Blow The Bridge - A CoC AAR

I wrote this scenario to play a game of Chain of Command with Craig at the club last weekend. Although Craig has the CoC rules, he'd never played a game before.

The British are advancing across the relatively flat and open countryside of the Netherlands. Their objective is to capture a bridge over a canal, which will allow armoured units to cross the canal and outflank a strong German defensive line.

The British forces available are;

1 rifle platoon (HQ plus three sections, as per the rulebook)

1 recce section (2 Universal carriers with Bren teams and a junior leader)

1 Wasp flamethrower carrier

The German objective is to defend the bridge for as long as possible, which will allow an engineer section to place charges.

The German forces available are;

1 rifle Zug (HQ plus three sections, as per the rulebook)

1 tripod-mounted MG42

1 4-man engineer section. Their role is to plant charges, not fight. If fired upon, they count as being in light cover. They will active as for a team without a leader or can be activated by the German senior leader.

The Germans also have two lengths of barbed wire, two prepared defensive earthworks and a single minefield. These will be placed after the Patrol Phase.

To win the scenario, the engineer team must be on the bridge to place the charges. Placing a charge takes two actions. Each time the team uses two actions while on the bridge, place one small dice on the bridge to represent a charge. Once four charges are in place, the team must withdraw to safety to blow the charge. The charge can only be blown by first spending a CoC dice. To blow the charge roll 1D6. If the roll is 1 or 2, the charge doesn’t go off. The German player can attempt to blow the charge again using another CoC dice.

The rest of the German troops must prevent the British from;

1) crossing the bridge

or

2) killing the engineer team

In the patrol phase the Germans will use three patrol markers and the British will use four (because they are attacking). The British will also have two free patrol moves before the patrol phase properly commences.

The game will be play across the width of the table. The canal will be down the centre of the table, with the bridge placed in the central third of the table. The canal can only be crossed by using the bridge.

The British will start the patrol phase from either the left corner or the right. (roll 1d6 1-3 left, 4-6 right)

The Germans side of the table will be in three sections left, centre and right To see where the Germans will start the patrol phase roll 1d6 (1-2 left, 3-4 centre, 5-6 right)

The table was laid out as shown below. The canal and bridge were my own pieces. The rest came from the club's stock of scenery and terrain. I am pretty sure that the Dutch-style buildings are by Hovels. Both sets of troops were from my 15mm Peter Pig late war collection.

The Germans would be defending from the side of the canal with the hamlet, with the British attacking from the other side of the canal.  

This shot below shows where the Germans placed the minefield, barbed wire and earthworks once the patrol phase was over. You can see the early deployment by the British player (me).

The carriers start to arrive. 

I deploy more troops. My aim is to secure the canal bank either side of the bridge, where I can enfilade the bridge itself. My plan is to hold the Wasp carrier back and then charge it at the bridge to force the defenders back.

Craig began to deploy the Germans, planning to get troops into the static defences quickly.

Elsewhere the tripod-mounted MG42 starts finding its range and causes shock and casualties on my right-hard infantry section. My plan is not going according to expectations.

The engineers get onto the bridge. I really need to start targeting them, but I am worried about that MG42.

I get a section up into the ruined buildings by the canal. Unhappily, there are defenders just across the water.

I deploy a Bren team from one of the recce carriers. My plan is to clear the German bank here, giving me a chance to shoot at the engineers.

I really need to neutralise the German infantry on my right, who are forcing me to withdraw. The answer is smoke from the 2" mortar.

I open fire on the Germans opposite the bombed-out houses, then hit them with more smoke. Worryingly, the engineers are getting on with the job of rigging their charges on the bridge.

One more activation sees them place the final charge, and I've still not managed to do anything to stop them. Craig has a CoC dice too.

He uses the CoC dice and rolls for the effect of detonating the explosives. With a roar, the bridge blows up. The Germans have won. 

OK, so that was really a pretty quick game. It would make an excellent start to a mini-campaign, but I think that the scenario needs tweaking to make it harder for the defenders. I think that only needing four charges made it too quick and easy. Perhaps it should have been six? Also, I think that once the CoC dice was available, the probability of the bridge blowing was pretty high. Maybe it should have required a 4+ to blow the charges? On reflection, I also think that the engineers should only have been deployed by using a CoC dice, rather than by the SL bringing them onto the table. I am thinking that perhaps they should have come on from the edge of the table in a truck.

Finally, I think I was too cautious. I should have sent the recce carriers hell-for-leather at the bridge to take control of it. Either that, or I should have taken a tank instead of the carriers. I reckon having a tank would have given me the advantage. A Cromwell with the 95mm CS howitzer would have been useful, or maybe just a Churchill IV with a 75mm could have tipped the balance, so long as I kept it out of Panzerschreck and Panzerfaust range.