Rommel Scenario 6 "Relief" Late War Americans v German

After Andy's narrow victory in our last refight of Juno Beach this game saw my Americans taking on Andy's Germans in a vaguely 'Battle of the Bulge' refight.

In this scenario a quarter of the attacker's force is trapped in an isolated 'pocket' holding an objective and has to be relieved by the remainder of the force establishing a supply line by nightfall.

Having played this scenario a few times it is always interesting and there are a number of ways you can approach it. Being the attacker this time I went for a force consisting of some paratroopers from the 101st Airborne to hold the pocket objective and a strong 52nd Armoured CC together with a weaker 104th Infantry CC to attempt the relief supported by as much artillery as I could manage to really beef up my attacking options.

Initial deployment with the Americans 'hidden' and the Germans spread out across the middle of the table:

The American forces are revealed. The plan is to use the 52nd CC to push through on the left while the 101st holds the objective and the 104th CC acts as a reserve and defends the artillery:

The 52nd CC begins to move to the left in some cagey early turns:

The initial attack by the 52nd CC is disastrous with the Germans inflicting severe losses on the attacker:

A German counter-attack finishes off a couple of the damaged battalions:

The Germans also attempt to assault the 101st but are thrown back with heavy losses. This persuades the German commander that it isn't worth taking the tough paratroopers on again!:

The 52nd CC continue to push forward to achieve the breakthrough and are succeeding in thinning out the German defenders:

The push is going well now with the German defences weakening forcing them to commit more troops from other areas of the lines. The 104th infantry CC is still uncommitted, soon I'll need to decide where to use them:

The Germans re-establish their lines with the units drawn from elsewhere. This fight is going to be close!:

The 52nd makes another attempt to break through:

Success! The 52nd is battered and bruised but through the German line and has the beleaguered 101st in clear sight. The 104th has finally been committed to support the remnants of the 52nd:

Can the 52nd hold on against German counter-attacks?

Observing the relief column the 101st moves out to help the relief force and keep the gap open:

German forces are weakened, scattered and have issues with different units being mixed up. None-the-less they still think they can defeat the almost equally weakened Americans and viciously counter-attack where they can:

The thin line of Americans holds on though, sometimes by the narrowest of margins:

After three additional turns night falls with the Americans holding on to their objective and opening a supply line to it giving them a victory with heavy losses on both sides:

As ever a cracking game which sort of went down to the wire in that right up until his last move Andy almost broke the supply line I'd developed on the left making the last few turns very tense.

However, as often happens in Rommel, in the heat of the fight we both became fixated on the efforts of the 52nd CC to break through in an intense battle. Andy threw more and more troops into the fight from the rest of his lines and by the end most of his force was involved in the fight. In my case I was probably a little tardy in using the 104th to support the 52nd.

The result of this was that Andy had inadvertently allowed a supply line to be created on the right of the table by withdrawing too many units leaving big gaps in his lines so, even if he had stopped the 52nd, I'd still have won anyway which I'd realised a couple of turns before the end and was desperately hoping Andy didn't notice!

For me the plan I had worked well, though I think I got the roles on the 52nd Armoured CC and the 104th Infantry CC wrong in that I made my initial attack with the fast moving 52nd and left the slower 104th in reserve when it would have been better to have more mobility in the reserve where it was needed. My initial plan had included the possibility of drawing most of Andy's Germans on to the 52nd then advancing up the other side of the table with the 104th (which was partly why I committed them so late) but in fact they just wouldn't have moved fast enough where the more mobile 52nd would have had a better chance. 

Andy will choose the next scenario we play and I'm looking forward to what he comes up with!

Rommel Late War Americans v Germans: Breakthrough

Another introduction to Rommel game, this time for Gary. We went for the "Breakthrough" scenario with me taking Late War Americans and Gary the Germans. I had an Infantry Combat Command and an Armoured Combat Command while Gary went for an Infantry KG, a Volksgrenadier KG and a Panzer KG.

In this scenario the attacker has to capture two out of four objectives while holding one of their own. Most of the terrain inevitably ended up on the German side of the table with two objectives placed by me and two placed by Gary. Initial deployment saw the Germans place their Infantry KG on their right, the Panzer KG in the centre and the Volksgrenadier KG on their left. The Americans had the Infantry CC in the centre and the Armoured CC on the right:

The Americans launch the Armoured CC to take the two objectives on their right:

Both are quickly secured so the Germans will now have to counter-attack to retake at least one:

They quickly move their Panzers to assault the Americans holding the nearest objective:

The Americans start to take some losses but hold on:

The German assault continues further weakening the American holding force but taking some damage themselves:

More troops are fed into the 'meat-grinder' by the Americans:

