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.

Caesar's Camp-Chateau on the Hill

 

Last Wednesday, myself and Graham got together for our 6th turn in our Caesar's Camp campaign. This was the penultimate turn in our 6 table campaign. It was somewhat of an important table as it was going to decide whether the Germans can gain a minor victory. They will still have a chance on table 6 if they can hold it but it will make things difficult. As Graham had no loses in the first game in the campaign he used that platoon for this game. I also brought in a fresh platoon. This scenario was played as the Attack and Defend scenario from the main book.

 German Defenders-217th Infanterie Regiment (FM8)

2nd Wave Infantry Platoon #1

2 Senior Leaders

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

Supports 12

3 barbed wire

1 minefield

Extra squad

Scottish Attackers-The Cameron Highlanders (FM10)

British EW Infantry Platoon (A Company)

2 Senior Leaders

2" Mortar Team

3 sections of 11 men, lead by Junior Leaders

Supports 18

FO

MMG team

2" Mortar

Extra section

sniper

MO

The Game

I felt Graham got the better of me in the Patrol Phase

As you can see the Germans laid out 3 sets of barbwire anchored by a minefield. Graham was cautious in deployment and I had 2 sections, a MMG team and a 2" mortar on the table in the first couple of phases.

And most importantly the FO

The FO calls up the mortar and requests an aiming shot, followed by the mortars in a 12" square. I wanted to block LOS from the house so I could advance the section on my left flank towards the house. The action got quite heated here so as usual I forgot to take photos. The Germans then got an amazing number of double phases as well as quite a few CoC pips. The section on my left flank got chopped up by a German squad that was deployed behind the hedge on the German right flank. Graham ended the turn to remove the smoke up I was able to keep the mortars going. More German double phases and with these Graham deployed 3 squads on his left flank, ended the turn yet again. I only had 5 pips so was stuck....... 

As you can see my 3 section in the middle were getting pounded and my FM was dropping rapidly. It looked like I had lost the game as I would have to withdraw. I decided to throw my CD one more time. I got a 1, so I called up the mortar a second time and was successful. I got pounded yet again by the Germans, but no double phase for them. I rolled the CD again, another 1 (SL can not activate an FO with a telephone connection, he has to do it himself)......

......I carefully decided where I should place the mortar, I new an aiming shot would be prudent but my centre was about to break, I through caution out and decided to call for HE, I rolled a 9! I caught 3 German squads in the barrage.

and this was the result over the next couple of phases, the Germans were shattered, their FM dropped to 4, and they withdrew from the chateau.

Well that was a very close run thing. I thought I was done for, on to the last game in what has been an up and down campaign.

The Butcher's Bill

Germans Platoon #1 (FM4-6 dead, 3 missing next game)

12 figures lost

CO -2

MO -7 (-2FM)

Outlook Thoughtful-" Dangerous"

The Camerons Platoon #1/A Company (FM6-4 dead, 2 missing next game)

8 figures lost

CO +1

MO-3 (-2FM)

Outlook Concerned

Caesar's Camp: La Ferme de Caubert-Redux

Last Thursday myself and Graham got together for our 5th turn in our Caesar's Camp campaign. The Scots got driven back in the first attack on "La Ferme de Caubert" which was going to be the jump-off point for the final assault on the objective of the campaign and victory. This was going to be a tough one as the Germans already have 2 barbwires, 2 minefields and an entrenchment on the terrain and may add further fixed defences.  The Scots will be dicing their FM with a -2. We both went with the same platoons from our first go on this table. Both of us were essentially missing one team from our platoons.

 German Defenders-217th Infanterie Regiment (FM10)

2nd Wave Infantry Platoon #3

2 SL's

3 squads of 10 men, lead by a JL's, one squad with a MG08/15-missing 5 men

Supports 12

2 barbed wire

3 Entrenchments

Infantry Squad

MMG Team

Scottish Attackers-The Cameron Highlanders (FM8)

British EW Infantry Platoon (D Company)

2 Senior Leaders

2" Mortar Team

3 sections of 11 men, lead by Junior Leaders-missing 6 men

Supports 18

Vickers MMG

2" Mortar Team

Infantry Section

Char B1 bis

Hotchkiss H39

Scenario

This is the Attack and Defend scenario from the main rulebook.  The victory conditions were going to be difficult with the Scots having to capture 2 of the buildings in the German position or reduce their FM to 0. Clearly the latter was going to be easier and I should note that if I brought in AFV's they would be restricted to the road.

Game

A fairly equitable result in the Patrol Phase

I was able to get a JOP on the dirt road allowing me to deploy beyond the minefields. This gave me some better options in the line of my attack, which was now going to take place on my left flank.

My two tanks were stuck on the road but as you can see had LOS to the farm, thus limiting German deployment.

Lots of smoke as usual.

