Big Chain of Command, 1944(ish)

Last month Nathan and I put on a multi-player game of Chain of Command, using the Big Game Amendments published by Two Fat Lardies recently.

German commanders await their turn

The scenario was a delaying actions with the Germans trying to slow down the advance of the American advance.  The Americans had 3 platoons, one of US Paras, one US Armoured Infantry and a platoon of 5 Shermans.  Facing them the Germans had a Panzergrenadier platoon and a platoon of 4 Tigers.  Nathan had somehow found a prototype of a Jagdtiger in July 1944 and added that as well. In Nathan's defence, he can't help it.  He suffers from that rare disease of "Tigeritis", where he has to have more Tiger tanks in his collection than the Germans produced in WW2. 

US infantry advances

The initial turns say the American infantry push up on the left,  with the Paras sweeping the right with its more open spaces.   They were relying on their superior training and experience to make up for the lack of cover.  Both US platoons had opted not to take any extra Bazookas as they had Sherman support, which proved to be a mistake.  The Germans deployed their infantry to face the American infantry, hoping the Tigers could stop the Paras.

Germans try to stop the US advance

 The sheer number of German LMGs caused some delay to the infantry advance, but supporting fire from the 30cals, mortar and a couple of Shermans meant the German infantry were suffering loses of their own and soon had to fall back.

The Tigers made an appearance and their heavy fire soon drove the Paras into cover, with their shortage of Bazookas making it hard for them to cause any worries for the Tigers.
 

As the game went on the American infantry were decimating the German troops, but there was no effect on any of the Tigers.  The mortar FO called in a barrage, which shocked the crew of one Tiger for a little while, but nothing could touch the Jagdtiger. 

Two Tigers appear

When we called it an end the German infantry were down to one squad at about 50% with the CO commanding them directly.  Their force morale was shakey, but they were still holding.  The Tigers were undamaged and had only lost a couple of force morale points due to the infantry losses.  The US Armoured infantry were holed up in cover, trying to stay out of sight of the Tigers while the Paras were a bit shakey, but still fairly combat effective while skulking in the woods.  The Shermans had lost one tank and, despite concentrated fire on one of the Tigers, had failed to kill any of the enemy tanks.

What the heck is that?

Everybody seemed to enjoy the game, but we did come up with an issue for tank platoons with no supporting infantry being able to still advance against enemy infantry.  That and the strange 1944 Jagdtiger.  ;-)