Operation Cygnet - Day Three - Volkstuurm Vorwarts!

After quite a hiatus on the campaign front, I felt in the mood to get this back up and running, so after re-acquainting myself with where the campaign had finished on Day Two, it was time to decide upon which scenario to play. So after a bit of thought I plumped for the combined Fallschirmjager, Volkstuurm and Panzerschule attack towards the bridge, with the aim of cutting and/or disrupting Club Route.

German OOB

1 x CO (CV9)

1 x FJ HQ (CV8)

3 x FJ

1 x MG

1 x 81mm Mortar

1 x Volkstuurm HQ (CV7)

3 x Volkstuurm

1 x MG

1 x 81mm Mortar

1 x Panzerschule HQ (CV8)

1 x Pz II

2 x Pz III 50mm Lang

1 x Pz IV Short

British OOB

1 x FAO (CV8)

2 x 25 pdr Batterys

1 x 'A' Coy HQ (CV8)

3 x Infantry

1 x MG

1 x 'A' Sqdn HQ (CV8)

3 x Shermans

1 x Sherman Firefly

1 x 2nd Recce HQ

2 x Armoured Cars

2 x Infantry

Scenario Details

Quite simply for the Germans to cut the road and inflict as many losses as possible, whilst minimising their own. The British had left a decent covering force in place to defend the road junction and approaches to the bridge.

Weather - Mist  

-1CV and visibility down to 50cm. No Air Support available.

The Game

An overview of the table, with the British to the right, on and around the road junction. The Germans to the left, with the Volkstuurm in the woods and FJ and Panzers across the road. The German plan was to try and creat a diversion with a limited Volkstuurm attack, whilst the FJ & Panzers mounted the main attack from their right.

'A' Coy dug-in along the hedgeline of the road, with Shermans in support. A Firefly and Sherman were kept back as a mobile reserve. Note the AVRE's (top right) en route to support the attack on Pemba.

2nd Recce in postion observing towards the farm for signs of any German movement.

The main German strike force in position and ready to move off.

Likewise for the Volkstuurm.

The end of Turn 1. The Germans got off to a bad start, with the Volkstuurm failing to move, likewise the FJ, but at least the independent Pz III's moved up to the fence. The British couldn't see anything through the mist, but could hear the Panzers moving, but could not be sure if they might be British or not, so they held their positions.

The end of Turn 2. The Volkstuurm moved off out of the woods and were spotted by the 2nd Recce, who managed to suppress one Volkstuurm unit in the open. In response the Volkstuurm MG & Mortar opened fire and suppressed a Recce Infantry unit. On the right, the FJ and Panzers continued to advance under the cover of the mist. 

The 2nd Recce, having a perfect opportunity to attack the Volkstuurm, failed their command roll (this was to be a recurring theme). With no targets in sight, the British stood too and moved up the reserve Shermans in support, in response the shooting to their right. 

The Panzers advance and the British respond, but neither side can see each other yet.

The Volkstuurm move off and come under fire, but respond rather too effectively for the 2nd Recce infantry.

The Sherman and Firefly move up in response to the gunfire and the sound of armour advancing on the left.

The end of Turn 3. Well the Volkstuurm were playing a bit of a blinder, as they managed to KO a 2nd Recce Infantry unit and move up under cover of the mist to threaten the British right flank. On the right the Panzers crossed onto the road and again threatened the British left flank. The FJ took the attack to the remaining 2nd Recce Infantry unit, but failed to suppress it.

The 2nd Recce Infantry unit used some Initiative movement to pull back to another fence line to avois being caught in the flank. Then right across the board all British HQ's failed their command rolls! A certain corporal Jones from 1st Platoon, 'A' Company could be heard to  cry out; "Don't Panic!!!"

The German Panzers arrive on the British left flank and a paralysis seemed to decend upon the British, somewhat surprised at their emergence from the mist.

The Volkstuurm sneak up on the unsuspecting British right flank.

The Shermans and Infantry fail to see anything through the mist.

Lots of targets but they failed to capitalise on the opportunity in front of them.

The end of Turn 4. The Volkstuurm moved up quietly and one Infantry unit crossed into the open to spot one of 'A' Coys platoons, but then failed their command roll. On the right the Panzers suppressed another of 'A' Coys platoons, then hit the 2nd Recce Armoured Cars but failed to KO them. The FJ and their supporting Panzers KO the remaining 2nd Recce Infantry unit and then advanced forward. In response a Sherman managed to suppress the FJ MG.

