Here is an After Action Report for another game recently played using the TFL I Ain't Been Shot, Mum rules and another scenario from Rob Avery's excellent scenario book The Defence of Calais. This scenario, The 3RTR at Hames Boucres saw the British and Germans take part in an encounter game.
Dingo’s the Neighbourhood!
The British were already deployed on the table with their lead elements in a sunken road (denoted by loose scatter material to the sides of the road) in front of the crossroads which dominated the table. The rest of the terrain was rather sparse with a little bit of the village hearing on one table edge and a few copses hither and thither. The crossroads area was occupied by several groups of refugees randomly determined in number and size by the umpire previously.
The Germans started the on the opposite table edge in column with a light tank section of two Mk II Panzers patrolling the left-hand advance flank and a medium tank section of three Panzer Mk IIIC tanks patrolling their advanced right flank, close to the village. The Germans were allowed to bring on a limited number of units per turn whilst the British were free to move forward and reconnoitre the position from the start.
Panzer IIs lurking as civilian refuges hover around the crossroads
The British encountered difficulties with the groups of French refugees at the crossroads and their presence was preventing the British from exiting of the sunken road with their lead units of Dingo armoured cars and Vickers Mk IV light tanks.
This caused some consternation for the British players and they were quickly under attack from the German light tank section whose autocannons took a heavy toll of British armour, several of which became immobilised and ultimately abandoned as their morale deteriorated.
The Medium platoon with more refugees getting in the way
The British were quickly boxed in and with a significant amount of German reinforcements appearing on the table, notably for PaK 36 anti tank guns, from their road column they quickly made the decision to head on back to base having been unable to break through.
German supports arriving and quickly de-bussing.
Apologies for the lack of detail in this report: there is always a slight difficulty in undertaking an AAR with many of Rob's scenarios as they frequently contain hidden surprises, and for those of you who may wish to play the game yourself it would be unfair to give away all of the secrets.
Hope you like the pictures and here's to the next report!
Tim Whitworth