At the very start of the first lockdown Martin and I were talking about maybe doing some 1940s Chain of Command. Over the course of the year we've both acquired and painted armies. We've also made plans to play through one of the Pint Sized Campaigns from the TFL Summer Specials and have been buying and painting scenery and the rest.
But after many months of not actually playing we felt we needed a bit of a warm up (or two) before plunging back in with both feet. And so, both double jabbed, with Covid restrictions lifting Martin came round to the Soldier Shack to play an Attack and Defend game.
I took a 1939 Force from the Blitzkrieg book - I toyed with a 1940 force but the campaign we're going to play uses the smaller 8 man sections and I wanted to get used to how brittle they're likely to be. Martin took a Second Wave Blitzkrieg force - in an attempt to ease himself back in without all the shiny toys and extra dice.
In the Patrol phase I managed to pin Martin's JOPs to the edge of the board. At the time it seemed like he'd been out-manoeuvred, but on reflection and rereading the scenario it feels quite likely that the attacker is doomed to start quite close to, if not on, the table edge in most cases.
I had six points of support available and took an adjutant and two extra riflemen to crew the Boys AT rifle - I was terrified of facing Blitzkrieg armour. For the remaining points I couldn't decide between an additional section, or the shiny firepower of a Vickers. In the end I let the dice decide and ended up with the HMG (which is what I secretly wanted anyway).
Somewhere on the Belgian border, May 1940...
My first section took up position in the top floor of the house.
Section two deployed near the cottage and poured fire into the Germans.
Oh. An infantry gun. I wasn't expecting that!
In the cornfield the British were having a tough time of things.
But one German section had it's officer wounded twice and lost it's MMG.
With a preliminary bombardment making my deployment a little challenging the Germans began pressing up across the board.
The infantry gun kept up a rain of fire on the section in the house.
Eventually the section in the house broke and fled under the fire of the infantry gun and the Germans pushed up the road.
Finally the barrage lifted and I could deploy the Vickers.
But in response an armoured car trundled up the road.
I used a Chain of Command dice to ambush with the Boys - but managed to hit the fence instead!
With a run of consecutive phases the Germans hopped over the fence and into the road.
While the British could only look on.
In the cover of the house the German squad raced toward a British Jump off point and used a CoC dice to capture it. British morale was tumbling.
Spying a poorly deployed mortar the Germans took aim.
The Boys attempted a second ambush. This time failing to penetrate the frontal armour.
Over at the cottage the Vickers was in danger of being flanked.
And the infantry gun was now hurling fire at the embattled Tommies.
The flanking Jerries moved up and closed down another Jump Off Point.
As casualties mounted on the Vickers.
At this point I called a halt.
The Vickers and mortar were both a single wound from being wiped out and with the JOP closed down it was just a case of Martin maintaining fire until they broke and the turn ended and the game would be up.
Good fun game and great to get the Early War collection out on the table.
Took us a while to play, but then we were consulting the rules a lot (mostly to remind ourselves, rather than really learn things). I also find that one off (rather than campaign) Chain of Command games do take a long time to play through as the tendency is to (unrealistically) play to the last man standing.
Really looking forward to the campaign - though perhaps one more warm up needed...
