Ville de Montagne - Tommy Brings it On!

Another game of Chain of Command.  This week saw a British attack on a German held objective just prior to Operation Charnwood on the northern outskirts of Caen. Troops from the British 3rd Division have been tasked to capture some high ground near the hamlet of Ville de Montagne in order to deny the Germans a vital observation post prior to commencement of the main operation.

This was an Attack on an Objective (scenario #6) from the CoC rule book. Again, my opponent was Chee. He wanted to play a Commonwealth force for a change, so I created this simple scenario.

We rolled for our Force Morale and I gained +1 (for 10) and Chee rolled -1  for a Force Morale of 8. Obviously the endless attacks since D-Day were taking their toll on the Brits whilst the Germans considered their position to be a strong one.

The Patrol Phase

The Britishers pushed up the center and into the fields on their left. The Germans led by the redoubtable Unterfeldweble Heinze Gebacken-Bohnen, attempted to secure the center and push toward the brewed-up Churchill wreck in the fields.

We both took regular infantry platoons and Chee rolled 8pts of support. He took a pre-game barrage and a M4 Sherman.  That gave me 4 pts (half) so I chose an adjutant and a SdKfz 250 recon team with a MG42.

From the vantage point of the objective I could see the colour beginning to fade from the world and everything started to look all "Hollywood WWII Washed-out" and I could tell that der scheise was about to hit zee fan...

 Fading... fading...

Tommy Brings it On!

Despite having the lower Force Moral the Brits, as the Attacking Force, took the first phase. Which turned out to be a double phase. It seemed that Unterfeldweble Gebacken-Bohnen was already on the back foot. Fortunately Lieutenant Chee also rolled a bunch of 5's which added to his CoC dice but didn't leave him a lot to play with when it came to deploying troops.

About the only notable thing the Brits did was lay some misplaced smoke with their mortar.

The first German troops to appear was a section near the brewed-up tank. The barrage kept any other German troops from arriving to support this team. Where are you Gebacken-Bohnen? Get on with it!

Unfortunately for my single section they were targeted by a section in front who used the accuracy of their Bren gun to good effect. Another team in one of the central houses also did the same. The MG team took a hammering from the accurate Bren guns and took cover.

Another section appeared in the center of the village and tried to make for one of the houses. But no other Germans appeared due to the barrage. Get in there and do your job Unterfeldweble. Where are you?

And then... A Double Phase and lots of 5's - Enough to gain a CoC dice. A miracle! The turn ended. The barrage lifted, the smoke dissipated, there was a change in the air and Unterfeldweble Heinze Gebacken-Bohnen came on and took command! 

And a third Phase in a row!

Germans started moving and getting into position. Shock was being removed from units. The British in the fields were taking fire from the crossfire of two MG34 teams. Things were looking up. 

Well done Gebacken-Bohnen. Well done!

Then my first rifle team routed and ran off the table, with their cowardly NCO. That hurt my Force Morale by 2. Equal to the Brits now. 

Then a Sherman that had been sitting by the table edge moved up and made it's presence felt by lobbing some HE at a house holding an MG34 team. Not much effect but it was worrying.

 "That one there. Straight in front of us, gunner!"

 At least the lifting of the barrage had allowed my halftrack to come into play (and yes... I know it's  an SdKfz 251 and not a 250. The problem is all my 250's are painted up for North Africa!)

The Brits advanced slowly under fire from my MG34's but continued to target my MG's with those accurate Bren's. The Sherman took another HE shot at the house with my MG34 team and rolled 6, 6, 6... And the unstable house became unstable. The hull machine gun also killed one of the team and pinned those remaining so they couldn't evacuate the house.

The MG team overlooking the fields took some heavy fire from multiple directions and Gebacken-Bohnen was having trouble managing their shock. The loss of their own NCO running like a cowardly schweinhundt didn't help matters. So they became pinned.

And after more fire they broke. And they ran. And they ran off the table edge. And Unterfeldweble Heinze Gebacken-Bohnen (soon to face a court martial) ran with them!

To the Bad Things Happen table - And Bad Things did Happen!

I lost 3pts of Force Moral - From 8 to 5.

No Senior Leader.

Ouch!

This loss left my right flank open and with the Brits playing a CoC card to end the turn, the house with my MG team holding off the center, came crashing down. Luckily the MG team escaped unscathed.

But now the the Tommy's were free to advance through the fields without having to worry about German machine guns.

Meanwhile, my halftrack had advanced down the center road and started pouring rounds into a house with a Brit section that had been doing most of the damage with flanking fire. They got plenty of hits but the hard cover of the solid Norman buildings was hard to crack.

I also brought my last section onto the table on my left near the church. They also put their fire into the same house as the halftrack. 

A firefight had developed in the center with one of my rifle teams and a Brit section with neither really getting the better of each other. But a few stray rounds strayed into the MG team that evacuated the collapsed house and caused them to rout.  This caused the loss of another FM point. Down to 4... & 4 Command Dice.

The Tommy's hadn't been getting things all their own way throughout all of this. They'd lost no teams but they had lost men and a few of their leader had been wounded so they had lost several FM points. The section and halftrack targeting the central house wounded and then killed one junior NCO taking the Brit Force Morale to 5.

It was at about this time that I did possibly the stupidest thing in the game. I brought on my panzerschreck team. However, they came on in such a place that they couldn't take an immediate shot at the Sherman which had moved up with the infantry. My rifle team then shot at their counterparts. It was then that I did the stupid thing... With a click of my fingers I said: "Oh, this team also has a panzerfaust. I should have shot your tank. I'll have to do it next turn."

By "next turn" the tank went into hiding.

That's the house I was targeting with everything I could bring to bare.

 And there's my panzerschreck team waiting to move forward and crack that Sherman.

T'was the beginning of the end. I kept targeting the house with the Brit section and I was whittling them down and applying shock. But not enough and not quick enough. I needed the men in that house pinned so that I could get my panzerschreck into play and knock out that Sherman. 

My section "with the panzerfaust" started getting the worst of things and finally broke. This caused a loss of 3 pts of Force Morale and the day was lost.

In the end I still had a full section, the halftrack and panzerschreck - All 100% unscathed.

Conclusion

Another great game of Chain of Command and a big thank you to my opponent, Chee.

Whilst things did seem to go against me part of that was my own doing. For instance: It was only much later that I remembered that I could have used the Maschinengewehr ability with the halftrack about a half dozen times but I completely forgot about it. I used the ability with the MG teams several times but I just forgot about the junior leader with the recce team. That'll learn me.

The pre-game barrage is nasty but not insurmountable. It can make it very difficult to deploy in any kind of logical manner. it's very hard to support your teams when the support just doesn't arrive.
I can see that Chee likes this support option and I'm guessing I'll be seeing it again in the future.

On the other hand I like my SdKfz 250 Recce Team. A nice cheap mobile MG42 platform. I'll have to get another one and paint it up appropriately for the future.

A Campaign
We chatted after the game and decided to try a pint-sized campaign starting next year. With Chee busy for the next month or so, and with Christmas soon upon us, we thought next year would be a good and I'll also have time to ready any forces or terrain we many need.

I can't wait.


Oh... And by the way: