Cambrai, initial attempt at TGFB

As I'm running a kriegsspiel of the 1917 battle of Cambrai, I've pulled out the old (1978) SPI To the Green Fields Beyond and am giving it a run through to see what the forces at work at a level or two lower than the KS are.

First of all, laying out the forces was an eye-opener. I did it row by row on the map (easiest), so it was like watching a very slow printer (or even slower computer monitor or TV) paint a display. British: thin forces holding the front line then...OMG! ...huge forces lumped int he center where the attack is about to begin. Instead of a division holding 5 to 7 hexes of frontage (have to look up to see what the ground scale is), they are crammed on 2 to 3 hexes of front, ready to surge forward with massive tank support.

Then the Germans. Thin...thin...thin. Oh. That's the front! Some reserves. Lots and lots of reinforcements. Yes, this is going to be bad.

I botched the sequence of play right off and had to reset. Each player turn has *two rounds of movement and combat, but combat comes *first*. Bombardment, assault, *then* movement. And then the same over again. Artillery barrages can be drumfire (bombard to destroy units), rolling (support fire giving column shifts to the attacker in assault), direct support (adding combat strength to the attackers), or SOS (giving combat strength to the defenders). First phase I tried doing mostly drumfire and was struck by how much effort had to be devoted to doing any damage. Trenches give good cover from drumfire, so a lot of shells went in for only limited effect. The British then conducted their first assault, which hit the German front line hard. But the Germans managed to hold, badly weakened, almost everywhere.

The second round, I tried mostly rolling barrages with the artillery and that seemed to be more useful, giving at least a column shift in most places. Combined with the column shift the British get the first turn for surprise, this was making more holes.

Then I realised I was using the wrong table; I had tanks in all these attacks, and the British should be using the Mobile Combat Table, not the Standard one. Wow. Same results, but with retreats of 1-2 hexes *in addition* for the defenders. All of a a sudden, the German line blew open, with most of the defenders (since this was the second round of attacks) falling back out of the first main line of trenches. If I had used the correct table in the first round...

Second move, and this time I threw the cavalry divisions up to the north and east. It looked like we might have a hole for them to get through soon, and they needed to be north of Cambrai to count for victory points.

Then it was the end of the British turn and time to check for tank breakdown. About a third of tanks should breakdown and have to limp back to shop areas for repair. Uh huh, well, it was closer to 50%, with all three companies in some stacks bogging down, throwing treads, overheating, or whatever else qualifies for "breakdown".

The German player turn went quickly, with no combat, just a lot of running about trying to restore a real line. I looked at the position of the first-line remnants, the ground right behind them, and decided right off to fall back to the second fortified line. They just weren't going to hold out in the open, not against the combat power the Brits had been throwing around. They would hold the canal line just fine (in fact, due to a quirk of the rules, the British couldn't even attack across most of it, as ZOCs extend across but assault doesn't. British units in the ZOC of a German unit at a bend in the river can't move over an intact bridge inside the curve, as this would require moving from one ZOC directly to another of the same unit, a no-no; the Germans could eventually be pounded out of position with guns, but...) It was painful--one regiment was left as a speed bump for the British, as it couldn't be extracted.

I had to pack up the game (it's a sad fact that there's no room I can leave a game set up with the cats around), but the second turn should have been interesting. Constantly barraging with all guns was costing the British supply, and the first turn immunity for spending supply for infantry attacks would be gone, so attacks would have to be chose more carefully. I think the first turn or two are nasty for the Germans, and it becomes a question of how much damage can the Brits do versus how well can the Germans defend without giving away the shop, while quietly preparing for the counterattack that comes when reinforcements, including trained stormtroopers, arrive.