This week we conclude our Summer of the Eastern Front series with a battle report from a scenario played using the second edition of Chain of Command, which debuted earlier this year.
This past Friday was the 5th of December, the anniversary of the end of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union which had kicked off in June. By the 6th of December the Russian counterattack had started. For the Goonhammer Historicals team, this makes a natural point for us to bring our series covering the Eastern Front to a close. And what better way to do that than with a rousing battle report?
The recent Issue #136 of Wargames Soldiers & Strategy focused on the Eastern Front. I’m not gonna say they straight up stole our idea, I’m just going to say the coincidence is uncanny. Kidding, kidding. Anyway, one of the articles in that issue was a scenario idea from Nick Skinner, one of the two titular Fat Lardies who put out Chain of Command.
The scenario brief sets it as part of Marshal Ivan Koniev’s March 1944 offensive launched at the German transport hubs at Uman (in modern-day Ukraine) and Botosani (in Romania), with the goal of isolating and destroying the German 8th Army and opening the way into Romania. Romanian allegiance to the Nazi cause was wavering, and the hope was that by advancing into that nation the Red Army could force Romanian capitulation and deny Germany the products of the Ploesti oil fields, further weakening the German war effort. The advance was audacious and lightning-swift, with the Red Army covering vast distances. Against this relentless advance, German forces fought desperate rearguard delaying actions, and this scenario is an example of just one such action.
The Mission
This scenario uses the “Delaying Action” mission, the fourth of the six missions in the basic rulebook. Of these basic missions, this one saw a number of changes from the first edition to the second. Mainly, the zone in which the defender’s Patrol Markers start has moved much farther towards the center of the table. Generally speaking, this means that unless there’s loads of terrain in the middle of the table the defender is far more likely to be able to pin the attacker’s jump-off points at or near a table edge. But it also means that the objective (which must be placed in the same zone in which the defender’s markers start the Patrol Phase) is closer than it was previously. This in turn means the attackers have less distance to cross to take it. Swings and roundabouts, as they say.
The one change we did decide to make, however, was in the map. While the original scenario calls for a river to run along one long edge of the table, we had neither our river segments nor our bridge terrain handy. While the scenario includes rules for infantry units crossing the river – as well as for vehicles crossing the rickety bridge in the German rear area – in our play-through the Germans didn’t have any vehicles and the Soviets were likely to concentrate their force on the same side of the river as the Germans. After a brief discussion we decided to omit it. As it turned out, it didn’t matter: only one Soviet unit deployed on the far side of where the river would have been placed and it never moved (being the Maxim MMG).
Rolling for Force Morale – an all-important consideration in CoC – the Germans ended up with the best possible score of 11 to the Soviets’ dismal 8. Clearly it was early in the offensive and the Germans felt good about their odds.
Supports
This mission gives the attacker 1D6+8 points of support, with the defender getting half the value of the attacker’s roll. In setting up for the game, the Soviet support roll was a dismal 2, meaning they would get 10 points and the Germans would get 5. Additionally, the difference in Force Rating between the two platoons gave the Germans an additional point, for a total of 6.
For their 10 points the choice for the Soviets was relatively easy – a T-34/76 and an MMG team. This would give them loads of extra firepower to suppress the German positions as well as high-explosive from the tank to reduce cover and better deal with any enemy troops that might be deployed in buildings.
For the Germans, things were trickier. While the standard Heer platoon includes one panzerfaust per squad as an organic anti-tank capability, these are fairly short ranged – if enemy armor has the ability to operate from a stand-off distance they can be difficult to use effectively. Given the high likelihood of Soviet armor, an AT gun was almost a foregone conclusion, and at 4 points of support the PAK-40 is absolutely worth it. And of course with only a single Senior Leader, a 1-point Adjutant is a solid purchase in order to allow him to deploy without making any units still in reserve “hesitant” (i.e. needing to roll a 4+ to come onto the table). That left just a single point remaining, and it seemed like a single-team entrenchment for the PAK-40 would do well to keeping this critical piece of equipment operating.
