Chain of Command 24 Hours to Basildon Scenario 3 "In the Steps of Boudiccea" - the second attempt

Having repulsed the Germans in the first try at "In the Steps of Bouduccea" the Home Guard braced themselves for another attempt by Gary's Germans to force their way along the A12. 

For this game each side had only two support points. As I won the first play of the scenario I got to keep the minefield and dinner plate mines already deployed and add another fixed defence by strengthening the position. I went for the Northover Projector which is very cheap at two support points (at the cost of being difficult to use) and an entrenchment to put the Projector in.

The patrol phase went a little better this time for the Home Guard and they started with a slight force morale advantage at 9 compared to the Germans 8.

Docklands awaits the return of the Germans. The buildings seem largely intact but there are shell holes from the last attack!:

In the far distance the Germans have deployed a full squad, a depleted LMG squad and a couple of mortar teams. In response the Home Guard deploy the Northover Projector and open fire with it. Return fire from the Germans on overwatch immediately takes out one crewman:

An initial bit of luck for the Home Guard, the first turn ends quickly allowing the Despatch Rider to deploy. Getting the despatches back to HQ will improve the Home Guard's chances in the next scenario:

A section of the Home Guard and the Sergeant deploy in the grounds of Docklands. German fire kills one man and wounds the Sergeant despite them being in hard cover while British fire only kills a single German in the open! 

The Home Guard captain and a second section join the first section:

The Germans appear to want to just shoot it out with the Home Guard:

The British on the other hand seem to be catching every bullet going and another member of the Home Guard goes down:

The final German squad adds to their firepower. British fire is ineffective:

The Germans in contrast are shooting superbly. The wounded Sergeant gets up and is promptly hit again, the Captain is wounded, three more Home Guard are down and another Projector crewman is killed!:

The British attempt to pull back out of sight but one squad fails and more bodies hit the ground. The twice-wounded Sergeant is hit yet again and killed. With their force morale plummeting and only two Germans down the British decide to retire before they take unsustainable losses:

A very short game that went very wrong very quickly! I lost seven home guard, the Sergeant, two Projector crew and had the Captain wounded. That's a total of 13 effective casualties (it took three hits to kill the Sergeant) when, all being in hard cover, they were only killed on 6's. Gary's Germans had a charmed life with only two getting killed (on 5's and 6's in the open) and hardly any shock. I also failed to get the despatch rider off table.

It was a brave choice by Gary to go with the reduced Platoon rather than use a new one but then most of the German firepower comes from the LMG's so the loss of riflemen makes less difference to the overall firepower thrown out.

I'd hoped that the Northover Projector and being in hard cover would balance out the superior German firepower considering that they were in the open but it certainly didn't work out that way! At least this time though I broke off the fight before it became disastrous as it did in Scenario 2 for the LDV and the Home Guard lives to fight again. This was the last battle of the 4th of July, the Germans will restart their attack at 04:00 on the 5th and need to win two scenarios in a row to win a minor victory. If the British can win one more scenario they will hold the Germans up long enough for the Regular Army to arrive and form a strong defensive line so there is still everything to play for!