We decided to try an early war game this week, Germans vs British in France 1940.
The early war German platoon has been published by TFL on their blog, but I needed to work out some details for the British.
Checking Bayonentstrength, revealed a surprisingly small platoon, with 3 x seven man sections.
British 1940 Platoon – Force Rating -4
HQ
Officer, Sergeant, 2" mortar, with 2 crew
Section x 3
Corporal
LMG team (2 men)
4 riflemen
I gave this a Force Rating of -4 based largely on comparing with other platoons in the rules. I also stated up a handful of vehicles to have as support options. Ranging from Humber LRC and Vickers tankettes on List 3, to Matilda II on list 6.
The German platoon has 3 twelve man sections, but only 1 senior leader.
We took the Attack and Defend Scenario, with the British as the Defender.
The Germans rolled 11 for morale, the British just 8.
The Germans rolled 2d6 for support points – and managed 3. This gave the British 6 pts to spend (1 from the scenario, and 5 from the difference in force strengths.
The Germans selected, a satchel charge, a medic, and an adjutant.
For the British I went a bit more aggressive and took a Humber LRC and a Vickers Mk VI tankette. To give me some mobile firepower to bolster my small infantry core.
For the patrol phase the British defender starts on the table – the attacker gets several free moves – 3 in this case.
The end of the patrol phase.
The Germans choose to come fairly centrally, which allowed me to get a some width in my patrol markers. Neither of us managed to reach the buildings though.
From this the jump of points were:
The British got one behind the hill on the right flank, one behind the village, and one in the wood on the left flank.
The Germans were in a line, with one on the right, one in the wood behind the village, and the third in the wood on the far flank.
Then we got into the game proper – and I forgot to take photos as I was too involved in the game.
So I have added some (lots) of arrows to photos I took the next morning of the end positions.
The game stared with the Germans deploying a squad centrally, and advancing towards the walled yard near the goods shed.
The British deployed a section and headed towards the large brown house.
The Germans deployed another squad in the left flank woods, to provide covering fire.
I deployed my 2" mortar just near the jump off point – with LoS to the woods, thinking that this would help my shooting – this proved a big mistake. My squad advanced into the house and took up firing positions, and the Germans advanced towards the goods shed. This advanced involved some dithering – as the Vickers VI had appeared on the hill (this was a rules error – vehicles don't use Jump off points) they use the board edge or roads.
The 2" mortar started a duel with the left hand german squad – this proved to be horribly one sided, one the mortar tried dropping smoke this went wide. And even deploying my Platoon sergeant to rally them was too late, as the shock and casualties mounted. After another burst of MG34 fire, 1 crewman dropped and the team had too much shock, and routed, taking the sergeant with them. I rolled 9 on 2d6 for routing distance (+6 for a rout) and was promptly off the table – this forces 2 moral tests, and I lost 4 points of moral – dropping me to 4 – perilously close to the 2 which would cause me to break.
In the centre the Germans had made it into the goods shed and were trading fire with the British across the road.
On the right flank the Vickers made use of its speed and shot over to the undefended Jump off Point – denying its use. By now I had a Chain of Command dice so could force the end of turn, capturing the JoP and forcing a german moral test – which had little effect (they may have even cancelled it with their own CoC dice).
In the centre the Germans were inflicting casualties on the British in the house, who retreated to the back of the house. Another British section deployed to the centre, to put some more firepower into the goods shed.
On the left the Germans deployed their third squad to the woods – and put suppressive fire onto the Vickers – but with no effect. But it did cause me to re-deploy it back to the hill, where it could put fire into the Germans but was out of their range.
On the other flank the Humber had deployed, and engaged in a long range fire fight with the Germans on the left flank.
I decided in the centre that I needed concentrated fire power to get the Germans out of the goods shed, and deployed my 3rd squad behind the wall. As the Germans had moved their MG34 to take on these troops, the remains of the squad in the house moved back to their firing positions. Both AFVs moved to add their firepower to the the goods shed.
Section 2 moved to the hedge to put some fire into the German second squad, who were moving forward across the road to the second wood.
Finally the weight of fire in the centre told for the British and the germans started to suffer significant casualties – eventually just two leaders (and the medic) were left. The Germans used a couple of CoC dice at this stage to avoid moral tests. The leaders then made a dash for the rear, where the 3rd german squad was advancing. The corporal was cut down by a burst of bren fire.
The 3rd german squad and made a dash over the hill, but was caught in the open by both British AFVs, which really started to chew them up – being caught in the open will cause lots of casualties and shock to a squad.
At this point the German player threw in the towel – even though his 2nd squad had managed to shoot up most of the British section behind the hedge.
View from final British position past the now bullet riddled goods shed, to the decimated german 3rd squad
Another great game – even though we got a couple of things wrong.
Vehicles don't deploy from Jump off points and moral checks are made for wounded leaders