Aside: One huge difference in all of the missions in the second edition is that supports are now organized into some broad categories and color-coded to show which missions they can be taken in and which ones they can’t. This helps curtail some of the more “gamey” things that could crop up under the first edition, like conducting a Probe with heavy tanks or the like. And of course it was here that I made my first mistake, because even though I knew it going in, in this mission the defender is not allowed Engineering Supports (the idea being that they haven’t had time to properly dig in), so the entrenchment should have been a no-go. Whoops!
The Patrol Phase
This scenario gives the attacker the option of whether to use three or four Patrol Markers, and it’s an interesting choice. Four markers allows for a wider flanking position, but three markers moves up the field more quickly. For this mission our Soviet player (my friend John, who played the South Africans in a number of the games in our Totensonntag campaign) stuck with the theme of this offensive and chose speed over position. This mission also gave him a random number of free moves to start – he got two.
The Germans were captained by my friend Rob, whom I have known since college. This was Rob’s first game of Chain of Command (of any edition), but he’s a super sharp guy and picked it up really quickly. His main goal in the Patrol Phase was just to keep the Soviets from getting a foothold in the nearby woods. With one move he was able to lock two of the three Soviet markers, but John had been fairly cagey in his placement of the third, locking it in a position that would let him put a Jump-Off Point a fair way along the long table edge on his left flank. It was in a bit of an exposed position, but the woods in the center of the table screened it from the bulk of the German positions. The other Soviet positions were in the woods next to the road near his own baseline and the tip of the woods just south of where the “river” should have been.
Meanwhile, the Germans ended up with Jump-Off Points next to the barn and along the stone wall on the far side of the road. This last one was an interesting placement, as it allowed the Germans the ability to disperse their deployment somewhat. This scenario also includes the use of one of the defender’s JOPs as a specific objective. The rules for this particular scenario in WS&S puts the objective marker in the house at the corner.
Finally, many of the updated scenarios in the new 2nd Edition include giving the attacker some number of free pips towards their Chain of Command Point total. Rolling for the Soviets, John netted the maximum and started with 3 CoC pips.
The Battle
This scenario does not have a provision for the attacker to automatically have the first turn, so that actually meant the Germans went first. And of course the first roll of the game was a double phase! In the new version of the game, any command roll that results in multiple phases in a row gives the opponent a pip towards their Chain of Command total, so with the Germans not really wanting to deploy anything yet (a unit can’t be shot if it’s not on the table!), this actually ended up benefitting the Soviets. The second roll did generate a single pip for the Germans, but again they resisted the temptation to deploy until the Soviets revealed themselves.
In their first phase of play the Soviets deployed their Maxim MMG team on their far right flank. A change in the new edition, MMG teams now come with a free entrenchment – the idea being that the MG is the first thing you’ll dig a pit or fill sandbags for. This makes them very economical in terms of support cost. Absent a Junior Leader they could not go on overwatch, but already in hard cover wherever they deploy, the location they picked gave them a good line-of-fire into the farmyard. This would complicate the Germans’ deployment considerably.
The Soviets also deployed an infantry squad in the woods from the JOP near the road. The command roll let them activate the Junior Leader and John took immediate advantage of one of the Soviets’ national characteristics, namely that their scouts are really good. As such, he used a Command Initiative from the squad’s Junior Leader to form a scout team and immediately have them move. Ordinarily a unit cannot move the turn it deploys (with wheeled vehicles on roads being a notable exception), but CI expenditure is allowed and the description of the “Create a Scout Team” order says that the scouts move immediately. And since they’re superior Soviet scouts, they can move 2D6″ and drop into the Tactical pose to present a smaller target. The scouts pushed forward along the road.
Finally, wasting no time the Soviet T-34/76 rumbled onto the table. The woods in the center of the table gave it no line-of-sight to anything, but it stood ready should heavier firepower be needed.
Responding to the Soviet probe, the Germans deployed a squad from the wall to their right flank with an eye towards occupying the woods in the center of the table north of the road.
Now it was the Soviets’ turn for a double phase. With the scouts ably leading the way, the Soviet squad advanced.
