Rückzug Battle 2: Village Delaying Action

Since our first battle, the Germans have made an orderly withdrawal and taken upp positions in a small village next to a stream. The main road running east to west bridges the mostly waist-deep stream. Further south along the stream there is a knee-deep ford next to an orchard.

The village is dominated by a large hotel building with red brick roof and a bombed out industrial building, both just north of the main road. 

(Experienced CoC players may recognise the map from the Scottish Corridor campaign...)

Patrol Phase

British FM starts at 9, the Germans start at FM 11. After some patrolling the Brits spread their JOPs across the front with one on their extreme right and two in the corn fields next to the road and further left towards the ford.

The Germans have one JOP next to a hedge in a courtyard just south of the main road, and another in an orchard next to the hedge lining the hotels back garden. Finally the Germans place at third JOP, that is also the Mission Objective, in the bombed out industrial building next to the hotel. The British player starts the game with 2 CoC-pips. 

The Battle

The Germans first command dice roll is 54432. They discover that there is a Pre-Game Bombardment in place, but choose to wait and see where the enemy appears before any attempt to deploy.

The Brits roll 65332, thereby disclosing that they haven’t bought a Red Dice this time. A section deploys tactically along the hedge lining the main road. A second section deploys on the right flank. Its rifle team puts suppressive fire on the short side of building that has two second story windows facing the bridge and the open area of British approach north of the road.  The Bren team is placed on overwatch.

The Germans roll 43311 but choses to do nothing for now.

The Brits roll 65432. On a 4, Platoon Sergeant Taylor deploys with the section by the road and leads them forward along the hedges. The other sections rifle team continues to suppress the windows facing them and the bridge.

The Germans roll 44311 but again choses to wait and see… 

Next British roll is 43111. With the German JOP in the courtyard now possibly within reach, the British commander initiates a change of pace. Sergeant Taylor and the squad he has joined repositions onto the road and then runs 3D6 across the bridge and left down to the hedge outside the courtyard, locking down the German JOP on the other side of the hedge. 

The other section runs 3 D6 towards the bridge, but only cover 6” of ground.

Just as the British attack seems to start gaining momentum, the Germans roll 66643!! This means that the Pre-Game Bombardment will end just when it would start being useful for the Brits. Sergeant Taylor curses the artillery in his characteristic Rhodesian accent… The Germans deploy a squad on overwatch next to the hotel, ready to face any threat coming from the courtyard on the other side of the road. With that the first turn ends. The Germans roll their command dice a second time, gaining two more CoC-pips, but choses to wait and let the British advance a little further before springing any nasty surprises…

The Brits roll 66311, filling Sergeant Taylor with new confidence. He follows the section activated on a 3 across the hedge into the courtyard, taking the German JOP. The other section continues running towards the bridge.

Rolling again, this time 66554, Taylor uses this to rearrange the squad along the hedge so that the Bren team has a better field of fire toward the entry into the courtyard from the main road. 

Next British roll is 65123. Taylor and the section in the courtyard goes on overwatch. The other section reaches positions along the stream next to the bridge.

The Germans roll 54322. Having gained two more CoC-pips from the two British ”double phases” they now have a full CoC-dice. A small unit consisting of an LMG-team and a JL deploys tactically in the alley on the far side of the industrial building.

The Brits roll 65221. The section by the bridge starts moving across the road to take positions along the hedge lining their side of the stream. A Cromwell CS (this is the first time we use this very cool vehicle, Staffan used the stats and cost of the Centaur. In future games we will use the same stats but add a hull MG and set the cost to 9 support points) deploys on overwatch in the corn field next to the road, bisecting the village with its field of fire along the main road.

The Germans roll 66444 and decides that the time has come to spring into action. The CoC-dice is used to spring an ambush with an MMG deploying into the courtyard from the JOP in the industrial building. It fires on Sergeant Taylor and his men, killing 3 riflemen and scoring 1 point of shock on the Bren team.

Next German roll is 42211. A squad deploys tactically in the garden behind the hotel, facing the direction of the stream. A green support squad deploys on overwatch next to the squad on the short side of the hotel, facing the entry to the courtyard. A SL deploys together with the squads on overwatch. This is when the German commander learned that a SL has to be ATTACHED to an LMG/MMG to use the Maschinengewehr rule… 

The MMG is instead activated on a 1, but before it can fire the Brits spends a CoC-dice to interrupt and move Taylor and his men out of sight into a corner of the courtyard. 

