Vlad and I got another game of Chain of Command in last week.This time we played the attack and defend mission. I played the US Airborne attacking Vlad's German Heer. The US were supported by three Sherman Tanks, and and engineer section (comprising of a flame thrower team and a demolitions team). The Heer platoon was supported a Panzer IV and a Flakpanzer with a 20mm cannon.
The Americans objective was to get the demolition team in contact with the 88 flak batteries (which were not able to fire- they were just an objective). Obviously the Germans objective was to stop them. This game was played out using Vlad's 15mm figures and terrain.
The Germans began the game holding a farm house with good sight lines covering the objective, and their two armored vehicles threatening the roads heading towards the 88 battery.I deployed my paratroopers in the cover of a near by farmyard, and set up the light mortar were it could fire on the Germans defenses. I was very lucky, winning three or four turns in a row near the beginning of the game.My Sherman managed to fire on the Panzer IV. It still took five shots to knock the Panzer out! never the less, with the Panzer gone, I could bring the rest of my platoon up to attack the trenches and farm house.
I used my Machine gun teams to suppress the German infantry while my rifle teams maneuvered ever closer.The Flakpanzer was a bit of a pain, as it sat right back and used its High Explosives to slow my advance up the roads. Vlad was uncharacteristically unlucky and only managed to kill a couple of paratroopers with the Flakpanzer before my Sherman was able to knock it out. After that it looked bleak for teh Germans, as I used my Paratroopers to suppress the Germans while I was able to bring the engineers up to use their flame thrower to clear out the defenders. All the time the Shermans and the light mortar dropped a lot of HE shells on to the German defenses.
Vlad was unlucky that I knocked out his Panzer IV before he got to do much with it, as it meant I was free to maneuver closer to the targets. I was pleased with how well able to use fire and maneuver tactics to advance through cover while suppressing the Germans. As paratroopers are Elite solders the -1 to the Germans shooting due to the effects of suppressing fire meant that it was very hard for Vlad to stop my men advancing.
Here are a few pictures from the game...