The follow-up roll gave the Soviets their fifth pip towards a Chain of Command die but no 1 to activate their scouts. In the new edition of the game players have the option of expending a single pip from their Chain of Command total to do a “Recce Action” to activate a scout team, rally Shock from them, or put them into the Tactical stance, but at this point John was so close to having a complete CoC Die that he didn’t want to do that – I knew he was already thinking about moving a Jump-Off Point forward. Unable (or unwilling) to activate his scouts he instead opted for audacity; exhorted to run by their Mladshiy Serzhant, the Soviet First Squad overtook their own scouts, sweeping them up as they passed. The movement roll was a banger and the Soviets were able to occupy the woods in the center of the table just south of the road. Finally, the Soviet Heavy squad was deployed from the same JOP that First Squad had used, though deploying with a 2 meant they could not be placed on overwatch.
With the Soviets crashing headlong into the center of the table, the Germans responded in kind. German First Squad ran into woods in front of them, and it was here that Rob encountered one of those aspects of Chain of Command that I absolutely love – the uncertainties associated with movement. Given that these were dense Ukrainian forest, the visibility into or out of them is only 4″. His goal was to get the German squad into the woods, but not move so far that he could be seen by the Soviet heavy squad (with its twin Degtyarev LMGs). But given the distance he needed to cover, he opted to roll 2D6 rather than just 1D6, and in so doing rolled like 11″. In Chain of Command, unless there is a specific, identifiable feature on the table that you don’t want to move beyond, you always move the full distance. Stopping at an arbitrary point on the field (or in the middle of the woods) is not allowed. And so it was that Rob’s First Squad found themselves just over 1″ in from the edge of the wood and well within view of the Russian heavy squad (albeit still in light cover).
Wasting no time, the Soviets responded. The two pan-magazine-fed LMGs of the heavy squad start barking out fire. This proved devastatingly effective, killing two men from the German First Squad’s LMG team and putting some Shock on the rifle team. Fortunately for the Germans, no leaders were hit.
Mladshiy Serzhant Pavel Stepchenko surveyed the scene before him, watching as the men of First Squad quickly crossed the road and took up new positions in the woods to the right. Suddenly, he caught a hint of movement in the woods directly forward of their position. At this distance it didn’t take field glasses to see that these were fascists. This was what they had been waiting for, and the machine gunners in his “heavy squad” did not hesitate to open fire when ordered. Their fire scythed into the forest and Pavel was gratified to see several of the invaders fall.
The Soviets also take this opportunity to deploy their platoon serzhant next to the MMG team and he places them on overwatch, daring the Germans to deploy something in the farm yard.
At this point the Soviets smell an opportunity – as yet no Germans have deployed into the farmyard, so if they can move quickly enough they can potentially shut down the German JOP next to the barn. Unfortunately they are both already in the broken ground of the woods and need to cross the fence. This means they cannot run and they’ll lose the lowest of their 2D6″ normal movement rate to crossing the obstacle. Still, nothing ventured nothing gained, so John elects to risk it. Alas, his roll of snake-eyes means the squad barely advances, ending up just at the edge of the south wood at the fence. From here, however, they can see (and be seen by) the German rifle team in the woods north of the road.
The Germans’ Command Die roll is abysmal and nets a number of CoC pips but leaves them with relatively few deployment/activation options. They fire First Squad’s LMG at the Soviet heavy squad but this fire has no effect. Sensing things rapidly spiraling out of control the Germans deploy from the objective JOP, with their LMG in that building and the rifle team taking up firing positions in the nearby stone house. Both teams fire on the Soviets just beyond the fence, inflicting a little Shock. Soviet MMG on overwatch returns fire, inflicting a point of Shock on the LMG team in the objective building (the only team it can see).
With a new hand of Command Dice, the Soviet Platoon Serzhant once again gets the Maxim MMG rocking against the newly deployed Germans in the objective building (they can’t see the rifle team in the stone farmhouse), but only to minimal effect, just adding another point of Shock. Meanwhile, the Soviet First Squad was in a precarious position, with Germans visible across both the road and the farmyard. John decides to make a break for it, opting to move across the open gap between the woods and the barn. If he could make it to the back of the barn, they’d be out of LOF and maybe close enough to the German JOP in the farm yard to shut it down. Alas, between the broken terrain preventing them from running, the Shock they had accumulated to this point, and more abysmal rolling, the squad ended up directly in the open gap between the two. This was about to prove problematic!
