Big Chain of Command Soviets v Germans

The second outing for the Soviets, this time in a 'Big' CoC game. Dave had the German tanks while Jerry took the German infantry. I had the Soviet infantry and Gary the Soviet tank force.

We went for the 'Probe' scenario with the German's attacking trying to exit a unit from the Soviet baseline:

With the table being fairly open I went for a couple of entrenchments and an anti-tank gun for the Soviet support. One Russian section quickly deployed and started advancing towards the forest on the left:

The Germans deployed a squad on their left in the woods. To cover the right flank and centre another Russian section deployed in entrenchments on top of the hill supported by a KV-1 and a T34/76 (looking somewhat like a T34/85!):

The Russian infantry await the attack:

German tanks appear! A couple of Panzer III's and a Marder:

On the German left another section joins the first with a gun in support. It seems the main German effort will be on the Russian right:

On the Russian left the section of infantry has continued to advance despite taking casualties from the Marder and have almost reached the German jump-off point behind the hill. This forces the Germans to deploy their final section. It looks bad for the Russians being caught in the open but they fight on and inflict some kills on the Germans in return:

Annoyed by the stubborn resistance of the Russian infantry the Marder attempts to run them down but they successfully evade it:

In the centre the T34/76 and the two Panzer III's have been somewhat ineffectively exchanging fire. The Russians deploy their AT gun which immediately blows up one of the Panzer III's!:

The second Panzer III is now in trouble having been hit a few times by the T34. The crew bail out and make a run for it:

The final Russian section deploys in the rocky ground in the centre to support the gun:

On the Russian right the section on the hill has been under heavy fire from the Germans but is holding on despite taking losses. The Germans have infiltrated a squad into the rocky ground in an attempt to outflank them but have been cut down by the KV-1 and fire from the infantry on the hill. So far the KV-1 has lead a charmed life surviving a few hits from panzerfausts:

The Russian section on the left was then wiped out as the Germans attempted to attack through the woods. Already weakened by losses though the Germans in turn were wiped out by the Russian's in the centre.

With two tanks out of action and two sections eliminated the Germans decided to withdraw leaving the field to the Russians.

I'm starting to enjoy CoC more now that I am begining to get an idea of how the various tactics interact. The entrenchments I picked as support certainly paid off allowing the Russian section on the hill to survive far better than they would have done in the open, dominate a lot of ground and soak up a lot of German firepower.

Using a section to advance quickly on the left forced the Germans to commit their troops earlier than they would have wished and effectively held them up for a long time.

The Russians do seem to be fun to play with encouraging a more aggressive attitude than the British.

The 'Big' CoC also worked well with all of us greatly enjoying the game, the only thing I'd probably change is to have a road across the table to limit the tank deployment a little. Everyone was keen to play again so I'm sure we will have another game soon.