Storming the Citadel Game 4

We played the 4th game in our Storming the Citadel campaign 10 days ago at the Abyss. This was the first game where the Germans were not given an automatic advance in the campaign. I continued to use my Platoon 1, Graham does not get a new platoon until Table 6 but he has managed his forces in an excellent fashion.

Forces

Germans (FM 9)

1942 Panzergrenadier Platoon (no. 1)

Supports 10

251 w/2crew and LMG

PzII

Adjutant 

PGB

Soviets (FM 10)

1942 Soviet Rifle Platoon (no.1)

Supports 5

Flamethrower team

MMG Team

Game

Patrol Phase

JOPs

Rapid Deployment of 2 German Squads

Oh Dear a PzII

and a 251 with the 3rd squad almost to the objective

Soviet counter attack

PzII deploys some smoke to protect the advance

This was actually a closer game than it looked above. The Germans were able to get their 251 to the objective but the crew got badly mauled from Soviet MMG fire. I was able to start the Final Countdown and it seemed that the Soviets would not be able to get a unit to back on the objective to recapture it and when there FM hit 5 they decided to withdraw. 

Graham subsequently decided to abandon Table 5 to the Germans and move to table 6 where the last battle will be fought. I was initially surprised but when I thought about it his force overall morale is quite good and he gets his one replacement fresh platoon on that table. It looks like the Soviets will have to hold off the Germans at least 3 times on table 6 to hold off a major German victory. The Soviets are able to build up their fixed defences over these games which will make it increasing difficult to take the objective.

The Summing Up

Summing Up

Another German victory but this game was quite close with the Final Countdown at 2 when the Soviets withdrew. 

 

Many Rivers to Cross-Turn 1-The Village

Graham and myself have recently decided to have a go at another Chain of Command campaign. We both like the Early War period of WWII. I had played There are Many Rivers to Cross campaign before as the defender,  with the Chasseurs Ardennais. I have not looked back but I believe I had a marginal victory, this time I will be playing the German attackers. we used the 1940 Blitzkrieg source book for our platoon lists and most of the scenarios.

Click on the link above to get the campaign but essentially we have a 6 map campaign between the Attacking Germans and any Allied force specific to the area where you would like to play the campaign. Graham wanted to play his Early War Brits, he chose a 1940 Regulation Platoon of Guards while I picked a Schützen platoon from 1 Panzer. Our game is set in France. The Germans have no significant support available to them until they place pontoon bridges behind them.

Forces

Guards Platoon 1, FM 9

FR 0, 5CD, Regulars

Supports (6)

Barbed Wire 2

Extra Infantry Section

Schützen Platoon 1 FM 10

FR +1, 5CD, Regulars

Supports (12)

Pioneer Wire Cutting Team

Sniper Team

Red Dice

MG34 Tripod Mount

Stuka Bombardment

The Table

Patrol Phase

Patrol Markers

Stuka Bombardment hit 3 of 7 buildings, oddly enough they all had the same effect with UXB.

German JOPs, not want I really wanted.

British Defensive Barbed Wire

British JOPs

The Game

I was not that happy with my JOPs but they could have been worse, the Stuka Bombardment was somewhat helpful in delaying the British deployment so I got quite aggressive with my attack. I put down all my troops within a few phases, just holding off with my 3rd squad. The Brits made the middle large building in their deployment zone a Bunker which presented quite a challenge. They deployed a section in this building and I had to use one of my squads to place covering fire on it in almost every phase. This was effective, so I started to move my first squad tactically across the field on my right flank to try to get off the board, one of the criteria for my victory. The Brits countered this with placing 2 sections in the house on their left flank. I shifted over covering fire to this building while at the same time using my other squad, MMG team and Mortar team to fire at the building. My sniper took 5 shots before he even scored a hit. Not helpful. 

They made progress but their JL was knocked out half way across the field making their progress more difficult as he could not remove shock.

They pushed on and made it to the road but the Brits moved over to the side windows of the house and pinned them. By now the Brits were unleashing fire from their two other sections one which was behind the fence on their right flank. 

Although the German FM was still high at 8 while the Brits had dropped to 5, the attack was starting to look pretty iffy.

I had now lost 2 JL's and as you can see shock was stacking up on my troops behind the hedge with another squad becoming pinned. I withdrew.......a British victory!

I suppose it could have been worse, my play was a bit rusty and I can see now where I made some mistakes. Hopefully I will play better in the next turn.

Summing Up

German Platoon #1 

Platoon Leader Outlook: Happy. 

