Death of a Prince – A scenario from Battlegroup Blitzkrieg.
Tonight we played through one of my favourite scenarios from the book, and a historical refight that can play out in all manner of ways. Sometimes it can be quute a quick thrashing for the French, but if played well, they can be a very hard enemy to shift if luck is on their side. Tonight they had a real Frenchman in charge and they proved to be a very hard nut to crack.
The key with the French in this scenario is using the special hiden rules to full advantage and to know when to spring your ambush. In this game, the French held fire a little too long… well actually the French commander forgot to use his Ambush Fire as a German recce patrol closed with the key fortified house on the edge of town. This was really his only mistake of the night but it cost him dear. The German patrol spotted the FAO team and opened fire, fairly ineffectual fire at that with only two hits. With a 2+ save it all looked ok, till the dice were rolled… and the FAO was no more…This was key as the only other way to call in mortar support was to fire on the single pre-registered target point that had been placed covering another approach to the village. As this was opposite to where the German attack was developing, it would be of limited use. There was however the Platoon HQ runner who could be sent to the battery but this is a once off chance, so the French commander waited.
As the German advance continued the French opened fire. After a fairly desultory start, the french gunners got the range and soon casualties were mounting. The first German platoon suffered greatly, losing over half their men in killed or wounded and the rest virtually all, pinned down. As the second platoon moved up to oress the attack the French opened fire with further MMG hidden in the white house, and firing from the end of the building into the flank of the German advance. There now began a trade of fire and slowly the French, in buildings for cover, gained the upper hand… the German FAO was particularly distraught as he failed Communications test every turn… he really needed some new batteries!
With several German units pinned down in the open fields, the French Platoon commander despatched his runner to call in the mortars. He needed a 2+ on 1d6 to bring forth the rain of HE… and rolled a 1! Obviously the poor runner hadnt made it through…But even so, luck was with the French and some good dice saw German losses and their pile of morale chits rise.
Unknown to the French player, the Germans as they started their 12th turn had only 4 BR remaining. But they had drawn an aircraft token… they rolled a six and out of the clouds came the familiar sound of a Stuka. When an enemy aircraft appears the side has to take a mlrale chit, and this one for the French was a 4 and their Battle Rating was broken! Just as on occasion in 1940, the German infantry had taken heavy losses, and had to call up the Luftwaffe to get the enemy to retreat!
A very close run battle, not too disimilar to the real event, though in ours the Prince lived, but his men took alot more losses! But the French almost had a victory, if it hadnt been for the plane, or the early death of their FAO, it could have been very different…
