Rounding out our Arnhem Campaign, our third battle ended with a German Victory!

Forces

After our last battle, the Paras swapped out 5 Platoon, with 4 Platoon now taking point, with a full platoon ready for action.

For support, the Paras took a Vickers MG, an entrenchment, and a Hawkins daisy chain.

The SS Platoon had taken no casualties in the last battle, and 2 wounded in the first battle returned, bringing the platoon to nearly full strength. 1st Squad would be down 2 riflemen, but otherwise the SS were good to go.

My force morale roll was excellent, starting at 11 to the Paras 9. Clearly the fanatical platoon leader was motivating his troops nicely, while 4 Platoon knew that the push to Frost was costly, and they were next to pay the price.

Terrain and Objective

The battle field is defined again by that road, the Utrechtseweg. To the left their is an old house, on the right a hotel, while in the centre on the Para’s side (the west), there is another house. The area has light woods providing cover and fences that only act as obstacles.

My Plan

With 20 points of support my plan was to create 2 groups: an assault group and a pinning force, a la “grab him by the nose and kick him in the ass.” With 2 houses that could act as bases of fire, I decided that I wanted to use 2 squads for that so I had the flexibility to react to the Para’s deployment and attack the weaker side. The 2 other squads would provide the assault group, supported by armour (to fire HE in and keep heads down). I also wanted to pin the enemy so a forward Observer with a link to an 8cm mortar battery made sense. The Utrechtseweg split the table and I wanted to stop reinforcements coming in to the side of the table I was hitting. An MG 42 in sustained fire role made sense. 

The only decent armour available was a Jagdpanzer IV L70V (8 armour), so I needed that (in this game the stand in was called an STUG got to have its fun). As per the above, the other points went to a Forward Observer, an extra squad, a sustained fire machine gun mount (SFMG) with entrenchment. I really wanted an adjutant, but the support options available in the campaign limited my options. 

Sadly, I lost my detailed notes (several pages worth) and many of my shots didn’t come out. So this AAR is a little less fulsome than I had hoped – apologies!

Patrol Phase

As I was attacking I diced and got 2 free moves, and managed to get to the centre of the table. Most of the games we have played have been lengthwise, so it was an interesting change to be so close to the enemy right of the hop. Overall, I was happy with the patrol phase and my JOPs ended up in the two closer houses and then a bit to the left of the left hand house. 

The Battle

I wanted to get firepower onto the table quickly to split the forces facing me down the middle and the dice were generous. So my support squad deployed in the open on my left flank, hoping to jump the fence soon. 2nd Squad deployed into the old house on the left to provide some covering fire or help exploit. The Forward Observer next to them, peering out at the woods and contacting the battery. I wanted to hit whatever forces were deployed first to pin them and give myself that much more freedom of action. Once my assault force was ready, I would shift the fire to the far side of the road. My Jagdpanzer IV showed up on the road along with the SFMG in a defensive position near the Bilderberg Hotel on my right.

The Paras responded much more strongly than I thought they would. First, a Vickers in an entrenchment deployed and opened fire on the old house… and killed my FO!!! Of all the rotten luck… that was pretty terrible. The Para’s 2 Section deployed and opened fire on the squad in the open, causing casualties and building up shock. A sniper deployed into the tall house and began to pick away at the LMG team in the side facing the SFMG. Lastly, 1 Section deployed on my right and seemed to be getting ready to advance! 
This was not what I had expected. With armour support and good bases of fire I had figured Lucius would sit back and force me to dig him out. Instead here was winning the firefight and forcing me to react in a very aggressive defence.

My original plan still held though. Pin, then attack. I needn’t rush, though I was sorely tempted to. So I pulled back the support squad on the far left behind the old house and opened fire with everything remaining at the Vickers. The Vickers began to take casualties and shifted its focus to the SFMG as the sniper deployed in the tall house and 2 Section put a lot of shock onto my 2nd Squad in the old house. The 2″ mortar appeared and dropped smoke to shield the Vickers from the Jadgpanzer’s HE rounds.

I had the mobility of armour, so moved the Jagdpanzer up to the left side of the house as the firefight continued. Soon the support squad joined in hammering the Para’s 2 Section at the edge of the woods despite being the open. 

On my right Lucius was seizing the initiative. His 1 Section was advancing on my right, getting close to the hotel. If the Vickers had still been firing, I would have been very worried at this stage. I was unable to move on my left (except for armour), and ever unit I had deployed had started to take casualties and some significant shock. As it was, I was only mildly worried.

I deployed my weakened squad in the hotel and moved the SFMG to back it up. Some fire was exchanged and I lost some men in the hotel, leaving me vulnerable – especially with no sign of 3 Section yet. Lucius also had a Chain of Command die by this point, so I was seriously worried he’d move a JOP up and turn my flank with his weapon’s section. This led me to add my 3rd Squad in to the hotel get more fields of fire and make it too costly to assault. My plan in the main still held. 1st and 3rd Squad and the SFMG were dealing with the Para’s 1 Section, albeit closer to my lines than I had hoped, leaving the support Squad and 2nd Squad with the Armour and my Platoon Commander to assault the woods – once they could get going.

On the left the support squad and 2nd Squad backed by the Jagdpanzer were beginning to win the firefight. The PIAT team attempted twice to take out the armour, but failed and lost a man in the process. Para force morale went down again. Then 2 Section broke and routed with their JL after 2 phases of heavy fire and the Para force morale dropped significantly at the end of a turn but was alleviated in some ways by the discovery of a cache of booze. 

