Marlet: The Last Battle

Myself and Mike got to play our next game in our Operation Martlet campaign, our last game was more then 6 months ago and for the British (me), it was do or die. This was turn 8 and I was trying to capture table 4: Striking at Saint Nicholas.

The campaign is 11 turns and to win they would have had to capture table 6 by the end of this turn so an impossibility. If the Germans hold Table 4 it is a major German victory, it was felt if the Brits could not move on in this turn they would resign the campaign as there was no way they could win.

This had been a long and difficult slog for the British, the first 3 turns got messed up because we misinterpreted the German OB and they had 30 troops rather than 20 in their core platoon. It took the Brits 4 turns to get off Table 1! This was followed by a back and forth with alternate British-German victories, but without the Germans suffering any attrition as each British victory was achieved by the Germans withdrawing without significant loss. By Turn 8, the German morale was quite high with a +4 on Force Morale rolls, while the Brits had a -1. Chain of Command is all about Force Morale and to win one has to diminish one's opponents FM.

I was quite positive though going into the game and felt I could win and try to achieve a draw in the campaign. From looking at the above table it appeared to me that the Germans would end up in a highly fortified position and really success could only be achieved by HE bombardment. I set up a nice terrain for our game.

British start position 

British JOP's in blue. I am not really sure what I was thinking about the flank JOP in the foreground.

German JOP's as expected. I left the patrol markers on for the photo.

Starting Forces

British (21 Support Points)

Starting FM 8

Core Platoon w/ 2" Mortar and Piat Teams

Churchill AVRE

Sherman

2 extra Piat Teams

Forward Observer

Germans (12 Support Points)

Starting FM 11

Core Platoon w/ PanzerIV

extra PanzerIV

Forward Observer

Adjudant

My game plan was to get the AVRE and FO on the table as soon as possible so I would be in good position once Mike started to place his troops in the 3 stone buildings. I also had to get an least 2 sections on to protect the FO and any Piat Teams that I had to position in order to take out the German Tanks. I really was hoping to accumulate CoC dice as well as I was pretty confident that Mike would take a FO. Having the ability to continue and end barrages is a big part of the game.

It actually went pretty well although early on in the game I had a lot of double phases which are sometimes not that helpful. I even threw 4d6 once and we had to dice on the Random Events table. It is nice to have double phases but if you do not get 1's and 3's it is hard to move things around.

I will not go into the whole game and in the heat of the action, I took few photos. It was actually the first game where I killed more troops then had killed. The high point of the game was collapsing a building with a full German squad and killing the FO. Despite this I just could not get the German FM down while mine went down rather quickly. Mike had a lot of excellent dicing to save hits and on the FM table. I use the photos below to explain some of the result.

These 2 PzIV's were my bane, Mike did a great job of playing them to take down my armour and once this was done to rain HE and HMG fire on my troops. I did get a few  shots at them but Piat's and Shermans are just not that good for taking out the well armoured PzIV. You can see that after the house collapsed Mike withdrew all his troops to behind the building out of range of my mostly intact sections.

On the other end I just could not generate good armour saves and my AVRE and Sherman were taken out  by the 2 PzIV's. Mike mentioned that maybe if I brought both them on at the same time it might have been helpful as he would have to split his fire. I can only agree as I never brought on the Sherman until just before the AVRE was destroyed.

Despite having minimal core platoon loses and still having a section and 2 Piat Teams  to bring on, the loss of several Support Teams plunged my FM to zero......game over.

Final Butcher's Tally: 

Germans

Ending FM 10

6 riflemen

Supports

1 FO

British

Ending FM 0

JL

3 Riflemen

Supports

2"Mortar Team

AVRE

Sherman

I actually felt this was the best game I played in the campaign, I had a pretty good plan which might of worked but Mike's excellent tactics and dicing caused the game to go otherwise. I was a little disappointed not to win, but there is always another campaign!

Hauptkampflinie Gebrochen

Yesterday myself and Mike had the next game in our Martlet campaign, this was our 7th game and my second attempt the to overcome the German line of resistance north of St Nicholas farm. By now the Scots Fusiliers had done what they could and the remnants of their platoon were withdrawn. A platoon from the Duke of Wellington's Own, who were advancing from the right, were sent in to take out the panzergrenadiers of the Hitler Jugend.

Again as in our last game, this was an attack and defend scenario as below, this time both sides had increased their supports by one point.

I should note that the German Platoon Leader was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class at the beginning of this turn for his actions in the previous turn.

He is looking a little frazzled though!

