Clearing Ville Dix Panses

Ville des Dix Panses (Ten Paunches) lies some twelve miles inland behind Sword Beach. Today is D+2 and the breakout from the Normandy landings is meeting much stiffer resistance as fresh German Forces move into the area.

The village is believed to be held by elements of a Panzergrenadier platoon. Intelligence suggest the Germans are lacking armour which is just as well as the troops taking on this mission dont have the usual luxury of Armour either.

The platoon mission is to probe in force and take the critical road junction which controls access to four main highways just beyond the village.

Fought with Chain of Command.

The astute among you will notice that the Commando's are masquerading as regular British infantry!

Ville Dix Panses - road junction in background

German Jump Off Points after the patrol phase

Recce Platoon carriers and No1 and No2 Section join the action.
A scout patrol has made it to the woods trying to steal a flanking march.

No1 Section pass through the cornfields. Everything is very quiet - too quiet...

No2 Section creeps up on the Chuch.
Can they nab a Jump Off Marker before the krauts have had time to deploy?

Despite some poor rolling in previous phases, things begin to take shape for the Grenadiers.
Previous phases had seen a glut of 5's being rolled but a similar glut of 1's meant the krauts had been pretty much
unable to deploy the forces they needed to blunt the British thrust forward.

A Panzergrenadier Section supported by the Screck team take up positions in the Mansion

The MG42 team in the church tower are taking a right battering.
Pinned and with heavy casualties surely the British will mount an assault?

The British Recce section deploy in the bungalow supported
by a 2" mortar skulking out of sight in the woods.

They've been spotted but thankfully the Krauts aim is a little off. 4 Hits, no pins, no casualties

Back to back phases and the germans finally manage to bolster the jump off point within the church.
Another full section takes up defensive positions backed by the Platoon Senior Commander.
The Brits may have missed their opportunity for a jump off point steal

The Recce platoon take incoming...

But get payback taking out the Shreck team.

No1 Section meet a withering hail of fire from a german Crossfire and high-tail
for better cover.  The British assault is looking dodgy at best. 

No2 Section withdraw from the church and begin a rapid redeployment, shifting
the emphasis of the attack from the right to the left flank.
 

A CoC dice and three back to back phases make this bold manouvre a distinct possibility

With no targets, the German section in the church seeks to flank the British attack.

Some sniping by a lone Bren team picks off the remnants of the MG42 team in the church tower.

Sunray Down!!!

The all or nothing redployment by the British to move around the exposed german flank
proves to be a folly as not one but both of the British Senior Commanders are
killed in subsequent germans phases.

With force Morale down to 2 (from 9) the British conced defeat and retire to lick their wounds

Another interesting game of CoC. What I particularly liked was the ebb and flow of the command system. The game forces you to make real decisions rather than having omnipotence.

The Brits got dragged into a shooting match which was always going to be difficult against PzGren armed with two MG42's per section. Some bold manouvres early on were rewarded which went unrewarded later on - Ce'st la Guerre!

Impatience finished off the British Assault. Two Senior Officers were left in open ground trying to sprint across what proved to be too big a gap between areas of cover. It costs them dearly forcing a loss of 5 morale points!