In the Rückzug campaign, the germans can make a voluntary withdrawal once they have inflicted 25% casualties on the British core platoon (or reduced British FM by 50%…). With the small British motor platoon being one section short after last battles casualties, this means that the Germans needs to inflict a total of 6 (!) casualties on the core platoon before they can retreat in good order to fight another day. Having already lost three men, the Brits are facing the dilemma of needing to push forward while being very sensitive to further casualties in their core platoon… 

Next British roll is 65531. Sergeant Taylor and his men Repositions the the other side of the hedge, outside the courtyard. Taylor then uses his three command initiatives to merge the lone man in the rifle team into the Bren team, remove a point of shock and put the team on overwatch. 

The Germans roll 65443. The MMG in the courtyard is placed on overwatch and the squad in the garden behind the hotell moves tactically 1” towards the stream.

The Brits roll 64332. The section by the bridge rolls an impressive 16” for movement on 3D6 and takes positions along the hedge by the stream. From this position their Bren team can se along the main road and cover the ground that the Germans needs to cross to move troops into the courtyard. The Cromwell CS cautiously advances 4” along the road, keeping its gun on overwatch.

The Germans roll 65511. The road in front of the lone LMG team and JL on the far side of the industrial building is still in a dead angle from the Cromwell and British infantry, so they sprint across aiming to make a sweeping move around the back of the village on the German right flank. They roll an unimpressive 4” on 3D6, making it across the road but only just… 

The Brits roll 65541. A light mortar and a second SL deploys in the corn field. The senior leader is just within 9” of the Bren team covering the main road and puts them on overwatch.

The light mortar fires HE at the MMG team in the courtyard using Sergeant Taylors shouted instructions. Unfortunately the LMG crew have difficulties interpreting his thick Rhodesian accent and the round misses.

The Germans roll 64432. The squad in the hotel garden continues tactically to the garden hedge facing the stream. The SL orders a smoke grenade to be thrown down the main road, providing some cover for an eventual dash across the road into the courtyard to pursue whats left och Taylor’s men.

The Brits roll 65531. The SL leaves the corn field and runs to the section behind the hedge covering the road where he also puts the rifle team on overwatch.

In the German phase they Reposition the MMG out of its entrenchment and forwards behind a hedge corner to gain line of sight to Taylor and his team on the other side of the hedge. The MMG then fires, killing 1 man and causing 4 points of shock. Taylor, the JL and the remaining 3 men manning the Bren return fire with overwatch, killing one of the MMG crew.

The lone LMG team and JL continue their flanking move, almost reaching the orchard on the right flank.

The Brits roll 65321. Taylor removes 2 points of shock from his Bren team and they fire at the MMG, causing 1 point of shock. 

The Germans roll 43322. The green squad braves the overwatch from the Cromwell CS and Bren team and dashes across the road into the courtyard on a 2. The Brits, sensing this might just be a decoy, holds their fire with the Cromwell and just lets the Bren fire its overwatch but to no effect. When the green squad enters the open space of the courtyard and gets within 4” och the MMG team the Brits use 3 CoC-pis to React Fire with Taylor and his men, getting the benefit of a bunched target. They kill 2 men and cause 1 shock on the green squad, plus 1 point of shock on the MMG. 

The green squads JL is activated on a 3 and orders two hand grenades towards Taylor’s team.  One grenade hits, killing one man and causing 1 point of shock.

Next, the regular squad together with the SL makes the same bold dash across the road on a 2. This time the Cromwell lets loose with its 9 dice of HE! The smoke on the road augments some of this horror, but one man is killed. The Germans flood into the now rather crowded courtyard. The SL orders the MMG to fire with Maschinengewehr and the regular squad’s JL orders another two hand grenades against Taylors outfit. The British JL is killed and the Bren team is wiped out, leaving Sergeant Taylor alone behind the hedge. British FM falls 4 points(!!), from 9 to 5, removing one command dice.

At this point in the game the British player felt confident that the germans would make a voluntary withdrawal in the beginning of their next phase, having inflicted >25% casualties on the British core platoon. With this assumption, caution was somewhat thrown to the wind and full focus put on inflicting some more casualties before the germans melted away again.

