Probing the Soviet lines

 

Thursday evening saw James (not that James, the other James) playing another game of Chain of Command.

James arrived and we started setting up to play after dinner, but after Victoria sliced off the tip of her thumb preparing dinner there was a swift bit of first aid and I took over dinner making duties.

Eventually the blood was staunched, dinner was eaten and we got down to the game!

The table was set up with some rolling hills and a rural road network with a couple of small farms and some tree lines and areas of woodland.

We randomised a scenario and would be playing "The Probe" James with a 1942 Panzer Grenadier platoon and myself with a Soviet Rifle Platoon, both from the Winter Storm PSC.

We both started with a whopping force moral of 11. The Patrol phase saw a heavy concentration of jump-off points on the left hand side of the table, I had two in the farm with one on a hill on the right while James had two in the woods on the left and one behind a small hill just outside the woods. I do like the cloth over hills terrain, but it's a bugger to see the hills in some of the photos.

The Soviets created a strong defensive line in the farmstead, protected by a lot of fire from the large hill in front of it, while the Germans created a strong base of fire in the edge of the woods.

We both jockeyed for positions that would allow two sections to fire on one enemy section but only get return fire from a single section, especially with how deadly those MG34 are.

Soon both a Soviet section and a Panzer Grenadier section had been broken and were running to the rear. The German Feldwebel turned up to bolster the line and was immediately shot in the throat.

With a Force Moral of 11 it was always going to be a bloodbath with the Germans having a dead Senior Leader, a wounded Junior Leader and a broken section while the Soviets had two wounded Junior leaders and two broken sections we were soon both on a Force Moral 4.

A moving section of Panzer Grenadiers had a long range shot at one of my broken sections, from ten shots needing fives he scored nine hits, I proceeded to roll five sixes, the section was gone, the junior leader dead and two poor Bad Things Happen rolls saw the game end. 

Not sure why we set up all that terrain, all the action took place in the left hand third of the table.