Suomussalmi

 

Myself and Curt from Analogue Hobbies got together last Friday for a Virtual Wargaming session. This was much anticipated by myself as I had not seen Curt in person for, I believe, around 5 years, and I was looking forward to catching up. 

As Curt has quite an active blog, I have a sense of what he is playing or not and although I suspect he has played a lot of Chain of Command, I felt he had not played for awhile. I also wanted to test how a 4 Command Dice platoon would fend with a 5+1 Command Dice platoon. Of course, I am talking about the Winter War between the Finland and the Soviet Union in late 1939-to early 1940. There are official lists for this conflict but the forces are quite asymmetric as is the case, especially in the first 5 weeks of the Winter War. So after a lot of back and forth online in Chain of Command internet groups, with Rich Clarke online and person, and Eero Jurhola and other gamers in Finland, I had decided to give a 4 CD Soviet force a go. 

I had written 4 of 6 planned scenarios for my planned semi-historical Raate Road CoC campaign. For my game with Curt, I wrote a 5th scenario detailing the initial attack of the Soviets on the village of Suomussalmi in the first week of December, 1939. At this point of the war, the Finns had only 1 battalion in the whole sector. The Soviets had invaded with a complete Rifle Division.

Forces

Finland (FM 10)

SLx2

LMG Squad x2

Rifle Squad x2

Demolition Squad

Supports

Demolition Squad

Captured DP-28

Entrenchment

Soviet Union (FM9)

SL x2

Rifle Squads x3

NKVD Squad

Supports

Wrath of the gods

Sniper

Flamethrower Team

As seen in the description, we used the Going with a Bang scenario from the CoC Blitzkrieg source book. I would of liked to have designed some specific demolition rules where the Finns use petrol bombs to destroy the 2 buildings but I just did not have the time (I played 4 CoC games last week). I went with the basic rules from the Blitzkrieg book. On to some photos. 

Very Aggressive Patrol Phase by the Finns. They put all their JOP's in the middle of the table while the Soviets put one on each of their 3 edges.

I did not do a great job of taking organised photos, but essentially the Finns had to torch one large building by their base line and one small building in the middle of the table. Curt placed almost all his men down quickly aside from his 2nd demo team and his 4th rifle squad. I started the Soviets off the north edge by placing the NKVD squad with the flame thrower team. They were to advance around the hill to assault the house just short of the hill. 

The Finns quickly started to set their demands charge by the small house, they had the charge set quickly but were limited by the fact that they needed a CoC dice to set it off. They also placed 2 LMG squads as well as their MMG team along the hedge line to the south. I was able to get another rifle squad advanced up to the forest in the centre of the table with a double phase (yes you can get double phases with 4CD). By now Curt had a CoC dice and was able to blow the small house, 1/3 of the way to victory. 

By now we were trading shots from my troops in the forest as well as from the 3rd squad I placed on the eastern edge of the table. Curt had placed his 3rd infantry squad behind the house to the north of the road, I advanced my NKVD and my Flamethrower team to the forest edge, they took some fir but were good. The Flame team let go and took out a few Finns, The NKVD then assaulted the Finns that were left behind the fence and by their SMG superiority they able to wipe out the Finns, but took significant attrition themselves. Both sides FM was dropping.

Curt now realised that he should of put one of his JOP's to the rear of his line as he had to run the 2nd demo team back to get to the 2nd house (this is the only mistake he made), they got stuck so his valiant 2IC ran down the road to get them to run and to remove some shock, he was successful but got shot in the leg and fell to the road. 

The Finns now deployed their last infantry squad directly into combat with the remaining NKVD troops in the open, the Soviets got wiped out. At the same time the 2nd Finnish demo team had set their charge and rand back, the plunger was pushed......and the fuse failed. They had to go back to the house and reset the charge!

Both sides FM was now teetering near the brink, the Finns had 4 CD while the Soviets had 2. The Finns quickly reset the charge, they had a CoC dice....kaboom game over!

It was great to see Curt again and get in a game. But it was back and forth for sure. A well earned Finnish victory, it was closer than I though it would be. I still have to think about how to rate the Soviets, but the Finns as regular with a red dice seems to be good. Should I add a red dice to the Soviets, is it OK to treat them as regular in combat? Giving them a -2 on FM throw could be crippling. But the scenario it self was good and I am hoping Curt had fun, I sure we will meet again virtually soon.

