Villers Bocage Campaign - Game 4

Today we played the third scenario of the Villers Bocage campaign for Chain of Command  (all the campaign details can be found in the first game post).The first  game were won by the British,  who reached the outskirts of the city; in the third game these were rejected and we went back to the second rung of the campaign. 

Another defeat today would have brought the end of the campaign but, alas, this was not the case and a British fierce armoured counterattack sent the Germans reeling back to Villers Bocage. As in the previous games, I was the German commander.

As we were four players, we decided to make it "Big", and to the regular infantry units used in the campaign, we added a British tank troop (2 Shermans and 1 Firefly) and Panzer detachment (2 Pz IVs and a Pak 40 ATG)

Villers Bocage Campaign - Game 3

Today we played the third scenario of the Villers Bocage campaign for Chain of Command  (all the campaign details can be found in the first game post).In the past two games the Germans had been defeated and the British were now reaching the outskirts of the town itself; it was a critical moment on the campaign. As in the previous games, I was the German commander.

According to the scenario instructions, this was a Delaying Action scenario (the number 4 in the main rules book) and the victory conditions states that the attacker must take control of an enemy's jump-off point in its deployment area (victory objective).

Villers Bocage Campaign - Game 2

Today we played the second scenario of the Villers Bocage campaign for Chain of Command after a very long spell (first game played in August). All details of the campaign and background can be found in the previous pots.

If you wonder the reason for using the photo above to illustrate the post, just read through to the end...

I played the Germans and after taking into consideration the casualties of the previous engagement  (7 casualties and the squad NCO), I ended up with two full squads and a small 4-men team with an LMG. My force moral was adjusted by -1 after rolling all the effects of losing the battle (all information available in At the Sharp End, the campaign supplement for Chain of Command).

Viller Bocage Campaign - Game 1

The Chain of Command game played last Sundaybelonging to the Villers Bocage campaign (battle report  here) prompted a heavy email discussion and exchanges among our gaming group which resulted in the decision to play the full campaign, starting as early as... today!

The battle took place just a week after the D-Day landings and was related to the early British attempts to take control of the key city of Caen. Elements of the 7th Armoured Division exploited a gap in the German defense line west of Caen and moved towards Villers Bocage attempting to outflank the Panzer Lehr Division.

The battle is well known for the bloody defeat suffered by British armoured forces in the village itself when ambushed by the Tigers of the 101st SS Panzer Heavy Battalion (Whitmann); but this campaign is focused on the actions of the infantry formations     

Demise of the Panzer Lehr - A Chain of Command Battle Report

This Sunday we played the second scenario of the Villers Bocage campaign for Chain of Command that you can download for free from the Playingtheodds blog. The campaign's background is Normandy '44 and delas with a set of pitch battles between the German Panzer Lehr and the British 7th Armoured Divisions. This is a an exceptionally well structured campaign that we plan to play entirely sometime in the autumn winter, but today we went for one of the scenarios.

The scenario pitches an attacking British force (an infantry platoon with supports) vs. an elite German panzergrenadier platoon. The latter are a very powerful unit with 2 x LMG teams in each of the 3 sections of the platoon. 

The deployment and the victory conditions are those of the “Scenario 2- The Probe” form the Chain of Command book: the defender must control an area 12” wide next to its tactical edge and must prevent that any enemy formed unit stay within that area at the end of its own phase.

The campaign materials do not include a specific drawing of the table but it provides  a general description:  “Terrain will be woods/ orchards, fields, bocage and the outskirts of the town (some buildings). Roads will be either dirt or cobblestone”. 

After putting a table with our interpretation, the patrol phase started and the final jump-off points were placed. The photo below shows the table and the final position of the jump-off points.

Deployment and jump-off points