I did not think it would happen; however, somehow, I managed to get all my father/husband chores out of the way early and slipped in a great game of Chain of Command the other weekend. The battlefield placed us back in 1940, where some Early War French battled it out with some Early War German lads. Dave and Terry commanded the German forces, and I commanded the French troops.
With the French on the defensive and trying to hold ground long enough for the Allies to retreat to Dunkirk, it was going to be a tough battle. The German commanders were quite aggressive and patrolled well against the French, gaining some excellent jump-off points close to the main objective. But they also managed to roll a couple of double 6s in the first four phases, which certainly gave them the lead on deployed troops.
One of the first sections on the board for the Germans was their Motorcycle Reconnaissance Squad, who, after three phases, managed to gain the central building of the table through the excellent use of the Assault Deployment rule using three of their Chain of Command pips.
The French even placed down a nice little minefield to try and slow the German advance, but the German Pioneer Team easily cleared a path for their troops…..I tried. This was not looking good for the French. As the French Commander, my last hope was to deploy a Renault R39, but the 1MT rule certainly made you think of the best way to utilise the vehicle. In the end, I just moved the tank up to the closest German infantry and tried to suppress them as best I could with the co-axe MG.
The Germans also deployed their only tank, a Panzer 38(t), which I must say did look the part and certainly restricted the movement of my French troops. The crew had four or five shots at my little French tank, but only hit twice.
By the end of the game, the French had lost two junior leaders and a section, which pretty much forced my morale to ‘0’. Well played, Dave and Terry, and thanks for the great afternoon of gaming.