The Germans had been wondering what the uncommitted American Infantry CC was going to do? Feeling that the time was right and that sufficient Germans had been drawn off from the American left the Infantry CC launches itself at the weakened Germans holding the other two objectives: 

On the right the battle for the furthest forward objective rages on, it almost falls but one battalion of American armoured infantry holds on desperately! The Americans are almost done defending this objective but they have bought a lot of time and used up a lot of German strength:

The Infantry CC races on isolating one objective and almost taking the second, unfortunately driving back some German infantry onto the other objective with an ill-advised attack they didn't need to make: 

More American infantry cross the river and prepare to attack. The Germans have reinforced the sole infantry battalion on the second objective with another but are under attack by the Infantry CC's supporting armour: 

On the right flank the Americans are making a last stand on the furthest forward objective. It will fall soon. However, the second one is still firmly under American control:

The American Infantry CC makes another assault on the defending German infantry:

Both objectives fall to the Americans! They now hold all four and night is approaching:

The Germans finally recapture the objective they have been attacking for the entire game but have no prospect of taking another two resulting in an American victory:

Another really enjoyable game which Gary found thought-provoking as he could see where he could have done things differently which might have changed the outcome. 

As with most people who have not played that often he didn't realise just how quickly my 'reserve' Infantry CC could move when I committed it or that isolated units are relatively easy to smash. He became very involved in the fighting with the Panzer KG to retake the second objective I took which is very easy to do but can sometimes make you miss the bigger picture.

For me the main choice was where to commit the reserve Infantry CC, either to support the Armoured CC which had already taken two objectives or to send them to attempt to seize the other two objectives which were available. As Gary had moved more and more units to his left and the Panzer KG was fully engaged I felt that taking the other two objectives was a better option so went that way accepting that one one the initial ones I'd captured would fall and the other might (though it didn't in the end).

I've now introduced Jerry , Dave and Gary to Rommel which they have all enjoyed though Jerry and Dave are looking closely at 'O' Group and have played that a few times so it does have a rival!  

Chain of Command Miscellanea!

I've finished a few more things for my Chain of Command collection, a combination of odd items that had been hanging around for a while and new acquisitions!

Firstly some British casualty figures from 1st Corps. These are resin casts which have the double advantage of being cheap and light: 

Secondly some German equivalents from Great Escape Games:

Back to the British and it is a Beaverette armoured car from Warlord Games to support the Home Guard. Not sure how much use it will get as it seems expensive in CoC for what is in effect just an LMG:

Germans again, this time in winter uniforms. These were one of the free sprues from Warlord Games that come with Wargames Illustrated. I like the figures, they have nice poses and the advantage that (if I remember rightly) the weapons were attached to the arms making them much easier to construct. Tempting to buy a box for a full platoon but I'd probably be better off doing late war Germans if I was to collect another German force:

Finally something for the Americans with a couple of BAR men. I'd hoped this pack from Artizan would be four BAR rather than two plus two others but in the event it was only two, still the other guys might come in useful:

Chain of Command Germans v Americans 1944

The (in)famous Tim aka "Madaxeman" wanted to try out Chain of Command so I set up a fairly simple introductory scenario with my Germans attacking Tim's Americans using the "attack on an objective" scenario from the rule book. The Germans used an infantry gun as their support while the Americans took some barbed wire:

The patrol phase ended with two jump off points at the back and one forward for the Americans with the Germans having three based in the industrial units and the woods near their base line. The Americans deploy a squad in the objective building and one opposite the largest factory unit on overwatch:

The German response is swift with a squad deploying in the factory supported by the infantry gun both of which open fire on the Americans opposite:

The Americans start to take losses in an unequal firefight:

The first American squad is pinned, they move up a second squad but have not arrived in time to save their colleagues:

The Germans finish off the first American squad which breaks for the rear:

The second US squad makes it to the hedge line. They are out of the line of fire of the German squad in the factory but the gun is capable of firing at them:

After a few failed attempts to arrive (I'd had to deploy my senior leader early on to command the gun and men in the factory) the remaining two German squads make it onto the table. One takes up position on the left supporting the infantry gun while the second moves up opposite the farm house and is joined by the squad from the factory:

With the situation looking bleak for the Americans we called it a day at this point. Tim enjoyed the game and wants to play again, as it was an introduction I kept things fairly simple (we didn't use grenades or covering fire for example) and used minimal support (Tim was most impressed with the German infantry gun which is good value) so no tanks etc.

One amusing thing was that Tim's Americans are 20mm while my Germans are 28mm! I confess I thought this would look a bit ridiculous but in fact it worked quite well, possibly because of this:

Chain of Command Normandy 1944

Having tried a smaller scale Blucher solo game I thought I'd see how Chain of Command worked on a 4 x 4 table as a solo game. 

