Silly After Action Report - Cut the Road to Marseilles

The Stuart tank lurched to a halt on a dusty French road next to a pair of farmers who were unenthusiastically shovelling dirt from one hole into another.  The hatch banged open and Sous lieutenant Raoul Outlebarrel emerged, his uniform gleaming in the sun.  He struck a heroic pose on the chassis of the tank which was marred only slightly when his heel slipped and deposited him into the dust at the side of the road.

"Shit," he muttered, "I mean merde!"  He picked himself up and looked around to see if anyone had noticed.  One of the farmers ignored him completed, continuing to poke at the earth with his shovel.  The other regarded him with a look best described as "impolite disinterest".

Brushing himself down Outlebarrel resumed his heroic pose somewhat closer to ground level and addressed his fellow countrymen.

"Rejoice brave farmers of France.  You have been liberated from the ruthless tyrant!"

"Oh so you've met my wife," replied the first farmer.

"Er, no I meant the Germans."

"Oh them, and who are you exactly?"

"I am a Free French soldier," replied Outlebarrel proudly.  A flicker of embarrassment crossed his features.  

"Forgive me but can you tell me where to find the road to Marseilles?"

"Lost are you?"

Outlebarrel squirmed, "I wouldn't say lost exactly.  I am home in beautiful France."

"Oh good, that's helpful.  For your information Marseilles is down at the bottom."

The farmer took pity.  He pointed at the ribbon of tarmac that stretched to the horizon.

"This is the road to Marseilles.  It's in that direction.  You'd better get a move on, it won't liberate itself."

With a word of thanks Outlebarrel scrambled back into the tank which lurched forward covering the two farmers in dust.  The second farmer spat and turned to his companion.

"You didn't mention there's a whole bunch of Germans in the way."

"He didn't ask," replied the first with a shrug.

"Who was he again?"

"He said he was Free French."

"Seems fair, I can't imagine anybody paying for him."

 Dave Wilson and I chose the Provence Pack partly because the scenarios looked interesting but mainly because we're cheap and the scenarios are free.  The first scenario is PP1 - Cut the Road to Marseilles.  This pits a not particularly good bunch of Free French infantry backed up by half the Stuart tanks in creation attempting to drive some disturbingly capable Germans out a group of buildings.  This will in some way "cut the road to Marseilles".

I shall command the Free (or at least heavily discounted) French of the 3rd Algerian Tirailleur Regiment as they attempt to push the Germans out.  For this pushing I have eight squads of infantry divided equally between first and second line troops plus a commando detachment consisting of a single 648 squad and a partisan 337.  The commandos are commanded by their own bespoke 9-2, leadership for the remainder is somewhat more mediocre.  Support weapons are present in the form of a single mmg, a single bazooka and a single 60mm mortar.  But then there is the armour, hoo boy do we have armour.  Four armoured halftracks (two of them inconveniently unarmed) are waiting to cart my bold tirailleurs to the battlefield.  Supporting them are no fewer than five Stuart tanks.  Lest this seem insufficient turn four sees the arrival of two more Stuarts under a 9-2 armour leader (historically this reinforcement was to assist the tirailleurs to flee from what was rapidly becoming a military debacle but surely that won't happen this time...).

Proudly standing on the wrong side of history Dave commands the landsers of the 242 infantry division.  Given that by this time southern France was a dumping ground for the most unemployable fragments the wehrmacht could produce their quality is almost suspiciously good.  He has twelve squads, half first line, half second.  No armour for these boys but they do have four medium machine guns, two heavy machine guns and no fewer than three 81mm mortars.  They also have twenty four concealment markers.  By SSR the support weapons can't set up manned.  Further more all German troops are under a TI marker until one of them has a line of sight to a known enemy unit.  However they can set up in the same hex as the support weapons and if their opponent is stupid enough to set up in their line of sight (ahem) they'll be able to grab them immediately.

To win the Germans must control at least four buildings within three hexes of 17R4 at the game end.  They can also win immediately by taking out five Free French AFV.  My job therefore was to throw the Germans out of stone buildings with an inferior force while also doing my best to keep my force multiplier safe from the fighting.

I have to admit I didn't like my chances.  Eight squads, half of them second line didn't seem like much of a force to be pushing a dozen Germans out of stone buildings even with tank support.  I came up with a high risk (hopefully) high reward strategy.  Either things would go well or the game would end on turn one.  I was fully prepared for option B.

At start

Above is our at start set up.  You will see that I eschewed hiding the partisan squad somewhere the Germans couldn't see it.  That meant Dave could grab his support weapons immediately but I thought it was necessary as I wanted to get things happening quickly.  The partisans and commandos would plough through what were hopefully dummies and grab the small building between the two woods.  Two of my tanks and four squads mounted in halftracks would swing around to the north, unload directly in front of the units in the wood and, assuming they survived jump into close combat immediately.  I hoped to clear a passage south towards the victory buildings.  The remainder of my infantry would sneak forward to the small patch of woods directly to the east of the victory buildings supported by the remaining tanks and hopefully I would catch the defenders between two fires.

