Again, no apologies will be made for the pun.
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| Game 1 ends, for details read below! |
I started my summer hols on Saturday with a CoC wargaming weekend with Suzanne, where we finished our last game and had time for another, both of which are recorded here. I never take that many photos when playing, I get too caught up in the excitement.
We left off last time at an exciting juncture,with my platoon sergeant holed up in the woods on his last command initiative accompanied by the remains of first section and the rest of the men sitting tight in a field after a very successful round of hand-to-hand combat. The Germans were down to two effective squads, with one boldly leaving cover to get into a close range firefight and the other working their way around the hill near the British Jump Off Point.
We left off last time at an exciting juncture,with my platoon sergeant holed up in the woods on his last command initiative accompanied by the remains of first section and the rest of the men sitting tight in a field after a very successful round of hand-to-hand combat. The Germans were down to two effective squads, with one boldly leaving cover to get into a close range firefight and the other working their way around the hill near the British Jump Off Point.
After we re-created the battlefield on Suzanne's dining room table I was looking forward to the first phase of resumption of play. I placed my lieutenant into the woods to manage the shock on first section and sent the rifle team who had crossed the hedge during combat (it seems a bit silly for them to warp through a massive hedge, I might leave defending infantry in place next time...) to chase down the remnants of the German section in the ruins.
The results were less than spectacular. The rifle team took ineffective pot-shots at two men in hard cover (should have just thrown grenades, argh!) while the Germans, approaching over the hill to get line of sight for a firefight, blundered into 4" (compoulsory melee range) of my lads in the woods. The resulting flurry of dice lost me the section two senior leaders and one junior leader killed or captured. Suffice to say, the impact of so many 'bad things happen' tests on my morale was terminal and Suzanne won the day.
The logical next step was an attack-defence game with victorious Suzanne as the attacker. This meant choosing support from the various lists available, with the attacker getting more to counter the difficulty inherent in the attack. Suzanne chose a recon half-track (represented by a Panther due to lack of models) with scout team, while I took enough trenches for a whole section. Then we kicked things off. An early coup in the patrol phase was unnerving Suzanne with my cunning leap-frogging of patrol markers on to each other, and got two jump off points in mutually supporting positions in the woods and along the road.
Like most chain of command games, things started off slowly, with a single German squad advancing through the wood towards the road. I chose not to respond to this immediately, and was rewarded for my patience when the German no.2 squad deployed in the open at their table-edge jump-off point. Taking the risk of the exposed flank down the road, I deployed a section to the hedgerow and loosed a withering hail of fire, knocking out the corporal and leaving the remaining men no choice but to scurry into the cover of the bocage.
I knew the Germans would try to fire down the road to savage my first section, but what I wasn't prepared for was three consecutive German phases (with good dice one can take extra turns in Chain of Comand) which allowed the first German squad to catch me in the open and pin my section, but fortunately with few casualties. This was something of a crisis point, as I stood to lose a section here and the Germans caught in the open still had enough men to keep the dreaded spandau firing at maximum effect. Being British, my solution was naturally smoke. The 2" mortar fired long, but the second section's corporal hefted a smoke grenade onto the road, allowing me to deploy the platoon sergeant in relative safety to start pulling first section together.
By now, Suzanne had accumulated enough CoC points to end the turn, which removed my smoke and restore her corporal to consciousness. I decided the only thing to do was to deploy my final section in trenches to try to drive off the flanking Germans with fire. Suzanne's response, despite the bloody nose this had earned her in the last game, was to charge my dug-in full-strength section in the front, which had the same predictable consequence and caused a series of "bad-things-happen" tests which dropped German force morale to 3.
By this point I had rallied enough shock from first section to be able to end the turn and un-pin them, and with the aid of two sub-machine guns from the corporal and platoon sergeant, was able to deliver enough fire to the German second squad to rout them and destroy German morale before the half-track got in range or the 3rd squad managed to make a serious attempt at winkling my troops out of their entrenchments. A glorious victory!
So, all in all, honours even, participation awards all round. We had a good discussion after the game about the merits of our strategies. I think the risk I took in deploying my first section along the road was worth taking, although I did regret not putting them in the entrenchments. On the other hand, having the third section in hard cover was vital in their completely seeing-off of the ill-advised German assault*. The second section may well have been in the wrong place, as their overwatch fire to cover the first section was completely ineffectual, and aside from providing a smoke grenade, they made absolutely no contribution to the game. Perhaps I should have kept them back as a second line in the entrechments in front of the farmhouses?