Lucius had tied down my forces on my right but had been unable to do much more harm and was beginning to take more casualties than he was dishing out. So 1 Section hopped the fence to get back to a better place… and was hit by everything I could throw at him, including armour. The Section broke, taking force morale down to where Lucius was losing lots of his command dice and finding it harder and harder to react. 

Then an ambush happened. In order to get the Jagpanzer in firing position, I had driven over a fence and in advance of the infantry, Apparently I had driven right next to Rifleman #9 of 3 Section who detonated a daisy chain, immobilizing my armour. My squads in support ended his life, but he had done his job and now my troops would be going in to try for the kill without much support.

I moved 3rd squad out of the house on my right and my Platoon Commander got both the sections on my left moving past the fence and getting ready to enter the woods. I then used a Chain of Command die to end the turn, bringing the Para’s force morale desperately low due to 1 Section and its junior leader fleeing the table. I brought my support squad into the woods into close combat with the PIAT team (or what was left of it). The poor chap ran and that was it for the Para’s with force morale at 0. 

Aftermath

My force morale had dropped to 9, which gave me a huge advantage for recovering casualties, as I had lost 8 during the fight (4 of whom were from the SFMG or support squad) meaning that my platoon remained missing 2 men from the first battle, but was otherwise full strength as it consolidated on the field.

The Para’s had lost 17 casualties, 12 from the core platoon, meaning that 4 Platoon was down 9 men (effectively an entire section) for whatever task they had next.

Oberscharfuhrer Staufen was happy despite the wound in his shoulder from a British marksman. He had held the Tommies at bay, husbanding his forces until he received the support he needed to knock them out. It had been a near run thing though, as the Para’s had taken the fight to him on both sides of the Utrechtseweg and if the Vickers hadn’t been knocked out he may have been forced to pull back. In the end his troops had performed well, and while the Jagdpanzer had been damaged, it would be repairable, and had done its job against the lightly equipped Paras.

Campaign Thoughts from the German Commander

This was a really fun campaign. It was really interesting to think for the long game and try to bleed the Paras rather than beat them, as I didn’t feel I had the support necessary to win, especially in Game 2! I had to be okay with losing, giving ground and hoping to spot an opportunity to hit back and cause casualties. I dove into the rules to figure out the best weapons to level the playing field, but elite troops are really hard to hurt, and Lucius played them aggressively.

It was so tempting to try to win earlier, but had I stood my ground I would have been slaughtered as the Para’s were always in force and moving quickly. I feel that if I had lost much of my platoon in the early games my eventual defeat would have been inevitable.

Note that I had originally planned to counter attack in Game 4, as the terrain is a bit nicer for armoured vehicles but I changed my mind as I figured that 4 Platoon would put more hurt on my Platoon than I could put on them based on the terrain in this battle. That is the beauty of the Chain of Command rules and the campaign system: it makes the game so much more than just about one battle and means it’s not just last man standing but achieving something: transferring commander’s intent into action.

Thoughts from the Para’s

Well game 3 didn’t quite go as I’d expected, but neither did the Operation Market Garden. At least our troops are only plastic and metal. My plan had been to suppress his major lines of advance by digging in my Vickers and establish two strong points in both wooded areas to force the German to get in close in order to dig me out. I knew with his high number of support points, armour would be coming onto the table but I had faith in my PIAT team, but just in case I brought a Hawkins daisy chain for a little more boom.

The patrol phase went very well and I was able to place my JOPs where I could create my strong points and I deployed my Vickers to create a kill zone that covered all lines of advance across the center of the table and my left flank. I did become quite worried when the German FO appeared and that become my number one priority to neutralize. Thankfully the FO was in line for my Vickers and a .303 round put him out of commission. At this point I felt that the game would go my way if I stuck to my plan… but unfortunately having won the fire fight I made the decision to turn my defense into an offence.

Jerry armour did appear and that combined with fire from his MG42 SF, my Vickers was knocked out of battle. However I still felt confident as my strong points had been established and I was covering his approaches. His support squad began trading fire with my 2 Section and I was taking damage. At this point I should have pulled them back into the woods like my original plan had been but I felt I still had the initiative and could close down and secure my right flank. Unfortunately this was not the case and between kills and shock, 2 section broke. This was when the Germans turned the battle, while I continued to probe my left flank near the hotel and was able to tie down 50 percent of his forces, my morale had begun to tumble and it was very slippery, steep slope.

Lessons Learned from the Para’s

• If you have a plan and things are going in your favour, stick to it. If I had just waited for him in the defense, I feel I would have taken the battle.
• Paras in the defense in close combat are nasty! After my morale had hit 0 we continued to play as though I still had two dice left. The Germans had finally advanced into my woods on the right where only my Plt Sgt and 2cm mortar team remained. It was 3 v 7  and in close combat, my 3 troops annihilated his squad… if only I’d stuck to my plan.

The Campaign from the Para’s perspective

Even though I lost I still enjoyed the campaign, it was a fun series of battle and I would like to refight it at some point. During 5 Plts advance along the river road they were in effect spearheading the Division’s attempt to reach the 2^nd Batt on the bridge. If that was the case I would have liked to have seen some higher Divisional level assets available on the support lists. Overall, like the planners of Market Garden I felt confident throughout the battles and assumed, because my intelligence has assured me, many many mannnnyyyy times, that my Paras would be able to roll over the boys and old men who happened to be guarding Arnhem at the time… 

Last Thoughts

I would also like to play this again – with more support all round!

The campaign forced us to get troops painted, terrain to a reasonable standard, and both of us to really get a better grip on the rules. We very much enjoyed it and I think that we’ll be working towards another Chain of Command campaign soon… probably something early war.

If you have not played a campaign, I highly recommend that you do so. The ladder system is simple but well-thought out and adds so much more to the (already great) game.