As I'd just finished some new buildings from Empires at War (a house, a factory and a row of garages) I decided to base the game in Normandy 1944 on a terrain heavy table using my Americans and Germans in a probe scenario. The patrol phase saw the Americans make significant progress across the table:

Two American squads deploy, one in the factory, the other at the road junction:

A German squad deploys in the woods and engages in a firefight with the Americans in the factory:

An M8 armoured car deploys:

Taking advantage of a double phase the M8 races down the road and will make it off table unless the Germans can stop it. A panzerfaust team pops up from the ruined building and successfully ambushes the M8:

At this point I stopped playing as the game wasn't working out for a number of reasons. The table was really too small resulting in both sides being deployed in a simple firefight with no room for movement, probably not helped by the large amount of terrain either. It also just wasn't the same without an actual opponent, I think one of the best parts of CoC is trying to out-think your opponent which obviously just does not happen in a solo game! The PSC really add to the interest of the games as well so a solo version of one of those might be more interesting but would require the use of a larger table.

So I think CoC will have to wait until I can play at the club again, must admit I am looking forward to that and restarting my Abbeville campaign with Gary especially!

Chain of Command "29 Let's Go!"Game 7 "Home Run at Osmanville"

First game of the year and potentially the last one (if I won) of Gary and I's 29 Let's Go! PSC.

The Americans are facing a rather battered German platoon and, if they can take the German HQ at Osmanville, will burst through the German lines capturing the bridge at Isigny and isolating a large number of German units.

For this scenario the Americans have a mighty 19 support points with the Germans having 13. Given the difficulty of using armour so far in the campaign I chose a single Sherman, a HMG, a mortar, a flamethrower team, an extra BAR and a mine clearing team as it seemed obvious Gary would take a lot of entrenchments and defences.

The Americans enter from the left, the Germans from the right:

Set up didn't go well for the Americans with a low force morale of 8 compared to the German 11. The patrol phase resulted in a cramped area for the Americans to deploy hemmed in on their left  by minefields and on the right by wire and a very open field with Rommel's Asparagus in it stopping any armour from operating in the area. Two squads deployed together with the lone Sherman:

There is an immediate response from the Germans with a full strength squad deploying and opening up on the advancing American infantry:

The Sergeant deploys with the HMG and mortar to fire back at the Germans:

A German MMG arrives to support it's colleagues:

 American firepower is effective breaking a rifle team and forcing the LMG team to withdraw:

The American infantry squad has taken some losses while the Sherman moves up in support:

The Germans have been driven back from the hedge line:

 The Lieutenant leads the last American squad and the flamethrower team forward:

The Sherman creeps forward. For a while the mine clearing team has been attempting to clear the minefield on the left but has not succeeded. The American squad in the centre is sadly reduced in numbers:

The advance continues:

The first hedge line is reached:

The Germans deploy their slightly under-strength squad in the abandoned entrenchments and the MMG moves back up to the hedge. Several Americans are cut down but the flamethrower gets to fire!:

The German MMG is routed but return fire from the German squad forces the flamethrower team to flee:

Casualties are heavy on both sides and another German team breaks. Their morale is falling but it is a long way down from 11!:

The German Panzerfaust team had earlier hit the Sherman from ambush but remarkably it had survived. The Sherman was not so lucky the second time and exploded in flames. To add to the disaster the mortar team, HMG team and a nearby section all took losses from the explosion wiping out the section and killing several crew from the mortar and HMG:

Both sides have now taken huge losses, most of the Germans have fallen back to regroup and the Americans only have one viable squad, the one on the left that has seen little action. The mine clearing team have finally cleared the minefield but there is no one left to exploit it!:

The American squad moves around to take on the remaining Germans while sending a scout team to attempt to capture a German JoP and end the game:

The Germans gather their last few men in the orchard for a final stand. The Americans gather their last usable squad to make a final attack!:

The Americans use marching fire to close in following a lucky double turn (though they also had two CoC dice to use to interrupt if they have to). Firepower combined with a couple of well aimed grenades cuts down the Germans!:

With only a single man and the German Lieutenant left the Americans close for the kill and the Germans are routed. The breakthrough is on!

A bit of a bloodbath for the last game, the Americans lost 29 men out of 56 plus the Sherman yet only lost 3 force morale in the entire game. German casualties were also heavy and they showed their usual resilience and fanatical will to fight on, at several points especially when the Sherman exploded, I thought it was all over for the Americans.

All in all a really enjoyable campaign and we are already keen to do another one. I learned a lot over the campaign (especially the weakness of armour against late war German man portable anti-tank weapons!), how to use the Americans walking fire and semi-automatic rifles and how tough it is to crack a well thought out defence. It was certainly a costly victory for the Americans over the course of the campaign with numerous Sherman's being lost and several infantry platoons taking heavy losses.