Chain of Command WW1 1914 French v Germans

A game for the never previously used Renegade Miniatures (mostly) WW1 French and Germans using unmodified CoC. Dave took the Germans while I had the French. Both sides had three 10 man rifle squads, two senior leaders, a MMG and a Field Gun which comprised almost all the figures I had!

The terrain was set up with a railway station and industrial area. The patrol phase went badly for the French and I ended up being stuck in a corner of the table by the railway station:

A German section and their MMG appear in the factory complex. The infantry throw a smoke grenade:

Another German section deploy behind the oil tank and throw another smoke grenade:

French infantry move into the station building:

The French MMG targets the factory complex:

A French section in the woods joins in the firefight:

The French Field Gun adds even more firepower:

The third French section advances to the left of the station:

The Germans are taking a pasting in the factory:

Casualties mount:

The Germans deploy their Field Gun to target the French MMG and Field Gun:

The German section in the factory routs, however they have inflicted quite a few casualties on the French facing them:

The German section behind the oil tank retreats to the hedge line:

The French section on the left advances but does not wish to cross open ground in the face of German fire:

The third German section deploys into the factory complex:

Fire from the newly arrived Germans and their Field Gun breaks the French infantry in the woods and the French MMG:

A single round of fire from the German Field Gun wipes out the crew of the French Field Gun reducing the French morale to zero and forcing them to withdraw. The Germans continue on towards Paris!

A fun game which was perhaps decided in the patrol phase where Dave successfully confined me to a corner of the table with few areas to deploy into and poor arcs of fire for the troops I did deploy. 

I thought it might be a bit different without any LMG in the infantry sections which might allow more manoeuvre but the table and patrol phase resulted in a very static firefight in the end. 

The fact that the forces were identical probably didn't help as well, the issue with that being that Renegade Miniatures which are very large indeed 28mm are no longer available (other than occasionally and expensively on eBay) and all the other manufacturers of early WW1 figures are so much smaller than the Renegade ones (the French Field Gun crew for example, which I think are Great War miniatures, literally look like children next to the Renegade figures). 

I might keep an eye out on eBay to see if I can add a bit more variety to the armies and also contemplate any modifications to the rules, the only published ones we could see were for 1916 trench warfare which isn't really what I want to do largely as I have no wish to make a trench system!