April 9th Campaign-Game 2

We got together this past Tuesday for game 2 in the April 9th campaign. 

This was going to be a tough one for the Danish team as we were down 11 men, almost 1 1/2 squads. As SL I decided to re-organize my troops into 3 squads only, 2 full squads of comprised of a JL with a LMG team as well as a 5 man rifle team. Squad 3 was a JL and 2 LMG teams of 2 men each. My firepower was a little more than half of what the German firepower would be. I took a MO and Adjutant, knowing that I would have to field my SL's early and I would have to have the ability to patch them up.

The Germans were just down 2 men, I am not sure what their support was but I suspect it was an adjutant.

We played the Patrol Phase the day before and the result was as below, the red being the Germans. I should note that we were playing the Patrol scenario, something I have not done often. Petri, the German SL started at red arrow 1, while Danes started at blue arrow 1. 

It is interesting because I suspect our plans were quite different, the Germans clearly want to advance rapidly forward as you can see. I really wanted to set up a small defensive perimeter on my base, thus I moved laterally with my Patrol Markers. The forest was light with an 18" LOS so I preferred to defend the clearings rather than the forests. I was quite happy where I ended up as I was ready to sacrifice my JOP in the small forest, but wanted it there in case I could get an opportunity to Ambush.

As it was the Germans had a FM of 11 while the Danes had a FM of 10 so they got too move first. They rapidly deployed all 4 of their squads and advanced to the north and to the east. I set up 2 squads in alpha/beta 5 quadrants, and did put 1 squad behind the small forest in alpha 3. This was almost a catastrophe but JL #1, Alessandro pulled off a great escape cycling rapidly untoward the woods in alpha 4 and then dismounting and moving tactically. The Danes were quite lucky with their CD throws, getting an early triple 6, thus removing the advantage that the Germans had with their rapid deployment on overwatch. Danish JL #2 Lagen was able to manoeuvre himself into a clever firing position where the Germans in Charlie/Beta 3 on overwatch were out of LOS but was able to fire on a German squad that had exposed themselves in Beta 3. There was also another German squad exposed in alpha 2, who both my JL's were able to fire on.

The Germans started to take casualties, not a lot; but their SL Petri felt their position was untenable and decided to withdraw before they suffered further damage. This was a one-off table, so on to table 3. A Danish Victory.

A few screen captures.

You can find an excellent report with great photos written up by Eero on the Wargamer's Forum.

Holzthum Village 2nd Assault Fails-Bloody Bucket (6b/9)

Another game in our campaign last evening, this was a Blitzkrieg from table 2 to table 3. In a Blitzkrieg you take the troops that have survived the last battle and you immediately attack the next table. There is no post battle campaign process. As you can see from below I was missing 2 full squads. The American were missing 15 men from the last battle.

Sturm Platoon #5

CD 5 Green FM 9

1 SL
3 man rifle grenadier team

1 Sturm Squad w/JL

1 Sturm Squad w/JL
1 LMG Squad w/JL 

Supports

Sniper x 2

Pregame Barrage

le. IG18 x 2 (but missing 5 crewman)

LMG squad

SL

Adjutant

Medic

American Rifle Platoon (missing 15 men)

CD 5 Regular FM 10

2 SL's w/ Bazooka Team

3 Rifle Squads w/JL

Supports (?)

2 Minefields

2 Barbwire

Entrenchment

0.3cal MMG team

Mortar Team

Bofors ATG

I am finding it very difficult to get a good patrol phase in any of these games because the Americans have got 2-3 free moves as the defenders as a part of the scenario design. Really can not advance at all before I am shut down. But not much use whining.

So this was somewhat of an unusual game. As you can see above, I had all my units deployed.....on Overwatch before one American unit deployed. Phase after phase went by, no change, I had 4 CoC dice and P-Y had almost 4. I just do not have the patience that P-Y has so on my next double phase, I jumped the LMG behind the centre hedge over and decided to try to move forward towards the road to try to capture one of the houses to use as a base of advance. See below.

