There are Many Rivers to Cross: Turns 4 and 5

We played our next game in the Many Rivers campaign yesterday. This has been a very slow campaign with our last game at the end of June...6 months ago! This is the 5th table and the German push through Belgium had been going well with little resistance so far. The German have been advancing so quickly they will try to take this table without any vehicles using the Blitzkrieg scenario from the 1940 source book.

After 3 turns

German Platoon 1: 3 dead.
German Platoon 2: Intact 

Belgian Platoon 1: 15 dead.

Campaign Tracker

Germans

Commander's Opinion+3 (+1FM)

Men's Opinion +2

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Droll

Belgians

Commander's Opinion-1

Men's Opinion -4 (-1FM)

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Sad

Essentially the Germans are attacking from the right. I had set up a nice table but had completely misunderstood the victory conditions for the Germans in the scenario. Myself and Greg had a completely different interpretation of them. A bit of a set-to ensued! I will not go into the problems with the wording of the scenario and the very unusual victory conditions as you can read about them here and here. I have to say though that we got almost immediate responses from both sources and I was 100% wrong. 

So we went with the below forces, with the Germans having to get 2 units off the table before the Belgians accumulated 2 CoC dice. The tricky bit is that the Chasseurs Ardennais start with a CoC dice so really need to only accumulate 6 pips to win the game. I have to admit that Greg offered to re-consider this but I was so flummoxed by the victory conditions I just wanted to go ahead and get the game started.

GAME 4

Chasseur Ardennais 1 Platoon (FM 11)

Core

SL

GdC 1 (-7 men)
GdC 2 (-8 men)

DBT Lance Grenade Section 

CoC Dice

Supports (6)
Char B1 bis
Entrenchement

Schützen 3 Platoon (FM 8)

Core

SLx2

5cm Mortar Team 

Squad 1

Squad 2

Squad 3

Supports (22)
Shabby Nazi Trick-Nuns with Guns, Fifth Columnist, Jean Claude
Adjutant
Red Dice
Pregame Barrage
MMG Team x 2
Pak 36 ATG
Off Table Mortar

The Playing Field

Patrol Phase

The JOP's

So the game started and within  3-4 phases it was over as the Belgians had accumulated their 2 CoC dice. Maybe took 20 minutes, it is really quite a drag that one has waited for 6 months to play the next game in a campaign, spend a lot of time setting up the terrain and it to be all over in less then 30 minutes. I believe that the scenario although interesting has been somewhat poorly thought out and written, I am sure no-one considered the possibility that some units in the 1940 sourcebook have a CoC dice to start. Use of the word reinforcements rather then supports in the victory conditions would have been much clearer has been pointed out on the facebook page. But we have what we are presented with, and water under the bridge we can say; time to move on.

The post-game process was pretty simple as we had only to test on the CO's Opinion, once on the Men's Opinion (as no one died) and on the Platoon Leaders Outlook.

After 4 turns

German Platoon 1: 3 dead.
German Platoon 2: Intact 
German Platoon 3: Intact

Belgian Platoon 1: 15 dead.

Campaign Tracker

Germans

Commander's Opinion+4 (+1 Support)

Men's Opinion +2

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Guarded

Belgians

Commander's Opinion 

Men's Opinion -3 (-1FM)

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Sad

GAME 5

The one good thing about a quick game is that you can play it again in the same session. The really good news was that I could now take vehicles and with the Blitzkrieg condions this was an enormous plus! I still had to deal with the fact that the Chasseurs start with a CoC dice but I was optimistic.

