Chain of Command – “Unreliable Allies”

 This game was taken from the 2017 Too Fat Lardies Special. In 1940, a bridge is being held by a weakened British platoon, bolstered by a French infantry section and 25mm anti-tank gun, while Belgian engineers frantically tried to mine the bridge.

The Belgians have to accumulate a Task Roll of 36, to demolish the bridge. However, on any turn end, the Allies have to roll to see if the French and/or Belgian contingents are called away (a roll of a 6 on end of turn one, a 5 or 6 on end of turn 2, etc).

The Germans have a full infantry platoon, supported by two Panzer IIs.

Game 1: German command comms was a bit muddled! Steve had Zoom comms issues and Rob deployed two infantry sections, in the Southern half of the map, although neither had a strong idea why afterward? These two sections rapidly became bogged down in an inconclusive, long range firefight with the Allies occupying buildings, on the other side of the canal. As the Germans were only in soft cover, good covering fire was not enough to stop them losing this firefight. The Germans also seemed unable to reliably roll 3s, on their Command dice and hence their armour assault stalled. In the meantime, Mal’s Belgians cracked-on with mining the bridge and even ignored a turn-end ‘unreliable allies’ roll, caused by a rapid accumulation of German 5s. Soon the bridge erupted in a boom of TNT!?

Game 2: As the first game was over so quickly, we decided to re-run the game, but this time Mal switched places with Rob, with Mal & Steve taking the Germans and Rob the Allies (even the French!).

This time, the Patrol Phase was a much more cagy affair! The Germans secured a couple of good jump-off points in the North, while denying the Allies anything on the East of the canal, except for one Jump-Off point in a field, to the North-East of the bridge.

This 2^nd attempt saw the Germans pushing a much more aggressive assault in the North, ignoring the South. Their armour also turned up on time. Rob threw his French infantry section, in a semi-sacrificial manner, in the field to the NE of the bridge. Supported by long range British fire, from the buildings on the West bank of the canal, these brave Frenchmen were able to pin-down two German infantry sections, even thinning the German Red section ranks considerably!

However, this firefight did not distract the German armour. Both tanks roared for the bridge. The French revealed their 25mm anti-tank gun, dug-in at the Western end of the bridge. However, the speed of advance of the German tanks, made it rather difficult to get solid hits on the German tanks. In desperation, the British platoon engaged the tanks, with the platoon Boys A/Tank rifle, from the upper story of the ‘keep’, but this just slowed the German advance slightly!

Despite suffering a hit from both the French 25mm and the Boys, the first German Panzer II (yes it looks like a Panzer 38T!?) drove onto the bridge, scattering the Belgian engineers. The second German Panzer effectively pinned the French 25mm gun crew, enabling the Panzer on the bridge to wipe-out / rout the French anti-tank gun crew.

The French infantry section, in their exposed position, in the field, was also now suffering, as the Germans had brought up their 3^rd infantry section. Soon the French were streaming back across the canal, via the lock gates.

This left a bit of a stalemate. The Panzers held the bridge, but could not winkle the British infantry out of the surrounding houses. However, the Germans could not easily bring up their infantry to the bridge, because the open ground to the East of the bridge, was covered by the British troops in the buildings to the West of the canal.

In the end, the umpire awarded a tactical victory to the Germans. They held the bridge and it would just be a matter of time before the Panzer II auto-cannon fire drove the British out, but time was also against the Germans!