BAR Fight - Chain of Command AAR

With a desultory showing from the previous campaign game, the Americans sent in a fresh platoon with extra support in an effort to dislodge the Germans from their defensive position. 

This time, I had Steve and John commanding the Americans alongside me, with Chip and Ted in charge of the German platoon as usual. 

After last game's poor performance of the support options, I wasn't going to bother with any off-table units or snipers. We brought along two Shermans, an HMG team, a MMG team, a light mortar team, and extra BARs for each of the rifle squads (which Ted had painted up over a couple week gap between the last campaign game and this one. Thanks, Ted!). 

I got very lucky during the Patrol Phase and managed to get a Jump Off Point up behind the hedgerow that the Americans struggled to even reach in the previous game. This helped immensely, and we deployed a rifle squad straight off. 

Ted and Chip countered with a MMG team in the same building, but the American squad escaped without any casualties. We followed this up with a second rifle squad deployed further back and the HMG team, which did take some casualties.

The Germans also deployed a reduced infantry squad to bring another machine gun to bear on the Americans. 

However, the amount of direct fire the Americans could bring to bear (at this point in the game, it was two rifles squads with extra BARs, the HMG team, the MMG team, the mortar team, and a Sherman) was fairly deadly. We concentrated on the German MMG team in the building and broke it, sending both the remnants of the team and the Germans' Senior Leader fleeing. 

We also made better use of Covering Fire, keeping the other German unit from hitting on anything but 6s. 

The Americans failed to capitalize on the retreating MMG team's lack of cover, which gave Ted and Chip the chance to remove all of the shock from the team and keep them from breaking. 

Facing a storm of lead, Ted and Chip also pulled back their infantry squad, rather than keep it in line-of-sight of so many American units.

With no other Germans shooting at us, I decided to order the lead American infantry squad over the hedgerow to put them in a position to move forward. 

That plan was immediately dashed to pieces when Ted revealed an entrenched MMG team off to the side of the building, which opened up on the advancing Americans. I got lucky again and escaped back behind cover with only a couple points of shock. 

Unlike last time, the Americans were pouring onto the battlefield. I deployed a second squad on the advance JOP, and called up the third squad to meetup with the rest of the platoon. I also asked Steve to bring a Sherman forward to support the infantry. 

In the top right of the above picture, you can see John's firebase of the two machine gun teams, the light mortar, and the platoon lieutenant directing their fire. 

Regrettably, the Germans had more surprises for us. Apparently there were a couple of Marders in the next town over, keeping watch on the Americans approach. As Steve brought the Sherman out from the orchard, the tank took a direct hit and was knocked out! Luckily for the infantry it didn't blow up. 

The game ended rather abruptly with a string of bad luck for the Germans. Chip and Ted were trying to pull the infantry squad back from the courtyard, which placed them near the entrenched MG team. They had also brought over the German Senior Leader to give the MG team more chances to fire. In one round of American shooting, however, the Germans lost a rifle team, the infantry squad's Junior Leader was killed, and the Senior Leader was injured.  

With three knocks to their force morale and an infantry squad lost, the Germans decided to retreat. 

The dice were definitely with the Americans for this game, and having the Jump Off Point further up the table made a huge difference. It was still a long-range firefight, but the Germans did manage to delay the Americans for a turn. We'll see how the next scenario unfolds. 

Hit the Breaks - Chain of Command AAR

Once again the group convened at Ted's place to continue the 29, Let's Go! campaign. 

In the second scenario, "Delaying Action at Arthenay", the Americans need to capture a specific Jump Of Point, which Chip and Ted placed in a courtyard between the two buildings in the far edge's center. 

John and I were commanding the Americans.

With the Germans bruised but not completely beaten in the first scenario, they had to regroup into two squads. 

The Americans started with two rifle squads rushing for a far hedgerow, covered by an attached .50 cal machine gun, an off-board mortar team, and a sniper team. 

Unluckily, they quickly discovered that the town was defended by multiple MMGs hidden in the buildings.

And John's poor luck with the movement dice left one squad out in the open, accruing shock like it was on clearance. The platoon lieutenant was yelling at his men to get them up and moving (à la Dick Winters in Band of Brothers at Carentan) to no avail. 

I joined John in the muck with my own poor dice. The sniper seemed incapable of causing any damage, and the HMG was only able to chip away at the German defenders. 

The off-table mortar did manage to call in a smoke barrage, which brought a moment of reprieve for the Americans. John ordered one squad up over the hedge to try and make it to the next, and hopefully we could bring up a Jump Off Point to deploy another, fresh squad (turns out it was too far anyway. D'oh!). 

Chip and Ted used one of their CoC dice to end the turn and the smoke barrage, while deploying one of the precious German infantry squads. 

This forced John to quickly retreat back into cover. I brought on the one Sherman we had in support next to the hapless sniper team and managed to break one of the two German HMG teams. 

The constant fire from the remaining German machine guns was able to place more Shock on the one American squad then the sergeant and platoon lieutenant could remove, and ended up breaking the squad. 

With one squad down, the Germans shifted focus on the other isolated American squad and broke it as well. Chip and Ted then ended the turn, and the resulting loss of multiple Leaders wiped out the American morale. 