Chasseur Ardennais 1 Platoon (FM 8)

Core 

SL

GdC 1 (-7 men)
GdC 2 (-8 men)

DBT Lance Grenade Section 

CoC Dice

Supports (4)
Renault R35
Minefield

Schützen 2 Platoon (FM 10)

Core

SLx2

5cm Mortar Team 

Squad 1

Squad 2

Squad 3

Supports (15)
Shabby Nazi Trick-Fifth Columnist
2 cars
Red Dice
Off Table Mortar
Panzer III B

I played an enormously poor Patrol phase and got only 1 forward JOP, you can not see the Belgian JOP's but they are all on the base line and the Belgian right flank. Greg brought on his R35 on overwatch, I brought on my Panzer IIIC amazingly enough Greg hit it twice driving it back! As you can see he placed a minefield in the middle of the road (I will have to make some minefields). In the next couple of phases I bought on all my troops and supports, after all this was a Blitzkrieg and I had very limited time to get 2 units off the board. I placed 1 squad in 2 cars after putting down a barrage. This effectively protected the cars from any firing. One squad with an SL was placed on my right flank with the FO behind the hedge. The other squad was placed on my left flank with the other SL and the 5cm Mortar team and advanced toward the house with the stone wall. I was able to move the barrage to be able to keep the moving R35 under it. As you can see my 2 teams in the cars made it up my right flank (they are just in front of the hedge. They had 36" to go but they are fast on solid ground and amazing enough they through 36" of movement. A German victory! I was a little surprised that Greg did not use his CoC dice to end the barrage but I suppose he was hoping that he could get the 6 pips needed to win the game. It was a little late though as I had 1 CoC dice by now which could be used to continue the barrage or reduce his CoC dice by 3 pips. I was happy with my victory. 

 

I believe, I played a pretty good game here. We both had a few double phases and the dicing was about even but I was lucky with the vehicle's movement, I believe I moved across the board in 5 phases including being slowed down through the fields with the risk of being bogged down.

So the Germans are on table 6, and next up is turn 6 where the Belgians get a chance to blow the bridge, but I initiated the special scenario rule of Blitzkrieg, which allows the Germans to attack the next table in the the same turn bringing with them the same forces and supports as they had in turn 5. I suffered no casualties so I believe this is a good choice as the Belgians do not get a chance to blow the final bridge.

Mid 5th turn

German Platoon 1: 3 dead.
German Platoon 2: Intact 
German Platoon 3: Intact 

Belgian Platoon 1: 15 dead
Belgian Platoon 2: Intact

Campaign Tracker

Germans

Commander's Opinion+5 (+1 Support)

Men's Opinion +3 (FM+1)

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Droll

Belgians

Commander's Opinion -1

Men's Opinion -2

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Concerned (-1 FM)


 Hopefully, we will not have to wait 6 months to play the next and maybe the final game!

There are Many Rivers to Cross-Turn 3

 

After 2 turns

Platoon 1: Germans 3 dead, 2 man missing the next turn, JL#3 at 1 CI.

Platoon 1: Belgians 15 dead, 5 men missing the next turn.

Campaign Tracker

Germans

Commander's Opinion+2

Men's Opinion +1

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Droll

Belgians

Commander's Opinion-1

Men's Opinion -6 (-2FM, Sl 6" command range)

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Sad

TURN 3

Table 4 from the campaign book, it is based on Going with a Bang scenario for the 1940 Blitzkreig source book. The Germans are entering from the right at either the upper orlower point depending on a dice roll. The Belgians have to blow up 2 of the 4 culverts seen on the map. The 2 culverts in the centre are small and require a task roll of 6 to set the charge while the 2 culverts to the left are large and require a task roll of 12 to set the charges.

Chasseur Ardennais 1 Platoon (FM 10)

Core (-20 men)

SL

GdC 1 (-3 riflemen)
Demolition Team

DBT Lance Grenade Section

CoC Dice

Supports (9)
AAMG
Demolition Team
Medic
Franc Tireurs
GdC

Schützen 2 Platoon (FM 11)

Core

SLx2

5cm Mortar Team

Squad 1

Squad 2

Squad 3

Supports (22)
Shabby Nazi Trick Nuns with Guns, 
Sniper
Red Dice
Off-Table MMG
MMG Team
le.IG 18 IG

The table, the Germans enter from the left

Greg really got the jump on me with the Patrol Phase as you can see. The JOP's are circled.

So on with some photos.

