Lardie Forum AAR's

[EvilGinger]

Spanish Civil war using CoC

sadly without pictures

http://toofatlardies.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=74#p384

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

This time with pictures France 1940 in 10mm




http://toofatlardies.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=215

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

kiss me Hardy AAR at Edinburgh wargames club

Action off Finisterre, 1805



http://www.edinburghwargames.com/Journal%2086.htm


http://toofatlardies.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=211

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

This ones from the Lardie Yahoo group & is for IABSM

The table was typical bocage with a road junction at the far end of the table (lengthways). The US mission was to clear any enemy forces and seize the junction. German resistance was expected but their strength was unknown.
 
I played the US force which  was 1 Infantry Platoon with a Level 2 Big Man and 2 M4 Shermans in support. I started with 3 tanks but decided that was too strong and inflicted engine failure on one of my tanks - a decision I later came to regret. German forces were not fixed but would be a mix of LMG teams, riflemen  and perhaps a couple of AFVs.
 
I chose to add the following cards to the pack:- Axis Machine Gun bonus, Allied Hesitant troops (Losses would have been heavy in the past days), Axis support (pre-registered artillery strikes) and Axis sniper. All US troops would be shown as they deployed and when the Axis Blinds card came up I drew from a separate deck which contained all of the possible Axis troops likely to be present. If the card I turned over could be sensibly deployed I did so and then added it to the pack after the tea break.
 
I advanced my US force in a line with First and Second squads each supported by a Sherman. Immediately the infantry in front came under MG fire and took casualties/shock. A handy next turn of the US armour card allowed both Shermans to put down some .50cal suppressing fire. A dice total of 17 was particularly handy in removing one MG team. The second, after being pinned by tank MG fire was about to be close assaulted when the German team took the sensible option and fled. Next card up gave Axis Blinds and a Sniper card from the second deck seemed very plausible. It's then down to me to select an appropriate setting. His rating was only 0 as determined by a die roll and then his throw of a double 6 saw him removed from the game. His disruption to the US squad facing him was short lived!
 
The US Platoon leader was beginning to think that the new combined tank/infantry role was working just fine when an AP shell tore into the tank supporting second squad to his right. (This had come from a concealed Jagdpanther whose first shot resulted in 5 net hits), The second Sherman swiftly moved to get a side shot at the German AFV but its shell bounced harmlessly off the low profiled tank. The German vehicle now turned and got off one quick frontal shot which destroyed the second Sherman's engine and made it a virtual sitting target. Fortunate card turns followed for the US and a bazooka team was sent through the orchard adjoining the Jagdpanther's position but a Hesistant card meant that when the Sherman tried to move it went nowhere even more slowly! The end was inevitable and with a second round already lined up, the German tank despatched the Sherman easily. The German tank commander had barley issued orders to reverse to another ambush position when the bazooka team now fired from almost point blank range into the side armour causing it to burst into flames.
 
Faced with his platoon suffering three casualties and a lot of shock and with no armour support, the US lieutenant placed his force in a defensive arc and radioed for support.
 
 
This game had just the right feel to it and seemed to give me a realistic replay of the uncertainties and sudden savagery of bocage fighting.
 
I really enjoyed this little game (about one hour's playing time) and it got me thinking that there must be a lot of TFL chaps like me out there who tend to game more solo out of necessity. Have there been any playing notes or ideas posted for different ways of simulating this in IABSM? The card system is a great way of controlling the flow but I'm thinking more of achieving that lovely element of surprise which opponents will usually inflict on you.
 
Hope this was of some interest and thanks for reading. Sorry, I can't do clever pictures and captions etc but will try to find out how to.

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Another CoC AAR...



from the lardie Forum

http://toofatlardies.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=240#p1891

http://wargames.blog.co.uk/2013/09/08/aar-coc-hun-on-the-hill-16367778/

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Reposted form the Lardie forum

Tonight we played a Regular Fallschrimjager platoon defending against an Elite US Para platoon. I took a Sdkfz 250 and recon team in support, the US player took a second 60mm mortar and a M4 Sherman. We both rolled a Force Morale of 11, so a strong start. The objective was a church by a crossroads. One half of the table was broken up by bocage, which blocked LOS, the other was a network of small fields with lower hedges.