British (Morale 9)

2 SL's

Piat Team

2" Mortar Team

Rifle Section 1: 10 men

Rifle Section 2: 10 men

Rifle Section 3: 10 men

Supports (21)

Piat Team

2" Mortar Team

Sherman

Churchill AVRE

Germans (Morale 11)

1 SL

3 Panzerfaust 30

PG Squad 1: 7 men/2 LMG

PG Squad 2: 6 men/2 LMG

PG Squad 3: 6 men/2 LMG

Panzer IVH

Supports (9)

Senior Leader

Rifle team

8 cm Mortar with FO

Some Terrain Photos:

Two Italeri Houses

Houses from 4-Ground

Patrol Phase and JOP's:

Patrol Markers

3 British JOP's

3 German JOP's

The Battle(or lack there of):

German Panzergrenadiers

The ever present German Barrage

Finally they missed

British 2" Mortars

Pesky German FO

This was a do or die game for me. I have to admit that I thought Mike was going to bring out 2 Panzers rather than another FO. I prepared myself with 2 Piats, a Sherman and the AVRE. Antitank guns are not an option in this scenario when you are the attacker.

To test the waters, I brought out my support section first and brought them up my right flank attempting not to get caught in a mortar barrage if there was one. Well there was one and I was able to keep out of it twice. Mike sequentially brought on all his squads and at the end of the game he had only not deployed his Panzer IV and his Platoon Leader. I brought on two 2" mortars and they started to deploy smoke. I also brought on a SL as well as a Piat team. I was able to advance up my right flank to the crossroads and on a double6 CD roll, I attempted to cross the road. Unfortunately, I missed that Mike had both LMG teams of one of his squads on overwatch and of course they got chopped up losing 6 men before they could pull back into the woods. I also brought on my AVRE on my right flank and advanced it in order to bombard the stone houses where 2 of the German squads were deployed. In response, Mike started to redeploy his troops.

Having learned my lesson in the last game, my advance was quite cautious as I wanted to build up my CoC Dice before I tucked into the assault. After 3 turns, I had almost 3 CoC in reserve and my AVRE was ready to start the bombardment. Mike decided to withdraw his troops, he had no loses and knowing his troops morale was quite high he decided to maintain this. I still had a Sl, a Piat, 3 infantry sections as well as a Sherman not deployed.

The Campaign Tracker:

As you can see at turn 8 with only 4 games to go I have to win the next 3 games to get to table 6 and win a marginal victory, the opportunity for an outright victory has been missed. This is going to be quite tough even though I have a full platoon. The German's now have +4 on all Morale rolls, +2 on Supports and a SL with 4 CI as well a 12" command range. The Brits have a -1 on Morale rolls, +1 on supports and a Platoon leader rapidly falling in his Men's Opinion. Mike's tactical withdrawal was clearly a very clever strategy to win the campaign.

Martlet: Attack on the Hauptkampflinie

Yesterday myself and Mike got in our 6th game in the Martlet campaign at the Hobby Bunker in Malden. The British have had a hard time of it in this campaign and have only won 2 games and yesterday was no different.

This is scenario 3 from the campaign booklet and scenario 6 from the rulebook. Essentially the British had to take the crossroads forcing the Germans to withdraw. They had a big advantage in support with 20 points vs 7 for the Germans.

British (Morale 9)

2 SL's

Piat Team

2" Mortar Team

Rifle Section 1: 10 men

Rifle Section 2: 9 men

Rifle Section 3: JL and Bren team (4 men)

Supports (20)

Adjutant

Piat Team

2" Mortar Team

Vickers MG Team

Infantry Section

Churchill AVRE

Germans (Morale 11)

1 SL

3 Panzerfaust 30

PG Squad 1: 7 men/2 LMG

PG Squad 2: 6 men/2 LMG

PG Squad 3: 6 men/2 LMG

Panzer IVH

Supports (8)

Adjutant

Rifle team

8 cm Mortar with FO

A Cunning Adversary

Patrol Markers

German JOP's

British JOP's

The Bloody Mortar Barrage

Action Report

The game started well enough for the British with 4 free moves in the Patrol Phase with excellent positioning of their JOP's as well as getting a section in the closest house on the British right flank as well as a Bren team with a JL behind the wall. A 2" mortar was able to start laying smoke.

Unfortunately on the German first phase they were able to call up the off table mortar and as they had a double 6 on their CR a barrage was laid on top of the 3 British teams. Within a couple of phases their morale had gone from 9 to 5. The Germans occupied the centre building on their right flank and placed their Panzer IV on the centre road.

