Flank Attack against the dogged Tommies

I did not get much of a chance to write this up last week what with the trip to Verdun and all, but on Tuesday Lee and I played another game of Chain of Command WWI pitting my Bosche against his Tommies.

We laid out the table and then randomised who would be the attacker - it ended up as me. We then made the first roll of the game - for Force Morale - I would be a lowly eight while the British started on an eleven, crickey, this may be a bit difficult.

Playing out the Patrol Phase well my Germans did rather well and were in a position to jump off straight into one of the British trenches, maybe we would not be in for such a hard ride.

Rolling for force support I had eight points that I spent on a MG/08, a sniper, two GranateWerfer and a captured Lewis Gun. Lee had 7 points that were spent on a Sniper, two Stokes Mortars and a 6" section of barbed wire.

Things started brightly for the Germans, the enhanced light machine-gun section deployed straight into the section of trench and were soon pouring fire onto any Britishers foolish enough to show themselves.  Despite a continuous barrage from the Stokes Mortars they shrugged off any attempt to man the British trenches, soon the British rifle-grenadiers were withdrawing to a safe position, likewise a Lewis-gun section that tried to plug the gap.

The MG/08 soon joined in the fun and the Tommies were making the best of a bad job but due to their command structure they were able to rally and retreat teams that I had shot up, so my fire was having little effect on the British morale, but it was being chipped away.

One of my grenadier sections attempted to capture the next position but were caught in the open by the Stokes mortar and some very accurate rifle fire, they soon broke to the rear.

Calamity befell the Germans, scoring a double phase, the British deployed their bomber section right next to the trench occupied by my enhanced light machine-gun section and grenades were soon raining down doing for my Leutenant, another double six and I had been all but silenced by the bombers, a third douible six saw a fourth phase and the bombers mopped up the remainder of my section and my Force Morale collapsed.

I think if it had not been to the big disparity in the initial Force Morale rolls I would have put up a much better fight.