Next British roll is 4321. The light mortar fires HE, but again to no effect. The Cromwell CS advances and fires at the squad in the hotel garden, killing one man and causing 1 point of shock. 

The section moves into the stream and throws two hand grenades into the courtyard. One grenade hits, causing 2 points of shock on the green squad. 

In a last act of defiance, Sergeant Taylor fires his Sten, causing another point of shock.

We don’t know if Sergeant Taylor mostly felt surprise or anger when the Germans, instead of withdrawing, rolls their command dice. What we do know is that 7 hits from the MMG cuts him down, taking British FM to 3. 

The squad behind the hotel Repositions out of the garden and when activated on a 3 first fires a Panzerfaust on the Cromwell, scoring a hit but no dammage, and then fires on the section in the stream, killing two men and wounding their JL. 

The Brits roll 321. Both the section in the stream and the Cromwell CS fires back at the squad that has emerged from behind the hotel. When the dust settles, all that remains of the squad is one rifleman and the JL. And 2 point of shock.

The Germans roll 54322. The badly battered JL and his rifleman clears their 2 points of shock and scoots back over the hedge into the relative safety of the hotel garden. In the courtyard the SL ´puts the green squad on overwatch towards Taylor’s old position at the hedge in anticipation of an assault from the section in the stream. 

Next British roll is 522. Momentarily unable to cause any more havoc with the Cromwell, they move the section out of the stream and towards their right flank, in pursuit of the two Germans in the hotel garden.

The Germans roll 65534 and spends the phase removing shock from the units in the courtyard. 

The Brits roll 311. The Cromwell moves across the bridge and steers left towards the tempting cluster of three German units in the courtyard. The section continues right and reaches the hedge, looking into the hotel garden and its two rather nervous German inhabitants.

The Germans roll 66441. The SL orders the regular squad in the courtyard to move out onto the main road and forwards towards the bridge. They stop just before the smoke covered part of the road. With his remaining command initiatives the SL orders the green squad and the MMG to advance to the hedge, recapturing the JOP. 

Next German roll is 66541. With a 1 the Germans deploy a three-man Panzerfaust team by the stream and facing the Cromwell. (We’ve decided that the Panzerfaust team doesn’t need a leader activation to fire. The Panzerfaust is their only weapon and it’s their job to fire it. Before firing they decide if they want to fire 1,2 or all 3 fausts that phase.) They fire three Panzerfausts, hitting with two of which one is a side shot. Both fausts score one net hit, resulting in a total of two points of shock and a stunned (and very lucky!) tank commander unable to activate next British phase. 

The Germans roll again and get 65311. The Panzerfaust team tries to move out of the way so that the MMG and green squad can fire at the light mortar in the corn field, but the stream slows them down too much. The JL and rifleman in the hotel garden realizes that escape is impossible and decides to instead make a heroic last stand. They throw two hand grenades and fires three shots at the British section lining the garden hedge. This wipes out the Bren team and kills two riflemen, taking British FM to 2.

With just two command dice left, the Brits roll 23. The wounded JL and whats left of his rifle team fires into the garden, scoring 1 point of shock but no casualties. 

In the final German phase, the squad on the road charges out of the smoke and around the corner of the hotel towards the British section. A hand grenade and a quick but violent melee later, all that remains of the Brits is the SL who makes a run for it and escapes the bloodbath. The German squad looses one man. British FM dropps to 0 and the Germans can draw a sigh of relief. 

From a German perspective this felt like a much tougher fight than the force morale difference of 0-10 at the end of the game signals. The Germans get 1 (out of a possible 3 on a D3 roll) more victory point for a total of 2 in the campaign so far and will be receiving three new random support options for next game. Two men from the green support squad are lost permanently, but all other casualties are retrieved and the core platoon remains intact. The men’s opinion goes from 0 to +2 and Leutnant Klangenberg goes from cheerful to merry. 

With heavy casualties and three NCO:s lost the British decides to change out their platoon for a fresh one for the next battle. This puts them back 2 victory points, from 0 to -2. Their men’s opinion dropps from 0 to -5, and their CO:s opinion goes from 0 to -1. Oddly, the British company commander seems surprisingly unbothered and goes from secure to cheerful. Maybe he wasn’t a fan of Sergeant Taylor…  

Next battle will be an Attack and Defend scenario, fought over a crossroads or significant building. Stay tuned!