Capturing Caesar's Camp: Action 04 - La Ferme de Caubert

The next action in this TooFatLardies' pint-szied campaign, Capturing Caesar's Camp, features the attempt to capture Caubert's Farm, the jump-off point for a subsequent assault on Mont Caubert. It features the same platoon from B/4/Cameron Highlanders as in the last action...

 

This time the platoon has the support from its trusty FOO and his mortar men, a Vickers team from 1/Princess Louise’s Kensington Regiment, a scout car from 1/Lothian & Border Horse, and, most importantly, another French Char B1 bis.

When I played this game, the real weather conditions changed a lot, so some of the lighting/appearance of the game changes quite a lot also. For this, my apologies! Hopefully the narrative can guide you through.

The Set-Up:

The overall battlefield. The Scots are advancing from the South.

 

A slightly closer look at the farm and its environs

Another perspective

The Battle:

The advance begins, two sections up.

Hopefully you can spot the Scout Car advancing through the gap? And then the Germans in the treeline beyond?

A wider view - the other section is working around the right using the cover of the treelines

A better view of the German squad behind the treeline

As the British section moves up to engage - the Germans had gotten the worst of the initial exchange and pulled back - when they see a flamethrower team set up in ambush!

A wider view - note that the French armour support (another Char!) has turned up

The flamethrower team is eliminated, but not before they had destroyed the British platoon's mortar team!

A wider view - note the scout car by the junction (left) and the pulled back German squad can be seen at the second treeline (just!)

Okay, whilst the action is happening on the left flank, maybe the right-hand section can get up to the farm.

The British left section also goes flanking, preceded by the scout car and supported by the Char. It is taking the Vickers MG team with them too.

A wider shot, so you can see the British Pl comd controlling the final section and the platoon support weapons as a base of fire, if needed.

A bunch of Engineers are helping out the German section

Ouch! the right-flanking section walks into a well-concealed German ambush!! (It is well concealed too - you can just make the German squad out at edge of the hedgerow, top)

Okay, the fight by the farm got a bit weird - the British section managed to get close enough to launch their own ambush on the first German squad and eliminate a rifle group and the engineer group. But it turns out there was another squad concealed at the top tree line, in some kind of all around defence. The British have the firepower advantage with that Vickers though.

A few minutes later: about half the Germans are casualties, a few are still in the fight, a few have escaped back into the farm.

The wider perspective

King Kong arrives. Wait, what?

The French tanks have outflanked the Germans and are adding their firepower (top, by crossroads)

Over on the other flank, the British are heavily suppressed by the Germans. Unfortunately for the Germans, this is where they had sited their AT gun though...(right)

Okay, sensing the moment has come, with ony a couple of MG34 teams still holding off the British, the remainder of the British platoon advances a bit (bottom)

The British call in 3" mortar fire onto the farm complex

The British platoon suffers a couple more casualties in the advance, but the Germans have pretty much shot their bolt in the centre; more of their troops have become casaulties as some of the farm buildings are hit (note the fire in the near building)

Some of the reserve section go to help out the isolated British right-hand section

The stalemate has persisted on the othe flank - seeing the game is up, the Germans withdraw

The withdrawal carried out successfully.

The British advance on the farmhouse - all goes very quiet

Game Notes:

A fun and interesting game, although the British seemed to get the upper hand quite early and the Germans were never quite able to wrest any real initiative back. Their deployment against the British Right was in a very dangerous spot, but on the Left they kept on getting outflanked - the position just wasn't that great and probably needed to be held a little further forward...although against a French tank, that probably wasn't going to work either. And then the final German squad was activated in a really annoying place (for the Germans) - they ended up being in a horrible, enfiladed position.  OTOH, a more straightforward British attack up the centre might well have ended in a horrible defeat as they would have ended up in the enfiladed killing zone instead. But with the British superiority in firepower and support, the Germans were always going to struggle here, despite putting up a decent fight. The British lost 2 KIA, 6 WIA, the Germans rather more: 5 KIA, 5 WIA, 6 POW (although half of these were not part of the platoon core, so this platoon is still reasonably operationally effective).

