All American- Turns 6 and 7

For those who would like to know more.

Last week was quite busy, I got in 2 games of Black Seas and the final 2 games of the All American campaign for Chain of Command. We had played 5 games and we were at the last table, the Germans now have 2 chance to win the campaign so I had my back against the wall. We played game 6 Thursday evening and game 7 on Saturday morning (I suppose I have given it away that the Americans won game 6)!

After 5th turn

German Platoon: Unlimited platoons so not tracked

American Platoon 1: 3 dead.
American Platoon 2: 6 dead, 4 wounded (1 SL 6"CR w/2CI) 
American Platoon 3: intact

Campaign Tracker

Germans

Commander's Opinion +3 (+1 Support)

Men's Opinion -1

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Sociable (+1FM)

Americans

Commander's Opinion +5 (+1 Support)

Men's Opinion 0

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Thoughtful

TURN 6

Setup

82nd Airborne 3 Platoon

Core (Regular 5+1)

SLx2 (carbine and SMG)
Bazooka Team

Rifle Squad 1
Rifle Squad 2
60cm Mortar Squad

Supports 4
Bipod LMG Team
1 Entrenchment
Wild Card-Bazooka Forward

Grenadier Platoon

Core (Regular 5)

SL/SMG
Panzerschreck Team 

Squads x 3 (JL/SMG, LMG Team/3Crew, Rifle Team/6 men)
Supports (6) 
Adjutant

FO w/ 8cm OTM

Patrol Markers, P-Y had 6 free moves

JOP's

 

 

This was a very close game, Pierre Yves controlled his advance with the Mortar barrage. He advanced his troops far up the table and my morale started to fall. I was, however, able to bring his morale down to 0 with successive sucessful hits on his leaders thus making it impossible for him to win the game. My FM was 3 at the end of the game. It was a very bloody affair with 17 US dead and 16 Germans dead. As you can see below the post game process did not go well for the Germans.

Post-game Campaign Process

After 6th turn

German Platoon: Unlimited platoons so not tracked

American Platoon 1: 3 dead.
American Platoon 2: 6 dead, 4 wounded (1 SL 6"CR w/2CI) 
American Platoon 3: 9 dead, 4 wounded

Campaign Tracker

Germans

Commander's Opinion 0

Men's Opinion -6 (-2FM, CR 6")

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Secure

Americans

Commander's Opinion +6 (+2 Support)

Men's Opinion 0

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Thoughtful

I made an error in this game forgetting that my paratroopers although regular had some elite characteristics with a +2FM roll, 9" CR, and aggressive in combat. I felt things looked good going into Turn 7, what is it they say about best laid plans!


TURN 7

Setup

82nd Airborne 1 Platoon (FM 11)

Core (Regular 5+1)

SLx2 (carbine and SMG)
Bazooka Team

Rifle Squad 1 (-2 men)
Rifle Squad 2 (-1 man)
60cm Mortar Squad

Supports 6
Bipod LMG Team
2 Entrenchments

Grenadier Platoon (FM 8)

Core (Regular 5)

SL/SMG
Panzerschreck Team 

Squads x 3 (JL/SMG, LMG Team/3Crew, Rifle Team/6 men)
Supports (6) 
Adjutant 
FO w/ 8cm OTM
Wild Card-Panzer Marsch!

Patrol Markers

JOP's, here is where I made a critical mistake. I placed 2 JOP's quite close together. I was concerned about placing a JOP further up my left flank, but I should of realised that the German Mortar barrage would take these immediately out of play. Even worse was placing my right flank JOP more than 9" from the road.

The inevitable barrage

 

Despite having an enormous advantage in FM at the beginning of the game, 2 of my JOP's immediately got locked down, and the Germans rapidily advanced 3 rifle squads up the table with myself having no ability to counter them. I did have some bad dice; I did not accumulate 1 CoC dice in the game, had no double phases and every time I tested for a leader hit, I got a 1. My FM plunged rapidily, I tried to move a squad up the open field and the Germans got a double phase so were able to advance to lose range and destroy the Americans. I should also say that P-Y played a very careful and clever game, I really had no chance. My FM dropped to 1, a German Victory in the campaign.

This was a lot of fun and I suppose the best part was that we were able to finish a 7 turn campaign in 5 months, with me living 350 miles away. Incroyable!

Congratulations to Pierre Yves, his first CoC camapign with a victory and many thank for hosting all 7 games at his home and supplying food and drink for each game.