to do an 'Ambush'. I placed the flamethrower team in front of Sams germans. The flamethrowers are pretty nasty, and have 12 dice hitting on a 4. I got 12 hits, and rolled something like 5 kills and 3 shock, which doubles to 6 shock. His Junior leader took a hit as well, and although the section were down to 6 men they weren't technically 'pinned'. I soon changed that though, as my second Senior leader arrived to order the badly depleted section to double along the wall and chuck some grenades over, which they duly did, however they only got 10" away from the germans so needed 11 to hit. One of the men duly managed to roll 11 and wang a mills bomb over the wall. We incorrectly rolled 3 dice for the grenade (it should have been 2 as although the germans were in light cover they count as in the open). they took another casualty and some shock, and were now 'pinned'. More grenades flew over the wall, and soon the section broke, running straight through another section of Germans who had turned up late to the party. This section then took the extra shock as their own shock, and it took both German senior leaders to stop all the sections from breaking.
Sam countered this, and as the flamethrower team withdrew, their work done so far, another squad of Grenadiers high tailed it into a building overlooking my battered bren section. Sam knew I didn't have any CoC dice left, but on my following phase I used a 1 to bring them back on as a proper team, 9" from my second JoP and right in front of their building! Again, a gout of flame leapt into the building, causing a couple of kills but immense amounts of shock, injuring their Junior Leader (who was knocked out in all the confusion). They returned fire on the flamethrower team, but with all the shock affecting their MG42 gunners, they only got one kill.
The flamethrower team had one shot left, and fired it into the building again. This was enough for the terrified germans, who broke and fled back up the road, leaving their unconscious OberGefreiter behind. The corridor of death was certainly living up to its name!
Fuel spent, the Flamethrower team were ordered by the Platoon Commander to go into the building and retrieve the wounded german. This, along with the two broken sections, 2 injured JLs and then the capture of a JL had taken Sams Force Morale down to 4, and although on my right flank the mortar barrage had pinned the sections there, killed a few men and removed my support bren team completely, my Force Morale was still at 8. The Germans lifted the barrage and unpinned their one remaining full section by ending the turn, but unfortunately this also caused one of the broken German sections to rout, and Sams 'Bad things' roll for the JL routing took his FM down to 2. This cost him a JoP and 2 command dice, and he decided to withdraw.
However the Germans had pushed up high into the town, and were far from their JoPs. Along with 12 casualties from the flamethrower and the captured JL in the battle, the German platoon had also lost another 4 men captured in the withdrawal. Although the Germans had effectively lost the scenario, the mortar barrage and the initial burst of MG42 fire had caused several British casualties as well, although some of these had come from the support teams so didn't affect any numbers.
I had lost the sniper and a sten gunner in the mortar barrage, plus a full bren team (from support) and two rifles. Equipment such as Brens, MG42 and SMG's are replaced rather than lost, only men, so that counts as 2 rifles lost.
In the other section I had lost 5 rifles.
I'd also lost a single man from the FT team, to give a total of 13 casualties in total, however 4 of them were from support and are ignored, leaving 7 men from the platoon injured. Less 3 for the difference in FM, that leaves me 4 casualties, 2 KIA, 2 MIA and 1 back in action. along with the other 3 men KIA from the first game and 2 POWs, that's 9 men down on a full platoon.
A victory for the Brits enables me to seize the initiative, and push the germans back onto the previous map.
The second line of defence was between the orchard walls and the southern buildings. I was happy to let sam take the southern buildings, as I was sure I could use the surrounding buildings (out of sight of the Schlepper) as a fire base, and use the elites in 'hard cover' to hopefully win the firefight.
Then, if this area fell, I would fall back (assuming I had bodies left) to the area I had designated as the 'Alamo', the three buildings in the bottom corner, where it would be fierce hand to hand combat. I had to hold the germans up, at the very least to cause some major casualties. These men of the 2nd platoon were expendable.
