Chain of Command: Attack and Defend

We had a game of Chain of Command at the Abyss yesterday. It was a one off game, which is always strange to play. Graham has only played one game of Chain of Command in the past but is painting up some 20mm AB Germans and Brits to play the game, he has been researching the ruleset for some time and actually had bought some 28mm figures but after an introductory game at my apartment 3-4 months ago he switch over to 20mm. I believe 20mm is the sweet spot for CoC as you can see what the figures are carrying over 15mm. I would have like to have played in 28mm (my choice for all the other skirmish game I play), but when I saw the size of the vehicles on a 6x4 table, I just felt they were too big. My friend P-Y plays in 28mm but he has a larger table.

As previously noted, the Abyss is a great place but there is very little historical gaming there. We have gathered a lot of interest with our Napoleonic games, and have a handful of dedicated players. Aside from myself and P-Y as far as I know there are no other CoC players here, aside from Graham who is just starting My friend Luis and a few others play Battlegroup which I thought was a pretty good game but CoC will remain my WWII ruleset.

I was joined by Graham and P-Y, so I acted as the games-master with a plan to help Graham. P-Y has played a lot of CoC, but as it turned out Graham needed little help. We did not have a lot of walk by interest, maybe 3-4 people stopped by. I did set up next to a wall which had the only historical war-game figures in the whole place. There were maybe 6-10 boxes of Warlord Games WWII vehicles and figures.

I picked the Attack and Defend scenario from the rulebook, we diced for who would be the Attacker and Defender as well who would play what force. As it ended up Graham played the Attacking Germans while P-Y played the Defending Canadiens. The table is below.

The Germans are attacking from the right, while the Canadiens are defending from the left. 

For the defenders, I made a strong point with two houses enclosed in a stone wall, hard cover as well as a medium obstacle. The forest patches were dense, while the low hedges were soft cover and a minor obstacle. The fields were decoration, all house were hard cover. 

The Patrol Phase

As you can see the flank was completely turned by the Defenders with them  controlling their right side of the table, with attackers pushed to their left flank. I felt there was one tricky bit though and that was the isolated Canadien JOP in the small forest.

The Forces

Canadiens

Standard British 1944 rifle platoon

Sniper

Germans

Standard German Rifle Platoon

Pregame Barrage

IG 18

The Game

So we started the game, and I have to say for the first several and I mean several, Graham had the most incredible luck with multiple double phases with associated excellent Command Dice. As usual I forgot to take photos, but here are 3.

Because of the multiple attacker double phases, the Germans were able to capture the  isolated JOP. They split off one of their LMG teams. The Canadiens were slow to respond because of the Pregame Barrage so really had no way to defend. By now the Germans had another squad on the table as well as their IG. All the Canadiens had on the table  was their 2" Mortar which really did a good job of taking out the IG team. 

The Germans ended the turn capturing the JOP forcing the first morale loss. But now the PGB was over . Because of the threat to the strongpoint, there was no JOP there, P-Y used his first full CoC dice to move one of his JOP's there. I felt this was an excellent move. By now the defenders had got a unit in the house in the right centre of the table and were able to fire at the attackers behind the hedge. But more importantly  they were able to put a sniper in the same house and using the TT Mods, he was able to kill the lone Germ SL. what a turn of events, as the attackers were now leaderless, as they had also lost one of their JL's. FM was dropping on both sides rapidly.

The defenders continued to place smoke but in between turns (there were 4-5 in this short game) the attackers were able to take out another section of Canadiens behind the hedge in front of the house.

I had put a limit of 2.5 hours on the game, we might have been able to get in one more phase but at this point it was clear to the three of us that the Canadien morale was about to drop below 3, thus giving the game to the Germans. It was an excellent game and exciting game and although it looked like the Germans were going to overrun the Canadiens, this did not happen and when I called the game, the FM was 4 for Graham and 3 for P-Y.  So a marginal German victory. 

I will look forward to putting on another CoC game at the Abyss, and hopefully we can draw in more players.