Meanwhile, the German First Squad in the woods north of the road was trying to extricate themselves from a tangle as well. They tried to pull back deeper into the woods to break contact with the Soviet heavy squad, but they too rolled extremely poorly and after Shock was factored in only moved an inch, meaning they were still visible. Taking matters into his own hands, the German Leutnant deployed in the objective building, rallied off a single point of Shock, and commanded the German 2nd Squad’s LMG team to fire using the maschinengewehr special rule.
This National Characteristic rule reflects German LMG doctrine, and derives from the cripplingly lethal amounts of firepower that weapons like the MG-42 put out. By using two Command Initiatives, an attached leader can add two dice (bringing the total firepower dice rolled from 8 to 10). And now, in the 2nd edition of the game, maschinengewehr also unlocks the “Storm of Steel” bonus, by which every firepower die of 6 that is rolled generates another potential hit. This was unleashed upon the poor Soviet First Squad, now in the open gap between the woods and the barn. Miraculously, only a single kill was inflicted, the light cover afforded by the nearby rail fence averting complete disaster. Clearly those rails were now more lead than wood at this point. But the amount of Shock inflicted was substantial, meaning the Soviets were now pinned!
Worse, this was the first of a double phase brought about by a Turn End! In the following phase, more fire was directed at the pinned Soviets. Staggeringly, for as many dice as were sent their way, the combination of the rail fence and the fact that they were now Pinned (which improves your level of cover by one rating) meant no further casualties were inflicted – though the Shock continued to mount!
But that German double phase/Turn End finally brought the Soviets to their first full Chain of Command Die, and once it was his turn to act John wasted no time moving up a Jump-Off Point. Using a CoC Die this way allows a player to move a JOP up to 18″ forward, provided that it is still at least 6″ behind friendly troops and in cover. That meant that the deployment point that had been used to place the Soviet Maxim MMG team could be advanced into the woods just south of the road. Now the Soviets could place units right into the thick of things if they so chose.
And unfortunately for the Germans, troops firing from the objective building had clued the Tank crew in that it was occupied by the enemy; In Chain of Command you can’t go randomly blasting buildings unless you’ve either a) seen enemy troops enter it, b) seen enemy troops fire from it, or c) moved to within 18″ of it. The T-34 was well outside 18″, but with the MG-42 team engaging the Soviet First Squad right in front of them, the tankers now knew what was up. The vehicle trundled a few inches forward to get line-of-sight and let loose with the 76mm cannon. Another change in 2nd Edition is that high-explosive weapons always benefit from the “Storm of Steel” special rule. In this case the number of 6s rolled – and re-rolled – was high! Sadly, for as many hits as it generated it only inflicted two kills. One of these, however, was a wound on the German officer, who suffered a wound and would lose a Command Initiative. This caused the first drop in the German Force Morale, which dipped a single point to 10.
Aside: Here I made another mistake; HE weapons can do serious damage to buildings when generating a bunch of 6s rolled as hits. And given the “Storm of Steel” bonus, this is even a little more likely in 2nd Edition. I’m pretty sure that at least 4 (and possibly more) 6s were rolled in the T-34’s attack on the objective building. It was a really good roll! This should have caused the building’s immediate collapse! This in turn would have reduced it to rubble, inflicted 1D6 hits as though in the open on the German 2nd Squad’s MG-42 team, forced both them and the German Leutnant to leave the building, and covered it with smoke. I guess this building was made of some really tough wood, or perhaps the Germans had sandbagged the shit out of it before the battle. Whatever the case, we missed this one and left the building intact. End of aside.
As rough as the previous phase had been for the Germans, the T-34 advancing to get line-of-sight to the objective building had provided an opportunity; Now the German PAK-40 was deployed in the farm yard, just forward of the objective building.
