More Combat Commander

Played three more scenarios from Combat Commander last night this time three from the Mediterranean supplement.
First was Fallschirmjager versus New Zealanders near Maleme airfield Crete.
This one saw NZ triumphant as I was able to get sufficient units off-board (double victory points) to build a good lead when sudden death kicked in.
Second scenario was set in Poland in 1939 with my Polish bunch suffering an absolute plethora of favourable German events (two reinforcements which included an 81mm mortar Radio) Hero, and several selecting a card to discard from my hand.
With a single discard capability (Poles use French deck) the Polish proved unequal to their attacking task.
Last scenario had a mass of Romanians attacking Russians in 1941.
A really good one this one that went to the wire (we were both only 2 unit losses from Surrender) despite my accumulating a huge VP advantage.
Romanians use Italian deck (not just as bad a French but close) but their second line units suffer once broken as low morale (6) means they are susceptible to Rout cards played against them.
Lots of melee in this one.
Great stuff again from a great game system.

Combat Commander another two scenarios played

Another session with this excellent game at my Dads.



















We replayed the scenario depicting Canadians vs SS at Authie as I was sure I could better last performance. However this proved a pipe dream in face of the SS and their heavy artillery. I was forced to surrender due to losses in very short order.

We then played a Randomly Generated Scenario using same map which saw a Fallschirmjager Company pitted against a Soviet SMG Company. Ivans defended and fielded 15 Smg squads with 3 more Guards Smg squads and 6 Foxholes bought in addition. They had no long range weapons at all. Also despite having 3 Commanders they are forced to deploy 1 squad per hex so hard to control. The Germans simply chewed through lots of Ivans with a nice run of advance and ambush cards. Again surrender level caused collapse of my blokes.

Great fun once more despite 2 losses.

  

Combat Commander Saturday slaughter and a new arrival

Another couple of Combat Commander games played at my fathers this rainy Saturday evening.
And another two hugely entertaining encounters they turned out to be.








First up was a scenario from a C3i magazine (Scn 102 I think) with a Night Time attack set 23rd July 1994 with powerful German force attacking Americans.
Germans had mix of Paratroops and Pioneers (one with a flamethrower) against a US force of Line troops.
Besides Night effects on shooting we both had odd hand rules in force. Yanks had only 1 action per turn and the Krauts only 1 Discard.
This certainly made tings interesting.
Krauts were pretty unlucky in couple of close combats I initiated never having any Ambush cards.
This allowed me to take out their best leader (after several exchanges of the Initiative card for re-rolls !).
This fairly stymied their attack and a virtual whizz through Time Triggers saw them lose on points as Sudden Death arrived.

Next up we tried another Randomly Generated Scenario for which Dad rolled and found himself as Italians "ha ha and great !" roared I and then duly found myself in charge of a bunch of Greeks (ie the dread 'French' hand).
We decided to randomly pick our forces from the available chits and this resulted in an Italian Fucellari Company (a massive 18 Squads) attacking a lowly Greek Detachment (a mere 9 Squads).
Luckily for me the map orientation was narrow as a wide set up would have left me very thinly spread.
The Eyeties looked impressive (almost Soviet indeed) when lined up  with the Plate-smashers looking rather unimpressive in comparison.
However I did have benefit of decent defensive terrain ie hills and had purchased 6 Foxholes to aid my bunch.
I also set up right in the Italians faces (risky as any disaster would leave my rear areas wide open) and the weak Italian Squad firepower became evident.
Several nasty Events struck us both and yet we ended up with 3 Veteran units on the map !
Eyeties had purchased an Artillery support in set-up phase (a nasty 105mm) but this in the end proved their undoing as in the close terrain several stonks fell short breaking more of their own troops than mine. Several of these I then dutifully shot down building up a commanding points lead (one of the random Victory chits was double points for eliminations).
Game ended on turn 8 after second Sudden Death roll with Greeks having amassed an unassailable 22 points.

