CoC - The Probe, part five

It was now clear that the battle would be won by manoeuvre.  The Germans were ahead in force morale terms and had two Chain of Command dice they could potentially use to avoid Force Morale tests.  On the other hand the right flank German squad was very weak and at least one German jumping off point was in danger of capture.

The British commander decided to launch forward his left flank and centre sections. One would bypass the German right whilst the other would finish off the weakened German section (to which was attached the German platoon commander).  

In fact the Germans fell back before the British advance, the right hand section falling back into reserve behind the dug in central section. Of the two British squads pursuing, the left-most, with the platoon commander, moved forward and left parallel with the Kartenspielerweg.  The other moved towards the crossroads and an inevitable confrontation with the dug in Germans there.   

Needing to cover the table with just two sections, the German commander now split his dug-in section.  The MG team moved right to try and prevent the British crossing side-lane.  However the British, at this point, scored three consecutive activations and even spending a Chain of Commend die to interrupt the British move wasn't able to prevent the British CO getting his men into the triangle of ground in the far left corner of the table.

At this point, disaster very nearly struck for the British.  Their central section, launched forward to overrun the isolated German LMG team at the cross-roads, threw an agonisingly small number on their movement dice.  

The Germans then got two consecutive phases and the rifle team from the formerly-dug-in section hit them from the rear and wiped them out to a man.  It helped considerably that this German squad was mostly equipped with SMGs.  The loss of this whole section took the British down to Force Morale four and reduced them to rolling four command dice.

The four dice were enough, however, to allow the bloody remnants of the British section to exit the table running down the Kartenspielerweg for the narrowest of victories.

Talk on the Lardies Forum is of how games played within the context of campaigns using the At The Sharp End supplement are less likely to end in bloody fights to the last man.  I suspect this was the kind of bloody fight to the last man they had in mind.  the British had lost 26 men and the Germans 17.  The German Force Morale was 6 and the British 4.

I now feel that I have a reasonable feel for the rules and will offer them shortly at a Saturday afternoon session.