"5th Platoon" - A CoC Arnhem Campaign #2

We resumed the game started last weekend in which you may remember the situation was more or less tilting towards a draw, with two lines of British and Germans respectively facing each other in the woods to the left of the map.

However, at the conclusion of the game the Germans had suffered an outright defeat and left the battlefield nose-bleeding. Reasons? A major mistake in the initial German move and a strike of lucky British dice.

 The turn was German at the start of today. With one Hanomag knocked out and the crew unit in dire straits, another gallant German unit went to the rescue... However the combination of the player (guess who...) going to bed at 3AM after a friend’s long dinner party and a week passed since the game, made me forgot that a PIAT team was looming not far away.

Disaster stroke and in the next British activation the Hanomag blow into pieces. The remnants of the crew disembarked but now we had two units hopelessly stranded in the open facing 2 snipers, one light mortar and two Bren Guns. In a few phases one was fully mowed-down while the other lost the NCO. Inevitably, the accumulation of shocks made both units break , rout and finally disappear when a turn concluded.

The force moral of one of the German platoons sank to 4 while the other followed closed by (moral dice throws for team wiped out, NCOs injured, team broken and finally routing out of table).

That is in relation to bad tactics. With the Germans in pretty bad moral state, the British decided it was the right time to attack. The line of paratroopers in the left side of the table, following a turn conclusion that lifted all overwatch markers, moved one dice and started firing to the Germans... unluckily  (for the Germans) the British enchained two activations in a row, so the Germans could not fire back immediately.

One of the German platoons moral force fell to 2 and the other (mine) to 4. Time to leave the table and my units lost no time in pulling back though the jump-off points covered bny the other platoon. Unfortunately, the British player got 3 (three!) consecutive activations and despite the German interrupting the activations  with some, long treasured CoC dice, their units were dead ducks... inevitably moral force to zero and disbanded.

End of game and first scenario won by the British. You may think that the Red Berets were lucky getting so many consecutive activations and for that reason they won... Wrong! the truth is that we (Germans) put ourselves at a disadvantageous position the moment the Hanomags charged forward like the Light Brigade in Crimea. These vehicles and crews should have done a better service by retaining them as a mobile reserve to threaten the British flanks... but you know, the lure of charging is irresisitble for any real wargamer (and if you think the contrary, you're a wimp).

 

The loss of moral points is what emboldened the British to attack in our left flank, and thy waited until they had the full advantage (overwatch  markers lifted and two consecutive activations to put a mortal lead barrage on our units).

Congratulations to the British team for their victory!... but this is just one battle lost, there are still three games to go...