This was a weird game, I thought both of us played quite well. There were few double phases but both sides accumulated CoC pips rapidly. There were times in the game when we both had 3-4 fully cocked CoC dice each. This resulted in a situation that if one player made a move he was interrupted or an ambush appeared. I kept both a mortar team and a MMG team off the table to ambush until quite late in the game. Graham had kept a full section off the board that could be deployed entrenched if I left myself in the open. Fortunately I was so concerned that he had a Flame Thrower team that I was quite careful to not expose myself. After almost 3 hours Graham withdrew, his FM was 5 and mine was 6. I think it became obvious that as a defender a double phase was not going to be of an advantage but a double phase would be more useful to me especially in the setting of us both having expended all our CoC dice. Certainly the game was interesting but was a little slow. On to table 5.

The Butcher's Bill

Germans Platoon #3 (9 dead, 2 missing next game)

6 figures lost

CO -1

MO -5 (-1FM)

Outlook Content

The Camerons Platoon #1/D Company (3 dead, 0 missing next game)

0 figures lost

CO -1

MO-3 (-1FM)

Outlook Sad

More Training

We had another CoC training session after the campaign game as it was out club's game night at the Abyss. We had Dan again as well as David for his second game of CoC. We also had a new player Julian, who had his first game of CoC. We used the same terrain as above with the Canadiens attacking a farm held by a platoon of Italians. 

This was really quite a good game, we probably got almost 3 hours of play in, and for new players everyone caught on to the rules exceptionally quickly. In our training games I really focus on stressing tactics rather than mechanics and this seems to be working. I am hoping everyone enjoyed themselves.

Caesar's Camp: La Ferme de Caubert

 

Myself and Graham got together at the Abyss before Xmas for our fourth turn in our Caesar's Camp campaign. This was the second go with our platoons from our third game, so we both had some missing men.

German Defenders-217th Infanterie Regiment (FM10)

2nd Wave Infantry Platoon #3

2 SL's

3 squads of 10 men, lead by a JL's, one squad with a MG08/15-missing 6 men

Supports 12

2 barbed wire

2 minefield

Flamethrower Team

Entrenchment

Infantry Squad

Scottish Attackers-The Cameron Highlanders (FM8)

British EW Infantry Platoon (D Company)

2 Senior Leaders

2" Mortar Team

3 sections of 11 men, lead by Junior Leaders-missing 1 man

Supports 16

Vickers MMG

2" Mortar Team

Sniper

Char B1 bis

Hotchkiss H39

Scenario

This is the Attack and Defend scenario from the main rulebook.  The victory conditions were going to be difficult with the Scots having to capture 2 of the buildings in the German position or reduce their FM to 0. Clearly the latter was going to be easier and I should note that if I brought in AFV's they would be restricted to the road. I had expected that Graham would go with a Bunker Buster, but I guessed wrong!

Game

JOP's, no real advantage to either side but I would have liked to get a little further up on my left flank. The Germans are defending the village to the right of the photo and the Scots were attacking from the left of the table.

Advancing Scots to the right flank as Graham had made my left flank impermeable to attack.

Graham put 2 barbed wire on the road which really shut down any advance of my 2 French tanks, once I moved my troops to their right flank I was able to place the Char bis on the road. It did a pretty good job of showering HE on the buildings.

Graham basically put his men in the stone houses, I felt the Char could deal with this, so I started to lay down smoke and of course at a critical moment a turn end came up so I lost all my cover. I think this was going to be OK as my advancing troops were mostly out of LOS. But then catastrophe, that I should have been able to predict. The Germans ambushed my advancing section with their Flamethrower team, essentially dropping them to 3 figures, my FM fell precipitously and I made the decision to withdraw. Unfortunately some of my men ended up being captured as they were more than 12" from a JOP. A German victory!

The Butcher's Bill

Germans Platoon #3 (6 dead, 1 missing next game)

4 figures lost

CO 0

MO -1

Outlook Cheerful

The Camerons Platoon1/D Company (3 dead, 2 missing next game)

7 figures lost, 5 captured

CO -2

MO-5

Outlook Concerned

CoC Demo

After our game we had a demo game of CoC with 3 new players, all members of our club. From left to right is Dan, Graham (who was checking on my tutorial mistakes), Michele and William. We played on the same table with the same scenario but Dan brought his Italians so we made them defending against the Canadian attackers. I think we all had a good time and I found that the 3 new players picked upon the game quite quickly. I only had to play the Patrol Phase once as we got a satisfactory result. We did not finish the game and did not use any vehicles but we got in all the mechanics including combat. It went quite well and I am pretty confident that they will all want to play again.

Dan's beautifully painted Italians

Myself and Graham will pick up our campaign after Xmas. I am going to have to figure out a way to deal with his ambushing Flamethrower Team!

Caesar's Camp: Up the Route Nationale

 

Myself and Graham got together at the Abyss 10 days ago for our third turn in our Caesar's Camp campaign, we both had fresh platoons but now these platoons counted in the campaign as the losses would carry over

German Defenders-217th Infanterie Regiment (FM10)

2nd Wave Infantry Platoon #3

2 SL's

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

Supports 6

1 barbed wire

2 minefield

Flamethrower Team

Scottish Attackers-The Cameron Highlanders (FM8)

British EW Infantry Platoon (D Company)

2 Senior Leaders

2" Mortar Team

3 sections of 11 men, lead by Junior Leaders

Supports 12

Vickers MMG

2" Mortar Team

2 Bren Carriers w/ Boys ATR and JL.

Scenario

This is Blitzkrieg Scenario from the 1940 rulebook: This is usually a tough one for the attackers in that they have to get 2 units off the table's far edge before the defenders accumulate 2 CoC die and end the game. The Attacker can remove 3 pips of the Defender's CoC die by expending 3 pips. As you can see from above, I did purchase 2 Bren Carriers in the hope that I could get 2 units off table. But as most of us know, CoC is a game of Morale and the game is usually won by dropping your opponent's FM.

