Operation Barbarossa Germans vs Soviets Chain of Command AAR

We played Chain of Command last Monday night for the first time in ages, we used the Take an Objective scenario straight from the rules. We haven't played these rules for quite a while so this was really a reintroduction to them, we made a few errors early on but they did not effect the overall flow of the game or the result!

Soviets advancing supported by a mighty BA-10!

The Forces

Soviets - Attacking
Core Platoon
1 x Full Additional Section
1 x BA-10
Pre Game Barrage

Germans - Defending
Core Platoon
1 x ATR Team
1 x Mortar Team
1 'Length' of Barbed Wire

Our Battlefield, the Orthodox Church is the Soviets objective and they will enter from the far side of the tabletop...

The Patrol Phase

The Soviets were very aggressive during this phase moving their Patrol Markers deep onto the tabletop and ended up with one Jump Off Point well placed behind a building very close to the objective building! The Germans were conservative and three of their four Jump Off Points were right alongside the objective.

The AAR

The Soviets began the game with a Command Dice roll including a double 6, yes they were due a second roll before the Germans even get a chance to touch the dice, everything was looking good for the Ruskies! Two Sections of Reds aggressively deployed on their right near the road and a third one set up to support the BA-10 armoured car on the left! Hampered by the Soviet barrage the Germans slowly deployed two Sections and their Platoon Leader and they struggled facing the advancing Soviets! Not looking good for the Jerries!

But at this point with the Ruskies threatening the Germans had accrued enough CoC Points to end the game turn which also (and importantly) ended the effects of the Soviet Pre Game Barrage. Without this hampering their deployment the Jerries were able to place the balance of their force rapidly. Two more sections, an ATR Team and a Mortar Team were soon in action and well placed, an MG34 in the church tower was in a position to hit any of the advancing Soviet troops. With these reinforcements and some poor Soviet Command Dice rolls not to mention the timid advance of their BA-10 the whole feel of the action changed and  it was now the Soviets under pressure!

Disregarding of the sudden appearance of more Fascist the brave Soviets pushed forward into a hail of MG34 bullets (luckily for them the size of their Sections made them less vulnerable the Germans who needed to get a lot of hits on each of them to slow them down)! The Russian right by concentrating their firepower was able to knock a German section out of action but they received little support from the left which was inching forward hampered by poor dice rolls. It turned out that this was the high water mark of the Soviet advance. Aided by a double 6 in one of their Command rolls and then using two consecutive turns the Germans unleashed a 'mad minute'! Under heavy fire from the remaining Germans they the Ruskies sustained enough damage to put three of their five Sections effectively out of action and their BA-10 after suffering an ATR hit retired to the edge of the table negating several turns of movement in one go.

Facing this dire situation the Soviet Officers shot their Commissar and then retired! The German Officers rejoiced but ordered their men to dig in knowing the seemingly endless horde of Soviets would be back! 

Some pictures from the night...

The first Germans to arrive was a Section with a Senior Leader who covered the German right...they faced a daunting number of Soviets.

The second German Section to deploy who would hold their position successfully for the duration of the game can see a Soviet Armoured Car approaching them through the wheatfield...

The Soviet masses push forward, the jump off point just behind the barn/fence located at this part of the Battlefield was a big bonus for the Reds!

The German section that set up on the road along the fence line, their firing was crucial slowing the Soviet advance.

Early in the game German deployment was hampered by the Soviet Pre Game Barrage, at this point two German Sections were facing four Soviet Sections and a BA-10!

The mighty Soviet BA-10 advances!

(with no German armour available it is quite a mighty vehicle!)

Its first three move rolls (using 2D6 so it could fire its MG got results of 3, 4 & 3 even doubled for being wheeled with the negative wheatfield terrain modifier it moved at a snails pace!

A close up of the Section accompanying the BA-10

Supporting the BA-10 a Soviet Section advances through a fenced field...

the blue discs indicate shock!

An overall shot of the Battlefield at the height of the action;

From the Soviet point of view a full German Section had been taken out of action, they had three Sections pressuring the German left but their right was only crawling forward. From the Germans point of view their MG34s were starting to hammer the Soviets and they scored a couple of hits on the BA-10 with their ATR one of which pushed it back!

The Soviets at their Zenith, their advanced stalled through a mixture of poor Command Dice and German MG34 firepower! The yellow disc indicates a pinned unit.

A view of what the MG34 crew in the church tower could see to their left...

...and to their right, a target rich environment to say the least!

Well what initially looked like a Soviet walkover turned out to be a German victory, there were a few aspects that delivered the result; German MG34s, the BA-10 rolling a movement total on two dice of 4 or less for three important activations in a row and lastly the Soviets great early Command Dice rolling turned to shite! In hindsight the Soviets would have been better off deploying their BA-10 on their right supporting infantry being placed from there most advanced JOP. We will be playing CoC again in a couple of sessions time now we are again up to speed with them with another Russian Front game this time set later in the war!