Many Rivers to Cross-Turn 1-The Village

Graham and myself have recently decided to have a go at another Chain of Command campaign. We both like the Early War period of WWII. I had played There are Many Rivers to Cross campaign before as the defender,  with the Chasseurs Ardennais. I have not looked back but I believe I had a marginal victory, this time I will be playing the German attackers. we used the 1940 Blitzkrieg source book for our platoon lists and most of the scenarios.

Click on the link above to get the campaign but essentially we have a 6 map campaign between the Attacking Germans and any Allied force specific to the area where you would like to play the campaign. Graham wanted to play his Early War Brits, he chose a 1940 Regulation Platoon of Guards while I picked a Schützen platoon from 1 Panzer. Our game is set in France. The Germans have no significant support available to them until they place pontoon bridges behind them.

Forces

Guards Platoon 1, FM 9

FR 0, 5CD, Regulars

Supports (6)

Barbed Wire 2

Extra Infantry Section

Schützen Platoon 1 FM 10

FR +1, 5CD, Regulars

Supports (12)

Pioneer Wire Cutting Team

Sniper Team

Red Dice

MG34 Tripod Mount

Stuka Bombardment

The Table

Patrol Phase

Patrol Markers

Stuka Bombardment hit 3 of 7 buildings, oddly enough they all had the same effect with UXB.

German JOPs, not want I really wanted.

British Defensive Barbed Wire

British JOPs

The Game

I was not that happy with my JOPs but they could have been worse, the Stuka Bombardment was somewhat helpful in delaying the British deployment so I got quite aggressive with my attack. I put down all my troops within a few phases, just holding off with my 3rd squad. The Brits made the middle large building in their deployment zone a Bunker which presented quite a challenge. They deployed a section in this building and I had to use one of my squads to place covering fire on it in almost every phase. This was effective, so I started to move my first squad tactically across the field on my right flank to try to get off the board, one of the criteria for my victory. The Brits countered this with placing 2 sections in the house on their left flank. I shifted over covering fire to this building while at the same time using my other squad, MMG team and Mortar team to fire at the building. My sniper took 5 shots before he even scored a hit. Not helpful. 

They made progress but their JL was knocked out half way across the field making their progress more difficult as he could not remove shock.

They pushed on and made it to the road but the Brits moved over to the side windows of the house and pinned them. By now the Brits were unleashing fire from their two other sections one which was behind the fence on their right flank. 

Although the German FM was still high at 8 while the Brits had dropped to 5, the attack was starting to look pretty iffy.

I had now lost 2 JL's and as you can see shock was stacking up on my troops behind the hedge with another squad becoming pinned. I withdrew.......a British victory!

I suppose it could have been worse, my play was a bit rusty and I can see now where I made some mistakes. Hopefully I will play better in the next turn.

Summing Up

German Platoon #1 

Platoon Leader Outlook: Happy. 

Men’s opinion: -3 (-1 FM roll)

Co’s opinion n: -1 

5 Dead, 5 missing next game. 

British Platoon #1 

Platoon Leader Outlook: Affable (+1 FM roll)

Men’s opinion: +2 

Co’s opinion n: +1 

1 Dead, 1 missing next game.

As Graham has the initiative, he has decided to defend The Village again, I will have to come up with a better plan. I have to say it was great to get in a game of Chain of Command. Important to practice up for version 2, which we all hope will be out in 2-3 months.