April 9th-Game 6

 

A couple of weeks ago, we got in our 6th game in the April 9th CoC campaign based on the German invasion of Denmark on the date in 1940. This was the final table in the campaign, appropriately called "Death walks the Streets" The situation was grim for the Danes, they only had 15 men in total left from a starting group of 34. By winning 2 games on Table 3, we were in a position to end up with a draw in the campaign, but a victory in this game would have resulted in a "Morale Victory" for the Danish nation.

Eero has just posted his usual excellent report in the Wargamer's Forum, so you can see what happened by having a look, but I felt I should post some of his excellent photos here.

I should say in conclusion that these guys are great to game with, I have learned quite a few things about playing Chain of Command from them. 

We playing a Drive on Minsk campaign next, this is a homegrown variant on Big Chain of Command which had been partially played a couple of years ago, I am on the Soviet team so it should be fun. After that a Winter War campaign is planned, so lots more gaming planned for Tuesdays mornings!

April 9th-Game 5

Last week, we had our 5th game in our Virtual 1940 campaign detailing the German invasion of Denmark. Both sides were now whittled down with the Danes being able to field just 2 squads. This was the 3rd German attack on Table 3. The German SL Petri was able to dice for quite high support and I was suspicious that he would finally take some armour so I felt it best to take a Madsen 20mm Autocannon.

My JOP's were a little wider spread this time and were a bit more advanced in order to deploy more closely to the Germans in a hope to get some close range fire. As it was the Germans did not take any armour and instead took an extra squad and attacked in strength on the Danish right flank. We were able to hold off our deployment until the Germans were in close range but unfortunately for the first time in the campaign our firing was quite inaccurate and we were unable to to cause any Force Morale loss. I had planned to withdraw early in this game as I felt 2 successful defences on this table was reasonable but unfortunately I was less then nimble and we took quite a few casualties before I issued the command. 

So we are on the last table which is as you can see below. This is being played as an Attack on an Objective scenario with the objective being the star marked gazebo at the bottom centre. The grey houses can be occupied by troops. I suspect we will be facing 4 German squads again, some with 2 LMGs. The Danes have lost 19 men so only have 15 men left (5 leaders) to defend the village, this is going to be tough. In respect to the campaign, if we lose on turn 6, it will be a draw, one more success would be a victory for the Danes.

Have a look at  Eero's excellent and quite amusing Action Report, well narrated with terrific photos.

April 9th-Game 4

We had another game in the April 9th campaign this past Tuesday. This was a replay of our 3rd game as the Danes had held the table, we decided to go with the exact same JOP's as our previous game. For a terrific report on the game have a look here, but I can tell you that the Danes are doing their country well.

April 9th Campaign -Game 3

This past Tuesday we gathered online for our 3rd game in our Denmark, 1940 campaign. We had played our Patrol Phase the day before and our positions are as below. As you can see Eero set up a beautiful terrain for us. The German JOP's are in blue, with the Danish ones in red.

I felt this was going to be a pretty tough game for the Germans, as they had to capture my JOP in the windmill. To find another excellent AR and the result of the action, please click here! 

April 9th Campaign-Game 2

We got together this past Tuesday for game 2 in the April 9th campaign. 

This was going to be a tough one for the Danish team as we were down 11 men, almost 1 1/2 squads. As SL I decided to re-organize my troops into 3 squads only, 2 full squads of comprised of a JL with a LMG team as well as a 5 man rifle team. Squad 3 was a JL and 2 LMG teams of 2 men each. My firepower was a little more than half of what the German firepower would be. I took a MO and Adjutant, knowing that I would have to field my SL's early and I would have to have the ability to patch them up.

The Germans were just down 2 men, I am not sure what their support was but I suspect it was an adjutant.

We played the Patrol Phase the day before and the result was as below, the red being the Germans. I should note that we were playing the Patrol scenario, something I have not done often. Petri, the German SL started at red arrow 1, while Danes started at blue arrow 1. 

