Chain of Command 30 Days to Dunkirk "Lestrem Blitzkrieg"

Jerry and I played the final scenario of his 30 Days to Dunkirk PSC. For this game I took the Germans while Jerry had the British.

The aim of the scenario is to get two infantry units off the far side of the table before the defenders can achieve two CoC dice to end the game. With 12 support points I chose a Stuka Bombardment, a Panzer II, a 'Red Dice' and two 'Shabby Nazi Tricks', the 5th Columnist and the Sniper.

The Germans start on the left with the British on the right. The Stuka Bombardment was immediately effective as the yellow house in the middle of the terrace was hit and rendered unstable while the house with the red roof had an UXB in it!:

The British deploy a section in entrenchments on the German left. Again the Stuka's paid off as they started with 11 shock! In response a Panzer II starts to move down the road while a German squad advances on the right with a mortar team in support:

The British attempt to deploy a section on the German right. It gets through the Stuka bombardment but a cunningly placed 5th Columnist impersonating Captain Mainwaring manages to persuade the Corporal that they are in the wrong place and should go back down the road they came from:

The tank continues to advance as does the first German squad. A second squad deploys next to the mortar team and both groups begin to engage the British infantry holed up in their entrenchments:

A 2pdr Anti-tank gun reveals itself and takes a shot at the Panzer II. It misses!:

The British finally manage to deploy a section on the German right together with their mortar team. Again though both are badly shocked from the Stuka bombardment. The Germans advance to engage them while they are still suffering from the shock:

The AT gun and Panzer II continue to exchange shots, the tank taking some damage while the gun loses crewmen and gains more shock. The final German squad moves up in support:

On the right the Germans are suffering losses despite having superior firepower as they are in the open:

Both the AT and the British section in the entrenchments are pinned. The section shortly breaks for the rear:

On the right the German squad makes it to the hedgerow after taking 50% losses but remarkably no shock to speak of:

The second German squad moves up to support the first and try to clear the British from the hedgerow:

They reach the hedge and open fire on the British who quickly break:

The Panzer II finally drives off the British AT. British morale has almost broken:

The remaining British surrender, the Germans will be pressing on to Dunkirk!:

This was another interesting CoC game which looked a tough task for the Germans.

None of us have used the Stuka Bombardment before I think and I must admit it seemed very effective, damaging two of the buildings, preventing Jerry deploying (he failed numerous attempts to deploy his senior leaders) and putting significant levels of shock on the units that did deploy.

As a result the Germans were able to advance with relative freedom as the British firepower was greatly reduced as they attempted to rally off all the shock they had from the Stukas. It also meant that some of them were pinned and almost broken before they even started. Having said that an early 'end of turn' would have negated it and Jerry was unlucky with his arrivals and the amount of shock they took.

Jerry's campaign has been great fun and provided much more interesting games than the Abbeville PSC Gary and I tried.