Time for some more TaM, and yet another Fireball Forward scenario converted to TaM. Once again the map looks identical in style to a Skirmish Campaigns one, and I imagine the original scenario was based on that and scaled up. I dimly recall a Squad Leader/Crescendo of Doom scenario covering the same engagement, but possibly I'm misrembering and I cant be bothered to look in the SL box to find out.
Anyway, this engagement features a clash between 1st DCR and 7th Panzer Division in the vicinity of Beaumont. 1st DCR had lost almost all its heavy tanks (Char B) in the previous days fighting but the 2nd Demo-Brigade with H39s had far more operational vehicles. Rommels advance had cut the French off so on the 15th, 1st DCR attempted to break out of encirclement to the west, handicapped by fuel shortages.
Battlefield from the north (confusingly) - if I'd realised it would end up this way around I'd have reversed the setup, but never mind... there is a very obvious road running down the centre, a couple of hills and various open woods. There are also two boggy fields which don't block LOS but do force a mobilty test on vehicles trying to enter them.
Two of the fields have tree lines at one side which block LOS, there is also a hedge running north-south behind the top hill, and a pair of buildings (a farm and a barn complex).
The French enter from the left (east) and to win must gain 3 VP. They get 1 VP per AFV or squad exited off the right (west) side and 1 VP per building controlled. The original scenario lasts six turns, so in TaM terms that is 12 turns or 85 minutes. Given the distances involved, getting even one unit off the far side is going to be a struggle, assuming the Germans manage to maintain LOS and restrict the French to one hex move per turn.
Here is the French horde, two platoons of motorised infantry with six sections and a pair of lorries. The lorries are just for colour as no-one in their right mind is going to drive these onto the table. They also have a motorcycle section and no less than six(!) H39s. Now, I dont actually own six H39s, so they are actually two H39s, two R35s, a gun armed FT 17 and a 25mm armed armoured car. I'm using the Spearhead stats for armour and gun performance, and wierdly these are all identical, 3/2 armour and AT 3 guns. If any vehicles get knocked out I'll swap the models around to remove the anachronisms.
A pair of the H39s enter on turn two which becomes after 15 minutes in TaM terms. I'm going to give the French poor command (so only the leader hex plus one other), average morale and round down their breakpoint. So with 13 elements that is a BP of six.
The Germans have one Schutzen Platoon with three high firepower sections plus a lorry and a Horch to ride in. The KG HQ has an anti-tank rifle section riding in a kubelwagen and a tank 'platoon' with a pair of Pz 38. Very similar rating to the H39s in Spearhead terms. but I'm going to make the German veteran with good command.
Arriving reinforcements are a pair of Panzer IIs (only AT 2 with their 20mm cannon) arriving after 20 minutes, and a towed 75mm infantry gun (AT 3) arriving after ten minutes. All of these arrive from the northern edge.
These guys have a break point of five.
I set this up in the afternoon so I'd have time to think about it as it is a quite tactically complex scenario due to the force density and terrain configuration. Those tree lines and hills are a complete pain! In this iteration I'm trying to keep the forward area under observation to restrict the French movement, but it necessitates a very forward defence due to the terrain. A more cautious approach would be a defence in depth but obviously that gives the French freedom of movement in the early game. Choices, choices...
So in this sector I've occupied both the buildings with infantry and put the ATR team in the forward building. The tanks are split onto different ridges to try and produce interlocked fields of fire across the whole front while protecting their flanks from AT fire. Complicating factors are the tree lines and a dispersed defence like this is going to be hard to control.
On the rest of the front I've parked up the transport in cover and Pz IIs and towed 75 mark the boundaries of the reinforcement entry area, which will nicely shore up the left flank. I considered keeping one section in reserve, but in the end I put it in the field at the top left to lock down that flank more - I'm terrified the French will just use to tree lines to dash forwards under cover otherwise. The field provides cover from direct fire to infantry so it isn't as daft as it looks, and they can always pull back if needs be, using the tree line to cover their escape.
I just lined up the French horde on the table edge. There seem to be an awful lot of them!
Final bit of admin, break point counters and the turn counter set to 0 minutes. I'll leave that overnight and re-visit it from time to time to consider different deployments and a viable attack plan for the French.
I re-visited the German setup overnight but didnt make any changes apart from to downgrade the Germans down to average morale. I think the French task is quite hard enough as it is (in the original scenario both sides have the same morale). I kept the more restricted French command though.
For the French faced with attacking over mostly open ground I opted to overload the defence by simply swamping the front. I spread the infantry out to minimise losses from bunching, and deployed the tanks along the front, focussing on the right flank more. There were two squads stacked up in the woods, but I think the time and distance constraints are such that the French don't have any time for fancy tactics. Essentially this challenged the Germans to stand and fight or run away, but like the Germans, the dispersed deployment ran the risk of C2 problems.
Naturally one of the Pz 38s went out of command, but the German CO focussed on the forward infantry positions and the German infantry managed to pin the three left hand French squads. The other Pz 38 managed to hit an H39 but it bounced off.
The French suffered C2 problems of their own and two hexes went out of command, including the tank/infantry team in the wood. The other two squads in the wood advanced as did the motorcycle section, while the two H39s blazed away to cover the infantry rallying.