It didn't quite work like that although it probably came closer than I deserved.  My halftrack boys did indeed dismount directly in front of his defenders, survived all defensive fire and plunged into close combat but despite 2:1 odds (Dave had scattered halfsquads across the north) couldn't clear them out in the first turn.  My partisan squad did manage to clear out some dummies but got broken in the process (not by the dummies obviously) and my 9-2, commando squad combo assault moved next to the obviously real occupants of the building.  A morale check from an mmg was sufficient to sent the 9-2 yelping for the rear of course but the commandos stayed strong and plunged into close combat where they were promptly ambushed and the defenders withdrew.

End of French turn 1

Things went a bit not good after that.  Although not in the area I was expecting.  My flankers did indeed dispose of his northern shield in CC just a little later than expected and soon four squads, plus tanks and halftracks were pounding south towards the enemy.  The enemy had been occupying his time carving up my eastern troops for dogmeat.  Trees and concealment counters were of no avail and virtually the entire force was shivering in the rear waiting for their officers to recover from their crying jags and rally them.  Still I had my tanks and with them I started to "encircle" the defenders.  Does it really count as an encirclement when the defenders can simply shoot the encirclers to pieces?  I also broke the MA on a Stuart.  My sniper too paid the ultimate price but since the alternative was a squad or a leader I was quite ok with that.

The scenario is developing in a manner not necessarily to my advantage

I thought I had lost it on the first turn but somehow stumbled through to turn two.  With half my infantry down and the remainder some way from the victory locations there was only one thing to do; be suicidally reckless with my armour and hope for the best.  This worked right up to the point where it didn't.  In the north my Stuarts rolled forward and sprayed the occupants of the nearby buildings with canister.  Just to prove that lousy morale checks weren't the sole preserve of 9-2s all of Dave's defenders went down.  If I could get some troops there I had a way in.

I pushed forward with my halftracks (bad move that) and actually broke  mortar crew with machine gun fire.  My own mortar team incidentally had been slowly dragging its ridiculously heavy weapon forward but its time was about to come.

It seems nobody on either side can buy a morale check

 In the south a Stuart had swung around and had been taking largely impotent potshots at the occupants of a building.  It was blown to pieces by an 81mm mortar shell.  Strangely I didn't take the hint.  With my eastern dwellers now largely rallied (except for one squad which would remain disrupted to the end) and my tanks swarming (apart from the destroyed one) I started pushing forward.

Armour losses are mounting

Using tanks and half tracks to sleaze defenders and provide a modicum of cover I grabbed the northern buildings and forced my way into a couple of others.  Dave's defences were crumbling and the victory buildings were in my sight.  Unfortunately what was in Dave's sight was my armour.  Another tank fell to a mortar and then a third.  Dave's infantry was buckling under the impact of my bold tirailleurs but their armoured support was looking distinctly dusty.  By the end of turn three I had the buildings I needed and my 60mm mortar had justified its existence with a critical hit on one of his mortars.

Sadly it was to no avail.  With four AFV down Dave only needed to take out one more for the automatic win.  My turn four consisted of frenzied efforts to move my vehicles out of line of sight.  Unfortunately I wasn't successful and a mortar blew a halftrack to scrap to meet the five AFV limit and an automatic win for Dave.

Five AFV down and that's a wrap

 This scenario was much more fun than I really expected.  Although I wonder how much excitement there is for the German player who essentially has to sit where he is and hope his rolls come good.  I'm not even too disappointed with my tactics (a couple of glaring exceptions notwithstanding). Although I have to admit I underestimated the ability of the German mortars to kill armour, especially the open topped halftracks and that ultimately was what lost me the game.  Much thanks to Dave for the game.  Next time we're trying the next scenario in the pack, Supply Detail.

Sous lieutenant Outlebarrel stumbled from the trees brushing bits of halftrack out of his hair.  Most of the tirailleurs were already some distance ahead of him fleeing the wrong way along the road to Marseilles.  

"Come back," he yelled, as much for the look of it as anything else.  He certainly had no intention of returning to the battlefield.  "We must launch a counterattack," he shouted just in case a senior officer was listening.  Ammunition from a burning tank started cooking off behind him.  "Tomorrow," he hastily amended.  "We must launch a counterattack tomorrow."

The two French farmers looked at the pillars of smoke rising from beyond the trees.

"Feeling liberated yet?" asked the first.

"Yes," replied the second, "but that's because I've loosened my truss."