CoC - Western Front - Martlet Map 3 Game 6 report

[Norm]

Enjoyed reading that, thank for all the effort in posting.

[vodkafan]

More pics from the first game:
 The all-important road junction, the target for the British. Road bisecting the board longways. View from the German side 


The farm yard to the left of the junction and a view down that lane. It's quiet...too damn quiet   






The other direction the British could come from is up the road directly to our front...


A Cromwell tank rumbles into sight at the end of the lane! The attack is on!


They are soon joined by a squad of regular infantry at the jump off point and an Officer who is inside the building to their rear.


I missed pics of the German infantry deployment here. A squad is split between the farm buildings, they have a good view of the British squad and give them a brisk shooting up which causes some casualties.
As feared, British infantry are assembling in the centre also, another two sections.

Meanwhile as the German panzerfuhrer I get a Jagdpanzer on the table and take it off road behind the houses to the right of the junction... more about him later..


I get my other AFV on the table, a war-weary Stug. It rumbles into the farmyard and goes on overwatch. The British infantry have gone to ground out of sight, but if you notice, the business end of my 75mm is aimed at the tiny gap of daylight by the side of the house...notice also that the German half-squad in the farmyard has also taken some casualties from British return fire.


The British infantry attack begins in the centre.

This pic is actually from the second game where they tried using some 2" mortar smoke as cover, I didn't have a pic from the first game but the attack was the same.
 

 A second German infantry squad deploys in front of the farm buildings and fires. The sheer volume of fire from the German MG42s and automatic weapons gives the British an excellent seeing to and breaks up the attack.
   
The Cromwell at the end of the lane advances to give the entrenched SS a taste of 75mm HE.
Unfortunately for him he became visible through the gap and my Stug brewed him up with his first shot.




Meanwhile my Jagdpanzer IV uses the cover of the houses to approach the junction

But when he tries to cross the open space he is targeted by another Cromwell tank that has appeared!

 Luckily for me his shot ricochets off my side armour and I make it across the gap, but my crew are rattled!

The British attack fizzled out soon afterwards and they got no nearer to the Junction. The British were especially unlucky to lose three officers, I think two of them were hit twice over.
It was a fun game and us newbies were starting to pick up the rules. Many thanks to Digits for his hospitality and excellent vittles.

[vodkafan]

Don't have many pics from the second game, just a couple of my PAK 40 in action.



This failed to knock out the first Cromwell that appeared and then became the target for every other British AFV on the table. The survivors  eventually left the gun and ran away. 

And a couple more pics of the lovely King Tiger

[Digits]

Nice write up of the first game James!  Glad you popped it up, I forget what order things happened…especially as it seemed to go fast! 

[gamer Mac]

Some great photos

[flatpack]

More pictures from the killing fields.
We Brits tried to advance on the target road junction, but never got close.
German armour and machine gunners appeared from everywhere.
I reckon the only way we could have done it, is with shore bombardment from about 40 battleships.
Enjoyable game.

Initial battlefield.


Advancing British troops


Bringing British armour on.


Lovely armour painted by Jamie.


British armour take a “lucky” hit from German armour.


So after an early finish in the first game, we Brits tried again, only to come to same conclusion again.

German antitank gunners, firing rounds off at advancing British armour.


British armour return fire.


But, yet again, British armour fails again.


German armour coming forward.
Is that a panzer 2 ? (I do know the answer btw)


Good fun, and the day went quickly.
Cheers Digits, lovely set up.

[vodkafan]

Great pics of the Sherman Bob and I especially like the pic of the British troops starting to advance through the trees, really put me in mind of some of my favourite old films.

[Westbury]

I don't know what was funnier, Pete getting his officer killed or the pictures of you all dressed up 
Nice pictures, hope the rain wasn't too bad.

[has.been]

Pete getting his officer killed

Officers, Officers (Plural).
It was getting to remind me of a scene from Spinal Tap,
where they are explaining how all their different drummers
died, 'Well he choked on vomit...wasn't his!'
'Killed when the armoured car exploded... he wasn't in it,
just in the next field'.

The rain wasn't a big problem. Digits, with total Teutonic
efficiency looked at his phone & announced, 'It vil rhain in
28 minutes und zen schtop' 'Zer hiz a small poss-a-bill-hitty
hit vill schtart again at 13,00 hours'.
 

[Digits]

And indeed…at 28 minutes it did!

Get yourselves Accuweather app….bloody brilliant!

[vodkafan]

@ flatpack: I agree Bob, it WAS a lucky shot through the gap, I never expected it to work so well to be honest.
Thinking about the game again 24 hours later, I think the British would have had to start with at least twice the number of infantry to have any chance of success, and with the whole troop of British tanks putting pressure on all at once to keep the german defenders busy. You might have lost half or all your tanks  in the process but once the infantry were up in amongst the houses superior numbers would have told....the terrain made us make choices, I like games which do that.

[Digits]

To be honest, that wouldn’t really matter.  It’s the speed at which you loose assets or they get injured / broken that reduces the morale so fast. 

In realising just how fast this happens with multiple players….I have to think it would be better to adjust the starting morale levels up to start with!

The Brits rolled poorly on the first game starting morale…that really didn’t help.  Combine that with the “luck” or rather lack of it, every time Pete rolled on his saves…..more kills than shock and then almost every time, hitting an officer!    The kills, had they not been an officer, do not necessarily diminish your morale so fast, but the number of officer kills and injuries was just too great.

Let’s be fair, this was more a learning opportunity (and fun) than a hard game with everyone knowing the rules and having experience of it. 

[Grumpy Gnome]

Sounds like great fun. Gorgeous models and table.

[CapnJim]

Great table, vehicles and figs.  Sounds like the British tankers need a refresher course....

[flatpack]

British tankers need a refresher course ?
Every time we entered the table we were fired on and hit, and destroyed.
I would not have liked to be a british tank crew in 1944.
Tommy cooker was the correct phrase, me thinks.