The Yanks sent both infantry sections across the bocage, the Sherman up the middle along a road and the two mortars deployed on the other side of the table, with the platoon sergeant and the bazooka team acting as spotters.

I brought on a section on either side of the table, keeping one in reserve, and the 250 in the middle where it hid behind the church once I'd seen that there was real armour on the table.

The elite US status gave me a real problem. I did keep my sections together so that they didn't get chewed up piecemeal. The firepower of two lmg teams is spectacular, and if I'd been up against regulars......

To begin with I did well, 1 section got into a firefight with one of the US sections which had allowed itself to get split up, pinning the rifle team before the 30cal caught up. The other section plastered the mortar spotters, the American's ability to roll 1's was amazing and I'd killed the US platoon sergeant in 2 or 3 phases of firing!

The 2nd US section then got into a long range firefight and got their junior leader wounded. With high rolls on the force morale table it was looking good for the Germans. Then the US rolled 4 successive double 6's on command dice, followed by a treble 6! He unpinned his section. The motars started hitting my right flank section and killing them, the Sherman moved forward and added it's 75mm gun to the party and the 2nd US section joined the 1st in ganging up on my left flank, wiping them out. One section gone, the other reduced to 2 one-man teams and a junior leader and my Force Morale falling fast.

Finally my go, I used a CoC dice and strung an ambush with my panzerscheck team. 4 hits on a Ronson, boom! I combined my 2 odd survivors into a single lmg team and killed the bazooka team, then brought my reserve section on in front of the objective and left them on overwatch. The 250 raced down the road to defend the jump off point about to be overrun by the Yanks. A short duel went on, me spaying the hedges with bullets while he lobbed grenades at the half track. I killed a few riflemen and inflicted some shock before a lucky grenade landed in the back of the 250, forcing the recon team to bail out, only to get bombed by those bloody mortars.

On the other flank I'd realised that he had nothing there except the CO and two mortars, so my Unteroffizer grabbed the last lmg team and led them in a counter attack to outflank the US infantry. With a 24" minimum range the mortars desperately back peddled but I caught up with them. In the open against a lmg and 2 smgs even elites got chewed up. 1 mortar team broke and the other was pinned, on the verge of breaking.

My Recon team jumped over a hedge and the leading US section rushed up to the hedgerow to try and catch them in the open. In his eagerness he forgot that my reserve section was on overwatch and 2 lmgs cut him up, killing enough to pin what was left of that section.

At this point we called it a day, the US morale was down to 4, his 2 mortar teams and the CO were on the point of routing and his two infantry sections had about a dozen, or so, men left between them. I still held the objective and had an intact section, plus the recon team covering it. There was no way the Yanks were going to get the objective. It had been close, my morale was down to 5.

My lessons, keep the Fallschrimjager sections together and use the massed firepower. Save ambushes until you are really sure, especially against tanks. If you see an opportunity to go on the attack, go for it! My Unteroffizer's 3-man counter attack turned the game, those mortars would had chewed up my reserve if I just sat back and waited. He will be getting an Iron Cross for that!

Wednesday I've got another game, as the American advance has been stalled, I'll try a counter attack with the Fallschrimjager against the Paras.

This was a really enjoyable game, I'm finding the rules good fun to play. They certainly do punish bad tactics!

Good stuff don't you think

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Danish CoC



http://toofatlardies.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=351#p3183

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Reposted from the Lardie foum

Greetings

I ran a solo test of the Patrol scenario between a German and British rifle platoon using a paper map, annotations and a dice roller (as well as real dice). Terrain, based on what I have for 20mm and can recreate on table, was rolling farmland, mainly with waist high crops (light cover), with a farmhouse (hard cover) and barn (light cover) with a wall or two, some non-bocage hedges, farm roads/tracks and a few copses and an orchard.

The Germans (force morale chose 4 patrol markers and the British (FM 9) 3. The upshot was that the German jump off points were (1) the barn in the north of the table, (2) behind a wooded hillock on the middle east table edge and (3) in the orchard in the south east of the table. The British had two (I and II) close together in the middle of the crops in mid table and one (III) in the remote copse in the south west corner. Advantage German as they could - and did - get a deployed gruppe into the farm and farmyard.

