Capturing Caesar's Camp: Actions 06 & 07 - Counter-attack at Villiers

For the next two actions in this re-fight of the TooFatLardies' pint-sized campaign Capturing Caesar's Camp, as the British offensive began to slow, the Germans launch a counter-attack at the village of Villiers-sur-Mareuil. The aim is to force a diversion of British effort and energy to remove this 'thorn in the side' of the advance.

 

The British are fielding a slightly weakened platoon to defend Villiers - the Germans have a fresh platoon with which to attack. The British are supported by an additional FOO and 3" mortar section, and an additional Vickers MMG and Rifle section.

The British are in a somewhat offset 2-up 1-back defensive position. One section is by the hedgerow by the road on the left;Two section is just in front of the church by the wall; the FOO is actually in the church, along with an additional Rifle section; Platoon HQ is in and around the old barn (bottom-left building); the Vickers MMG is by the bottom junction; and Three Section is in reserve by the hedgerow below the church. Three section is also responsible for guarding the right flank, if uncommitted.

One section (left) and Platoon HQ (bottom-centre)

Two section (top-centre); FOO (church); Three Section (bottom-right); Vickers MMG (bottom-left)

The Battle (Action One):

Somewhat giving the game away, there were two actions that took place in quick succession - I have rolled them into the same report. 

Jerry! A German squad is moving down the extreme flank (behind the hedgerow)

A better look.

The Germans have also managed to get a Pak36 forward too!

However, all this is being observed by the FOO - he calls in the mortars! The anti-tank gun's crew become casualties

As the mortar fire continues, some of the German riflemen manage to get forward, but the MG34 team is eliminated. The British (bottom) are holding their fire, not wanting to give away their position until they have to.

A wider shot

More Germans turn up.

But just as these Germans try to get forward on the other side of the hedge...the mortars arrive again!

Another 8 Germans fall in a few moments. The Germans have still not spotted a single defender.

The remaining Germans retreat!

Understandbly furious, the German company commander throws in another attack!! He also calls for some additional support...

Action Two: 

The Germans push forward another Pak36 (top, just on the far side of the road)

Yet again, it is quickly identified and a further 3" mortar strike is carried out

But this time...Stuka! No it isn't, it is a 109E Jabo. But still bad news...

The very-sharp eyed pilot identifies the British position in and around the church...

And neatly lands is bombs into the church tower, eliminating the FOO team and the supporting section! The nearby Two section are suppressed also.

The 109E pulls away...

Meanwhile, the Germans are again going right-flanking. I assume that their Recce patrols must have spotted the main British position in the centre and are determined to avoid it!

The Germans push forward, encouraged by their Platoon commander (base to the rear)

Rapid fire!!!

Some good shooting by the Camerons - the German squad is entirely eliminated!

Less good news - this has attracted the attention of the Jabo...

The 109 strafes the British section...thankfully they were more scared than actually hurt...

Another pass by the 109 - by now, some of the Camerons are in harder cover; the German platoon commander has managed to slip away into the further field

On the 109E's last pass, it gets hit by the Vickers MMG! I would like to report it went down in flames...but it was barely scratched. Still, it aborted its last run.

A German sniper works his way forward rather gingerly (by the wooden shed and the three tall trees in the centre of the village)

Meanwhile, another German squad appeas, this one going right-flanking, skirting the woods.

And then slipping through them

The British reserve section's Bren is covering the road

A German Kubelwagen turns up?!

Some German engineers are poking forward into the edge of the village too. Everyone is busy not spotting each other.

The British Bren gunner wasn't napping - as the Germans advance, four of the German riflemen go down!

This is followed by a very ineffective exchange of fire

But the Germans have shot their bolt - the Platoon Commander knows that there is little point in pressing the attack further, and gives the order to pull back.

Scene at the end of the battle - note that One Section on the Left has pushed forward a little - it managed to suppress the German engineer group (amongst the buildings).

 Game Notes:

That concludes the campaign! In the first action, the Germans lost 6 KIA, 13 WIA and the British nothing at all, unsurprisingly, since there were only a few moments where the Germans might have spotted a British soldier. The second action was rather more even: 6 KIA and 14 WIA for the Germans, 4 KIA and 10 WIA for the British. The Germans were a little unlucky in the second game, and the British Bren gunners really earned their pay. 