Not having the PIAT might be an issue if the Schlepper or some Halftracks trundled up, so I went for the PIAT team as a support choice, along with a bren team (to shore up my half section). My final three points went on a flamethrower team, as I figured if it got down to the buildings they would have a better chance of putting some shock and kills on the germans. I organised my platoon as follows -
2 x Senior Leaders
Sniper
2" mortar team
PIAT team (support)
1 JL + Section of 2 Bren teams + 3 rifles
1 JL + Section 1 Bren team (as support) and a rifle team of 5 rifles.
1 JL + team of 3 Sten guns
1 Flame thrower team.
The Sten section were my 'kill team' made up of the remaining sten gunners from the rifle teams and third bren section. Their job was to hold the 'Alamo' and use their devastating close range fire (16 dice at close range!) to finish off any depleted german sections that came too close.
Not a great deal of bodies, but at least it was 33 all in, compared to the previous games 14 and 19.
Sam had a full platoon of 3 Grenadier Sections, a Shrek team, 2 Senior leaders (one as a support choice), a sniper, a mortar spotter, and the Schlepper (all as supports). 36 bodies, 6 MG42s and plenty of long range HE.
Sam then rolled for the german 'Free patrol' moves, getting a 5 which enabled him to bring his 3 patrol markers right down the road, getting 2 of them 24" from his start off point. Straight away my '1st Line of Defence' was looking likely to be overran quite quickly!
After the patrol phases, I kept my Jops back intentionally as I assumed the Germans would deploy a Werfer Barrage again, and I had seen on other games that this can be somewhat nullified if the Germans take four or more phases to move to contact, you can hopefully build up a CoC dice and clear the barrage. Sam placed his JoPs quite far back as well.
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| Jops placed! |
We rolled for Force Morale, the Germans getting +1 on their roll due to von Lucks impression of the campaign so far, and the Paras getting +2 because - well, because they are Paras! We both rolled 6's, so both sides started with a FM of 11. This could be a long game!!
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| A german section deploys |
Sam went first, opening with a double phase, and the germans brought on a Senior Leader, a section and the Schlepper. With the Werfer Barrage still ringing in the paras ears, the only thing I could deploy my first phase was the 2" mortar, who promptly began to drop smoke on the road in front of the Schlepper.
The german attack started, somewhat predictably, with the whine and crump of the Werfer rockets. Lt Ding had his men well hunkered down in the celllars of the buildings in the location he had designated as 'The Alamo', the place for the Paras last stand. he hoped it wouldn't come to that. Out in the fields, the forward teams had set up and when the whine of the rocket mortars stopped, they heard the tell tale tracks of a Self Propelled gun rolling up the lane. In the fields to the south, the Paras heard the german squads moving up, climbing walls and issuing orders.
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| Smoking the Schlepper - German mortar FO is in the ruined farm under the smoke! |
The German Mortar Observer turned up and called up his battery. I've been here before, pinned under a German mortar 'stonk'. I know that he's not got great lines of sight but he can see straight into my 'Alamo' position.
I've deployed my Platoon Sergeant in there as well as my shorter Bren section, and I need to start moving people. FInally the sniper turns up and I get a line of sight straight down the road. I can only see the Schlepper moving down the road (through the smoke) and the enemy mortar observer. the sniper fires,but sniper misses. Must be all that smoke!
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| More smoke. The Schlepper is moving up but hasn't got any targets! |
The next few phases are a bit odd - the Germans can't get any 1's to activate the mortar barrage, and I build up some 5's but can't do anything else until the germans commit. Two more german sections turn up and start scaling the walls and moving through the fields.
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| More Germans rock up. The shock is accrued from running quickly (3D6) |
The germans got closer, and Lt Ding hoped his orders had been received clearly. He looked across at Corporal Ron Sondberg, who had the man-pack flamethrower at his side. If the Germans got too close, there was no doubt this would come into play.