Men’s opinion: -3 (-1 FM roll)

Co’s opinion n: -1 

5 Dead, 5 missing next game. 

British Platoon #1 

Platoon Leader Outlook: Affable (+1 FM roll)

Men’s opinion: +2 

Co’s opinion n: +1 

1 Dead, 1 missing next game.

As Graham has the initiative, he has decided to defend The Village again, I will have to come up with a better plan. I have to say it was great to get in a game of Chain of Command. Important to practice up for version 2, which we all hope will be out in 2-3 months.

WWII AB British

 

And up next we have our British platoon. Again set up for Late War but also can be used fror Early War. Thes are all AB except for the 2pd ATG.

Basic platoon with 3 sections, 2 SL's as well as 2 men Piat and 2" Mortar teams.

This allows me to field either the 1939 platoon or the 1940 platoon. These easly war platoons had Boys ATR teams with 2 men. The 1940 sections had a 11 men but 2 had to man the ATR so 1 extra rifleman was needed. I decided not to bother to paint up new rifle-armed JL's.

Vickers MMG Team

Six man Engineer section with JL with a 3 man Flamethrower Team.

Some Snipers

Extra 2" Mortar and Piat Teams

FO

6pder, 17pder and 2pder interchangeable ATG teams. The 2 pder is from Zvedza.

Lots of room for a tank or an extra section.

Here is the smaller Chessex with a Paratroop Platoon. These are TQD figures.

So a bit of fun painting. Hopefully will do me for a while, I have quite a few vehicles and AFV's for the Brits so pretty good there. 

Time to start painting something completely different.

WWII AB Germans

 

Over the last couple of months, I have been painting new German and British platoons for Chain of Command. I had been using Plastic Soldier Company 1/72 figures and they have done great service, fighting many battles. They were getting damaged and there were a few things I wanted to change as I was having problems with transport as well as wanting no multi-based figures. When transitioning from a 28mm Napoleonic to new 18mmAB army, I decided to go with metal bases that could be placed in magnetic drawers and easily transported. The troops have travelled back and forth to Montreal several times now without any damage so I decided to transition my WWII figures to a similar system.

As AB Figures has an excellent selection of German and British figures in 20mm, I decided to go primarily with them. I find WWII much more interesting to paint than Napoleonics (and of course easier) so I decided to take on the project myself. I have finally got around to finishing the painting and basing so time to take some photos.

Rifle or Panzergrenadier Platoon with Supports

Basic Platoon for Late War (extra SL)-3 squads of 10 men each with a 3 man LMG team and a 6 man Rifle Team. The single SL has a PanzerSchreck team in the platoon. As you can see the Leaders are marked with red flowers but the SL's also have a clump of bushes on the base. The LMG teams are aslo marked with flowers to make it easy to distinguish them from the Riflemen. I also used different coloured flowers on each squad.

I suspect this may disturb some as I do appreciate that Early War Germans and Panzergrenadiers had some uniform variations from LW Grenadiers. But for me this is less important. I am more interesting in playing the game with easily identfible weapons and teams. So above we have the figures to turn the platoon into a PzG platoon (2 three man LMG teams with 3 riflemen) or an EW platoon (2 SL's and a 5cm Mortar team without the PzSck Team.

5 man MMG Team

FO, Sniper and an extra PzSck Team

Dirty Nazi Tricks for EW games

6 man Engineer squad with Flamethrower Team. I plan to upgrade this to a 16 man Pioneer Squad for EW games, so holding off on a JL for now until I have this sorted. I should also point out that these figures are from CPModels.

Late War AT Guns with gun team and JL. The gun is easily changed out. Mixture of PSC, EWM, and Zvezda.

Early War AT and AI Gun Teams.

CI marker system: SL, SL with 2 CI, Wounded JL with 2 CI (no activation this turn), JL with 1 CI, and a Gun team JL with 1 CI. These should be all pretty obvious on the table during a game and i hope unobstrusive. These are mdf with rare earth magnets embedded so they attach to the metal base thus quickly changed out.

And finally on to the actual transport system:

I glued some magnetic sheet onto the heavy card separator. It has a cloth tab that I can use to easily remove the separator from the box with out having to reach into the box and pull out each figure. You will note 4 rare earth magnets in each corner. I am pretty confident I will be able to fit in Squad 4.

The Test!

This is a large hard plastic box that are perfect for 1/72 figures. It comes with 2 cardboard separators with cloth tabs. They come from Chessex dice and are easily obtained on ebay. I have my British Paratroop Platoon in their smaller box. The separator is held in place by 4 rare earth agnets that I glued into the base of the box.

So a few additions still needed, I am working on a Bison now but I believe I have most of the necessary AFV's for both EW and LW. I plan to paint a 4th squad as a support but all in time!