Lucius and I played a game of Chain of Command over two afternoons recently. It was great fun, and a needed refresher on the rules. The total play time was about 4 hours, but that was a lot of looking up rules and figuring out how to best employ our troops. It was a very friendly game and quite fun. We chose the delaying action scenario from the rule book, threw some terrain down, and started off with small platoons and some armour for good fun.

Here’s how it went down.

Background

Allied forces have pushed inland from the Normandy coastline. A platoon of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders with some Sherbrooke Fusiliers in armour support is racing ahead. They have been spotted by a unit of Fallschirmjagers who are headed west towards Brest. The FJ platoon is tasked with holding off the Canadians for as long as possible. The Canucks must capture 1 Jumping Off Point (JOP) to win.

The table was 4 x 6, with play down the long axis. There was a lot of terrain on the table, as we wanted to improve our knowledge of the rules and make it a bit easier to advance to contact.

The Forces 

The Canadians fielded 2 sections of North Novas, with a Command section (PIAT team, 2″ mortar team). Support points went towards a medic and armour. Of course. While the AVRE was almost chosen, Lucius went with a Mark V Sherman and a Firefly.

The FJs had 2 sections, a Command section with a panzerschrek, and a STUG. I had seriously considered a flamethrower and sniper, or a PAK 40. In retrospect, either might have been a wiser call…

The Battle

The patrol phase was uneventful. I managed to push out aggressively which wasn’t that useful as it made me want to take ground and I ended up placing my JOPs too far forward. Considering that they were Lucius’ objectives, that was my first mistake and I later had to move them back and eat up precious Chain of Command points.

The action started off with the North Novas moving up 1 Section to advance on the right flank towards JOP 3 as their armour made an appearance and moved up to go hull-down behind the first hill on the road.

I responded by bringing up my Panzerschreck and a section of infantry. This was my biggest mistake in the game. Not having the ability to bring this where needed later made me eat up a lot of command resources trying to get it into action. Having it in my pocket to spring as an ambush when the armour closed might have changed the outcome.

In any event, I put some hurt onto 1 Section until smoke rounds blocked me.

The North Novas followed up by leaving the tanks in the centre with 2 section deploying on their left flank and moving up aggressively towards JOP 1 (which was behind the house in the picture above). I placed a section in the house to their front and put an MG team upstairs. I managed to put some shock on 2 section before drawing an ungodly amount of fire from the Firefly.

My team scampered away from the upstairs and calmed down under the guidance of the platoon sergeant while on the other flank, my platoon commander pulled the section by JOP 3 back after moving the JOP to the rear. The presence of that section by JOP 3 effectively held down the Canadians there for most of the game. I wasn’t able to counter attack despite bringing my STUG on to support that plan due to the presence of the PIAT and an every increasing amount of smoke blocking most avenues of advance. I wasn’t willing to charge forward unsupported.

The battle by JOP 1 was brewing up, with the Canadians making 2 charges towards the house, but were beaten back both times leaving most of their section on the field having fallen victim to the MG42 that had relocated downstairs. I played an interrupt to fire a panzerfaust as the Firefly closed to get a better line of sight to pound the ground floor, but I missed! Drat. To make matters worse, I had divided the section on that flank, with 1 team in the house, and 1 on a hill behind it. I was certain that Lucius would rush up with his armour and troops, and I wanted to have the ability to defend the JOP behind the house so that left my last panzerfaust safely in the rear. Sigh.

More tank rounds went in to that house as I moved my STUG and Panzerschreck up (which took forever). The Firefly then went on overwatch with the remains of 2 section and the Sherman advanced up the road. I figured it was time, so I opened up with the remains of the section in the house, did a good job cutting down the Bren team as my Panzerschreck rushed to take a shot. An interrupt was played and an HE round killed both members of the team. Drat. I now had only 3 anti-armour rounds and 1 STUG. So that went forward in the next phase. Lucius played his last Chain of Command point and shot first.

Now I was in trouble. I had inflicted far more casualties than I had taken, but I had only 3 panzerfausts for 2 tanks. And the Sherman rushed down the road as 1 section went away from JOP 3 towards JOP 2. I moved my troops in response and had a panzerfaust ready for the Sherman on the road. It missed. Double 1s. Oh dear.

I managed to lay the hurt on 1 section in a last hurrah and then called it. I had downed 18 of the 27 Canadians for 8 of my 24 FJs but I had no effective anti-armour ability left.

Thoughts

The game played very well and it seemed very realistic, with tank fire supressing the defenders until close range, smoke obscuring the defenders, and the terrible toll of being caught out in the open facing a dug-in foe for the final yards of the assault. If I could have added mortars to my force, I think I would have ground down the infantry and broken them. Mind you, if the Allies had brought up an AVRE, I would have been hooped. Flexibility is key, and on that front, a PAK40 is far more flexible (for deployment and survivability) than a STUG is.

I think that the next battle will be a switch. Lucius defending the same town, and me advancing. It should be fun, and if nothing else will expand our ruleset knowledge before we press on with our Arnhem campaign. It also will give us time to finish painting up our forces!