The first action would obviously have been terrible in H2H play, but it was quite satisfying solo: an attack getting hit by mortar fire and failing seems to have been a thing which happened quite a lot in WW2 in France (both in 1940 and 1944). There wasn't anything obviously wrong, or even generally unfair about it, except in that the British tended to have a FOO as potential support in all scenarios, and the Germans didn't.  I suspect there might be an element of rules-preference here, which I noticed in the KG Heller campaign too: if the rules a scenario is designed for are slightly more direct-fire than indirect-fire friendly, that same scenario will play out somewhat differently if used with rules which are more support-fire friendly. I would definitely count these rules, and the WRG rules family more generally, as somewhat more support fire friendly. 

The second action nicely demonstrated that bombing can be very effective! It should have been a Stuka, but I didn't have a model to hand, so I used a 109E as an early Jabo instead. Air support can be quite effective in these rules, especially with bombs or bigger cannons. Despite early losses, it was worth pressing on - the British were actually not in that great shape after the loss of those four elements in the air strike - both sides were equally shaky, is what I am getting at, so if the last Bren gunner had shot less well, then even a moderately successful German advance on the flank could have 'unlocked' the position. But it really wasn't that kind of campaign for the Germans!

Anyway, despite it not being that close in the end, I hope readers have enjoyed the write-ups. I promised new readers I do lose reasonably often in these scenarios, including once losing the entire campaign! But sometimes, things do go well and I get lucky too...

There have been lots of useful comments and suggestions on the blog and on The Wargames Website and The Miniatures Page. For those, many thanks, and  I will look to carry out a few refinements on my solo system before it is next in action.

 

Models by Baccus 6mm and Heroics and Ros. The 109E is from the Plastic Soldier Company. Buildings are a mixture of Battlescale and Leven. Rules used were Wargames Rules for Armoured Warfare 1925-1950, aka The Farquhar Version. 

 

 

Lutzen 1632 - A Twilight of Divine Right refight

A few days ago, I had a go at the next Twilight of Divine Right scenario, that for the Battle of Lutzen 1632. It appears in the second Twilight of Divine Right Thirty Years' War scenario book, To the Peace of the Pyrenees. It is an interesting battle - I remember reading a scenario for it in one of the very early Miniature Wargames, and I am pretty sure I have done it before, using Neil Thomas' rules for Pike & Shot games (update: I had indeed). In any case, this scenario also proved to be 'interesting' - but I will save the detail of that for the Game Notes at the bottom...

At the beginning of the battle, the numbers are reasonably equal - although the Imperialists do seem a tad stronger - but the Imperialists are due to be reinforced by Pappenheim's column of Horse and Foot on turn 6. And a heavy fog is due on turn 8. The Swedish leaders are rather more dashing than the Imperialist leaders, as something of a counter-balance.

The Swedish Army: 7 infantry brigades, 11 cavalry units, 3 artillery units

The Imperialist Army: 9 infantry units, 1 musketeer unit, 14 cavalry units, 3 artillery units (and 3 infantry units and 4 cavalry units with Pappenheim)

Both armies have some commanded shot, and most of the Imperial infantry has regimental guns attached.

 

The Set-Up:

View from the side: Swedish and German allies to the left, Imperialists to the right

Looking at the Imperialist army

The Imperialist Right

The Imperialist Centre

The Imperialist Left

Looking at the Swedish Army from a vantage point behind the Imperialists

The Swedish Right

The Swedish Centre

The Swedish Left

The Battle:

There wasn't much space for manoeuvre and with Pappenheim due to arrive, it fell to the Swedes to attack and hopefully create some gaps to exploit.

Some very good shooting by the Imperialist Army on Windmill Hill in the centre wipes out one of the Swedish attacking infantry brigades. Not an auspicious start!

Okay, battle is joined in earnest - the Swedish Right does manage to get over the road, in  part.