This went on for a while and a paucity of 5's on the British CR's forced them to wait for a 3d6 to appear on a CR to end the turn. They were able to advance a team just outside the barrage area on their right flank and the Churchill AVRE advanced with another infantry section on their left flank. The turn finally ended and the barrage was lifted, the British made an attempt to advance on their extreme right flank, this was countered by the Germans by placing a PG squad on their left flank just behind the closest building.

The Germans were then able to restart the mortar and again caught 3 British teams with the barrage area. The Germans had incredible dicing in both barrages with at least 2-3 hits on every throw. This was countered by the British with 5 and 6's on their save rolls resulting in several more morale tests and the now they were down to 3. It was clear that the British would not overcome the Hitler Jugend's "line of resistance". The only thing I could hope to do was cause significant attrition on the PG's. The only Chain of Command dice I had obtained was used to interrupt the German's next phase with the Churchill AVRE firing it's mortar at a stone house where a squad of PG's were encamped...........16d6 fired resulted in a total of 3 shock.................it just was not to be my day.

The Final Count

Germans

No Losses in this turn and only 2 men killed in 6 turns

Up to a +2 Support in the next game

+3 on the next morale throw

SL range extended to 12"

And I believe a medal to be rewarded before the next game

British

8 dead, 4 seriously wounded and 4 lightly wounded, now 24 men killed in 6 turns

-1 on the next morale throw

And the need to bring on a new platoon in the next game

Martlet: Pushed Through!

We had our 5th game in our CoC Martlet campaign today at the Hobby Bunker in Malden, MA. My back was really against the wall now in this campaign, I had already lost 16 men and have had to use my reinforcements in the 2nd turn. Additionally the Germans were intact without loss, and their morale was high. I was getting killed on the Force Morale every game. It was time to really have a plan.

We were playing Table 2 a second time, the terrain is as laid out below and is scenario 3 in the main rulebook.

I diced for my free moves and threw a 6, which was excellent. I ended up pretty well where I wanted with my JOP's and had held the German patrols to no more then 1/2 way up the terrain.

Time to select Supports. Mike was +2 so that gave him 9 supports while I was -1, but cancelled out because this was my second go on this scenario. I ended up with 16 supports. The OB was as follows:

British
Force Morale 8
SL x 2
3 Rifle sections with a total of 30 men
1 Bren team with JL
1 Piat Team
2 2" Mortar Teams
1 HMG Team
Churchill AVRE

Germans
Force Morale 11
SL x 2
3 Panzergrenadier squads with a total of 20 men
2 Panxer IV's

The game played out as follows.

In the first few phases, I decided to get the troops on the table quickly. I had pretty good JOP positions so could cover the ground well. I did not want to expose myself but had to be in position to lay down some fire when the Germans did appear. One squad in the house and one squad in the orchard. I decided also to place a HMG in the house with one of the SL's. With 3 units in the house shock can be easily spread out. I also put a 2" mortar on the edge of the orchard. Mike cautiously put one PG squad in the forest well out of my LOS, and brought on a Panzer IV on the road. Once he committed himself to an advance, I placed my Piat team in good LOS.

I started to lay down smoke and to assist with this I brought on my second Mortar team.  Once enough smoke was laid I advanced one of the mortars to my right flank to cover the asphalt road.

Mike responded by reversing the Panzer IV and changed his line of advance.  He then deployed a 2nd Panzer IV ( I had really hoped that he had not taken a 2nd Panzer as a support and had chosen a the 2" mortar as a 2nd support rather then a 2nd Piat team.......guessed wrong). Under cover of smoke I ran the Piat team down the road and got them in the stone farmhouse. Mike then brought a 2nd squad into the house next to his central JOP. OK this was what I was hoping for so I deployed the Churchill AVRE to my left flank, out of LOS of the Panzers. 

The game was now afoot. I needed more targets and as bait, I deployed my 3rd section into the road and jumped over the hedge, Mike deployed his 3rd squad behind the wall. Now finally there were lots of targets with my men in fairly good position. Mike ended the turn with a CoC dice but I was able to interrupt with my CoC of command dice and move the section which I had used as bait out of LOS of the PG squad in the garden. I advanced the AVRE and got 3 shots off at the forward Panzer, I needed an 8 to hit. I threw a 7 three times! Out of Ammo. Mike was able to fire back at the house with the CoAx MMG and the main gun of the Panzer. Some shock and one kill, all manageable. Back in forth fire but I was able to take out 4 panzergrenadiers in the garden with my HMG and Rifle section. They were pinned. I advanced the Churchill. Next phase I was ready with 16d6 of HE to bring down on the house that the other PG squad was holed up. Mike decided to cut his losses and withdrew. Table 2 was taken, a British victory. 

