Sunday Steffen and I had a full day to play and we decided to play a truly Big Chain of Command game with 4 platoons on each side. Steffen played the Americans and I played the Germans. Steffen had made a scenario based on the Normandy campaign. With the help of Google Maps he found a place which we recreated on the table.
Steffen's scenario:
Northern France, west of Saint Lo on the road towards Periers. The strategic focus point is a few scattered buildings around a crossroad. The scenario will be a mix between the Going with a Bang Scenario from the 1940 Blitzkrieg book and the Attack on an Objective scenario from the main rulebook.
Steffen had forces from the 30th infantry division and armoured support from 3rd armoured division. I had forces from the 352 infantry division and armoured support from the Panzer Lehr division.
Each player have 3 infantry platoons and one armoured platoon. 2 of the infantry platoons can enter play from the start, and one of the senior leaders from these platoons is a ranking leader, who can use all his command points to call for reinforcements. If he does so the remaining infantry platoon and armoured platoon can enter play from the next turn.
The table and jump-off points. The 2 starting infantry platoons have 2 jump-off points each. The Germans had to demolish 2 buildings and the crossroad. (The US used Russian jump-off markers)
One of the American platoons had to enter the battlefield from the jump-off points at the edge. One squad came under heavy fire as soon as it entered the field. The US forces responded fire with Bofors gun.
The other American platoon had jump-off points further up the field and began an attack in the tree-line, while the Germans tried to setup defensive positions.
A German squad had taken position in the house at the crossroads and fired on the Americans across the field. At the bottom of the picture a demolishing team is preparing to set charges on the other building.
The Americans take heavy fire and their advance is completely halted.
The Americans call in mortar fire on the crossroads.
The American ranking senior leader has managed to call in reinforcements and a Sherman 105 is the first tank unit to heed the call.
The Germans respond quickly with a Pak 38. Although hitting the US tanks repeatedly it was unable to knock out any tanks during the battle.
Heavy fighting in the tree-line. The German platoon tasked with holding the tree-line has taken heavy casualties and the Americans keep on coming.
The Germans setup another defensive line on their left flank but come under sustained fire from the Americans, who now has another Sherman 105 on the field (seen at the top of the table).
After some delay the German ranking senior leader finally gets some reinforcements to help their defense. A SdKfz 222 recons forward and realizes that more help is needed.
The American advance through the tree-line has been halted after heavy casualtis but more troops are advancing forward.
Random event! Suddenly unknown mortar fire hits the area around the tree-line, preventing the Americans from pushing on their attack.
The German counterattack is stopped. One pzIV is destroyed at the crossroads and the remaining two panzers take heavy fire.
More US tanks and troops have arrived on the field and the Germans losses are mounting. Soon after morale breaks in the two of the infantry platoons and the armoured platoon, and the Germans flee. The Americans have won a great victory.
This was a truly big and epic game of Chain of Command. Although the end result never really seemed in doubt it was still a great game. The Germans just couldn't kill any of the tanks, despite several hits. I also made a great tactical error when I placed one of the jump-off points to far forward in the tree-line on the right flank. Steffen played a good game and just kept on pressing forward, despite some initial losses to his infantry.
Steffen and I don't get to play as often as we would both like to, so it's great to play Big Chain of Command when we do. That way we get to put a lot more troops on the table. We actually had time to play a regular game as well, and once again the Germans were severely beaten. Thankfully there are no photographic evidence of this battle.
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