The German response was fairly ferocious, and they gunned down one of the French rifle squads and the intrepid motocyclists. Ouch! German anti-tank fire remained ineffective. Looks like the German had committed themselves to fighting, whereas I'd originally planned to pull the left hand squad back after delaying the Germans.
And of course the following turn every single French tank was in command and a wall of steel fire spitting monsters managed to destroy the Germans in the field and pin the ATR team in the building. The only bright spot for the Germans was that two of the French infantry failed their command rolls and a third failed to rally.
The German 75mm gun now came on, but I wanted to unlimber it in the wooded hill hex, so it just parked up out of sight at the base of the ridge so it could dash forwards and unlimber next turn.
Now it was the turn of the French reinforcements arrival, and both tanks just moved onto the vacant road hex. The French infantry in the wood managed to fail their command roll again (I guess those woods are really thick!), but one squad made it into the field behind the treeline.
All four H39s were in command so opened up on the building inflicting two hits. The Germans removed the already pinned ATR and the rifle squad was pinned. With French infantry closing in, I figured infantry would be more useful.
The Germans pulled the battered squad back into the field to rally next turn and the Panzer IIs rolled up, parking in the field just in front of the tree line to set up flank shots across the table. The 75mm gun managed to fail its command roll but the Panzers finally stunned one H39 and destroyed another, which burst into flames.
With the German withdrawal, the French were able to push up the newly arrived armour, and the French infantry in the woods finally got to move forwards as well. One of the surviving H39s went out of command and the other fired ineffectively on one of the Pz 38s.
In all the excitement I'd managed to push the H39 in the woods too far forwards, and the Panzer IIs duly blew it up with flank shots. The 75mm gun also made it up onto the ridge and unlimbered. The French now only had two more losses to go before their break point. The Panzer 38s hit the two H39s on the road but only managed to stun one of them. The German squad in the field rallied.
At turn end I rolled a double, so random events. The Germans got 'tank fright' (very appropriate!) while the French got 'men of action' which allowed one unit to move and fire.
In a huge turn for the French, concentrated fire from the French infantry destroyed the Germans in the field behind the building. The H39s on the road then knocked out a Pz 38, while a third H39 used the 'men of action' to advance to join them and knocked out the second Pz 38! That took the Germans to their break point.
This triggered a series of morale tests which led to all the surviving German unit falling back a hex, the only unit to stand was the 75mm. The last German infantry abandoned their building while both Panzer IIs retreated behind the tree line.
The French infantry in the wood now advanced to the eastern edge, poised to move across the ridge in future turns, while the last H39 advanced into the fields behind the first tree line.
The Germans dare not move the Pz II back into the field as they would be in the arc of fire of four French tanks, so instead they moved back towards the ridge while the 75mm shelled the French infantry in the wood. The last German infantry squad reoccupied the building.
Next turn the French essentially pushed forwards under cover as far as possible, French infantry took the building in the centre and two H39s drove up the road to join them. On the German left, the lone H39 and French infantry just advanced one hex to keep behind the tree line and out of LOS.
The Germans engaged the H39s by the building, stunning one and destroying the other. The French were one loss away from their breakpoint.
But it was the Germans who broke first. The stunned H39 rallied and combined with the other H39 in the wood, knocked out one of the Pz IIs. The German morale failed and they all fell back again. The 75mm ended up on the reverse slope, the German infantry abandoned the building again and the last Pz II headed up the hill.
Taking advantage of the confusion the French pushed forwards, with two squads cresting the ridge near the last building, and another squad and H39 pushing up to the last tree line.
In their turn, the Germans reoccupied the building while the Pz II fired ineffectively at the nearest H39. The 75mm limbered up prior to relocating.
Too late, the H39 in the tree line despatched the last Panzer II and another wave of German morale failures saw the 75 retreat off table and last German squad abandon the building once more. On the French left four squads and two tanks pushed forwards as far as possible, occupying the hedgerows next to the building.
All the Germans could do was double time back into the building. On the French right the tank and infantry made their way over the open ground towards the ridge, and on the left, the French tanks shot in....
A mass close assault! Three French squads vs one German. The German troops were better and occupying a building, but they were outnumbered 3:1.
In the ensuing melee, the Germans took three hits and were wiped out, the CO ran away over the fields as the jubilant French occupied the buildings and searched the dejected prisoners.
After all that, there was 82 minutes on the clock, only three to go!
Most of the French units could only advance two hexes cross country on the last turn, but one H39 was on the road, and simply drove off the table giving the French their third VP. A hard won French victory!
That was really good fun, very enjoyable and well done to the French for pulling it off even though I doubted their chances. In the end they managed to concentrate their fire against single German units to destroy them, and although they lost half their armour and a third of their infantry, they just managed to pull it off. It was a high risk strategy as it relied on blasting a hole through the Germans so they could charge off in the last few turns, but tbh the alternative of a more step by step approach risked just handing the Germans advancing units piecemeal.
I didn't make any changes to the rules, just plugging in the relevant Spearhead armour/AT factors, so they seem to have settled down. That was also quite a complex scenario to solo play with a lot going on and a lot of decisions to make, so I didn't feel any great inclination to replay it either. Combat debut for my new 3D printed Panzer IIs though, which of course led to their inevitable destruction.
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