Finally the FAO had line of sight to some targets and his artillery strike suppressed the Panzers HQ, a Panzer III and KO'd the other one. The Shermans engaged the Panzers, who returned fire, with both sides making some amazinf armour saves to stay in the game. At least the Firefly forced the suppressed Panzer III back.

Both sides armour becomes hotly engaged, but to limited effect.

The Panzer IV and a Sherman both took 5 hits a piece, yet both saved all of them! What are the chances?

A Sherman reacts to the emergence of the Volkstuurm Infantry, but fails to shoot.

The end of Turn 5. The Volkstuurm again had a rather decent Turn, with some brilliant shooting they KO'd the 'A' Coy platoon on the right flank. The Sherman at least managed to suppress the Volkstuurm Infantry in the open and force them back slightly. On the other flank, with some Panzers suppressed, the remaining few caused little damage to the Shermans, but the Pz IV was suppressed by opportunity Fire.

With some many targets to the fore, the British FAO managed to call in his artillery right on top of the FJ & Panzers, KO'ing two FJ Infantry and suppressing two HQ's and the remaining Panzer III. From there the Shermans finished off what was left of the German armour and on the right flank the Sherman KO'd a Volkstuurm Infantry unit as it failed its Fallbacl roll.

The burning wrecks on the Panzers.

And the Shermans that finished many of them off.

Another view of the carnage and also of the 2nd Recce Armoured Cars that failed to move at all.

The Volkstuurm still in position.

The Shermans that did so much damage in the end.

End of Game

With the loss of all of their Panzers and most of the FJ Kompanie, the Germans were spent as an attacking force and so wisely retreated back into the mist. The British were in no position to pursue, given their losses and their orders to protect the bridge and Club Route.

Casualties

The Germans lost 1 x Volkstuurm, 2 x FJ, 1 x Pz II, 2 x Pz III and 1 x Pz IV

The British lost 2 x Recce Infantry and 2 x Infantry.

Post Game Thoughts

It was nice to resume the campaign after quite a break. I did think at one point that the Germans might have cut Club Route, given the poor British response mid-game, but the FAO and Artillery came to the rescue, which was a rather historical outcome. So as always a few thoughts on the game:

• I must admit that I was feeling a bit under the weather all day and whilst it didn't affect the game, some of my decisions might have been better with a clearer head. It was a bit of a struggle at times but I did enjoy getting the toys on the table though.
• There were a lot of Blunders in this game, which was rather unusual. Not all of them I recorded but they did break up both sides ability to excerpt C&C. You could blame it on the mist I suppose!
• The British did have more than their fair share of failed command rolls, with the 2nd Recce being a case in point. I don't think they made one successful roll all game! Also on Turn 3 when all HQ's failed really hampered their ability to respond to the German attacks.
• The German mortars as always were rather effective. I know many find them too effective. However recently reading on of Patrick Delaforce's books, in Normandy and into Belgium some 80% of casualties were from mortar or artillery fire. Only in 1945 did this switch markedly to small arms fire. So worth bearing in mind.
• The British artillery once again saved the day and as with the above book, this happened so often in breaking up German attacks throughout the NWE campaign. If they hadn't come to the rescue, then the Germans might have caused more casualties.
• The Germans really missed having some decent armoured support, but then that's part of the fun of this sort of campaign. I did enjoy using the early was armour though, even if they didn't have quite the desired effect I might have hoped for.
• With both sides having taken quite severe losses, this is likely to have quite an impact campaign wise. After the attack on Pemba and following campaign moves, then it will become clearer as to what these might be.

So there we have. Nice to get the campaign up and running again and I hope to get the Pemba attack in soon. A few other things to do before that, but it's nice to have other things to keep one occupied. All being well I even have a FtF scheduled for this coming Sunday. Fingers crossed I remain Covid free! 

Until next time stay safe and keep healthy.