On the German side, I think that deploying in the open was probably a mistake. The second squad would have performed better on the other flank, working their way through cover to set up an attack on the farmhouse I think. The half-track didn't see as much action as it deserved. In my head I imagine it leading the charge and being the centre of the base-of-fire for the attack on British positions, but that would have made it vulnerable to PIAT attack. Ho hum. Done some more wargaming this week, will hopefully post the results sooner rather than later. Until then!
*For all her righteous indignation about my sang-froid in the face of casualties, Suzanne is still very willing to throw away the lives of her little men in suicidal charges.
The results were less than spectacular. The rifle team took ineffective pot-shots at two men in hard cover (should have just thrown grenades, argh!) while the Germans, approaching over the hill to get line of sight for a firefight, blundered into 4" (compoulsory melee range) of my lads in the woods. The resulting flurry of dice lost me the section two senior leaders and one junior leader killed or captured. Suffice to say, the impact of so many 'bad things happen' tests on my morale was terminal and Suzanne won the day.
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| The table set-up for "attack on an objective", this being the farmhouse on the left. The large circles are patrol markers, which determine the placement of the jump-off points (smaller circles) from which troops deploy. |
Like most chain of command games, things started off slowly, with a single German squad advancing through the wood towards the road. I chose not to respond to this immediately, and was rewarded for my patience when the German no.2 squad deployed in the open at their table-edge jump-off point. Taking the risk of the exposed flank down the road, I deployed a section to the hedgerow and loosed a withering hail of fire, knocking out the corporal and leaving the remaining men no choice but to scurry into the cover of the bocage.
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| The attack develops. The German second squad are recovering behind the hedges after being caught in the open by my first section (on the road) who have been caught on the flank by the first German squad and pinned. The third German squad will be making a push from the hill in the background. |
I knew the Germans would try to fire down the road to savage my first section, but what I wasn't prepared for was three consecutive German phases (with good dice one can take extra turns in Chain of Comand) which allowed the first German squad to catch me in the open and pin my section, but fortunately with few casualties. This was something of a crisis point, as I stood to lose a section here and the Germans caught in the open still had enough men to keep the dreaded spandau firing at maximum effect. Being British, my solution was naturally smoke. The 2" mortar fired long, but the second section's corporal hefted a smoke grenade onto the road, allowing me to deploy the platoon sergeant in relative safety to start pulling first section together.
By now, Suzanne had accumulated enough CoC points to end the turn, which removed my smoke and restore her corporal to consciousness. I decided the only thing to do was to deploy my final section in trenches to try to drive off the flanking Germans with fire. Suzanne's response, despite the bloody nose this had earned her in the last game, was to charge my dug-in full-strength section in the front, which had the same predictable consequence and caused a series of "bad-things-happen" tests which dropped German force morale to 3.
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| With their first squad cut down in close combat, the Germans are restarting their attack with squads on the left and right and recon half-track down the centre. Morale in dangerously low however... |
By this point I had rallied enough shock from first section to be able to end the turn and un-pin them, and with the aid of two sub-machine guns from the corporal and platoon sergeant, was able to deliver enough fire to the German second squad to rout them and destroy German morale before the half-track got in range or the 3rd squad managed to make a serious attempt at winkling my troops out of their entrenchments. A glorious victory!
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| The second German section are driven off with tails between their legs and the attack is called off. Huzzah! |
So, all in all, honours even, participation awards all round. We had a good discussion after the game about the merits of our strategies. I think the risk I took in deploying my first section along the road was worth taking, although I did regret not putting them in the entrenchments. On the other hand, having the third section in hard cover was vital in their completely seeing-off of the ill-advised German assault*. The second section may well have been in the wrong place, as their overwatch fire to cover the first section was completely ineffectual, and aside from providing a smoke grenade, they made absolutely no contribution to the game. Perhaps I should have kept them back as a second line in the entrechments in front of the farmhouses?
On the German side, I think that deploying in the open was probably a mistake. The second squad would have performed better on the other flank, working their way through cover to set up an attack on the farmhouse I think. The half-track didn't see as much action as it deserved. In my head I imagine it leading the charge and being the centre of the base-of-fire for the attack on British positions, but that would have made it vulnerable to PIAT attack. Ho hum. Done some more wargaming this week, will hopefully post the results sooner rather than later. Until then!
*For all her righteous indignation about my sang-froid in the face of casualties, Suzanne is still very willing to throw away the lives of her little men in suicidal charges.
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