Back to the Russian Front - a Chain of Command AAR

Yesterday at the club, Brian and I continued our occasional series of 15mm games of Chain of Command with another game between my Germans and his Soviets somewhere on the Eastern Front. The scenario chosen was Flank Attack (Scenario Five in the rulebook).

I was the attacker and Brian was therefore the defender. This scenario gave me 2D6 of support points and I was pleased when I rolled 9. This gave me a lot of options but I really liked the idea of an extra squad of infantry, and for five points I could have a squad of regular Panzergrenadiers with a Junior Leader, which meant two teams with MG42s. Impossible to resist! That left we with four points, which meant that I'd be taking along a FOO for an off-table 8cm mortar battery.

I wouldn't know what Brian had as support, but his -3 force rating did give him seven points.

Anyway, on with the battle. Brian's deployment zone was inside this village clustered around a road junction.

I was able to move my Patrol Markers from the opposite table edge to the village, and also from my left-hand side edge.

Brian clustered his Jump-Off Points in the centre of the village. I realised that to win I'd have to get his troops out of the buildings. Hopefully the 8cm mortars would help with that.

My JoPs were in the rolling wooded country. This, I hoped would allow my troops to get close without being shot at, assuming they could actually deploy, because the Soviet "Wrath of the gods" was remarkably efficient at stopping me get anything on the table. I fixed that as soon as I had a CoC dice, which I used to end the turn. After that, I quickly got my squads moving.

It didn't take long to find out what Brian's support choices were; a minefield, which was placed to his right-hard end of the village and a KV-1 tank. Luckily, I had a Panzerschreck team in my platoon HQ, plus a Panzerfaust in each of my three regular squads. I hoped that would be enough to take on the beast, if required.

I had a squad on my left moving tactically through the rough ground, which offered light cover.

I had the Panzergrenadier squad on my right. I wanted to get them into a position where they were threatening the Soviet right flank. Unhappily, the were spotted by the KV-1 on overwatch and a round of HE caused some shock.

I'd have to do something about that tank. Luckily, my FOO managed to call down some mortar fire, which only shocked the Soviets in the church, but it did cause the tank commander to pull back from his position in the village. Unhappily, Brian played a CoC dice, which ended the turn and canceled the barrage.

Elsewhere , I moved my left-hand squad quickly through the rough, but they took fire from a Soviet squad in one of the houses, which cause casualties and shock. Not good. However, they had already inflicted some shock and casualties on the squad firing at them, so it wasn't a disaster.

Rashly perhaps, I sent another squad running across the open ground towards the house full of Bolsheviks, which also contained the Senior Leader and once they were within 4" engaged them in some hand-to-hand combat. This proved to be extremely bloody, virtually wiping out my squad and sending them back whence they had come. However, despite winning the combat in terms of kills, the Russians were wiped out, apart from one man and the Junior and Senior leaders, who were both wounded and had more shock that figures, forcing them to flee the field. Russian Force Morale absolutely plummeted from this one combat.

You can see the decimated squad on the left of this picture, with the red Pinned marker. My FOO was able to eventually call in more mortar fire, this time calling in a ranging shot, the puffs of smoke showing where the barrage would fall on the battery's next activation. In the meanwhile, Brian sent the squad in the church out across the road and into hand-to-hand combat with my central squad, hiding behind the house opposite.

This was another nasty combat, but worse for Brian, who lost the fight and ended up with a wounded JL. His force morale was now down to a precarious One. Unluckily for him, the FOO called in the barrage and as a result the JL was killed and his morale was down to Zero. 

So, a pretty convincing victory for the Germans, without the Panzergrenadiers ever getting to pour MG42 fire into the Soviets (they spent most of the game lurking in a coppice on my right flank) and the battle being decided predominantly by mortar fire and two bouts of hand-to-hand combat, rather than shooting.

I think that it was helpful to have four squads available, because it allowed me to threat both of the Russian flanks while also being able to push forward in the centre, which is where the decisive action took place.