The Game
When I need a good and exciting wargame entertainment on tactical level I know I can always count on Combat Commander. That game is simply unending source of interesting scenarios, close games, twists of fate as well as very exciting events on the battlefield. I simply cannot get enough of it and play whenever possible. What follows is one of our last games before social distancing / forced lockdown started. Enjoy!
Some of our more exciting Combat Commander firefights: #1 Fat Lipki #3 A Midnight Clear #4 Closed for renovation #6 One Steppe Beyond #8 Breakout Dance #10 Barbarossa Unleashed #11 Hold the Line #6 Paralyzed from the West Down #025a Fields of Fire
The Scenario
If you read my last report, regarding scenario #025a Fields of Fire, you are familiar already with the history of the most decorated US Platoon of World War II. Just a reminder, it is end of 1944 and a grand German Ardennes counter-offensive (aka Battle of the Bulge) started. The German infantry is tasked with the orders to clear all the US roadblocks / infantry resistance points so the King Tiger tanks of Joachim Peiper’s 1st SS Panzer Division can swiftly advance. They are faced by the small US recon platoon, well entrenched, which tries to stop them.
First scenario (#025a Fields of Fire) presents the initial hours of the skirmish and frontal assault of German infantry. The second scenario in that mini-campaign (025b – Fields of Blood) is continuation of the fateful day and shows much better prepared Wehrmacht attack with significant reinforcements entering the battlefield. So, without further delay, let us move to the after action report!
The session report
So the game starts just after the first scenario, and the forces from it are sparsely & randomly distributed across whole map. Still, a great deal of reinforcements will enter from the Germans edge of the map.
And below standard report of what happened during the game!
(1) Konrad started with gradual advance of his forces plus trying to save whatever was possible from the units scattered over the board (due to game set-up rules).
(2) I was focused on eliminating those dispersed units which had no connection to the HQ 🙂 ; I was also aware that the main attack will come shortly.
(3) And so it came – on my right flank, using the forest as cover, almost whole German reinforcements started the advance.
(4) The result was need to reposition my so far well placed defenders. The situation became critical the moment Konrad started to use on mass scale the smoke grenades and advanced behind their cover.
(5) If you think it cannot get even more exciting, here it comes – Konrad initiated two-prong attack, activating also units on my left wing, while the initial push on right arrived at the map border.
(6) I was saved by the light breeze which disperse much of the smoke. Germans units without cover are quickly targeted, fired upon and destroyed. But the game does not finish in US automatic victory but due to the end of Turn 12 and points advantage:
Summary
This was really long session – over 4 hours of meticulous planning, execution and exciting play. The losses were pretty historical, hundreds of Krauts vs 1 US soldier. Still, I think we will pass for now with the “tower defense” type of scenarios and will play one with much more maneuver like Our tank has broken.
The Boardgames Chronicle 