And then in full - the Imperialist Horse is more pushed back than defeated though, and the combat continues

And suddenly some of the Swedish Horse is simply cut down in the centre, the ebb-&-flow of battle now threatening the Swedish Right (visually, many of the Swedish Horse units are in the single row formations, whilst the Imperialists are in double rows, in an approximation of the 'Dutch' style); you can also see that there is an ongoing firefight in the centre: the Imperilalists are holding their positions, but perhaps suffering somewhat heavier casualties in the process

The Imperialist Horse showing up well against the Swedish Right

Losses mount in the centre, without anything much else occurring

Fire from the Imperialist musketeers and artillery has broken a regiment of Swedish/German Horse (see gap on road) in the centre

The Swedish Foot is finding it difficult to make headway in the centre

The ebb-and-flow of the Horse fight continues on the Swedish Right, but the centre of the Swedish Horse looking distinctly shaky - and there are no real reserves at hand...

Okay, the Swedish Foot have eliminated the lead Imperialist Foot units and are over the road

A wider shot - the Swedish progress has been bloody, slow and small so far!

The Swedish-German left has been attrited away into serious trouble! The briefly got past Lutzen but have been counter-attacked with heavy losses

In the centre however, the Swedish Foot are just about hanging on; but note that Pappenheim's column has arrived to reinforce the Protestant Left (top-right)

Weimar's wing (the Swedish Left) has been worn down to nothing.

Which is really unfortunate, as the Swedish Foot are just starting to make real headway in the centre!

The Swedish Right is in trouble too - although they have made decent progress next to the Swedish infantry, they are beginning to crumble to the far right - note the gap that the Imperialist Horse are about to advance through (centre-right)!

Things cannot hold - the Swedish Right turns and runs

And the Swedish Left - the little that remains - likewise leaves the field of battle

Abandoned by their flanking Horse, the victorious Swedish Foot must flee also! At least the incoming fog spared them any meaningful or organized pursuit!

The position at the end of the battle - Wallenstein has triumphed and beaten off Gustavus Adolphus. Hey, not all bad for the latter though - at least he survived this time!!

Game Notes:

An exciting battle, if not perhaps a very tactically interesting one, if you know what I mean! I felt that the OoB felt a little hard on the Swedes compared to my (very limited) understanding of the battle, but I am sure that the experts at the Wyre Forest Gamers know better than me. However, what did feel odd was the scale of the battle/size of the table. I use single base units on a 60mm x 30mm-sized base: the Polemos standard, if you will. Twilight of Divine Right is designed for each unit to be two bases strong, both 60mm x 30mm. Now, the exact size is explicitly not supposed to matter, so don't think I am doing anything 'wrong' here. The main difference is that my infantry units are somewhat deeper than those envisaged by the rules, although the only battle that has mattered for so far is White Mountain, where it was quite hard to fit in all the units in the required depth. But the issue in this scenario was one of width, which shouldn't be affected at all. But the scenario as written proposes a 4'x3' table, which when reduced to account for my smaller width units, should reduce to 2'x1.5': my board above was actually bigger in the sense of deeper than that as designed. However, the number of units designated as in the first line for the Imperialists was simply bigger than the width of the board! 

 

The Wyre Forest Gamers actually posted their pictures of Lutzen and very nice they are too.

But it seems to be a much more spacious affair!  So the somewhat crowded battlefield really limited the Swedish options for manoeuvre, as well as the Imperialist Right, which could hardly do anything but locally respond to the Swedish attack. So, very interesting translation of the battle.

In any case, the refight was good fun. The quality of the Swedish commanders, especially Gustavus, enabled them to stay in the game longer than the raw numbers might have implied, but I do think they need a bit of luck somewhere to win this one. Perhaps an interesting variant would be for the Swedish player to favour the draw and invite the Imperialists to attack, and then counter-attack. Some of the rules around infantry fire and close-combat superiority are a little involved (the Swedes can change the ratio of their pikes-to-muskets and thus who has combat advantage) and I maintain that an action test to get a +1 would amount to much the same effect in the end, but it wasn't hard. I don't recall having any real issues with the rules in this one, which is always a good thing!

Figures by Baccus 6mm, buildings were a mixture of Leven and Battlescale.