Peter and I kicked the tyres on my CoC Vassal module last night with his British infantry platoon attacking my Germans around the fictitious Abbaye de Poulet. The map is taken from page 99 of the Too Fat Lardies 2017 Summer Special.
My jump-off points ended up clustered in the NW corner of the Abbaye. Peter’s were on the east and down the south. Most of the British entered from the east and progressed through the woods, making good use of the cover offered by the low wall around the Abbaye. We counted this wall as offering hard cover for those who were adjacent and stationary to it – those French monks really know how to build walls! A section of my Germans also made use of the wall for cover, while another section positioned themselves on the upper floor of the main building. Before the game Peter and I determined where the doors and windows were on each building. This combined with the 90 degree widget in the module meant we could ensure realistic numbers of troops could shoot out of the buildings.
The building that became most significant was the small barn on the farm with the British jump-off point in it. Peter deployed a Vickers HMG team in it and fire they were able to put into the large Abbaye building was enough for me to pull back from the windows. I decided I needed to attempt something daring and brought in a section on my westernmost jump-off point and made progress down towards the large farmhouse. From here I put fire onto the Vickers, before smoke from Peter’s mortars forced my hand and I went in for an assault on the diminished HMG team.
Here you can see the outcome… my section made it into the building, wiping out the Vickers team, but the were heavily mauled on the way in, with on my MG team surviving! Things weren’t looking great for either force at this stage on the morale front. I was down to 5 (from 9) having taken some injuries to leaders and Peter was on 6 (also from 9). I decided to end the turn here, removing the jump-off I’d just captured. This dropped the British to 5 also. However, this was probably a mistake as the smoke was offering me more protection than it was doing good for the attacking platoon.
My section at the wall now took a lot of hurt from the British in buildings, behind walls and from another Vickers HMG that deployed to the south. The concentration of leaders with that section meant my force morale plummeted quickly.
The game ended with a tight victory to the attacking British. They had a force morale of 4 remaining, but their force was in pretty good shape. They hadn’t suffered anything like the same losses the Germans had… I’m just glad it wasn’t a campaign game!
Until next time,
Owen