Greg rapidly deployed all his troops. The Stuka bombardment had no effect on the houses and he decided to very quickly end the turn with his CoC die. At the same time his Franc Tireurs prevented me from quickly getting off my most forward JOP, he advanced his first demo team to take out the minor culvert in the bottom right. Initially Iwas not in the best position to put pressureon them but my Civilians rapidly advanced up the east-west road, revealed themselves as a German LMG team on a double phase took some pot shots at the CdG behind the hedge and then ran back and occupied the house in the centre. Greg put his DBT team to good use by dropping smoke rounds to protect the CdG squad and the demo team and they started to do set their charges.........

  

The CdG team took a lot of fire, they are one shock from being pinned and their JL is down to 1 CI.

The Belgian DBT team with the SL giving support. They were well hidden but without direct LOS they were unable to lay down really accurate smoke. By the end of the game they had fired 8 of their 9 available smoke rounds.

As usuall my MMG team got beat up and pinned before they could get much fire off. I had to send in a SL to keep them going and to get the shock off......

.......fortunatley he was within range of my le.IG18 so they were able to rain HE on the CdG team with the support of another rifle squad. By now the Germans were fully deployed.

The Belgian demo team took a lot of fire from the LMG team in the house as well as another German squad behind the stone wall. They broke and had to retreat without completing their mission. A 2nd demo team was now attempting to blow the large culvert to the above left but I deployed my Off-Table MMG to put fire on them at long range. I then threw a triple6 on my CI lifting all the smoke. Greg's options were now quite limited so he withdrew. Not many dead as can see from above. The Germans advance to table 5.

The Summing Up

The ending force morale was 11 for the Germans and 8 for the Belgians. The Germans lost 1 support MMG gun crew and 1 rifleman while the Belgians lost 7 support riflemen. So once we apply the post campaign process and the losses from turn 2 we have the following:

After 3 turns

German Platoon 1: 3 dead. 1JL down 1CI (3" command range)
German Platoon 2: Intact

Belgian Platoon 1: 15 dead.

Campaign Tracker

Germans

Commander's Opinion+3 (+1FM)

Men's Opinion +2

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Droll

Belgians

Commander's Opinion-1

Men's Opinion -4 (-1FM)

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Sad

It was an interesting game as the scenario is a challenge. I was surprised that Greg did not take a new platoon but when I thought about this, I realised it was a good decision as victory was not dependent on firepower but more on maneuver.

I think the diceing was about equal and we both got the appropriate number of double phases, but I was lucky to get the triple 6 when I did has it lifted all Greg's smoke at a critical time in the game. Without the smoke he was wide open and was forced to withdraw.

The next game is going to be a challenge for the Germans as their advance has been a little too quick and although the Belgians failed to blow the roads, the Germans mobile support still has not caught up to them (this does not happen until after turn 4). The next table is based on the Blitzkreig scenario from the 1940 sourcebook, it is going to be hard to exit troops off the other end of the table without any wheels!

There are Many Rivers to Cross-Turn 2

 

Yesterday, myself and Greg got together at my place to play the next turn in our Belgian Invasion campaign from the TFL 2018 Annual. It had been 3 months since we played the last turn so it was time to get moving!

The next scenario was table 3 which is based on the Swift to Support scenario from the 1940 source book.  

We both decided not to rotate out our platoons so went with the surviving elements from our first game. We went through the pregame process and came up with the below starting forces.

Chasseur Ardennais Platoon (FM 10)

Core

SL

GdC 1: Missing 3 riflemen

GdC 2: Missing 3 riflemen

DBT Lance Grenade Section

CoC Dice

Supports (9)

T-13a/b

Maxim MMG Team

Schützen Platoon (FM 11)

Core

SLx2

5cm Mortar Team

Squad 1

Squad 2

Squad 3: Missing 3 riflemen

Supports (15)

Fifth Columnist

Jean-Claude

Red Dice

MMG Team

Flamethrower Team

Schützen Squad

So off we went.......

The German approach

Patrol Markers with subsequent JOP's

I initially started my attack from my left flank. I placed a squad, MMG team and a SL here. This was not prudent as almost immediately my MMG got pinned and there only target was a CdG in hard cover. This was a losing battle.