Aside: One of the things that I really like about Chain of Command is the way it models the “empty battlefield” so well. Usually, the first sign you have that an enemy is present is when they are shooting at you. Some people complain that this can feel “gamey,” with units just appearing seemingly out of nowhere, but I disagree. Even in cases where a unit deploys in open terrain – like an AT gun in an open farm yard – there’s usually an easily justifiable reason. I can just imagine the Pinned soldiers of the Soviet First Squad looking on in horror as the “hay mound” to their front suddenly disappeared as a German AT crew threw off the camo netting and brought their entrenched, dug-in gun into action. End of aside.
Further aside: It has always been the case in Chain of Command is that multiple units within 4″ of each other would “share hits,” meaning that any hits generated would be spread around among all of the units that were targeted. A new rule in 2nd Edition is the concept of “bunched targets.” That is, if 3 or more teams are within 4″ of the intended target team, the attack is given a -1 bonus to the “to hit” target number, which will generally result in more hits. This is to encourage dispersal rather than clumping all of your dudes together, and avoids some of the gaminess that could occur in First Edition where you might deploy a “sacrificial lamb” infantry unit to help soak hits from other, more valuable support units. By deploying the PAK-40 team near the 2nd Squad, Rob ran the risk of exposing a “bunched up” target. Fortunately, this is only the case if all of the targets are within line-of-sight, and from most of the Soviet positions the German 2nd Squad’s rifle team in the stone farmhouse were out of sight. So it was a risky move, but a calculated one that in this case could be mitigated by the terrain.
Due to the intervening woods the enemy tank was partially obscured, and even using the tank crew’s Junior Leader to lay the gun (which confers a -1 bonus to hit), the shot still missed. So close! Meanwhile, the German 2nd Squad’s rifle team (the LMG team was now blocked by the PAK-40) sent more fire at the pinned Soviets in front of them, but those lads proved remarkably resilient and only suffered a further 1 point of Shock.
Kiril Volkov was an avowed Communist, but that didn’t prevent him from praying to whatever god would listen to spare his life. Their Serzhant had told them to head for the nearby barn, but the fascists in the farm houses had opened fire on them as soon as they had broken the tree line. Every man among them – including the Serzhant – had dropped prone and kissed the dirt. Enemy fire continued to rake their position, and now the fire from the Maxim gun attached to their platoon sailed over their heads by mere inches, brassing up the entrenched German AT gun that had just revealed itself. Kiril wasn’t sure how much longer he could take it, torn between the desire to be as far away from his current position as possible and his strong suspicion that if he stood up to run he would instantly be cut down – possibly by friendly fire!
When play passed back to the Soviets, John deployed his sniper team. This is another cool new change to the 2nd Edition of the game, in that now the standard Soviet Infantry Platoon has organic sniper support, with a team included as part of the core force. Snipers may deploy within 12″ of a Jump Off Point, and with the Soviets having moved their JOP up that let the sneaky snipers deploy right in the forward edge of the woods south of the road, right at the fence line. From here they were at almost point-blank range to the PAK-40 crew. Sadly, while the sniper’s shot hit it had no effect. The Maxim MMG was slightly more effective – raking the farm yard it was able to put 2 Shock on the PAK-40 crew.
With things really heating up in the middle of the field, the Germans opted to bring in their third squad. This deployed from the JOP by the stone wall, from which First Squad – still trapped in the woods north of the road – had entered. This was an interesting choice; deploying into the barn from the JOP in the farm yard would have put them much closer to the action and given them great lines of fire, but would have exposed them to Maxim fire almost immediately. Instead, by deploying from farther away they couldn’t be seen by any of the Soviet heavy hitters, but did have line-of-sight to the Pinned Soviet First Squad, whom they lit up immediately. Again no casualties were inflicted, but Shock continued to mount and the squad was getting dangerously close to breaking.
With some Shock and an obscured target pushing their required target number to hit the T-34 very high – and not having an ability to rally some of that Shock off this phase – Rob instead decided to have the PAK-40 send a high-explosive shell towards the Soviet heavy squad way out by the Russian’s board edge, hoping to take some attention off his First Squad. Sadly, this netted no hits, the round sailing harmlessly overhead to detonate far to the Russians’ rear.