The action itself was interesting. An initial British advance against the farm from jump off I was clearly untenable so the first section, with the platoon sgt, put down smoke from the 2" to cut down the enemy fire and used the Bren group with the section corporal to fire on the MG42 in the second floor of the farmhouse while the sergeant and rifle group manoeuvred north (lots of tactical moves initially) to flank the farm.

Meanwhile the Germans decided to bring on their second gruppe to threaten the two close British jump off points but found that dividing command dice between two different areas was less effective than the British able to use 1,3 and 4 results for their supported 1st section, whose rifle group was able to dash to the unoccupied barn and take the jump off point. A hasty redeployment of the German rifle team to contest this was not in time to stop the the British ending the turn using a CoC dice to remove the German jump off point (GFM8 to 6).

At this stage the German outlook was poor - their second gruppe deployed from the eastern edge and advanced on the jump off points to be fired on by a deployed British section and took heavy losses - retreating behind a hedge they spent the rest of the game taking pot shots and providing covering fire.

The fight for the farm was helped by the Bren having killed the MG42 crew (but not their obergefreiter) as the German first gruppe's rifle team were deployed behind the house in the yard, focused on the British in the barn to the north of the farmyard - exchanges of fire here whittled down both German and British riflemen. However this left the Bren team and corporal free (obscured from the German riflemen by the house) to rush forward into the farmhouse (recently vacated by the German obergefreiter) whence they sprayed the German riflemen in the farmyard and wiped out the survivors as they attempted a close assualt on the house (GFM6 to 4). I found out what happens when you fail to get handgrenaten to work and have 7D6 against the defenders' 14D6 in close combat when you've only got a few men ...

The Germans then deployed their reserve gruppe with their platoon commander from the eastern jump off point - this was able to take the British second section under fire and, from across a hedge, cause signficant casualties (including the section commander (BFM9 to 7)) and shock to the British soldiers in the corn. With the British section pinned they essayed a handgrenatan charge which broke the British section (BFM7 to 5) with the grenades but then failed to get close enough for close combat with the retreating enemy or the British platoon HQ teams slightly further away. As this left them more or less in the open, the deployment of the third British section at close range from the nearest British jump off point (II) was a problem - especially as the German platoon leader and the squad leader became immediate casualties*, (GFM4 to 0) breaking the German force.

Total casualties were 19 German, including the platoon commander and a junior leader killed and another junior leader wounded with 9 British dead including a section commander.

The Germans would have been better served by being less aggressive and not crossing hedges. Their MG bonus was helpful. The one German CoC dice used was to negate a force morale roll. The 1st squad's rifle team was deployed to the south of the farm but should have been in the ground floor of the house to allow better command control and a more central position to react to enemy manoeuvre.

The British used their platoon sergeant well - having a leader with each team of the 1st section was really useful. It also wrong footed the German 1st gruppe deployment. The 2" could have been used more. When the British platoon commander finally deployed he didn't get any actions before the end of the game!

Total was two turns with 16 phases and 13 phases respectively. I got a few things wrong as I went along but it flowed very well.

* I think from the FAQ that if the squad has men killed then you check if any one attached leader has been killed - I decided to check for both needing a 1 on a D6 for each rather than a 1-2 for one loss. Both were accordingly hit and the platoon commander then rolled a 1 to be dead :-)

[EvilGinger]

something from the Spanish Civil war of 1936-38




http://toofatlardies.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=457

for more detail follow the link to the blog mentioned in the post...


 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Dux On the Saxon Shore...




as it begins

http://toofatlardies.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=529#p4961

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

A cattle raid...



as it began...

http://toofatlardies.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=546#p5152

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Reposted from the Lardie Yahoo group

CoC:Espana AAR


We played scenario 3 of the Iron Ivan campaign - Muerte en Merida. The situation was that a reformed militia force counterattacked a Legion detachment in Merida. They had support from a Tiznao Armour truck and a couple of dedicated off-table guns - spotted for by a Republican artillery team.


Rather than deploy troops as per the scenario we played the patrol phase which resulted in the Militia commander pushing forward but the Legion patrols were such that the jump off points for the Militia got driven back toward the edge of the table and into cover a ways back on th e battlefield. Needless to say the militia were out scouted by the Legion patrols in this stage of the action.


