Caesars Camp-Counter Attack at Villiers

Last Wednesday myself and Graham got together to play Turn 7 (and last) in our Caesars Camp campaign set in 1940 France. We had played 6 turns, so far with the British winning the most, however I should note that Turn 6 was a cliffhanger with some luck at the end Turing what seemed to be a German victory into a loss. This was the first time that Graham got to attack in the game and he had a fresh platoon. Victory here would allow the Germans to prevent a Major British victory. Because of the complexity of the terrain we decided to play at my place. I should both that we were both -2 of our FM rolls to start the game. 

German Attackers-217th Infanterie Regiment (FM8)

2nd Wave Infantry Platoon #3

2 Senior Leaders (Leutnant CR 6")

3 squads of 10 men, lead by a JL's, one squad with a MG08/15

Supports 16

Stuka Attack

Extra squad

MMG Team

Flamethrower Team

Sniper

Scottish Defenders-The Cameron Highlanders (FM8)

British EW Infantry Platoon (A Company)

2 Senior Leaders

2" Mortar Team

3 sections of 10 men, lead by Junior Leaders-(minus 3 men)

Vickers MMG Team

Supports 9

Anti-Aircraft Artillery

Pioneer Section w/ 2 entrenchments

Vickers MMG Team w/JL

The Game

Unlike the previous games this game was fought over a fairly densely populated area. We had checked google maps before the game and in the schematic provided in the campaign booklet the church was oriented north to south and it should have been oriented west to east so we changed that. Otherwise I tried my best to duplicate it.

The German approach into the village

Patrol Markers

JOP's

Effect of the Stuka was somewhat muted with most of the hits north of the battle line.

The German attack initially seemed to centre on the British left flank

Also a squad approaching from the right, I put my engineers down on OW.

The German attack is definitely coming from the left with 3 squads now attacking on that side.

The battle got interesting here, but no photos unfortunately. The Germans dropped a Flamethrower Team ambush causing the Brits behind the house to fallback but they then became pinned. They were also able to push a squad into the house denying the JOP to the Brits, thus they were unable to reinforce. It started to look pretty dodgy for the Brits and their FM was now down to 5........

...........I did have an ace up my sleeve though with my MMG section yet undeployed, it was now or never. I had designated the church as my "Keep" at the beginning of the game and warned Graham as such. The Keep functions as a JOP and is Bunker cover. I deployed the squad at the top of the Steeple and they were able to rain 20d6 on the attacking Germans. A lucky double phase came up and I was able to drive the attackers FM down to 0. A British victory!

Well another campaign played out, I must have at least 10 under my belt by now and Graham's first. He played quite well and the last 2 games were quite close. I would not rate this as one of the top campaigns I have played but it was fun. There were a couple of discrepancies or missing pieces in the booklet. I wonder what we will play next. I have a sense that Graham is interested in the Many Rivers campaign as he is building a Dutch platoon.