   











As to the new arrival this was an Ebay purchase of Fading Glory by GMT a boxed collection of 4 Napoleonic battles (originally produced under the VPG  Napoleonic 20 banner - 20 being upper limit of units per side).

This is a low complexity game with low unit count of which I started a quick game of the Waterloo battle.
Quick playing but with bit more meat on its bones than first meets the eye, especially with flexible (if risky) option to use Morale points to assist Combats, Rallying and suchlike.
Several optional rules of which only one I did use was the 'Battle Fatigue' option as bit fiddly to remember and not sure it really suits the complexity level of the game.
Nice to have as option though.
Components wise the game is excellent with nice mounted boards (2 double sided) and good chunky counters.

Combat Commander once more

Played another couple of scenarios of Combat Commander at my Dads last night (he is hooked and cant get enough of the game and in truth neither can I).











First up was a Stalingrad scenario (think it was called Blood and Iron ?) set in a built up area with Russian Guards on defence and Fritzs attacking.
Rather odd set up gives the Ivans all the victory locations but then allows Fritzs to set up into one of the key objectives (VP location 5) claiming it as their own.
This proved even more key as an early event gave this same VP location an extra 10 victory points value (making it worth a whopping 26 !!). Hindsight being a wonderous thing I know I set up much too dispersed making several squads easy pickings for a Fritz juggernaut of a +2 Leader (ie damn good) with a Rifle Squad and a Crew with an HMG.
This group went into the large building on my left and chewed me up.
I did manage to make a fight of it throwing several units in to deny total possession to enemy but again hindsight would advise that this was waste of resources as it was a minor victory location (in fact no actually worth any points !).
The key VP location 5 building was solidly held by Fritzs and I could make no headway gaining only one hex with hero and a squad.
When German reserves appeared on turn 4 they immediately bolstered the already strong defence and game was up for my lot.
I did get my own reserves into fray but had no effect as next turn was a Sudden Death 'opportunity' which of course  ocurred giving Hitlerites the victory.
Both sides had satchel charges in this one and fairly nasty they are too with a 12 effect.
I used one in a Nazi held building hex which rubbled it and thereby suppressed defenders who then duly broke but sodding well recovered.

Second scenario was an entertaining affair as well but of a totally different ilk.
Was titled (I think) 'Road To Grombleux' (or Grimbleux as I soon termed it) I decided (being a glutton for punishment) to try out French forces in the game system.
Scenario (from Mediterranean pack) saw my Elite Moroccan defenders holding a sunken road in France 1940 against Regular Hun invaders.
French units are perfectly fine matching up well one on one against Germans...................BUT.................the French hand is awful as they only get to discard a single card if they do nothing else (compared to Germans who can discard 6 !).
This means in a 4 card defensive hand if you get 4 unusable Order cards it could take 4 turns to rid yourself of them !!
First couple of turns this is exactly what happened as I had a 'hand like a foot' ie 3 Command Confusion and an Unusable Artillery request card and my draws where also poor (ie no bloody Fire cards).
This allowed Germans to advance unhindered and melee a couple of my Squads to death.
After a few turns I was suddenly down to 1 Leader i Squad and a Crew with HMG in a Victory Hex).
But of course this being Combat Commander all was not lost as I managed being defender to 'place' a Pillbox in this hex which put a real crimp in Hun ambitions.
He needed to take this hex and/or kill my remaining units before time ran out.
My chaps were stoic in defence repelling several attacks and recovering from several broken status.
However inevitably the Germans simply discarded massively to get hand they needed before charging in using several Ambush cards (to which I had no reply) and wiping me out.
Great stuff in the end and a close run thing (which certainly was not apparent at beginning) but boy oh boy the French are a tough bunch to handle.
The single discard is a real killer.
Reading the historical outcome of the scenario we seemed to repeat history as the Morcoccans apparently held to last man.

So after last sessions 2 to nil for the Allies this time around Axis acheive the 2 victories and tie the 'series'.
Cant really ask for more balanced play than this.