This roll of Command Dice gave the Russians few options, but hoping to tilt the local odds in his favor John deployed his final infantry squad from the recently-moved JOP in the central woods. These men could see the rifle team of the German First Squad in the woods across the road, but their fire only added a single point of Shock to them.
In the subsequent phase the riflemen from the German First Squad returned fire. They too saw their efforts rewarded with just a single point of Shock. But everyone else who had line-of-fire to them absolutely unloaded on the Pinned Soviet First Squad. This finally caused them to break, and their headlong flight to the rear caused Soviet Force Morale to take its first loss, falling 2 points to 6. Finally, the PAK-40 again tried to target the Soviet heavy squad but failed to achieve any effect. Perhaps the Germans couldn’t get their gun’s barrel sufficiently depressed to tackle these men at such a close range.
Aside: In the First Edition of Chain of Command there was an ambiguity as to what happened to a unit after it broke; it couldn’t move, but stacking more Shock on it didn’t have any further effect on Force Morale. Often, this resulted in Broken units either being completely ignored, sometimes in them being stuck out in the open and being bullet magnets as the opponent fished for Leader hits. 2nd Edition has now clarified how these units behave – if a Broken unit takes fire and accrues any further Shock or casualties, it makes another 2D6+6″ retreat move. In this way a Broken unit can sometimes move back to a covered position, but if also means that sometimes your opponent can effectively blast a unit and make it retreat off the table entirely. This in turn is important because a player must check for Force Morale loss the first time a unit breaks, and again once any attached leaders are removed from the table (either if the unit falls back past a board edge or when a Turn End sees all Broken units removed from play). As such, broken units are a little bit more of a liability in the new edition, which I think is a good change. End of aside.
Now it was once again the Soviets’ turn for a double phase. Switching tactics slightly, the Maxim MMG turned to laying down suppressive fire on the PAK-40, further hampering its ability to engage. And now that it had made its lethal intentions clear to them, the men of the Soviet heavy squad returned concentrated LMG fire on the PAK-40. This fire proved startlingly lethal, killing the entire crew save the Junior Leader, who himself was knocked unconscious. This loss of a team and wounding of a leader brought the German Force Morale down 2 points to 8. But the Soviets still weren’t done – Third Squad moved out of the woods and closer to the farmyard, firing at half-effect at the 2nd Squad’s rifle team in the stone house. The only effect of this fire was to KO that squad’s Junior Leader as well, dropping German Force Morale a further 2 points to 6. Now the entirety of the Germans’ Force Morale advantage had evaporated. Most importantly, Third Squad was clear of the broken terrain of the woods and had another phase with which to act. Things were starting to look good for the Soviets and bleak for the Germans.
The second of these phases netted some CoC points but didn’t leave much in the way of activation resources, but the Russian Third Squad sprinted for the back side of the barn, making the same kind of dash that the ill-fated First Squad had tried to attempt. And with similar results – the roll was for crap and while a few of them made it out of the line-of fire of the German 2nd squad, some were still stuck in the open. John decided to use three of his CoC points to attempt a Reposition maneuver, but this roll too was dreadful. Still, most of the men were in the clear – a few had even made it into the barn itself – so he’d just have to hope to weather the worst.
And the worst was about to come. The prior Soviet double phase had given the Germans their ninth CoC point. This was significant because six of those allowed the Germans to end the turn at the conclusion of the Soviet phase. This had several important effects. First, a turn end clears all states, so all of the suppression fire and overwatch markers were removed. Next, the broken Soviet First Squad routed from the table, taking their Junior Leader with them. This caused a further drop of 2 points of Force Morale, bringing the Soviets down to 4 – now they would only be rolling 4 Command Dice each phase. Finally, both the Junior Leader commanding the German 2nd Squad and the one manning the PAK-40 collectively came to their senses and returned to the fight. Not a bad expenditure of a full CoC Die.
