Another 48 Hours in May Campaign Turn 1

The results of Campaign Turn 1 for the Earky War Chain of Command Campaign:

The German Probe at Ophove:

The German force probed through Ophove and successfully completed their mission. The French (under Barry) fell back to the bridge with the Germans following up so no combat for either in turn 2 of the campaign.

German Casualties were 7, with 3 dead and 4 wounded recovered to be available for turn 3. The CO's opinion of my officer is now +2 and the men's opinion +1.

French casualties were 12,but reinforcements replaced 4 of the 6 dead and the 6 wounded have recovered and are available for turn 3. The Co's opinion of the French Officer is -1 and the men's opinion -2.

I took an armoured car and a flamethrower as support, Barry took 2 machine guns. Apologies to Barry as I did not realise the limitation on 3 shots for the flamethrower. The excess casualties caused were reinstated. I was particularly lucky to get the only double turn of the night as one of my squads approached the table edge and it just managed to sneak over by a couple of inches on its second move.

 The German Probe at Arques:

Somewhere on the outskirts of Arques the German advance was trying to be sneaky by coming up on the one side of the board and nearly made it to the baseline before the British Patrols encountered each other. Thankfully for the British a line of Barbed wire had been set up to block any infantry trying to come through on the flank and thus it was that the game started.

The German advance was stalled by the barbed wire on the flank and they started trying to come round on the far side whilst thier armoured car came down the road towards Arques. The British squads started to deploy within the houses on the edge of the village/town? and along the walls and hedgeline of the fields approaching the village. The Germans caught behind the barbed wire were eventually slaughtered by weight of firepower, while the armoured car retreated under the weight of lead pinging off it's hull. Those forced to come down the road didn't fare much better as the turn ended and the British kept pouring fire into them as they ran across the open road.

Eventually it was all too much for them and the German infantry followed thier armoured car back up the road.

British win on the probe scenario.
Morale 7
Losses 13 (6/7 dead, 3/4 injured, 3/4 recovered/replaced)
CO +1
MO -1

German loss
Morale 4
Losses 25 (12/13 dead, 6/7 injured, 6/7 recovered/replaced)
CO +1
MO -3

So going into Campaign Turn 2:

The German advance has been stalled in the North around Arques but has pushed through at Ophove where the French defenders have traded ground for time to recover their wounded. They have fallen back to defend the bridge over the canal while the Germans advance in the centre.

Attention will now switch to the south where the German 1st platoon (Allan), attempting to circle round the French defences and probe towards the tunnel under the canal, has encountered the outposts of a second French platoon (Chuck). Campaign turn 2 will see these two platoons clash in a Probe scenario. Meanwhile up North the initiative lies with the British who can choose to strengthen their defences around Arques while the Germans will have to decide whether to press the attack again in Turn 2 or wait to recover their 7 wounded.

Another 48 Hours in May

Introduction

This campaign is set in Northern France in late May 1940. Following the German breakthrough at Sedan the Panzer divisions have rushed westwards through France and striking north for the coast have trapped the British Expeditionary Force and French 1^st Army.

The counter-attack at Arras has failed to break through the German lines and the Allies are retreating towards the coast.

The Allied commanders have deployed some of their troops to act as blocking positions holding the Germans back as long as possible to allow their comrades to pull back to more defensible positions.

Campaign structure

The campaign will be played using the “At the Sharp End” supplement for Chain of Command.

It will consist of 7 Campaign turns and take the form of a half ladder campaign. The Germans have the strategic initiative and are the attackers. The Allies task is to delay the Germans for as long as possible. If the Allies can hold out for 7 turns they can claim victory.

The German attackers start with a company of 3 rifle platoons based on the German 1940 list.

The Allies have 2 Platoons of French infantry and 1 platoon of BEF chosen from the 1940 lists.

German Objective – Capture the road and rail bridges over the Canal de Neuf Fosse at Arques and les Fontinettes and secure the road from Arques to Cassel.

Start line - on the road between la Garenne and la Croix.

Allied Objective - Delay the German advance for 48 hours.

Starting positions – Outposts at Arques and Ophove, HQ at la Payellette

Scenarios

1.      The Probe – locate Allied defensive positions.

2.      Delaying Action – Allies attempt to delay build up of German attack.

3.      Attack and Defend – Capture bridges over canal.

4.      Attack on an Objective/ Flank Attack – German attack on la Payellette ridge.

The first 3 scenarios will be played on a 1v1 basis, but the final scenario will involve all remaining troops as a multi-player game using the Big CoC rules.

German Players –    Allan Ronald, 1^st Platoon and Coy CO

                                  Kenny Thomson, 2^nd Platoon

                                  Dave Knight, 3^rd Platoon

Allied Players -         Barry Crawford, French 1^st Platoon and French CO

                                  Chuck Aitken, French 2^nd Platoon

                                  Andy Wilson, BEF Platoon and British CO.

Timing – Campaign will start in May and scenario 1 should be completed that month. Aim will be to play at least one scenario each month thereafter.

Players are asked to report on the outcome of each game and the current state of their platoon to their CO and the Adjutant (John Ewing) after each game.

Wounded men will not return to their platoon unless results are submitted on time!!

Campaign Madness

So the blog has been very quite lately, mainly due to a lack of any gaming activities for a long time.

 

I finally managed to get to gaming last night with the opener of the clubs Dux B campaign. I will post details of that game shortly. 

 

Our club has recently gone a bit campaign mad, with three Chain of Command campaigns all about to kick off.  John, the lunatic behind this mad scheme asked if I could host some of the campaign details on my blog.   I have created a couple of pages introducing the campaigns, with one set late and one set early war, with a third to follow shortly, set on the Russian Front.

 

I am a bit of a technophobe so far have only managed to create a page for each campaign , detailing the original brief supplied by John.  I will try and get the campaign maps uploaded at some point, and try to work out how to add extra posts on to those pages, so that I can track the casualties and results of each campaign.