The Militia commanders planned on feigning with their right and assaulting with their left, supported by three squads of Asaltos coming on in a flank march. After some initial manoeuvring the Armoured Truck thundered up the road, swung to the side and began firing. On board was a section of infantry and a Ranking Leader, which turned up as a late arrival for the action to oversee the attack….all hands on deck!


The Legion, hunkered down behind the town walls had no real answer to this armour behemoth but as it’d moved quite close the Sargento instructed the MMG crew to pour fire onto the truck at close range. It had the desired effect. Totally uncomfortable taking direct hits all over the vehicle side the driver moved away to a covered position.


Meanwhile the left hand militia hook pushed forward but attracted the attention of a Legion LMG squad suitably sited and the off table 50mm mortar. Casualties mounted and the leader took a hit, out of action of the rest of the turn. before long they were pinned and took cover. The right flank force of infantry made a dash across open ground in a somewhat covered approach to support the Tiznao but then began to attract attention of its own. Taking fire it too had some shock build up but not without some Legionaries being shot despite their walled enclosure for protection.


Things started to heat up as the armoured truck driver slammed the gear in reverse and moved back to engage the Legion on the outskirts of the town. The Asaltos had not yet turned up and the off table artillery team had not yet deployed…the plan was starting to break down but their kept the pressure on.


With a series of back to back turns the Legion concentrated their fire on the lone militia squad on the militia left that had taken cover and before long the squad broke, the firepower to great for the brave milicianos. Seizing the opportunity the legion commander ended the turn with his CoC dice and before long the militia morale had dramatically fallen by 5 points. With the subsequent routing of a section and its senior leader as well the Militia morale had plummeted to 4 and they lost one of their precious four command dice.


On the Militia right the armoured truck moved to the flank of the Legion position and began to fire into what was to become know as ‘the angle’. On a corner point of the town the Tizano machine gun belched out fire, the onboard squad dismounted and ran for a nearby orchard and with the inspired leadership of the ranking leader and his personal standard bearer waving the flag of the republic, he commanded the squad to pour it on. A bitter contest ensure with both the Legion Sargento and the Republican officer on both sides falling in combat to be taken out of the action for the turn…bullets were flying everywhere…this effected both sides morale with the Militia now at morale 3, the Legion still OK with its morale at 8.


With these casualties on the Legion left the situation was starting to become a bit critical. Whilst there was no immediate danger of the Legion force morale dropping to a dangerous level the potential for disaster did exist. There were tow teams teetering on with very low numbers and the Leader was in the position himself. If the two teams and the leader fell, a real possibility the the whole Legion left flank would be compromised. Then finally the Republican artillery spotter called in his fire and ..’boom!!’..the heavy 105mm shells landed right on target!! Ducking for cover the Legion forces in the barrage are took only shock and fortunately no losses, very lucky, their leader emerging unscathed. Had the leader been lost at this point things could have really taken a very bad turn for the Legionaries.


With a more furious exchanges of phases the CoC dice was built up by both sides and its use now became critical. With the Militia Morale now down to 3 and the Legion under a constant barrage that threatened to totally unhinge the position the Legion played his ace in the deck. Before end of the next phase the turn was ended once again and with that the barrage also. On the next phase fire was poured into the orchard with the militia player totally consumed buy the engagement on this sector of the front. Much debate ensured between the two Miltia commanders to decide wether to bring the Asaltos on and even wether they could with their reduced dice pool…they already had an eye on the next battle of the campaign.


They decided to leave them off and then with a back to back phase the Legion fired everything they could at the remaining section into the orchard and finally broke the unit, the leader running and the standard bearer killed.


...Force morale plummeted to zero and the militia broke of the engagement….gallantly defeated


Aftermath
A riveting contest that surprisingly turned out to be much tougher than Legion commander expected. Despite his small force size he had an excellent position and was of high quality. The Militia commander in the end fought with one hand tied behind his back as his best troops never made it onto the field and his barrage came in very late not nearly being used well enough. All in all the militia attack was disjointed and lacked cohesive purpose. For all that, at the coal face, they gave a spirited performance mostly by the high concentration of leader in their midst and with a simpler plan may very well have given the Legionaries as real run for their money.



 Ginger