It is interesting because I suspect our plans were quite different, the Germans clearly want to advance rapidly forward as you can see. I really wanted to set up a small defensive perimeter on my base, thus I moved laterally with my Patrol Markers. The forest was light with an 18" LOS so I preferred to defend the clearings rather than the forests. I was quite happy where I ended up as I was ready to sacrifice my JOP in the small forest, but wanted it there in case I could get an opportunity to Ambush.

As it was the Germans had a FM of 11 while the Danes had a FM of 10 so they got too move first. They rapidly deployed all 4 of their squads and advanced to the north and to the east. I set up 2 squads in alpha/beta 5 quadrants, and did put 1 squad behind the small forest in alpha 3. This was almost a catastrophe but JL #1, Alessandro pulled off a great escape cycling rapidly untoward the woods in alpha 4 and then dismounting and moving tactically. The Danes were quite lucky with their CD throws, getting an early triple 6, thus removing the advantage that the Germans had with their rapid deployment on overwatch. Danish JL #2 Lagen was able to manoeuvre himself into a clever firing position where the Germans in Charlie/Beta 3 on overwatch were out of LOS but was able to fire on a German squad that had exposed themselves in Beta 3. There was also another German squad exposed in alpha 2, who both my JL's were able to fire on.

The Germans started to take casualties, not a lot; but their SL Petri felt their position was untenable and decided to withdraw before they suffered further damage. This was a one-off table, so on to table 3. A Danish Victory.

A few screen captures.

You can find an excellent report with great photos written up by Eero on the Wargamer's Forum.

April 9th: A Virtual Campaign from Finland

 

I was recently invited by some gamers in Finland to join a Chain of Command campaign based on the German invasion of Denmark in 1940. The campaign itself can be found here. It is based on the Danish film appropriately called April 9th. I can highly recommend the film, I was able to stream it on Amazon.

Tuesdays, is the GeMiGaBok club meeting night, so we gathered this week virtually through Discord for our first game. Somehow or another, I ended up being the Danish SL, which I suspect after our first game will be a very tough task. I was assisted by 2 JL's, Alessandro from Italy and Sabbath, a club member. Opposing us was the German team, headed by Petri, with assistance from Janne and Bill, again all club members. The game was GMed by Eero, with whom I have been communicating with for some years. I have always been interested in the Winter War between the Finns and the Soviets in 1939-40 and he has been an excellent reference for me. I was quite happy, that  I was invited to join the game.

I had not played a full game through Discord before and I was impressed on how well it worked. You can run multiple cameras through the server and at the same time in the text channels roll dice and post still photos of the action. It is also possible to send private messages while the game is ongoing to members of your platoon and the GM. I will be looking at this further for sure. The below photo gives you a sense on how it looks. As you can see there was an overview camera with 2 other cameras, each showing the opposing sides edge, this was followed in the right panel by the avatars of each player, I am the Revenant!

Anyway on to the game, we had played the patrol phase a couple of days before and the starting map with the JOP's is as below. The German approach is marked by the red dot on the road, with the blue circles being the rough position of the German JOP's, while the red circles were the Danish JOP's.

The above game was the Probe scenario from the CoC rulebook, the Germans diced for support and got a 1, I took a Medic and I think the Germans took an adjutant. You can find the Danish Platoon composition in the campaign booklet, but to simply describe things, we both had regular platoons with 4 squads each. The German platoon was a 7th Wave Division platoon from Army Group C as laid out in the CoC Blitzkrieg 1940 sourcebook. The main difference between the platoons was that the Danes have 2 SL's and the Germans one, but the Germans have MG34 LMG (8d6) while the Danes have a Madsen M24 LMG (6d6). The German squads were 10 men, while the Danish squads were 8 men, but the Danes had bicycles! The Danes started with a FM of 9 and the Germans 8.

Rather, then redoing the report here, I will direct you to Eero's superb AR with plenty of photos. Things did not go that well for the Danes, but where there is life there is hope!