 

As always in this campaign, rules used were Wargames Rules for Armour and Infantry 1925-1950. Most of the infantry was from Baccus, with a smattering of GHQ; the vehicles were from Heroics and Ros. the buildings are from Leven.

 

 

 

Capturing Caesar's Camp : Action 03 - Up the Route Nationale

This is the third action in the TooFatLardies' Capturing Caesar's Camp pint-sized campaign. 

 

This picks up the actions of the Cameron Highlanders (who had featured in the first action) as they try to destroy or outflank the German outpost line as they continue their advance to Mont de Caubert.

The British are a fresh platoon from 4th Cameron Highlanders, the Germans a fresh platoon from 2/217 Infanterie. The British have an extra Bren Carrier, plus a FOO with a 3" mortar section on call.

 The Set-Up:

The British approach from the left-hand side. The Route Nationale is the road at the very top of the board. The other road is considered to be slightly sunken.

One of the British sections is marching right up it (left)

Another section is placed to advance, rather gingerly I imagine, through the fields...(the intention being to trigger any German fire to the front, which can then be enfiladed from the cover around the Route Nationale)

The Battle:

The British platoon advances up the Route Nationale. The FOO and his team make themselves both comfortable and invisible at the end of the treeline.

You can see the Tommies advancing through the trees

Okay, the first shots ring out, as German engineers in the wheatfield spot the British advance

The German engineers disappear under British fire. The British are unsure whether they have eliminated the Germans, or they have just gone OOS.

A sniper shot rings out, suppressing the nearest British rifle group (behind the bushy tree); the main body of the British platoon has moved onto the top of the track

The Scots infantry located a German AT gun covering the road

The Pak 36 only has one real target...the Bren Carrier...

Which it promptly knocks out! Black smoke starts billowing into the air...

Of course, the forlorn German AT crew cannot last long that close to so many British infantry, and they are eliminated.

A small group of German engineers is located at the top corner of the board

Meanwhile, a British rifle group has managed to work up close to the German sniper, who is quickly dealt with

The Camerons advance towards the woods through the wheatfield

The advancing British catch more German engineers at the top of the board

The lead British infantry advances into the woods...and comes under fire from the German command group

The lead British section comes off distinctly worse in the firefight - it brings up the Bren to try and restore the situation

The rest of the British platoon was more positioned to isolate and cover the advance on the wood than to assist in the wood itself...

So it takes a couple of moments, but the British Platoon Commander gets another squad to advance on the wood from the flank (towards top-corner of board); the German Platoon Commander's group is eliminated.

 

From a slightly higher vantage point

Another German squad was hiding in the woods - it opens fire on the British

However, given the loss of the German platoon commander and the approaching British infantry, they choose to bug out rather than stay and lose the firefight.

Silence descends onto the battlefield.

Game Notes:

A somewhat more interesting game to play than it might read, because there was quite a lot of tension as to what and where the Germans would activate. Unfortunately for the Germans and the game, what they activated was pretty rubbish (an AT gun, a sniper, and three engineer groups) and not in amazingly useful places either, so the battle was a somewhat desultory affair. The Germans lost 4 KIA, 4 WIA, 6 POW and an anti-tank gun, whilst the British 2 KIA and 4 WIA and the Bren carrier. At least the Germans will have a more or less full strength platoon to take into the next battle (the effective loss is one base to each side's core platoon).

This game also shows the value of Rod's suggestion on The Wargames Website that non-player guns should be defended by at least some infantry when they are generated, if possible. That makes sense, and would have made a much more interesting and challenging problem for the British platoon at the end of the Route Nationale. 

One thing the observant reader might have noticed was that non-player units that are physically able to do so can move out-of-sight (OOS). When this happens, the models are removed from the table and their activation card goes back into the pack. This allows out-gunned groups of opposition to escape the player me) and hopefully be re-generated in a more useful/difficult location. This happened a few times in this game, as German engineers kept on getting activated in tactically useless and exposed positions! 

Rules as ever in this campaign are the Wargames Rules for Armoured Warfare 1925-50. Figures by Baccus 6mm, other models by Heroics and Ros.