I get another section on, my double bren section on the left flank and start moving them up to the Germans, although we have several walls and hedges between us. Although I could set up in overwatch I would only get one shot at the germans as they jumped over the walls, and then I would be on the receiving end of whatever was left, so I kept well back.
Whilst the German FO couldn't call in his mortar barrage, my sniper repeatedly fired and missed, he must have had 5 shots at him and all he managed was some shock (which the FO ignores anyway!).
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| Germans move over the high walls. |
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| Moratr barrage falls on 'the Alamo', pinning a section, my sten section and a senior leader! |
A single mortar round, probably a marker, had crashed into the paras positions, but so far nothing had happened. Then, suddenly and without warning, the whistle and crash of German 80mm mortar shells began to rain down on the paras positions. Sgt Bier order his men to take cover where they could.
Having got (mostly) everyone on regardless of the Werfer Barrage, and the Schlepper had no one to shoot at, I had to get the Germans to commit, so my section of two bren guns on the left flank leaped over the wall.
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| Paras leap the wall to engage the germans in the corner of the field. |
There was a single section of germans on the other side of a hedge, although strangely they didn't open fire. Indeed, in the german phase they moved into a better firing position instead of firing, which was very odd. I had a CoC dice, but had failed to notice Sam had also got one. In my phase, I pulled the Para section back over the wall, hoping to entice the Germans to follow, but instead Sam played an 'interrupt' and opened fire on my section with the full force of 2 MG42 and 3 rifles. Ouch!
Over on the left flank, where Lt Ding had set up his command post, the germans had finally committed. He indicated to one of his section leaders, Sgt Tomlinson to take his men over the high wall and engage the germans beyond. As Tomlinson and his men doubled over the wall, the tell tale RRPppp of MG42 rang out. Those on top of the wall dropped back down on the British side. 5 men had fallen and Lt Tomlinson had been injured. This was not an auspiscous start.
We took 5 casualties and the Junior Leader took a wound as well, taking one of his CI's. Luckily the hits had only caused one shock, and the battered section finished their move over the wall.
Hearing the firing, Corporal Sondberg grabbed his 'Lifebouy' flamethower and leaped over the wall. The germans had pushed their guns through one of the thick, Normandy hedges, and were shouting excitedly. They didn't notice the British Para until he released a long gout of flame, straight into the bush.
The screams of the germans were terrible, and as Cp Sondberg jumped back over the wall he winked at Lt Ding. "They won't try that again Sir!" he smiled. Lt Ding could hear more germans running up to the commotion, and signalled for Sgt Tomlinson to take his men up the line of the wall and throw some grenades over. The Bren Gunner, Corporal Hammond who had palyed county cricket for yorkshire before the war took a mills bomb and launched it perfectly over the walls.
However, the german section were now within about 15 inches of my left JoP point, so I used my CoC dice to do an 'Ambush'. I placed the flamethrower team in front of Sams germans. The flamethrowers are pretty nasty, and have 12 dice hitting on a 4. I got 12 hits, and rolled something like 5 kills and 3 shock, which doubles to 6 shock. His Junior leader took a hit as well, and although the section were down to 6 men they weren't technically 'pinned'. I soon changed that though, as my second Senior leader arrived to order the badly depleted section to double along the wall and chuck some grenades over, which they duly did, however they only got 10" away from the germans so needed 11 to hit. One of the men duly managed to roll 11 and wang a mills bomb over the wall. We incorrectly rolled 3 dice for the grenade (it should have been 2 as although the germans were in light cover they count as in the open). they took another casualty and some shock, and were now 'pinned'. More grenades flew over the wall, and soon the section broke, running straight through another section of Germans who had turned up late to the party. This section then took the extra shock as their own shock, and it took both German senior leaders to stop all the sections from breaking.
