Somewhere in Germany

A few weeks back I met up with old gaming mate Graham for the first time in ages. In the course of wide-ranging conversation I managed to persuade Graham that he owed it to himself, as a lapsed WW2 skirmish gamer, to try Chain of Command. And yesterday we did.

I set up a small (3'x4') but densely covered table using most of my mid-twentieth century European buildings.

We played scenario one - The Patrol. It's not my favourite CoC scenario but it's probably the best suited to a new player.  I took the Soviets because I thought Graham would find the Germans the easier force to use.  If all else fails just find a good position and rely on your MG42s!

After the patrol phase we ended up with Jump Off Points thus...

Red stars for the Soviets, black/red circles for the Germans

The isolated Soviet JOP in the foreground and the two German ones clustered together would prove crucial later on.

Graham had two points of support but rather than delay the start while he chose what to take, I'd allocated him the adjutant and a medical orderly before the game.  With five points to spend I took the elite scout squad.

Unfortunately, I was so busy explaining the rules that I forgot to take photos until more than halfway through the game.

I strongly advised Graham that putting his troops on the table as early as possible wasn't necessarily the best policy but he was keen to get things on so he could try the rules so he soon ended up with all his forces on table, garrisoning the two big buildings either side of the main square.  I pushed my scout squad into the cellar of the fairly intact building nearest the goods shed.  This put the almost completely demolished building (it has an intact cellar) between our two forces.

The third building facing the square is 'The Important Building' (of considerable Andreivian fame).  Graham rushed forward an infantry rifle team to try and take it.  As he reached the front door I got a rifle squad into the rear yard.  I then spent a Chain of Command die to interrupt Graham's turn and rush my chaps in via the back doors.

This put up within 4"of each other so a close combat happened.  With neither side established in the building I didn't count the Soviets as defending hard cover but even so they were able to rout the German across the square and off the board.

I set about defending the building and eventually pushed another squad into the yard at the rear.  This model doesn't allow access to the interior; the figures on the roof are actually on the ground floor.

Graham had two squads and his platoon commander in the double building below.  To the right you can see the almost-completely-demolished-building.  After a couple of phases I decided to advance my scouts into its cellar.

At this point it looked like the action was bogging down into a static shooting match. Although I was ahead on points (Graham was down to about 6 on force morale whilst I was still on 10) I knew I couldn't win that way.  I needed to manoeuvre.

I finally deployed my last remaining squad, with my platoon commander, in the goods yard on my right flank.

They began to double forward, the squad leader and the platoon commander rallying off shock points as they went.

Simultaneously (but unphotographed) the elite scouts launched a close assault on the cellar of the double building, Graham's main position, wiping out the rifle team defending it.

Despite some dodgy movement dice and some incoming fire, the third squad completed its end-run and managed to capture both of Graham's left flank JOPs. This left me in possession of the entire ground floor of Graham's key position.

At this point we had to call the game as it was five o'clock.  If the current turn was to end anytime soon Graham was likely to lose more force morale as a result of the lost JOPs so we were comfortable calling it a Soviet victory.

We both enjoyed the game and Graham's keen to play again so I call that a success!