The Belgian DBT gave me a lot of trouble, they were well back so were protected from anything I could launch at them. Most of their fireing was without LOS but their reducing cover to open resulted in a lot of casualties.

The main Belgian CdG unit in hard cover, I controlled them relatively well with almost continous covering fire but it was hard to cause loss with long range fire.

On my right flank I placed another SL, with a squad and a 5cm Mortar team.  Their target was the CdG in the light cover in the orchard.  A bit more success here.

The aforementioned CdG unit.

I decided that I needed a forward base so used a CoC dice to advance my rear most JOP forward, I had not done this before. It was effective but not withstanding the squad I placed here broke and I had to also withdraw the FT team as they were under heavy fire. I was waiting for a double phase so they could take out the troops behind the hard cover.

I sent in another squad to replace the breaking group with the left flank SL to help reduce shock.

They were able to pin the CdG in the light cover and with more fire they broke.

We were then at a bit of a stalemate but Greg, being the gentleman and tactician that he is, suggested that I advance a squad to take a JOP. By now the only Belgian squad that could see my right flank was the centre CdG in hard cover. They had taken lot of fire and were being worn down. I used my centre rifle team to lay down covering fire and in two bounds my right flank rifle team ran up and got within 4" of the Belgian JOP. At the same time 3 LMG teams and the MMG team where piling fire into the centre CdG unit, they were close to breaking. Greg withdrew. A German victory

The Summing Up

The ending force morale was 8 for the Germans and 6 for the Belgians. The Germans lost a JL and 5 riflemen while the Belgians lost 19 riflemen. So once we apply the post campaign process and the losses from turn 1 we have the following:

After 2 turns

Platoon 1: Germans 3 dead, 2 man missing the next turn. 1JL down 1CI (3" command range)

Platoon 1: Belgians 15 dead, 5 men missing the next turn.

Campaign Tracker

Germans

Commander's Opinion+2

Men's Opinion +1

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Droll

Belgians

Commander's Opinion-1

Men's Opinion -6 (-2FM, Sl 6" command range)

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Sad

  

This was an interesting game. I definitely was very lucky in respect to command rolls with 7 double phases while Greg I believe only had 2. In dice rolling, we were about equal, earlier in the game Greg certainly had lady luck on his side but as the game went on I caught up. As I noted in my initial post, it was going to be a challenge for me as I am naturally a defender. Greg was a real gentleman yesterday in pointing out the maneuver that won me the game. I certainly have learned a lot about tactics from playing with Greg. It is interesting to me that it is really quite valuable to play with multiple different players as there are so many approaches to playing CoC.

There are Many Rivers to Cross: The Start of Yet Another CoC Campaign

I started my second simultaneous campaign yesterday with Greg. Greg is an Early War fan so we were both keen to start a campaign using the 1940 Blitzkrieg CoC rules and army lists. This mini-campaign appeared in the recent Lard Magazine and it looks like a lot of fun.

The campaign is generic in that it can be played with any force from the Blitzkrieg book as well as anywhere in France, Holland or Belgium. Since I have Belgic forces, we set it in Belgium in May of 1940. Interestingly the campaign starts on Table 2, as the Germans (attackers) have already crossed the first river and are approaching a town. They have yet to build bridges so they are limited to infantry forces only and can not use ATG's, IG's or any vehicles in the first 2 campaign turns.  If the German fail to take the 2nd table, the Allied forces can attack back on to table 1 and if victorious in turn 2 and seize Table 1, they would have a complete victory in a very short campaign!

The German force do have a significant advantage in support in the first turn with 2d6+6 while the defender has 1d6+2. In the background of the campaign, German pioneers are building a bridge and the Allies are sending engineers to destroy it.

We got together yesterday and drew sides by chance. I ended up playing the Germans.  I am by nature a player who prefers defending rather than attacking but this sort of worked out as I have noted after 3 games with Greg that is a fairly aggressive attacker. We were both going to be challenged!

The table as set up, you can see the patrol markers. I only blew one building with the Stuka Bombardment. It was a UXB, but fortunately was in house in the mid foreground which was not going to be invloved in my plan of attack.