The Battle for Freitag's Farm - A Live Free Or Die Playtest

Over the past week or so, I've been mulling over getting in a trial game of the LFoD rules that I bought earlier in the year. So after perusing the scenarios in the book, I cobbled something together, using some historical OOB as a guide and the Germantown map for inspiration for the table layout. Nothing fancy or even attempting to be balanced, other than that both sides had the same quality of commanders. I did add in a mix of a few 1st Class and 4th Class units, just to see how they fared.

Red (British) OOB

General Rating 4 + 2 Stars

Lieutenant + 1 Star

Guards Bde

2 x 1st Class Line Infantry

Line Bde

3 x 2nd Class Line Infantry

Line Bde

3 x 2nd Class Line Infantry

1 x 2nd Class Skirmishers

1 x 2nd Class Light Gun

Blue (American) OOB

General Rating 4 + 2 Stars

Lieutenant + 1 Star

Line Bde

3 x 3rd Class Line Infantry

Line Bde

2 x 3rd Class Line Infantry

1 x 3rd Class Skirmishers

1 x Light Gun

Line Bde

2 x 3rd Class Line Infantry

Mixed Bde

2 x 4th Class Militia

2 x 3rd Class Cavalry

Scenario

Again, nothing at all complicated, with an advance to contact with the nominal objective being control of Freitag's farm and the crossroads.

An overview of the table, with Blue to the South, Red to the North. All units are deployed in column of march, with the exception of the skirmish screens, to gain from the movement bonus for this formation.

The end of Turn 1. Both sides used their Command Points (CP's) to make brigade moves forward. Blue won the Initiative and chose to move first

The end of Turn 2. CP's were even for both sides, but Red won the Initiative and moved first, allowing their skirmishers to occupy Freitag's farm. Blue responded by changing one brigade in the centre into line, thus accruing demoralized (dmz's) for changing formation. they were too close to the enemy to rally these off at the end of the Turn.

The central Blue brigade changes into line, covered by their skirmishers.

Red has beaten Blue to the farmhouse.

The end of Turn 3. Again even Steven's on the CP front and again Red chose to move first. Both sides used their CP's for movement, with the Generals attaching themselves to their skirmishers to boost their shooting dice. Sod's Law that both sides then failed to hit!

The Blue units fan out on their right flank to try and bypass the farm, with the cavalry in the lead (top right hand corner). Red have refused their flank at the top of the fenced field. The Red troops are the 1st Class brigade, whilst the Blue on the extreme right and 4th Class.

On the other flank, both sides have moved into line where possible, although one Red regiment does not have space to deploy, so remains in column.

The end of Turn 4. Honours once again even on the CP front, but Red chose for Blue to move first, having won the Initiative. There is some shooting, mainly by the skirmishers in and around the farm. Little damage done other than the Red General taking a hit and dropping down the a Rating of 2, from 4. This will hamper Red's ability to exercise effective C&C.

Both sides begin to exchange fire.

The Blue skirmishers unware they have winged the Red General.

The Blue 4th Class brigade moves up to pressure the Red 1st Class brigade.

The end of Turn 5. Blue has an advantage on the CP front and both sides use these to Rally off some DMZ's at critical points along the front. Shooting continues across the front with casualties beginning to mount up. The Blue brigade in the centre moves through their skirmish screen to bring greater firepower to bear on the farm.

Blue look to turn Red's flank by the farm.

The 4th Class brigade, supported by cavalry, close in on the Red 1st Class brigade.

Units are close to losing bases on this flank. Who will break first?

The end of Turn 6. With the CP's once again shared, Blue won the Initiative and chose for Red to move first. The Generals and Lieutenants were busy moving about and Rallying off DMZ's and attaching themselves to parts of their respective lines that needed them most. Both sides lost bases but all units easily passed the Morale tests, so there were no retreats.

The Red brigade advances to put pressure on the Blue brigade that has begun to lose bases.

The firefight and movement continues around Freitag's farm. Red are struggling to get their units to bring their full firepower to bear.

Blue cannot gain enough of an advantage to mount an assault on the farm.

The end of Turn 7. A similar story of rallying as before, but Blue won the Initiative and chose to move first. Red then in a do or die move charged with their 1st Class brigade into the Blue 4th Class one. Carnage ensued! Elsewhere Blue lost bases which caused further losses and some retreats. Suddenly the Blue situation looked precarious.

Blue lost their supporting artillery which caused a Blue regiment (bottom right hand corner of the fence) to lose more bases. Suddenly Red had a huge advantage in numbers on this flank.

