Put Out the Searchlights ETO (id:#61975)
(Dezign Pak 9 ID: ESG107)   [next]   [previous]
Les Attaque, France 1940-05-23 ()
Designer: Mark Harms
Starter kit scenario?:    Deluxe scenario?:
 
Balance:
GermanBritish
68.75%

Overview:

When German panzer forces exploiting breaches in the Western front reached the coast near Abbeville, they had succeeded in cutting off the British Expeditionary Force from the rest of France. To keep the pressure on while the BEF was still in disarray, Gunderian's XIV Panzer Corps turned northeast towards the channel coast ports. Approaching the southern outskirts of Calais, the 1st Panzer Division encountered elements of the newly arrived 3rd Royal Tank Regiment. After brief fighting, the British tanks retreated back toward the city. The oanzer troops pushed on and soon encountered a detachment of the 1st Searchlight Regiment at a village straddling the St. Omer Canal. There resistance stiffened.
Attacker: German (Assault Group Krüger, 1. Panzer Division)
Defender: British (1st Searchlight Regiment)  
6 turns
    Players: 2     OBA: None     Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:7.5 D:6.5
AFVs: A:6
PzKpfw IIA x 2
PzKpfw IIF
PzKpfw IVD
SPW 251/1 x 2

AFVs: D:2
A13 Mk I x 2

Guns: A:0 D:0
Boys ATR x 3

Victory Conditions:

Exit VP: Building Control VC: Area Control VC:
Unit Based VC: LOS Style VC: CVP Cap:
Misc Rules: Hex 23M5 contains Lvl 2 Steeple
Overlays: NONE
Errata (source)
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Scenario info

Last Played:
DateReporterOpponentBal.ResultTimeComments
2017-11-05(D) X von Marwitz vs John Tait British winJohn Tait is a very nice guy, so I was happy to play the last round of the tournament with him. He is also often among those that stay up the longest. So both of us might have had between 3.5 to 4 hours of sleep before setting ourselves to the gaming table again.

We selected ESG#107 'Put Out the Searchlights' with John playing the attacking Germans and me the defending British. Objective for the Germans is to accumulate more VP than the British which can be done by the capture of buildings and the sole bridge. The British have the option to forfeit one or two of their tank reinforcements and receiving 3VP in turn for each. The Germans have to watch out for not exceeding a CVP cap that would roughly correspond to three AFV and some infantry.

The German AFV are thin skinned PzIIA's and two SPW 251/1's, a PzIIF and a PzIVD entering in turn 4. The British tanks are two A13 Mk 1's. The German infantry is 2/3 of 1st line and 1/3 of Elite quality. The British have only 2nd Line infantry but are equipped with 3x ATR and 3x LMG that can be a danger to the thin skinned German AFV.

My plan was to look strong on the British right to lure the German into attacking through the right. The British right offers a more covered approach, however I had sealed off the only opening in the south of the wall surrounding the area with a roadblock thus closing that way for the ht's. If the German would select this way of attack, my hope was that he would be losing time because it would entail attacking through the entire village on the far side of the canal. My British would put up a fighting withdrawal to hole up in the two largest multi-hex buildings that would be not easy to clear out quickly and to hold the bridge.

The Germans did opt for the attack vs. the British left flank as I had hoped. Thus the fighting withdrawal begun. It worked out quite well and I managed to move in a way that allowed my units to avoid most of the German FP in the British turns while threatening hexes the Germans would have to move through during their turns. Determining that my infantry alone would be in too tight a spot without armor support, I brought on both A13 Mk I's with the intention to inhibit the movement of the German AFVs and to take advantage of the 6FP CMGs vs. German infantry while being invulnerable to small arms.

During the battle I was able to inflict more losses on the Germans than I took, so the CVP cap of the Germans was getting into reach while at the same time he would need to take more risks to close in to capture enough buildings. Managing that without exceeding his CVP cap seemed extremely unlikely, so the Germans conceded. British victory and my win.
2017-09-22(A) X von Marwitz vs Alex Koestler British winIn this second playing, I HAD read the VC correctly... I played the German attacker, who has no time to lose in this scenario. The tricky part in this is, that if the German moves very aggressively to save time, he will put his rather thin skinned vehicles at risk to the many - if not very hard hitting - SW anti-tank resources of the defending British. This is a problem in so far the German has to keep in mind a CVP cap that can will result in a British win if the German loses to many units. Alas, my attack did not go off well. One stack was hit by a sneaky ATR 1FP -2DRM shot. Everybody broke and the leader did not recover for 2.5 turns. Then the MA of two of my three PzII's malfunctioned before Turn 2. This was of course an open invitation to the British to bring on his tanks, who managed to despatch the declawed German counterparts. At least, one or two crews got out to cut a bit on the CVP inflicted on the Germans. Due to these occurences, the fight was pretty much uphill for the Germans from the start. I did manage to eventually take out both British tanks by MGs, to force the British to recapture one bulding on the 'quiet' part of the front, and to snatch another one by a sneaky move. As I also managed to capture the bridge, VP (not to be confused with CVP) were 5 vs. 5 @18 CVP during British Turn 6. Alas, a broken German HS and broken Leader were stuck in a hex from which they could not rout further. By moving ADJACENT in the British MPh and my being unable to break the British in that move, these German units would be forced to surrender at the start of the Rally Phase, pushing up the CVP cap of the Germans beyond the limit for a British win. Interesting scenario with many options to consider, especially for the British.
2017-07-13(D) X von Marwitz vs Michael Koch German winWhat was the ASL wisdom that everbody knows and yet everbody doesn't act upon now and then? Read the Victory Conditions carefully! Doh! I overlooked the part that "Each controlled multi-hex building *WEST* of the canal is worth 1 VP". Factoring in the two multi-hex buildings EAST of the canal, too, my plan was to forfeit both tanks, set the roadblock up to block the bridge and have the Germans take one building on the EAST side of the canal where the British would build a castle with no units west of the canal. Conceding the village west of the canal and given the superior firepower of the Germans, it was no problem for him to advance a unit onto the bridge and to force a British attempt to get it back while securing the approaches with overwhelming firepower. So easy German win in this one. Apart from this screw-up, it might be an interesting scenario. The 'tank-forfeiture' & blocking the bridge option could conceivably still work, but of course The British would have to defend west of the canal in force. If I played it again, probably, I would not select this option, though.
2013-10-12(A) nathan wegener vs Davin M German winA blast to play - variable VC based on British OB choice. Germans are pressured to take the village and not lose too many thin skin armored units. ASLOK 2013
(A) Jim Thompson vs Erwin Langlois German win[Imported from ROAR]
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ActionDate
Hutch Modified the Defender's Guns2024-07-06 09:21:15
Hutch Modified the unit counts2024-07-06 09:21:15
Turuk Uploaded a VASL file2024-07-05 15:38:29
hoxson1 Modified the overview2019-10-07 14:18:13
hoxson1 Set the designer field2019-03-11 18:07:06
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Statistics:
Avg Rating: 7.20Votes: 5
Views: 4673
To-Play list count: 0
Estimated Play time: 3.8 hours
Recorded Games: 5
Archive recorded plays:
German3
British2
Drawn:0

ROAR Data: (as of today)
Put Out the Searchlights
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[A] British 8
[D] German 3
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