But the reason Rob had been holding out until he had 9 points was this bit from the mission briefing: “If the Defender holds the Objective at the end of the Second Turn, they may begin the Final Countdown.” The Final Countdown is a new rule in 2nd Edition. It costs three CoC pips to trigger, and certain scenario requirements have to be met, but once that happens it starts a clock that limits the amount of time remaining in the game (or more precisely, it makes a sudden game end much more likely). Essentially, once the Final Countdown is triggered, the opposing side’s Force Morale is used to set a number of phases; if a natural Turn End (three or more 6s on any single roll of Command Dice by either side) is rolled during those phases, the game ends immediately and whoever is in possession of the objective at that moment is the winner. Once those phases have elapsed, the next double phase (two or more 6s on any roll of the Command Dice) similarly ends the game. The intended goal of the rule is to prevent games from petering out in static firefights, and in this regard I think it fits the bill admirably. By triggering the Final Countdown now, the Germans set a 4-phase clock (as the routing of the Soviet First Squad had dropped their FM to 4). Now the Soviets were under severe time pressure to “get shit done.”
With all that out of the way, the Germans set about consolidating their hold. Third Squad, with little in the way of useful targets, made a running dash across the road and took up a position behind the objective building, ready to reinforce for the inevitable Soviet push. 2nd Squad’s LMG in the objective building couldn’t draw a line-of-fire to the few men in the Soviet Third squad who hadn’t yet made it behind the barn due to the PAK-40 between them, so instead they dumped suppressive fire on the Soviet heavy squad, hoping to protect the PAK-40. And now that the JL of that support unit was back on his feet, he set about servicing the gun and bringing it back into action by himself, no doubt with thoughts of adding oak leaf clusters to his inevitable Iron Cross. Rolling extremely well, he managed a hit on the T-34 which inflicted 2 points of Shock on that vehicle.
Finally, the battered remnants of the German first squad dashed across the road. Even with their accumulated Shock and unable to run due to starting their move in “broken ground,” they managed to get into close assault range of the Soviet snipers, dispersing them! Fortunately for the Russians, driving off a sniper team does not trigger any chance of Force Morale loss. They did however choose to occupy the position, settling themselves into the woods south of the road to act as a blocking force. Suddenly, things were starting to look good for the Germans and bleak for the Soviets.
With the clock now ticking, the Russians decided it was time for a general advance. Breaking from the woods where they had been all game, the Soviet heavy squad headed down the road towards the objective, and here was demonstrated another useful nugget in the new rules – troops are not allowed to run through an area of suppression fire, needing instead to pick their way forward more carefully, making short dashes and such. So even though it was not inflicting any casualties, German 2nd Squad’s MG-42 was still having an effect.
This phase also saw another new rule in play: vehicles with Shock now need to pass activation checks for each position that is activated. With the T-34 needing to both move and fire, John risked not having the tank commander Rally any Shock off the crew, trusting his luck. This proved a fruitful choice, as he was able to activate both the driver and gunner positions. Sadly, the shot at the PAK-40 had no effect, as lone leaders do not carry any Shock!
With a not great hand of Command Dice, the German response was to shuffle Third Squad more completely into the objective building, rally a bit of Shock off 2nd Squad’s LMG team, and direct that team to again lay down suppressive fire on the Russian heavy squad, now making their advance. Finally, 2nd Squad’s rifles went on overwatch in anticipation of the Soviet Third Squad in the barn making a move.
This proved timely, as the Soviets moved fully into the barn and let fly, firing everyone at half effect as they moved. This sprung the German rifle team’s overwatch in response. All told only some Shock was inflicted each way, but pressure on the Germans was mounting by the moment.
But even with a reduced hand of Command Dice, the Soviets weren’t done. Though hampered by suppression fire from the LMG team in the objective building, the heavy squad unloaded with both LMGs against the lone JL manning the PAK-40. This time his luck gave out and he was killed outright. German Force Morale tumbled 2 points to 4, now matching the Soviets once again and reducing the Germans’ number of Command Dice.
And that subsequent German roll proved to offer very few activation options. Third squad in the Objective building went on overwatch. But the 4-phase clock initiated by the Final Countdown was complete; from here on out, any double phase would trigger the end of the game.
