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.
I agree with your mods on the scenario especially using a COC die to deploy the engineers. How about turning the map 90 degrees and attacking/defending the 4' side?
ReplyDeleteI played it from the 6' edges to get the action moving faster. Playing it in depth would help whoever might have armour or off-table indirect fire assets, though. It is definitely a scenario worth playing again.
ReplyDeleteNice AAR. Sounds like a tough scenario for the Brits.
ReplyDelete