Just short of a year after starting this thread, Tommy 2.0 & I just finished playing game #1 of 29 Let’s Go: Probe at LaCambe. My son is playing the Americans of the 175th Infantry Regiment, versus my German defenders. Here is the contested ground:
In the patrol phase, the Americans swung toward their left flank, making it obvious that their infantry intended to try and bypass the outskirts of LaCambe from the south. The Germans patrolled straight forward in an arc, covering the entire front. This gave the Americans a JOP on the table edge, about a third of the way across the table, and two in the buildings along the road. The Germans had JOP’s behind the hedges on both sides of the road, with a third pushed forward toward the chateau. The intent was to use this one to launch ambushes with the Panzerschreck team, should CoC dice become available (as it turns out, they didn’t). Finally, the defenders placed two minefields in the plowed field to keep the attackers from massing their riflemen for a direct assault on the town.
The Germans waited patiently as the Americans deployed an HMG team and a squad of infantry in the farmyards along the south of the road, but due to placing their JOP too conservatively, they were too far away from the hedge line to deploy into a firing position. They also deployed a mine clearing team at the edge of the plowed field, and two tanks on the road, before the Germans even made an appearance.
As the first Sherman passed the road to the chateau, a shell from the nearby 88 flew by (one CoC die down…). Not wanting to let the tank get too far down the road, a Panzerschreck team was deployed to turn it into a roadblock. This turned out to be a foolish gamble, as it hit the tank at point-blank range, but only rolled six hits, while the American rolled six saves on six dice. In the next phase, the first Sherman continued down the road at top speed hoping for a quick victory, while the second one swung off the road and fired it’s bow gun at the anti-tank team, killing the loader, and leaving the gunner pinned but still in action. The off-table 88 fired at the first tank again, and missed again (second, and last, CoC die down), so it was up to the pinned Panzerschreck, and this time he managed to KO the tank.
On the other side of the road, the Germans had revealed an entrenched MG42 team at the corner of the town, which opened up on the engineers across the field. The first burst only managed to deliver some shock, but the second one took out two of the three engineers, sending the third running toward the rear. The Americans then deployed a second squad of infantry, and started off across the field. The Germans countered by deploying a second MMG team, as well as an infantry gruppe, along the hedge, and placing covering fire on the first American squad across the field. Under withering fire from two MG42 MMG teams, as well as an LMG team, the American squad was chewed up over the next several phases.
Back in front of the chateau, the lone Panzerschreck gunner took his final shot at the approaching second American tank, but missed again. The tank made him pay for that shot, delivering the last German casualty of the game, then swung around the hedge and headed for the orchard, rolling 18” of movement. This placed him perfectly for the remaining German gruppes to appear at close range with their panzerfausts...
...except the American player had rolled a double phase. He rolled well for movement again, and was well into the orchard, just a move away from driving off the table for the win. The Germens prepared to deploy a squad and take a quick shot with their panzerfaust when the Americans played a CoC die to interrupt and drive off the table.
It was a fun game, full of “what the…?” moments, and dice that always seemed to let you down just when you needed them. Although I probably shouldn’t have deployed the Panzerschreck the way I did, he did get all three of his shots off, albeit missing with two of them. I probably should have deployed some supporting infantry, who would have also had a shot with their Panzerfaust, but I was really counting on the 88’s (and more than my starting CoC dice) to do some damage… The German platoon only took two casualties, and hadn’t lost any Force Morale, while knocking the American Force Moral down by half, so other than that I do think my play was sound. I had really hoped to get an early win, though, as I assume they will only get harder to come by in this campaign. Tommy2.0 knew he had another platoon off-table just waiting to take over, so he wasn’t too concerned about taking casualties, and played it accordingly. I’m sure he’ll choose to charge forward, so its time to start planning game #2: Delaying Action at Arthenay.
14 August 2015, 10:27:22 PM