Chain of Command Abbeville 1940 "4th Camerons attack at Huchennville"

In a similar way to my last game against Andy this CoC campaign game against Gary had been postponed for several months being the third game of the Abbeville campaign set in 1940 with me as the Germans and Gary as the BEF.

This was the last game in which the BEF attacks and again the table was fairly open with just a couple of buildings, some limited woods and a few hedgerows. With 14 support points each I went for 4 entrenchments, a preliminary barrage, two shabby Nazi tricks and a very expensive (at 6 SP) Stug III mainly because I wanted to use the model but partly as I felt it would be effective against Gary's British/French armour. As the scenario is 'Swift to Support' the Stug will not be available until Turn 2 though.

The patrol phase went in a rather unexpected way as I'd assumed we would end up playing lengthways along the table but we ended up playing across it:

One German squad deploys behind entrenchments on the road to stop the sneaky and speedy British AC racing down the road and taking out German JoP:

The British appear among the trees and are faced by a second German squad, again entrenched:

British support in the form of a Renault R39 tank appears. Until the Stug arrives the Germans have no answer to the tank really:

The AC deploys and races over to help out the British in the wood:

The 5th Column sniper opens fire on the British. In the entire game he manages two shots, one of which causes a point of shock and the second misses!

The second shabby Nazi trick is another 5th Columnist looking suspiciously like Captain Mainwaring. He prevents the British Sergeant from deploying for a couple of moves:

The Stug III arrives and takes a shot at the armoured car, hitting but only making the car withdraw a little:

The British start deploying smoke to cover their advance:

The mortar crew do a great job for the British, dropping the smoke exactly where it is needed:

More British infantry move up. They have taken a few casualties as have the defending Germans:

Disaster strikes for the British though as just before they are ready to assault strong winds disperse the smoke leaving the British infantry very exposed:

The third German squad deploys and the British attack stalls:

The Stug III is reluctant to leave the woods:

Two British squads break and their force morale falls to zero routing them:

So a third defensive win in a row for the Germans in the campaign making it hard for the British to stop the Germans winning the campaign when they go over to the offensive.

Gary was unlucky in this game, most of the drop in his force morale came from injured officers who dropped like flies. He used the smoke very effectively to reduce the effect of the Stug and the superior German firepower but the smoke dispersed at exactly the wrong moment for him allowing the Germans to cut down the advancing British.

Given the difficulty for the British to win the campaign now I'm not sure if we will continue or maybe start a different one next time.