The game then got interesting. P-Y decided to ambush with his MMG team into the entrenchment that was on the road. I interrupted him and was able to take out 3 crewman. He fired back, I was in the open, took a few hits, lost a man or 2 and some shock but was still good to go as I was not pinned yet. I opened up with my le IG18 on the road, no effect. The game then entered an extremely aggressive stage on both sides. P-Y deployed a Rifle Squad into charge range but I interrupted again by retreating, I needed only 6" to get behind the house in safety. I rolled a 1,1,2. I was done for, and my squad routed, but they were a support squad so only took 1 FM hit. But by now all Overwatch's were gone and P-Y got a double phase at a critical moment. He was able to wound my SL twice and kill my Rifle Grenadier team, my morale dropped to 3, I withdrew. I actually only lost a 3 core men in this battle as well as a support LMG team, but I had to add in the results of my previous battle as this was a Blitzkrieg.

The Summing Up: Battle 9 /Turn 6

The Americans have now lost 10 core men on Table 3  as well as 4 men from their support infantry teams and 2 men from their Bofors.

Sturm Platoon #4: 9 dead, 6 wounded.

Campaign Tracker

Germans

Men's Opinion -8 (-2FM)

Overall Commander Outlook Secure

Americans

Not tracked

Not looking good, the best FM I can have now is an 8, very unlikely to move first in any further games, CR of SL is 6". I still have the opportunity to attack another Table in Turn 6, it will be table 6 with Sturm Platoon #2.

Black Seas

I had a nice game of Black Seas with Adam a couple of days ago, I had not played for a while. Adam set up the game. I played the Brits and he played the French.

It was a simple scenario, we had 3 ships each and the British goal was to move 2 ships from the southwest corner of the terrain to the northeast corner in 6 turns. Victory could also be obtained if the British were able to take out 2 French ships in 8 turns. All other outcomes would result in a French victory. I am not 100% sure what the Order of Battle was for the French but I suspect it was similar to the British. I had 2 large 3rd rates and one small 3rd rate.

I think we played 7 turns and I have to say I had the most amazing dice, throwing criticals almost every turn. I suspect this was the cause of the British victory rather than my excellent seamanship! We played the game virtually, and it worked well. I believe Adam has hosted several virtual Black Seas games now and he has the process down. I forgot to take photos at the beginning of game but the below snaps sort of illustrate the progress, the Brits are to the left of the photo in the initial shot.

The British were able to destroy 2 French ships, thus achieved victory. I have to say I quite enjoyed the game.

Holzthum Road Taken...Barely: Bloody Bucket (6a/8)

Another game in our Bloody Bucket campaign last night, an attack on table 2 by a fresh Sturm Platoon from Table 1, I decided to go with the Attack and Defend scenario this time rather than the Probe. I had the advantage in supports so a morale victory seemed a better choice.

Sturm Platoon #4

CD 5 Green FM9

1 SL
3 man rifle grenadier team

1 Sturm Squad w/JL

1 Sturm Squad w/JL
1 LMG Squad w/JL 

Supports (24)

Sniper x 2

Pregame Barrage

le. IG18 x 2

LMG squad

SL

?

American Rifle Platoon

CD 5 Regular FM9

2 SL's w/ Bazooka Team

3 Rifle Squads w/JL (less 1 rifleman)

Supports (table2)

Minefield x2

Barbwire x3

Entrenchment x2

0.3cal MMG team

Sniper

We both started with a FM of 9, but Pierre-Yves got the first move when we diced for the tie. The game started off slowly as I got a number of double phases early on so was able to place the 2 Anti-Infantry Guns, 2 snipers, a LMG team, as well as a SL on the table very quickly, all on overwatch. P-Y had the worst dicing I have seen, in respect to Command Dice, he did not get one double phase in the whole game. So at this point it was looking good for the Germans, they had overwhelming supports and a pregame barrage, but as usual my deployment was quite effected by the placement of 2 minefields. I had not taken an engineering team but I really needed my ones for the multiple teams/snipers I had, so this was not a big deal. 

I was able to get the American FM down to 6 by taking out the American 30 cal MMG, but then I had no targets left as the only American unit on the table was a sniper. Some double phases came up and I wanted to make something happen, so I placed a Sturm Squad in the open with the plan to run them towards an empty entrenchment, they moved ahead and got in the entrenchment, looking good. The forward entrenchment was close to an American JOP. I got another double phase, so I advanced out of the entrenchment and was quite close to the JOP but was in the open, it was OK as I could roll again. I then decided to deploy the 2nd Sturm Squad in front of the hedge, with a plan to advance to the entrenchment just vacated.  Two squads in the open but it was going to be OK as I had the next phase. I rolled a 6,4,4,2,2. Sturm Squads do not have teams so, I needed a 1 or 3 to move them!

