Chain of Command: Palm-off at Perbais

Phil and Jenny came up to Bristol Independent Gaming last night to get a game of Chain of Command in. Umpire Phil picked one of the scenarios from the Pint Sized Campaign, Taking the Gembloux Gap, swapping out the French and replacing them with BEF. The scenario objective was the same for both sides, destroy the enemy morale and force them from the (rather beautiful) table (courtesy of Jenny).

Leading the forces of the Fatherland, I first deployed one section of infantry on the left flank behind the cornfield, and a second on the right flank beyond the railway line...

An ominous clanking was heard as a British light tank clattered up the road. Would I regret not taking that anti-tank rifle as a support option?

The first section moved forward through the cornfield as I deployed a 50mm mortar on their right...

Followed by a 7.5 cm le.IG 18 more centrally which began firing HE into the central building where movement had been spotted at the windows.

Joined by a third section of infantry who also began to direct fire at the building, slowly whittling down the defenders.

Finally my fourth section deployed in the cornfield supporting the first.

British troops appeared further back in the village...

Whilst a Vickers MMG opened fire...

 Killing two of my first section and inflicting some Shock.

Fortunately the British then dropped some smoke from their 2 inch mortar shielding them from the Vickers.

That didn't stop Jenny then springing an ambush on them, fortunately the BEF proved terrible shots and only inflicted a couple of points of Shock.

Suddenly another section of BEF then popped up in front of them...

Peppering the first section with Bren and Lee Enfield fire - killing one German...

German return fire was devastating seeing the British section decimated and falling back behind the building...

Whilst my sniper picked off one of the mortar crew and wounded a British senior leader.

On the right flank the second German section had finally succumbed to several turns of Vickers, tank and infantry fire, but this allowed the third section to push forward towards the British in the centre...

As the fourth section, throwing hand grenades as they went, charged the surviving Tommies of the pinned section in the central building...

Wiping them out and taking possession of the building.

The first section then charged the British, hand grenades and rifle fire catching them in the rear...

Seeing the handful of survivors break and with the British force morale almost exhausted, Jenny conceded the battlefield to the Germans.

A good game, the Gods of War(gaming) favoured me on a couple of occasions with some poor dice rolls by Jenny (that will teach her to use Phil's dice!), notably the ambush - the first section has now been renamed the 'Lucky First'. Next up some more 'O' Group.