Chain of Command Game

As if a day at Salute were not enough last Saturday, a few of us still turned up at Essex Warriors on Sunday morning for more fun !

I had agreed to lay on a Chain of Command game for a few of the lads, so a box of plastic Valiant 28mm WWII troops were loaded into the car with the rules and off we went.

With all of the excitement building up about the new Sharp Practice rules from Too Fat Lardies, we must not forget this great WWII set ...

Here's Steve C helping Allan during the Patrol Phase

and as they had the initiative, they were the first to get troops on the table - Americans in the woods, right of the table from their perspective

Mike Fitz managed to rush a German infantry unit through the fields on the German right and set up a MG42 with a great field of fire

As Ian deployed German infantry behind some bocage on the German left

Here, Steve has encouraged Allan to rush some troops to the village

But Ian was having none of that and pushed forward another of his units to get into the village too !

A game of cat and mouse developed with both sides only too aware of the nasty weapons around that can punish anyone caught in the open !

The US troops in the woods are waiting for an opportunity to attack

and this came when they managed to throw three 6s which meant they could get the Germans off of "overwatch" with their lethal MGs and get the Germans into hand to hand combat 

Despite taking casualties coming in, they managed to get across the hedge

Here, Mike's Germans have managed to get around the flank of the Americans but a furious firefight develops when they discover whats happening.

Mike has a second MG team set up able to hit anything coming down the road towards the village

Now, back to Steve C's attack over the hedge - a bloody affair which the Yanks win initially but they pick up a lot of shock which forces them to retreat when the one remaining German MG keeps on firing at them.

This plus Mike's lethal MGs eventually tipped the balance and the American morale collapsed first.

Not that there were many Germans left either and even the German CO had taken a nasty wound which took him out of action towards the end.

I think they all enjoyed it and we will doubtless return to this after playing the new version of Sharp Practice.