Chain of Command - BEF v Germans

Having become a recent convert to 'Sharp Practice' I thought I'd try 'Chain of Command' and quickly built up a force for the BEF from Warlord Games.

The force represented the Durham Light Infantry and consisted of an headquarters group, a couple of 2" mortars, 4 sections of infantry, a Vickers MMG group, a Bren Carrier team and a Matilda tank.

For their first outing one of my regular opponents, Dave, kindly agreed to give me a game with his 1940's Germans. We decided to play Scenario 3: attack and defend with the DLI attacking and the Germans defending. The terrain consisted of a Village of four buildings with a road running through it and a number of fields and woods.

In the patrol phase the Germans managed to advance past the first couple of buildings giving them the ability to deploy into them.

Initially I deployed No.2 section behind one of the buildings:

The Germans held back and didn't deploy anything leaving me unsure as to where they would pop up from!

I then deployed the Matilda and the Bren Carrier, putting the Matilda on over-watch to cover the far left building in the village.

Still there were no signs of life from the Germans. Where were they?
No.3 section then deployed on my right flank behind a hedge with one of the 2" mortar teams. The arrival of No.3 section at last drew a response from the Germans with heavy fire coming from the damaged building in the village and the building on my far left. No.3 section started taking casualties The Matilda opened up on the far left building and inflicted some losses on the Germans in return.

No.3 section was joined by the Vickers MMG and began to pour fire into the damaged building with some success.

The Matilda continued firing HE at the building on the far left supported by the 2" mortar and inflicting more losses on the German section holding it. However, No.3 Section was now taking heavy losses and were forced to go to ground leaving just the Vickers to keep up return fire.

To try to take the pressure off No.3 section I deployed No.1 section on my left flank in an attempt to take out the remaining Germans in the building on my far left.

While this did momentarily ease the pressure on No.3 section another group of Germans appeared behind the field on my left in a position to outflank No.1 section which started taking a lot of hits from the newly appeared Germans.

Both sides were now under pressure with losses mounting rapidly. To try to finish off the Germans in the village I ordered the Matilda and the Bren Carrier to advance down the road towards the centre of the village.

The Germans were quick to respond with an infantry anti-tank rifle squad ambushing the Bren Carrier and damaging it's Bren and a 37mm AT gun appearing on the far edge of the village which also targeted the Bren Carrier which was fortunate to survive a couple of shots with limited damage.

Losses now became unsustainable for both the Germans in the far left building and No.1 section both of which were forced to retire. The Germans in the right hand village building were only just hanging on while No.3 section and the Vickers were wavering as well.

With both sides close to defeat I decided to try to assault the right hand village building with No.2 section which had been in reserve since deploying at the start of the game.

No.2 section rushed across the road and entered the German held building, quickly finishing off all the survivors and taking control of it.

With this the German morale finally broke and they withdrew from the field leaving the battered DLI to take the village.

I really enjoyed this game and thought that there was a little more to think about than in Sharp Practice. The patrol phase was interesting and the interaction between both sides deploying troops and deciding where to activate units gave a lot of options.