WW1 Chain of Command, “The Patrol”

 

As we only had Steve and Mal today, I took the opportunity to retry WW1 Chain of Command, using the “Cocking Up the Mud & the Blood” supplement.

Steve took the Canadian platoon and Mal took the German platoon. (Note, this was the first outing for my WW1 Germans, so I hoped things would go well for them?)

Without specific objectives, the Patrol Phase was a bit of a ‘land grab’. The Canadians managed to secure a Jump Off point in the ruined house in the SW and another in some shell holes, just South of  the old trenches. The 3^rd JOP was pushed East along the board edge, past the belt of barbed wire.

The Germans managed to secure a JOP behind some roadside earth banks, just North of the old trenches and another in the ruined Chateaux, out to the North East. The 3^rd German JOP was also pushed along a board edge, but to the North West, but not close enough to the ruined wood in the NW. This almost proved pivotal?

The Canadians opened by deploying Red section in the ruined house, on Overwatch. The Germans responded by deploying their red section, behind the earth bank, just North of the old trenches. Thus opened a long range firefight.

In order to try to break the stalemate, the Germans deployed Yellow section from the board edge JOP in the North, but instead of going tactical, then making a dash for the woods, Yellow section decided to join the long range firefight against the house!?

In response, the Canadians deployed Blue section in the shell holes to the South of the old trenches. With Red section in hard cover, working the German Red section behind the earth bank (soft cover) and Blue section working the German Yellow section, in the open, things were not looking good for the Germans?! Yellow section was quickly pinned down and after Red section lost their 3^rd MG08/15 loader, nobody else wanted to join poor old Hans on the LMG!

However, the Canadians then got cocky! They pushed the Yellow section bombers forward into the trenches and the Green section rifle bombers, wide on the Canadian right flank.

The Germans deployed Blue section into the ruined Chateaux, to counter the flanking move by the Canadian rifle bombers and Green section moved up to support Red section in the centre, in tackling the close range threat from the Canadian Yellow section.

The German musketry then kicked-in! The Canadian Green section was quickly pinned down and reduced to lobbing the odd rifle grenade at poor Hans. The Canadian Yellow section was reduced to 2 men and then routed. The Lieutenant called the survivors over to the ruined house, but the pitiless Germans mowed them down before they could reach the walls (-4 points of force Morale)!

Canadian force morale crumbled, just when it looked like a slightly rash German deployment had been their undoing!

WW1 Chain of Command is different to WW2. No rolling 20 dice for a Panzer Grenadier section. This is steadier stuff. It still turned out to be a long range firefight, but this was fairly open terrain and the ‘Patrol’ scenario does lack objectives, which tends to discourage movement from cover. A firm reminder that a good scenario needs objectives and probably even a WW1 table needs some LOS blockers!!  Anyway, WW1 CofC will return, especially as there are bigger toys to play with!!