Game

Table from the Scot's POV.

I felt the Patrol Phase went OK for both sides, although I ended up with 1 JOP on the table due which was going to be of little use to me.

After several phases I got 2 sections down in light cover in tactical or overwatch with two 2" mortars to lay down smoke to protect my 2 Bren Carriers in their rush up the table.

I was able to get considerable smoke down, but then my Command Dice started to fail me as well as my Mortar Team's accuracy...........

........and then Graham threw a treble 6 and the smoke was all gone. He had advanced a couple of squads through the forest and now could fire back at me.

I should also note that he had placed a couple of minefields as well as a barbed wire on his right flank, and started to advance a squad towards my troops on my left flank.

Poorly shot photo but you can see them at the top of this snap, there is another section here in the sunken road but also a Vickers Team on the edge of the line of trees.

Graham had now advanced his flanking squad into LOS, but what was he up to? As you can see in the next photo I had anticipated the risk to my MMG team and moved them out of LOS down into the sunken road. I am happy I did this as Graham had now revealed that he had a Flamethrower Team as a support. He was planning to move his JOP up and then ambush me but luckily I got out of LOS before this happened.

Minimally battered but now out of LOS.

The game now devolved into a shooting match. My CD had completed failed me as I was having minimal activations each phase while Graham had several double phases. I was lucky in that I had several teams with LOS to the enemy and was able to fire with one team and lay down covering fire with the other team. This was quite effective and as you can see from the Butcher's Bill below, the Scots were able to win this battle, with the Germans deciding to withdraw. A Victory for the Scots.

The Butcher's Bill

Germans Platoon #3 (4 Dead, 2 Missing for next game)

8 figures lost

CO -1

MO -2

Outlook Cheerful

The Camerons Platoon1/D Company (1 missing for next game)

1 figure lost

CO -1

MO-2

Outlook Thoughtful

Caesar's Camp: The Seaforth at Trois Foetus

Myself and Graham got together at the Abyss yesterday for our second turn in our Caesar's Camp campaign, we both had fresh platoons and Graham had a free Off Table Bunker Buster which fired 12d6 HE and AP. This was rather intimidating to me, with my only option really to litter the table with smoke.

German Defenders-217th Infanterie Regiment (FM10)

2nd Wave Infantry Platoon #2

2 SL's

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

Off Table Bunker Buster (Flak 36)

2 CoC pips

Supports 6

2 barbed wire

2 minefield

roadblock

Scottish Attackers-The Seaforth Highlander's (FM8)

British EW Infantry Platoon

2 Senior Leaders

2" Mortar Team

3 sections of 11 men, lead by Junior Leaders

Supports 16

Pregame Barrage

Vickers MMG

2" Mortar Team

Char B1 Bis

Hotchkiss H39

Scenario

This is Scenario 4 from the main rulebook: The Flank Attack. It is a one off scenario and is not played twice. It has an interesting Patrol Phase, with the attacker having to sets of 3 Patrol Markers.

Game

Here is the table, the fields in the left are contiguous 

Somewhat of an unsatisfactory Patrol Phase with neither side getting the upper hand

I felt the game was well played by both sides. I had to deploy early in order to find out where Graham was going to place the Bunker Buster. At the same time the minute I came into LOS, I knew I would be annihilated. I started with the Char tank and both 2" Mortars. I absolutely covered my approach with smoke, but the Bunker Buster still would not deploy. As usual, I stopped taking photos almost immediately. Graham eventually placed a squad in the stone house facing the east west road. I was able to cover the road with smoke and then brought the Char B1 forward and was slowly able to whittle down the German defenders. Graham ended the turn (he seemed to be able to throw 5's every turn) and the Bunker Buster finally came out, luckily most of my troops were in Hard Cover and despite the HE reducing cover I was able to withstand the bombardment and was able to put down more smoke. The 88 only got one chance to hit the Char and missed by dicing a 4. I was able to take out the German SL and then started to advance my troops in the field from south. With this and the continuously fire from the French Tank, I was able to drop the German FM to a point where they decided to withdraw. A Scots victory!

The Butcher's Bill

Germans 

CO 0

MO -1

Outlook Cheerful

Scots (-1 on FM rolls)

CO -1

MO-4

Outlook Thoughtful

The Scots get to use tanks in Scenario 4, the Germans will have to pay for their Off Table MMG in the next scenario. Hopefully we will get to it within 3 weeks.

As an aside, I used the same terrain but with the Attack and Defence scenario as a demonstration game with David and Gabriel to introduce them to CoC. It went well with a very catastrophic combat to finish off the game. As usual, we played the Patrol Phase twice so the new players could get a good sense of it.