My fellow gamer Pete and I played 1940
Chain of Command last night at Perth Miniatures Gamers Group - my French infantry vs his
Kraftradschützen (Army list published in TooFatLardies Summer Special 2015)
Forcing myself against my usual habit of defending, I took the opportunity to attack in
Attack on an Objective. I roll up 10 Support points which I spent on a Char B1, a Pre-game Barrage and the ever trusty Adjutant. Pete took a PaK36 AT gun. French Morale started at 11 and Germans at 8.
The table was flat, a mix of fields broken up by hedgerows, with a paved road dominating the landscape entering from the French (W) end and kinking off to the left (NE). Another road branch off (S) perpendicular to the main road to the right. No buildings. Pete chose to defend the point where the road turned left, with an objective set a little back from the bend, in a field surrounded on three sides by hedges, a gate opening onto the road. I patrolled vigorously, getting a JOP half way up the table on the left - the most covered approach and others back on the right.
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The game started with an empty battlefield - Pete cannily holding back deployment as I deployed a section forward on the left, and advanced a section on the right across a large meadow to the road heading south, where a hedgerow covered another large open expanse.
Crumps of artillery fire suddenly stopped (I rolled three sixes on my second phase, immediately nullifying my own PGB before it had any effect whatsoever) The sun shone down on the quiet scene in a picture of French springtime. The peace was broken by the squeal of metal tracks as a Char B1 lumbered up the road.
I got my left section over the hedge and moving forward, threatening a German JOP, and was immediately ambushed by an LMG team erupting from this very point. They added a bit of shock and Pete decided to follow up in his phase deploying the rest of the section. Before he could do this I interrupted with a CoC Dice and returned fire, wounding the German NCO. There followed a nasty close range firefight among the wheat stalks, with more German troops arriving to lay down fire on the French left flank. This was suppressed somewhat by the French right platoon, which offered covering fire on the gateway from which the MG34s were firing.
The French VB section arrived to start dropping grenades on the Germans on the French left, but the fight in wheat field was slowly turning agains the French, with a wounded section JL, even with the Platoon 2iC (a Sergeant JL) arriving to rally of shock and the Char B1 arriving to plonk ineffective HE and MG fire on the platoon. The Germans, their JL wounded and unable to yell
"Handgranaten!" (only 1 CI out of 2 required), nonetheless urged his troops forward into close combat. It was a devastating rebuff for the Germans, they were badly mauled and fell back with only the NCO and two survivors. The French, though victorious in the assault, also broke due to accumulated shock, running back to the cover of the hedge from whence they had come.
La Bataille Conduite: The poilu advance
The VB grenadiers, now low on ammo, chased the German remnants off, with a few last shots and German FM slowly started to ebb away. I fed in another section to replace the first, and they advance across the wheat field scattered with corpses, the Germans across the road still offering desultory fire under suppression. The Char B1 readied to turn on this group in the German centre. There was a quick shuffling of positions, and a PaK36 nosed into position. Before the Char could respond, it's gunners fired their first and only devastatingly accurate round (double 6 hit roll = +3AP), which smashed a weak point in the French beast and sent the crew running from their KOed AFV. An epic chapter in a see-sawing affair!
Char B1 offering support...
Until the diminutive PaK36 roars!
Nevertheless the French troops pushed on, moving tactically around to the left and once more threatening the German JOP, maintaining pressure even as they came under fire from a light mortar. Their platoon HQ (SL and 2iC JL) went with them. The Germans, FM down to 2, had no option but to try to repel this assault. This section's NCO ordered
"Handgranaten!" and they surged forward. Unfortunately none of the potato mashers they hurled were effective, and it was down to a straight fist-fight. With an unpinned French section with their committed leaders and a LMG, the French wiped out a second German assault in the same tiny wheat field as the first. German FM fell to 1 (even after avoiding one of their FM rolls with a CoC dice). The French took only a couple of shock and were on the brink of seizing the open German flank and JOP.
The
Kraftradschützen had no choice but to abandon the field and call in the Stukas.
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An epic game very balanced for the most part. My support was effectively useless and the win came down to solid infantry work and good rolls in the close combat.
I felt that relentless pressure on the advance was the only way to keep things in my favour agains the heavily armed German recce teams and despite some setbacks I stuck to this plan. The German LMG teams are powerful but small, and they're balanced by French strengths with large platoons when it comes to close combat. We played with the latest iteration of the VB rules (as hinted on the TFL forum and FB groups - max 4 shots per game per VB tube, first shot on any target at half effect) and it seemed to be effective without being a game-changer.
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This game was the 23rd in a loose 1940-themed series we've been playing at the club since February. It's an excellent and intriguing phase of the war greatly enhanced by a very nice ruleset which poses some fascinating challenges for infantry combat. More exciting for
Chain of Command players, the game should be even more enriched with a 1940 Handbook due to be published in the next couple of months.
Hope you enjoy.
Welcome, Guest. Please 
April 23, 2024, 06:03:14 PM
