Unbelievable, but this was already 7th Combat Commander Europe scenario we played with Dave since January. Recently we added – to our daily routine of exchanging the game log files via Discord – one live session per week. It is not easy to find a slot as there is 9 hours difference between Poland end West Canada. Still, thanks to Dave sacrificing one lunch hour we managed to enrich our gaming experience with this online session.

Other Combat Commander camping with Dave:
#1 Fat Lipki
#2 Hedgroves and Hand Grenades
#3 Bonfire of the NKVD
#4 Closed for Renovation
#5 Cold Front
#6 Paralyzed from the West Down

What we played this time? #7 Bessarabian Nights – one of the most volatile and crazy scenarios we have seen so far. But first thing first – historical background. It is 1944 and partisan activity at the rear of Wehrmacht is increasing with advancing Red Army from the East. The dense woods of Romania, especially in area of Bessarabia, are perfect place for such activity. The German forces in this scenario (Michal, attacker) are executing another policing action while allied partisans (Dave, defender) will try to ambush the poorly equipped (Volksgrenadiers) enemy forces.

The most crazy element of the game is set-up – each Soviet unit is placed randomly, as per the Random Hex draw at the beginning of the game. Then the Germans can place their units on the map – pretty freely. The partisan activity is severely limited to 1 order per turn. There are no exit points, but double for elimination. The terrain is densely saturated with woods, with limited visibility and lines of sight. Well, that could end only in one way – tons of melee encounters!

You can click on every image and enlarge it for better visibility.

Our set-up of Scenario 7 – Dave was very unlucky not to have any infantry near his leaders. I decided to focus my forces on two units in bottom-left corner. The German mortar is actually equipped by the Soviet forces..
The beginning was quick and bloody – I immediately attacked two surrounded units, killing one squad and one leader – and gaining 8 VPs in the process! Tough start for Dave!
Soviets started to slowly consolidate their forces, while I moved east. We exchanged a lot of fire and another squad was killed.
When I saw how quickly partisans are moving (they pain only 1 point for each hex), I decided to regroup to the nearby forest. Another Team and Squad were killed in the process.
As you can see my initial positions were pretty densely saturated with Hidden Wire and Hidden Mines. But the idea to move North was sound – if advancing Soviets were to concentrate and attack me, that would be through open ground.
A double Dig In, another SMG squad with Satchel Charge killed and my position becomes impregnable. At this moment we decided to stop the game with German Victory. There was really nothing Dave could do.
Causalities and destroyed weapons on both sides. This time solely on Allied side.

Summary

While the scenario has great replayability factor due to its random set-up, it has to be taken lightly, as the randomness might put Soviets in pretty disastrous position. This was exactly what happened here, with two units (including leader) killed almost instantly. The Germans kept together, maintaining high firepower and when endangered by advancing enemy – moved to new positions.

That was refreshing approach, but I think in the future we would appreciate the more predictable ones 🙂 You can expect more CCE reports soon – scenario #8 is already underway!