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.