I had originally been scheduled to play Nick yesterday evening, but other commitments meant that he could not make it to the game so instead of a trip into Nottingham to play at the White Hart I arranged a game with Lee at the Polly.
It's been quite a long time since Lee last played Chain of Command - almost a year to the day. But he is, like myself and James, getting into playing WWI with the rules and hopes to have his British painted soon.
I've recently added some new Guardia so it was a good excuse to get them on the table, I'm a few figures short so a few Falangista made up the numbers if you are wondering why they are in the pictures.
We randomised a mission and we would be playing a Delaying Action, picture the start of the war and a column of Milicianos are trying to hold off the Guardia while others make off with an arms cache. As they are better troops I suggested that Lee used the Guardia and I would take the Militia.
We rolled terribly for Force Morale and both started on 8pts.
To even the two sides out I spent the 10 point disparity on making my chaps Hardened Militia (4pts), an Army Officer Advisor (2pts), an LMG (1pt), a Flag (2pts) and an Adjutant (1pt). We played out the Patrol Phase and the jump-off points ended up as shown, Republicans in red and white for the Nationalists.
Lee rolled eight points of Force Support, spending it on a 50mm Mortar, an HMG and a Bilbao Armoured Car. I added 20 more Milicianos, making each section up to 15 men strong.
The Nationalists kicked off with the Bilbao entering the field of battle and a couple of Guardia were deployed as scouts. Wanting to protect my right flank I deployed a unit of Milicianos and started pushing them towards the woods on my right and deployed the section with the LMG in some scrub and put them on overwatch.
The Nationalists advanced cautiously, one section of Guardia took to the hedge-line and shadowed the Bilbao down the lane while the other moved to outflank me round a large hill that bisected the table towards the woodland on my right. The 50mm mortar was deployed in woodland to the rear and the HMG was pushed into the woodland where the scouts were observing me from.
I deployed another section in the centre and put them also on overwatch.
The Bilbao was now able to engage my troops and I soon had a couple of shock so deploying my last team to hold the objective I put my Jefe with the troops in the centre and started to recover some shock.
The Guardia, supported by the Bilbao now broke cover and formed a firing line at the hedge. My overwatch shooting was desultory, however, the single kill that I did make fell on to the Sergento Primero, knocking him out of action for the turn.
The punishment soon came back though. Lee had three consecutive phases and the Bilboa, the Guardia on the hedge-line and the HMG all concentrated on my centre section and they were soon broken and running for the rear costing me a Force Morale point, Lee also used a Chain of Command dice to end the turn, routing my Jefe. But I used a Chain of Command dice of my own to avoid the test.
Apart from losing the central section and the Jefe things were not going that badly for the Republicans, in the firefight at the hedge-line my section with the LMG was gradually whittling down the Giardia there, the Sergento Primero was hit again as was the Sergento, two of the teams were down to one or two men each and nobody was able to reorganise, The Guardia were now down to Force Morale 5, I was still at a 7.
With one Guardia section and all his heavy weapons engaging me to the fore the Guardia making the outflanking move continued practically unopposed, I never seemed to have enough dice to organise the section in the wood to oppose him and my fifteen Milicianos were no match for the Guardia and were soon broken, Fortunately, my poor Activation Dice rolls meant that I had a Chain of Command dice to avoid another test so remained on Force Morale 7
I was down to two sections of Milicianos and had no leader, but one Guardia section was also badly mauled. However, disaster fell again on the Republicans, the section holding the objective succumbed to fire and they were breaking to the rear, but again a trusty Chain of Command dice avoided a test, I had lost my Jefe and three sectiosn of Milicianos but only forfeited a single point of Force Morale.
The flanking Guardia closed on the objective so my final section re-deployed to try to hold them off. After coming under intense fire from my LMG the Guardia eventually had a team on the objective but Lee did not quite have a Chain of Command dice to end the turn and win the game. On his next activation he got a double five making his Chain of Command dice, ended the turn and claimed victory. Bugger!
Hope you enjoyed
All the figures and terrain are from my own collection
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