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.

Chain of Command Abbeville 1940 "Mesnil Trois Fetis"

The second game of Gary and I's latest PSC saw the Germans attempting to delay the BEF at Mesnil Trois Fetis.

With 6 support I went for the infantry gun, a shabby nazi sniper and a fifth columnist on the basis that Gary would inevitably choose some armour again.

The table was even more open than the last one with little cover other than some wheat fields across most of the table:

Our old friend the British armoured car makes an early appearance and heads for a German JoP, I had not realised wheeled vehicles move double distance on a road so with three dice it instantly moved 20 odd inches down the road! I failed to bring on my gun due to Gary's barrage so lost a JoP almost immediately.

The armoured car races on passing over the JoP and heading for the next road:

The British set up firing lines in the buildings and send one section forward through the wheat field towards the woods where the Germans are lurking. No Germans have appeared at all so far:

The armoured car crew get nervous and approach the junction slowly, maybe there are no Germans here at all?:

The final British section deploys behind a pile of wood:

At last there is some action! The shabby Nazi 5th Column sniper pops up and targets the British section advancing through the wheat field inflicting some shock on them:

The armoured car turns onto the main road, in another couple of minutes it will shut down both of the remaining German JoP and win the game for the British. A German squad manages to deploy though and opens fire on it with their LMG inflicting a point of shock and forcing it to retreat:

With the barrage finally over another German squad deploys to take on the British advancing through the wheat field and the German gun appears to take on the armoured car:

With the armoured car looking a bit inadequate to brave the German gun the British move up a French H39 tank, a much tougher opponent:

The British now have a section approaching the woods covered by smoke. However, with visibility in the wood only being 4" they will have to close assault the Germans to drive them out (if you come within 4" of an enemy unit you automatically go into close assault and you can't fire at things you can't see):

The H39 prepares to move down the road:

The German gun, despite it's commander being wounded, hits the H39 putting some shock on it and killing the gunner. As the gunner is also the commander we weren't sure if this meant the tank commander was killed or not:

The German gun is very well handled today, another round forces the H39 crew to abandon their tank and the next shot results in the armoured car crew doing the same. Iron Crosses all round for the heroic gun officer and crew!:

With the loss of their armour the British advance their third section:

With the loss of their armour British morale has dropped and they have no option really but to close assault the woods. They bring up all of their men to make the attempt:

The Germans deploy their last squad and await the attack:

The first British assault goes in and is repulsed with heavy losses, the defenders having a large advantage:

The British send in a second section against the same German squad, again the assault is repulsed but the Germans are pinned and few in number:

The Germans launch a counter-attack and finish off the second British section but take heavy losses themselves:

With only one section left, morale low and the Germans firmly in control of the wood the British call it a day and retreat:

This game showed some of the limitations of both the campaign and the early war period in CoC.

As regards the scenario, given the vast amount of open terrain and the large amount of support available to the British the only sensible choice for the Germans was to hide on the baseline while Gary did exactly what I would have done in his place.

The patrol phase, normally an important part of CoC, was pretty redundant with it being obvious where both sides would start from.

The tanks also to some extent unbalance the game I think in this period. Firstly it forces the defender to use their support points on some form of anti-tank gun or a tank of their own. Secondly it tends to mean that whoever wins the tank/anti-tank gun duel then has an element that is almost indestructible (though we did realise that the armoured car with only 2 armour was very vulnerable to LMG fire).

In this game if Gary had destroyed my gun his H39 would have been able to wipe out my infantry at will, whereas when I knocked out his tank and armoured car he had no option but to launch hopeless charges into the wood.

The next game sees the British attacking again, after that the initiative passes to the Germans with both sides having limited forces which will hopefully make the games a little more varied.

Chain of Command Abbeville 1940 "1st Gordon's Attack on the Grand Bois"

Gary and I started our next CoC PSC, this time set in 1940 and entitled 'Abbeville'. The first three scenarios involve the 51st Highland Division attacking the German 57th Infantry Division.

I took the Germans this time as Gary was keen to start on his own BEF, for now though most of the BEF would be my figures until he gets more painted. With only 5 support points I picked a Sdkfz 222 which used up all my support. As the Brits had 10 support I was sure they would bring armour so needed something to try to counter that.

The scenario is an attack and defend with the Germans defending a wooded area on the 4th June 1940:

Initial force morale gave the British a slight advantage at 9 compared to the German's 8. The patrol phase gave us both jump-off points in the woods. First to appear was a Lancaster Armoured Car, freshly painted by Gary:

More British appear in the woods including a Vicker's MMG

With the British section and MMG temporarily separated by the woodsman's shack the Germans see an opportunity and deploy a squad which opens fire on the MMG:

Casualties mount for the British MMG:

Another German squad deploys as the British try to push forward:

The Sdkfz 222 arrives and takes a shot at the armoured car. It hits forcing the car to retire and putting some shock on it:

The British MMG is pinned and has only two crew left. The German's rush the survivors!:

The MMG crew are killed but inflict some losses on the Germans. A firefight has begun on the right with both sides taking losses:

Another British section arrives and faces the weakened German squad that captured the MMG:

More support appears for the British, this time a Hotchkiss H-39 tank. The tank, the Sdkfz 22s and the British armoured car would exchange shots ineffectively for the rest of the game!:

The German infantry fall back sadly reduced in numbers. The final German squad deploys to bolster the line:

The British push forwards again. Losses are mounting for both sides and force morales are falling:

This time it is the British who resort to the bayonet!:

With a last-gasp effort the Germans manage to break the British morale before they either run out of men or their own morale breaks. A close-fought game:

A bit of a blood bath again, I think I probably only had around 15 men left at the end of the game though this does not really matter as we both get fresh platoons for each game while the British are attacking.

The map didn't really give either of us many options and I suspect that if  Gary had been less aggressive with his MMG he may well have won. The mini-battle between the SdkfZ 222, the H39 and the Lancaster armoured car was quite funny with numerous shots being exchanged that resulted in very little other than the odd point of shock or slight reverse.

The next game has an even more open table so I suspect my Germans will be holding on to the base edge again!