Carabanchel – Crossfire Battle Report 2

In the second game of Carabanchel Scenario Chris Harrod played the defending Republicans and I played the attacking Moroccans.

The Plan

As in the first game the Republican (Chris) placed his objective in the Military Hospital and the Nationalist (me) placed their two as close to the front as possible. One was on the Republican left as close as possible to the front line. The second was in the big block in the centre. Chris placed the barricades in a manner that offered a open route for my tanks – an offer I declined.

Nationalists Deploy

My plan was to attack on both flanks. On the Republican left my advance would only go as far as the forward objective. The advance on the Republican right would aim for the other two objectives. I committed one platoon per objective. The tanks were merely to secure the roads with fire. Similarly I placed my HMG with Platoon 3 near the centre of the table to give maximise its field of fire

The Game

I started the game by doing massed RBF of the front line buildings. Although RBF is prone to failure this didn’t matter much as the defender was simply going to pass on their initiative and I had two hours to play with. This revealed elements of two of Chris’s three platoons.

The action started when I advanced towards the objective on the Republican left. RBF to reveal the militia squad on the objective then close assault. One objective for the Nationalist cause.

Nationalists take first objective

The I started on the main thrust on the Republican right. My third platoon advanced through the small triangular block near the military hospital, did some RBF across the street to reveal more militia, tempted Chris to do reactive fire leading to No Fire, then went in with the bayonet. That had me into the big block in the centre near the second objective.

Moroccans assault across street

This is when it started to go wrong. We were incorrectly playing that stands could direct fire within building complexes. So Chris’s militia shot up one of my rifle stands – despite rallying attempts by the company commander from outside the building (another incorrect ruling). With my advance platoon weakened I decided to pull it back and use another platoon as the point unit.

Moroccans enter big block

But before I did that I used the Platoon 3 to make a dash for the terrain objective in the Military Hospital. It was all good until I discovered the Militia company commander defending the objective. I had +2 in the close combat and Chris +1 but the dice rolls turned it around and I lost the Platoon 3.

Republicans successfully defend Hospital

But it still looked alright for me. I had Platoon 2 ready to cross the road into the big centre block. Facing them were two small clusters of militia near the objective.

Republicans brace for the next assault

Chris opened up an opportunity for me when he moved some of his militia into the corner building sector facing the Military Hospital. These guys had a good arc of fire into the street … except across the barricade. This gave me an opportunity to cross the road unopposed and make my way through the building complex until Platoon 2 was adjacent to the terrain objective. Then charge. I took the second objective.

Nationalists take 2nd objective

Chris quickly organised a counter-attack. He did a wee detour up the road so I couldn’t do Reactive Fire as his force entered the building complex then made his way back again to close combat my Moroccans on the objective.

Republicans mass for counter attack

I had two squads and two commanders on the objective. He had three squad attacking. I opted to use my +2 company commander. Chris had one more squad than me so got a +1. Unfortunately the dice rolls turned it around again I lost the platoon and the game on casualties.

Coup de Grace – Republican counter-attack succeeds

Conclusions

Another good game. This time quite quick. It took only 40 minutes for me to reach my casualty limit. But in that time I captured two terrain objectives and had a go at the third. The game pivoted on two close combats, both of which were slightly in my favour (net +1) but which I lost. Fortunes of war and all that.

I used a lot of RBF and given Chris didn’t want to reveal his stands this meant he was forced to pass. Given the time limit was in real time, rather than using a Moving Clock, losing the initiative on RBF wasn’t a big deal.

My final comment is on my Generic Building Sectors. the more recent ones, including my Buildings for Diagonal Streets, are grey representing concrete. But I don’t like them. So after these two games I painted another lighter coat of paint over them making them more in keeping with my original white-ish buildings.

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