Another playtest game of Chain of Command...

Yet again Gus and Jason visited my place, Casa del Stumpy,  as J likes to call it, where Jasons newly based US Paras (loverly figures) faced of against the newly based Fallschirmjagers (even more loverly figures). The US, commanded by Me, Nathan, were attacking a Fallschirmjager infested town, commanded by Jason, this was very loosely based on Easy Company's attack on Carentan.



Jump off points are deployed

Initial recce put the Paras on the ridge just outside the town while the Germans occupied the buildings at the edge of the town. The Americans had a reinforced platoon, giving them 4 squads (12 men with 1 LMG each), a 60mm mortar and a FOO able to call in 81mm mortar fire. The Germans had 3 squads (10 men with 2 LMGs each) and a 2 man AT team.


US Paras appear

Fallschirmjagers deploy in the cafe

German NCO and right flank unit.

         





 The US advanced on their left, with 2 squads facing 1 FJ squad while the other 2 squads engaged the remaining Germans with suppressing fire. This tactic didn't work the way I wanted, although in the long term it won me the game. The fire of 2 German squads worked out at 36 dice(4 LMGs with 8 each and 4 riflemen), Hellish firepower, I cringed every time he rolled the dice. This proved too much for the right hand US squad and they were forced back with lots of "shock" hits, but only 2 dead. The US return fire was 32 dice(2 LMGs with 8 each and 16 riflemen), which wasn't much less but the Germans were also in hard cover. Although the shock effect was much less, the US fire killed more Germans. US riflemen reroll 1's to hit, due to the Garand rifles. It doesn't sound like much but it does make a difference to their fire.


Sarge is down!

On the left the Paras advanced to the edge of the field, then came under accurate fire from the German squad. Despite their best efforts they were forced to go to ground. Their return fire did manage to kill a few more Germans though, this "few hits but always a kill" effect was starting to cause the Germans some problems as they started to run out of men.



Boom boom boom...missed!

As the game went on the American continued to whittle away at the Germans, despite taking much more shock. Their superiority in NCOs allowed them to rally the shock more effectively than the Germans.






Another turn and the FOO managed to bring in the 81mm mortar support. Despite his spotting round being on target, the actual barrage shifted just enough to miss the Germans.....unfortunately. As time went on though, the steady attrition of Germans caused their morale to go and they were forced to fall back. with the US suffering a large number of squad NCO hits, all of which cause a possible loss of force morale, but this was not quite enough. Every US squad had their NCO either killed or wounded, which resulted in the platoon officers and NCOs having to step in. Good old Capt. Winters, Sargeant Lipton, and even Lt. Spears stepped up to thye plate...  It was a good game again though, with yours truly managing another win, just... I really like the playability of this game and the potential is massive, keep an eye out for it from Two Fat Lardies when it is released...
Pictures and commentary courtesy of Jason.