Once again applying pressure, the Maxim MMG team fired on the remnants of the German First Squad that had rousted the sniper. This fire inflicted an insane amount of Shock, forcing them to break. This dropped German Force Morale another 2 points to a 2. Ordinarily, at this point this would force a German unit to retire to a JOP, but since Third Squad was already squatting the JOP in the objective building this wasn’t necessary. Finally, the Soviet Third Squad in the barn traded fire with the Germans opposite them in the stone house. This time their fire was more effective, inflicting enough Shock to pin the the entire squad. Clearly the panicked yelling of the rifle team was having an unsettling effect on their squad’s LMG team in the building next door!
But this was problematic, as in addition to losing one die for every two points of Shock, Pinned units halve their resulting dice in close combat. That meant that 2nd Squad was a ripe target for an assault! Worse, once the game enters the Final Countdown, a CoC Die cannot be used to end the turn. This meant that even if their harried Obergefreiter could rally all the Shock off them, they would still be classed as Pinned (as that state is only cleared at Turn End).
Further, due to now being Pinned both the rifle and MG-42 teams’ firepower was reduced. The output was desultory, having no effect on either the Soviet Third Squad in the barn or the heavy squad now moving down the road – despite the latter being in the open!
Play passed back to the Soviets, whose first action was to have the heavy squad (and the attached platoon Leytnant) run forward. This roll netted the maximum possible roll of 18, sending them virtually racing down the road! 2nd Squad’s Serzhant rallied off two points of Shock, setting his men up for a future assault across the farm yard and into the Pinned 2nd German Squad’s rifle team in the stone house.
Knowing that the result of that inevitable assault would in all likelihood break their Force Morale completely – and with both sides’ reduced hand of Command Dice decreasing the chances of rolling a double-6 to end the game, the Germans finally conceded.
Final Thoughts
Wow, that one really came down to the wire! Further, while the Germans withdrew in the end, according to the updated “At the Sharp End 2” campaign supplement (which we recently reviewed here), by knocking the Soviets down to a Force Morale of 4 – and most importantly reducing their hand of Command Dice rolled each turn by one), the Germans can claim a “Losing Draw.” Had this been a campaign game, that would have been better than an outright loss.
Even if mere written word cannot capture it, the momentum in the game seesawed back and forth repeatedly. There were several points in the game where I thought to myself, “Man, I don’t know how X is going to pull a win out of this,” only to have that X filled by the other side a few phases later!
This game also saw great use of some of the cool new features of the 2nd Edition of the rules. Repositioning, the added effect of Shock on vehicles, re-vamped and expanded Suppressive Fire rules, and the Final Countdown altered the feel of the game in subtle but important ways. The latter new rule especially had a marked effect, with the Soviet side really relying on maneuver, taking big risks to get a squad into the barn and (by the end of the game) outright sprinting with their heavy squad to commit more men to the fray if necessary.
One of the things that had escaped my notice in my first read-through of the rule for the Final Countdown really came into play in this game, which was that it precludes either player from using a CoC Die to end the turn. This is pretty clutch, because some of the most effective ways you might target the enemy’s Force Morale (like capturing a JOP or forcing a leader to rout from the table) happen at Turn End. The Soviet Third Squad was standing right next to the German JOP in the farmyard, but as they were unable to end the turn it did them no good. Similarly, once the German 2nd Squad was Pinned, there was no way to un-pin them. Combined with the “sudden death” dread of rolling multiple 6s ending the game at any moment, this really heightened the spiraling sense of desperation for both sides. I think that alone made for an interesting change, though it is worth noting that as both forces’ Command Dice get reduced the odds of that sudden death incongruously decrease.
Even though we ended up playing it more or less as a straight Delaying Action mission, thanks to Nick Skinner for putting together this scenario and to Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy for publishing it.
And a big thanks as always goes out to my friends John and Rob for taking command of their various forces and putting up with me pausing the game to take notes and photos! One cannot ask for better partners-in-crime for making these kinds of AARs possible.
Finally, we hope you’ve enjoyed our series on the Eastern Front, and that the various articles and “How to Paint Everything” guides covering this theater have given you hobby inspiration to collect, paint, and game this exciting place and time on your own tabletop!
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