Both sides had regiments close to losing a base, but not enough to cause any problems in the centre.

As Blue pushed forward across the fenced field...

... on their left the infantry brigade had evaporated like Summer mist.

End of Game

At this point I had to call the game as time was against me, which was a shame. Another Turn or two would have been interesting, to see if Blue could salvage anything from the situation and like wise, whether Red could capitalise on the sudden collapse on Blue's flanks.

Post Game Thoughts

All-in-all the game took about two hours to play, which was not bad given it was my first go with these rules. The QRS was fine for 90% of the game, with the rulebook being used just to clarify some issues early on. Well, in the end, what did I think of the game? well I made notes as I went along, so in no particular order:

• Brigade moves are very important to keep troops moving for minimal CP's expended. I imagine in larger games as units retreat and this cohesion is broken, then it would be imperative to try and regain the 3" cohesion of brigades.
• Units move very fast compared to other games I've played, so contact is gained pretty quickly if you want to. Of course you do not need to make full use of your movement allowance, but early on it's probably a good things, as shown when the Red skirmishers beat Blue to occupying the farmhouse.
• Terrain penalties are easy to remember, which is good. However I did have to check for moving through woods which I found in the rulebook fairly easy. Again this is a simple penalty, to not one which you are likely to forget.
• Units can be rifle armed but as far as I could see, it didn't state which one, so I simply decided the skirmished would be the only units thus equipped.
• Even in this simple and pretty small game, there is little room for units to manouevre and deploy into line, even when using units that are only 4 bases wide. I think the largest unit is 9 bases wide! So depending upon the scenario, it is probably worth starting with units already deployed where possible.
• The rules themselves are very easy to pick up and remember and feel very intuitive, so I spent most of the game focusing on that, rather than the rulebook, which is not bad thing.
• You need LOTS of dice or marker to depict DMZ's on units. In this game I used over 20 (the red dice seen in the photos) but would require more for larger games.
• I can see no ability for artillery to be manhandled once deployed. Easy enough to fix but worth noting. As with other 18thC games, getting your artillery deployed correctly as the start is pretty important. In this game most of the time was spent in counter battery fire, which is no bad thing of course.
• The coloured brigade markers in the scenarios are a must for bigger game so you can keep track of which regiment belongs to which brigade as unit cohesion begins to break down, due to the importance in terms of allocating CP's as outlined above.
• You never seem to have enough CP's once action is joined!
• For some reason, probably sue to space limitations, there is no morale section on the QRS. I will simply copy the on from the book and stick it to the back of one the QRS' from the rulebook.
• The British bayonet charge was devastating to see in action, with the Red's rolling 13 dice against Blue's 1. Hardly surprising that Blue then lost!
• Once in action in this game the 12" rule to be far enough away from the enemy to rally of DMZ's really didn't happen. You could house rule it that LOS would be required to limit this, but I think there is then the risk that units just keep rallying of DMZ's almost ad infinitum, this markedly affecting the game.
• Use of the Generals and Lieutenants during the game requires careful thought. they can make a difference in that they add +3D6 to a combat or shooting, but run the risk of being harmed, as happened to the Red General at the farm. This adds a nice level of thought and C&C to the game on what is quite a nice and simple, but simplistic rules engine

So there we have it, the first trial game played and a lot of fun had. I imagine the game will feel much better against an opponent, with the placing of CP's and commanders etc coming nicely to the fore as well as deciding who should move first or not, as the case may be.

Am I happy with my purchase? Most certainly I am. Do they provide a better game than say BPII for the AWI? More games are required to be perfectly honest before I can make that call. They do certainly give a good game though.

Moving forward the only fly in the ointment so to speak are the large number of bases required for pretty much all of the scenarios. It would be nice to play some of the larger ones but currently I do not have anywhere near enough to do so. So as mentioned before, the plan is to play some generic scenarios to really get a hang of the rules, which will then allow me to get a better idea of how to rate Generals, unit Classes etc. Something to look forward to though.

So with two glorious days in a row of Spring weather here in Bristol, with another due tomorrow, it only remains for me to wish you all a very Happy Easter and I hope you don't eat too many Easter eggs. I'll try to be good but by God do I love Cadbury's mini Easter eggs!