Sam countered this, and as the flamethrower team withdrew, their work done so far, another squad of Grenadiers high tailed it into a building overlooking my battered bren section. Sam knew I didn't have any CoC dice left, but on my following phase I used a 1 to bring them back on as a proper team, 9" from my second JoP and right in front of their building! Again, a gout of flame leapt into the building, causing a couple of kills but immense amounts of shock, injuring their Junior Leader (who was knocked out in all the confusion). They returned fire on the flamethrower team, but with all the shock affecting their MG42 gunners, they only got one kill.
Inside the walls, Lt Ding motioned to the flamethrower team to head towards the door of the building that seperated the Germans from the British positions. As he did so, through the window he saw the square helmets of another german section moving into the building. The flamethrower fired again, through the window of the building. A single burst of MG fire came back, and a second burst was all that was needed to cause the Germans to fall back out of the building the way they had come.
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| Flamethrower returns to wreak havoc on the German Grenadiers |
The flamethrower team had one shot left, and fired it into the building again. This was enough for the terrified germans, who broke and fled back up the road, leaving their unconscious OberGefreiter behind. The corridor of death was certainly living up to its name!
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| Paras from the Flamethrower team move into the bulding to capture the enemy Junior Leader |
Fuel spent, the Flamethrower team were ordered by the Platoon Commander to go into the building and retrieve the wounded german. This, along with the two broken sections, 2 injured JLs and then the capture of a JL had taken Sams Force Morale down to 4, and although on my right flank the mortar barrage had pinned the sections there, killed a few men and removed my support bren team completely, my Force Morale was still at 8. The Germans lifted the barrage and unpinned their one remaining full section by ending the turn, but unfortunately this also caused one of the broken German sections to rout, and Sams 'Bad things' roll for the JL routing took his FM down to 2. This cost him a JoP and 2 command dice, and he decided to withdraw.
Over on the right flank the mortar still fell, and Sgt Bier did all he could to keep the mens heads down. He knew from experience that once the mortars stopped, the germans would advance to contact but when they stopped no Germans came. Several Paras lay dead in the walled areas however, casualties from the barrage, but it seemed the Germans had pulled back. On the left flank, Lt Ding saw that a german NCO was wounded in the now smouldering building, and sent two men in to drag him out and save him. The Germans had retreated, taking their injured and shocked men, but leaving the NCO. The Paras had won this phase of the battle, but Lt Ding knew they would soon be back. As he surveyed the damage caused by the german assault, he wondered if he had enough men for a counter attack - if he hit the Germans whilst they were still reeling from this defeat, it might buy more time before the second wave of gliders came in with tanks and 17 pounders.
However the Germans had pushed up high into the town, and were far from their JoPs. Along with 12 casualties from the flamethrower and the captured JL in the battle, the German platoon had also lost another 4 men captured in the withdrawal. Although the Germans had effectively lost the scenario, the mortar barrage and the initial burst of MG42 fire had caused several British casualties as well, although some of these had come from the support teams so didn't affect any numbers.
I had lost the sniper and a sten gunner in the mortar barrage, plus a full bren team (from support) and two rifles. Equipment such as Brens, MG42 and SMG's are replaced rather than lost, only men, so that counts as 2 rifles lost.
In the other section I had lost 5 rifles.
I'd also lost a single man from the FT team, to give a total of 13 casualties in total, however 4 of them were from support and are ignored, leaving 7 men from the platoon injured. Less 3 for the difference in FM, that leaves me 4 casualties, 2 KIA, 2 MIA and 1 back in action. along with the other 3 men KIA from the first game and 2 POWs, that's 9 men down on a full platoon.
A victory for the Brits enables me to seize the initiative, and push the germans back onto the previous map.
The
question is, if I counter attack onto the previous map (Probe Amongst
the Hedgerows) there is a good chance I could lose what remains of this platoon. However, another platoon is available, but once selected cannot be replaced.
I'd be pushing against the German 2nd platoon
(who are still at 100%) but, it would be a probe mission and I would have 10 points of support.
You can read what happened here
1 comment:
Good stuff! From all I've read, KvL is a hard campaign for the paras to win. I don't envy you the decision whether to follow up the German defeat or not.
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