What a reversal! Chip and Ted ran a great defense, sparing their core platoon units with a couple of support options. A delay this early may be disastrous for the Americans. We'll come back again in a couple weeks with extra support points (and a court martial for the sniper team) to try again. 

29, Let's Go! - Chain of Command AAR

Now that we're through the convention games, let's head back to familiar grounds; Ted's game room!

It seems like 2023 is going to be the Year of Chain of Command for me, as Ted offered up playing through the 29, Let's Go! "Pint-Sized" campaign from TooFatLardies with his 20mm collection. 

The campaign covers the American 175th Infantry Regiment's attempts to link their landing zone of Omaha to Utah by capturing the bridge at Isigny.

Steve and I took command of the Americans, while Chip and Ted led the German defenders. 

For the first scenario, "Probe at La Combe", the Americans needed to get a unit off the opposite end of the table, or force the German morale to break. 

The Americans started with an infantry squad deployed along a wooded road, and another cover the far field in front of the farmhouse. 

With no Germans in sight, I sent out a scout team for some reconnaissance. 

Another infantry squad was deployed with no Germans in sight. Behind the building is a light mortar team ready to provide support. 

You can also see one of the two Shermans that the platoon had also deployed along the road. 

And then, Germans!

The scout team was sent fleeing when a squad of entrenched Germans opened fire.

Unfortunately, the first American squad caught a lot of fire from the deployed Germans (who added a machine gun to their defensive line). With plenty of shock and an injured sergeant, I pulled the team back behind the second line of trees to give them some reprieve in heavy cover. 

With some targets finally revealed, Steve deployed and opened fire with the platoon's attached .30 cal machine gun. 

The already rocked squad ends up pinned and broken, forcing them back further. I had the platoon's lieutenant join them to start pulling off shock to keep them from routing if we had a turn end.

Meanwhile, we had a mini-drama play out with the Sherman and the off-table 88 that the Germans could call upon with a full Chain of Command die. The first time the Sherman was fired on, it got extremely lucky and was only forced to retreat backwards with a couple points of shock. 

I then tried to get the Sherman to move flat out to avoid being shot at again. Ted deployed an infantry squad to try and hit the Sherman with panzerfaust, but missed. 

The 88, however, managed to find its range and blew the Sherman up with its second shot.

One of the Germans infantry squads had taken enough fire to break and rout from the table. 

Hoping to redeploy from the village, Chip and Ted pulled their infantry from the hedgerow. This had a downside, though; suddenly the Germans found themselves targetable in light cover from multiple American units, along with a second Sherman. 

Instead of allowing their infantry to keep getting hammered, the Germans elected to instead retreat from the table.

This was a decent first game for the campaign. The Germans took a lot of casualties, but that was largely because the Americans had so much firepower deployed before the first Germans showed up. 

We'll follow this up with the second scenario next week. 

Brandywine About It - Live Free or Die AAR

After grabbing some lunch and meeting up with some old gaming friends from my time in Pennsylvania, I finished up my time at the convention on Saturday afternoon. 

The theme of the convention was the American War of Independence, so I needed to play in at least one game of that war. I spotted a game of Live Free or Die, the fast-play rules from Little Wars TV. For a bonus, it was Brandywine, which I had played back at the Historicon that wasn't Historicon a couple years ago. 

The GM, Tom, had set up a gorgeous looking table with plenty of terrain and a very clever means of outlining hills with flock. 

The (very well painted) Americans formed a solid line on top of the hill, awaiting the approaching (and also very well painted) British. 

Unlike last time, where I commanded the Hessians under von Donop, this time I played with Cornwallis' command which was the only British brigade to start on the table. 

With Tom asking me to "keep things interesting" on this side of the table, I started off with a brisk approach towards the Americans. 

The rebels levelled their muskets and opened fire on the approaching British skirmishers. 

Over on the other side of the table, the reinforcing Meadows', Matthew's, and von Donop's brigades were sorting out a traffic jam before shifting into line and approaching the Americans. 

One of my skirmishing units had failed their morale check after losing a base, causing a number of DMZs as they passed through an infantry regiment and a cavalry regiment. Not a great start!

However, I figured that my higher quality infantry should be able to get stuck in with the Americans and see them off after a spirited bayonet charge. So I asked for most of the Command Points we generated this turn...

And whiffed to disastrous results. 

The 16th Dragoons and 1st Light Infantry regiments rolled so poorly that they were thrown backwards, creating a DMZ cascade. I lost all but one stand from the dragoons, and the 1st Light Infantry were several moves away from getting into the fight. 

Luckily, the 2nd Light Infantry, with Cornwallis attached, did much better. They forced two American regiments to retreat and destroyed a 6-pounder gun. 

As the 2nd Light Infantry held the gap in the line, I was desperately trying to bring up the 1st Light Infantry and the Hessian Jagers. Agnew's Brigade  was coming around the farm to reinforce Cornwallis' attack. 

Over on the other side of the battlefield, the Americans, British, and Hessians were coming to grips.

Unfortunately, I had to leave at a certain time, and was unable to stick around to see the rest of the game play out. As a consolation, I did managed to win the signed copy of Michael Harris' "Brandywine" which I have read, but will happily add to my historical reference collection.