The Americans put down a Rifle Squad, the Germans were shattered, a 2nd American squad came down the 2nd Sturm unit took multiple hits. Now my FM was 6! What a mess of things I made. I realised after the game that I could of interrupted as I had 2 + CoC dice. The Sturm squads are lethal at close range as they throw 24d6. What a miss!

I was now in a dire situation, but I still had a lot of fire power and I now had targets. Shots were traded back and forth, I was able to weaken the 3 American squads behind the hedge. I killed 2 JL and caused one squad to break.

American FM was dropping, I was able to temperance their fire back with smoke grenades.

P-Y was able to fire back and destroyed one of my IG, my FM was down to 4. I fired back the American FM dropped to 2, P-Y decided to withdraw. 

This should have been a much easier game for me to win, but I got inpatients and as I usually do miss things, like failing to interrupt twice. Unfortunately my plan to Blitzkrieg Table 3 does not look as attractive, but I am still thinking about it. Two full Sturm squads and an IG down makes it a challenge.

April 9th: A Virtual Campaign from Finland

 

I was recently invited by some gamers in Finland to join a Chain of Command campaign based on the German invasion of Denmark in 1940. The campaign itself can be found here. It is based on the Danish film appropriately called April 9th. I can highly recommend the film, I was able to stream it on Amazon.

Tuesdays, is the GeMiGaBok club meeting night, so we gathered this week virtually through Discord for our first game. Somehow or another, I ended up being the Danish SL, which I suspect after our first game will be a very tough task. I was assisted by 2 JL's, Alessandro from Italy and Sabbath, a club member. Opposing us was the German team, headed by Petri, with assistance from Janne and Bill, again all club members. The game was GMed by Eero, with whom I have been communicating with for some years. I have always been interested in the Winter War between the Finns and the Soviets in 1939-40 and he has been an excellent reference for me. I was quite happy, that  I was invited to join the game.

I had not played a full game through Discord before and I was impressed on how well it worked. You can run multiple cameras through the server and at the same time in the text channels roll dice and post still photos of the action. It is also possible to send private messages while the game is ongoing to members of your platoon and the GM. I will be looking at this further for sure. The below photo gives you a sense on how it looks. As you can see there was an overview camera with 2 other cameras, each showing the opposing sides edge, this was followed in the right panel by the avatars of each player, I am the Revenant!

Anyway on to the game, we had played the patrol phase a couple of days before and the starting map with the JOP's is as below. The German approach is marked by the red dot on the road, with the blue circles being the rough position of the German JOP's, while the red circles were the Danish JOP's.

The above game was the Probe scenario from the CoC rulebook, the Germans diced for support and got a 1, I took a Medic and I think the Germans took an adjutant. You can find the Danish Platoon composition in the campaign booklet, but to simply describe things, we both had regular platoons with 4 squads each. The German platoon was a 7th Wave Division platoon from Army Group C as laid out in the CoC Blitzkrieg 1940 sourcebook. The main difference between the platoons was that the Danes have 2 SL's and the Germans one, but the Germans have MG34 LMG (8d6) while the Danes have a Madsen M24 LMG (6d6). The German squads were 10 men, while the Danish squads were 8 men, but the Danes had bicycles! The Danes started with a FM of 9 and the Germans 8.

Rather, then redoing the report here, I will direct you to Eero's superb AR with plenty of photos. Things did not go that well for the Danes, but where there is life there is hope!

Chain of Command Training Game

I held another training game for the WWII ruleset Chain of Command yesterday. We used the same scenario, Approach to Mirfeld, as I had used previously. This time we had 3 players, Alessandro who is based in Italy, Adam here in Massachusetts and Gavin joined us again from Poland. 

All 3 players had their own dice trays and the game went quite smoothly. Alessandro and Adam took the American attackers while Gavin played the German defenders. We played for about 3 hours and it was a clear German victory this time but some nice tactics were exhibited by the Americans including good utilization of Covering Fire. I also learned a new rule yesterday that a Bazooka Team firing HE can only be commanded by a SL (thanks Gavin).

No need to go into the details of the game but here are a few photos. I think this would be a challenging game for the Americans generally but it does demonstrate a lot of basics.

I will be using this game for Virtual Lard 3 on October 3rd, I think I will then put it to bed!