Some photos of the action.

JOP's

Panzergrenadiers keeping doggo

Remembered to keep on Overwatch

Finally something to fire out

Panzers

The Bait

The Result

Never got to fire the big gun

I was happy to secure a victory, the campaign is going to still me a tough slog, but there is now some hope and we move on to a different scenario.

Martlet: Pushing On

We played our 4th game in the Marlet campaign this past Saturday, again at the Hobby Bunker. This was scenario 3 (Attack and Defend) from the book and scenario 2 in the campaign. This is quite a different game from the first scenario as there is no specific objective and the terrain was quite busy with very little clear LOS and a lot of cover.

British approach in the far ground, the only direct LOS is down the asphalt road. The forests block LOS even from the second story windows of the houses.

Final position of the Patrol Markers, you can see my new dice.

Position of the JOPs. I believe I should have been a little more aggressive in my push forward, as you can see the German JOPs are barely in front of the their start line.

Game 4:

Mike got 10 and I got 8 on Force Morale. This is low starting FM for the British has been a continued handicap. Mike is +3 on his FM throw and I am -1, so it will continue.

British Supports (16):

2" Mortar

Firefly

Sherman

Medic

German Supports (8):

Forward Observer

Rifle Team

Recap:

We both started this game with depleted platoons, I was missing 8 men and Mike 2. We had gone 4 games and I was just starting on table 2, this is going to be a tough campaign for me to win. To get a marginal victory, I have to take  6 tables by turn 11 (we added a turn on the first day due to errors that favoured the Germans).  So I have 1 table at turn 4! I decided to not take an extra infantry and more to rely on Armour. I thought Mike might take an extra Panzer IV, guessed wrong. Mike decided to buttress his panzergrenadier squads with riflemen.

Summary:

My new dice served me relatively well in this game, but unfortunately at the wrong times. I got 6 free moves with my patrol markers, I think I could have been a little more aggressive with my push forward but I wanted my advance to be on a broad front.

In the first several throws of the Command Dice, I got 3 double sixes, but unfortunately this was of little value in this Attack and Defend game as Mike had a lot of difficulty getting his troops on the table because of the British Artillery Barrage. Lots of moves but to where, there were no German units to attack. I probably could of captured a JOP but this was of little value early in the game as I did not have a Chain of Command dice. All the German JOP's were in exposed positions and close together which would have made them hard to hold on to.

Notwithstanding this, I advanced one section up the road under the cover of smoke and easily captured the central compound. I also deployed my Bren team with a JL in the barn which had the JOP in it. There was one slit which allowed a clear LOS up the dirt road to the forest where I suspect Mike would deploy his troops.

Mike deployed his Panzer IV on his left flank, so I deployed my Firefly. Twelve d6 vs 6d6 (should be a piece of cake), I had 3 shots at the Panzer IV, hit it each time and the best I could do was equal hits!  Mike fires back at the Firefly, kaboom, down 2 FM. I bring on my Sherman, again I hit it twice, again no damage. The Panzer fires back, and hits the damn thing twice, Shock forces the crew to abandon the tank and now my FM is down to 5.

Mike has now advanced his FO and one panzergrenadier squad through the forest on his right flank, I manage to cause some shock and wound a JL, we fire back and forth, my section is the first to get pinned, as he now gets some double 6's on his command throws. He also gets of his off table mortar which envelopes two of my JOP's. I have one section in reserve and he has 2 squads in reserve.

Decision time...........I use my one Chain of Command dice to end the turn and withdraw my troops successfully. I have only lost 3 men and Mike one, but I can see that I am not going to be able to force the Germans off the table. Another German victory. 

Section 1 deploys..........

..........and gamely advances up the road under cover of smoke

Panzergrenadiers advancing with FO

The section gets stuck in but get pinned first by the PGs.

This Panzer IV was indestructible

First time the Firefly has seen a game and up it goes.

The German off table mortar closes off the centre of the table.

Mike played a great game and really stymied my advance. I could whine about losing both tanks but that is how it is, I do not think my plan was bad. If I took out the Panzer IV I would have been able to advance both tanks up my right flank. We are hoping to get our next game in the first week of January, I really need to get off table 2 and only have 7 more turns left to move through 5 tables! Mike's +4 throw on the FM is going to continue to be a real killer.