The light brown circles are the German JOP's and as you can see I was able to get a JOP in an advanced position. I had to be cautious though as Greg is very adroit at capturing them as I have found out in the past.

Forces

Chasseurs Ardennais

CD5, Regular, FM9
Core Platoon
Franc Tireurs
Bunker for 1 Tm
Maxim 08 MG Tm

Schutzen
CD5, Regular, FM8
Core Platoon
Jean Claude
Off-Table MG
MG34 MG Tm
Flamethrower Tm
Stuka Bombardment
Off Table Bunker Buster 

So on to the photos of which I took very few. They really are not going to tell the story but it was as follows:

To win, I had to clear 2 of the 3 far sections of the table while getting a unit off the far side or of course force the Belgians off the table by withdrawal or morale failure. Greg had almost immediately placed a MMG team in the bunker defending the T-junction on my right flank. Fortunately I had chosen a Bunker Buster 8.8 cm gun as an off-table support. We did allow the bunker to be graded as a fortification which made it quite difficult to crack even with the 88. The Stuka bombardment was relatively effective in keeping the Belgians from deploying and when they did, they did suffer not insignificant shock. Greg did throw a 3d6 on his CD early on so it really only affected 2 of his 4 units.

I was quite concerned about Greg capturing my forward JOP so after I placed a squad behind the hedge to cover my left flank, I dropped a squad in the fenced garden of the house in the photo below and quickly added a Flame Thrower Tm as well as a SL. By then Greg had a Group de Combat in the orchard in his centre. I followed with my 3rd squad on my right flank while Greg placed his DBT section behind a house on his left flank and placed his 2nd Group de Combat in the large barn on his left flank. 

Fire ensued between the 2 sections confronting each other on the German right flank, the Belgians are numerically superior and were in hard cover but I was able to keep things going by placing a SL with the Schutzen squad to remove shock. A battle between pretty equal forces, one being in hard cover and the other being in light cover was not going to go well for the Germans in the long run so it was time to make my move. I was worried though that Greg by now had 2 CoC dice and I had none. It is hard to advance aggressively even on a double phase if your opponent can interupt.

I moved my forward squad with the SL and the FT Tm into the house below on the left with a plan to exit onto the road. Greg moved his GdC behind the house on his side of the road. At the same time, I advanced my squad on the left to take his un-protected JOP on his far right flank. This was a mistake as his GdC in the centre could fire at them. By then both our FM's were down to 5, but I had  slight advantage although I now had 2 squads pinned, I had killed one of his JL's and his single SL was down for the turn. My 2 SL's were still good and industriously removing shock.

I moved my forward squad out of the house, crossed the street and was rapidly able to get them in the house overlooking the orchard. I felt I was finally in a good position to force Greg to withdraw but he fought on hurling grenades in through the windows, he caused shock but no kills and the Germans were then able to rain fire (literally and figuratively) on the Belgian troops. Greg dropped to a FM of 3 but used his CoC dice to prevent taking a FM test when his SL went down. He dicided to play one more turn but really his ability to counterattack was done and on my next turn I forced his FM to zero. Game over and a German victory.

The all important forward German JOP

Not good to get caught out in the open

A very busy SL, you can see Jean-Claude hiding just at the left edge of the barn

Bad to be caught with a flame thrower.....

.....but also tricky to be in an enclosed space with greandes going off!

The Summing Up

Well the  FM difference of 5 resulted in the following:

Germans 2 dead, 1 man missing the next turn. 1JL down 1CI

Belgians 4 dead, 2 men missing the next turn. SL down 1CI, JL down 1CI

Campaign Tracker

Germans

Commander's Opinion+1

Men's Opinion +2

Platoon Leaders's Outlook Relaxed

Belgians

Commander's Opinion-1
Men's Opinion -3 (-1FM)
Platoon Leaders's Outlook Short-tempered

Well it is shaping up to be an interesting campaign, I was happy to win as an attacker. We will have to see how it goes. I can recommend buying the Lard Magazine for this campaign alone.