Below you will find another fantastic article from David Waldorf, one of our InsideGMT contributors. If you would like to read his previous articles on InsideGMT, you can find those here. Enjoy! -Rachel

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For those who may not be aware, there are two official bonus scenarios for Combat Commander: Europe that can be downloaded from the game’s page on the GMT website (scroll down a bit to the “Online Resources” section). I recently decided to play one of these scenarios (101) for the first time, and below you will find my brief After Action Report, along with a discussion of what went well and what I would do differently next time. I played Lonely Wargamer style; solo, working both sides to the best of their ability without any special solo rules.

After Action Report

There are a lot of troops and weapons in this scenario so I won’t give detailed setup information. If you check out the scenario you will see that it is played on Map 6, with a diagonal line of No Man’s land hexes splitting it into Axis and Allied sides. No troops may be placed in No Man’s Land, but both sides may place fortifications there—which in my case they mainly refrained from doing, in order to keep the land open for later advancement or to prevent the enemy from seizing an easy bunker.  The troops were arrayed along the line on both sides, with some Russians hanging back to defend Objectives 1 and 5, and because there was not enough space to fit them all on the front line.  The Germans did similarly, protecting Objectives 2 and 4.  With Objective 3 being in German control but extending into the neutral area, it was an obvious hot spot and the Russians positioned many of their best assault units near there.

The open objective chit says that Objective 4 is worth 3 victory points, putting the Germans in the lead at the start.  The Germans draw an open objective, saying that there is a Sudden Death victory if all Objectives are controlled by one side.  The Russians get a secret one saying that each objective is worth 2 points, so they can immediately see they will have to gain some ground to win this game.

Importantly, the Russians win the coin toss start, and so are able to jump into the other side of the Objective 3 building on their first turn.  This goes virtually unopposed as the Germans are able to to little about it, and on their turn they simply discard their entire hand and redraw.  During the next round the Russians are able to break the German troop occupying the other side of Objective 3, and the Germans again fail to make a significant response, despite trying.  The Germans begin moving a squad up from the back of their lines, anticipating further trouble in Objective 3. 

Another turn goes by with neither side gaining much, but on the fourth turn the Russians shift attention to the east side of the map and make largely unopposed advances on the German line there.  For their part, the Germans are finally able to play an Advance card to move in on the Russians that are sharing Objective 3 with them, and after an epic back-and-forth with the initiative card the Germans win the melee, earning a bunch of points for the eliminated Russian soldiers.  Over the course of the next several turns the Germans hold their ground, but their forces in multiple hexes take a beating.  At some point another open objective chit is drawn that grants the Germans another three points for holding Objective 3, effectively painting a bigger target on that objective for the Russians.

After steadily chipping away at Objective 3 and making several attempts to force the Germans out, the Russians finally manage to take it and gain a six-point swing on the VP track.  After taking into account losses on both sides they are now only down by one point.  The Germans on their turn jump new squads back into the other side of Objective 3, realizing this is a do-or-die situation.

Several more turns pass with the normal give-and take of war.  Fire breaks out.  Several TIME! Triggers occur, moving the game towards an end point.  The situation for the Germans grows increasingly more dismal as they continue to lose troops and ground.  On turn 15 they attempt to retake Objective 3, but with equal melee strength the Russians roll a 12 and the Germans lose the fight.  By now, the game is all but certain to end in victory for the Russians, unless the Germans can inflict heavy casualties.

Despite getting some reinforcements and seizing and capitalizing on a clumsy Russian troop reorganization, the Germans end up drawing an open objective chit that gives the Russians another five VP’s, bringing their current total to 11.  This will change a bit over the course of the next several turns, but the Germans never really recover.  The game ends on the 20^th round when a TIME! Trigger causes sudden death.  Adding up all the Objective chits, the Russians end up with 12 points and a decisive victory.

Lessons Learned

Most of the lessons learned here have to do with the terrain on map 6.  Particularly on the east side of this map, which didn’t play a huge role in the outcome of my game but did spring some surprises in the way of cover and LOS.  The buildings in the 8s and 9s of K through O are not as defensible a position as they might at first appear against an attack from the north.  For example, you do not actually have to cross open ground to get to K, M, or O 8 from the north; since they contain two types of terrain, they fall under rule T78.1 which states that the building takes precedence.  You have to factor in rule T93 for roads and buildings in the same hex, meaning the cover from the building is only 2 instead of 3, but that still makes it easier to assault than it first looks.  N8 in particular is a tricky hex, because you can’t target anyone in K7 and L7 due to the building projection in M8 that blocks LOS.  With the way the No Man’s Land cuts through the area in this scenario, it’s almost not worth stationing any Germans in that complex because the position is tricky to defend.

Another time I might not put the Germans in a line, but group them heavily in defensible areas.  Perhaps focus on one offensive front, and use the allotted fortifications to help defend objectives.  The Russians have the tools and manpower to punch through lines, and the Germans are not able to withstand a concentrated and prolonged Russian assault.  They cannot afford to take as many casualties and must fight strategically, giving ground when needed, reinforcing each other, and trying to push the game towards a more rapid conclusion.  They do have a slight advantage in being in control of more objectives at game start, though if the Russians win the coin toss it is likely they will enter the building.  The objective chits drawn can make a huge difference in this game, and if Objective 3 is openly available for points the struggle will be most concentrated there, as it was in my game.

The Russians get a lot of good leaders in this scenario, and careful management of them will enable you to activate a lot of units at a given time.  Even though both sides have a defensive posture (4 cards), the Russians need to be the aggressor in order to break the slight German lead, and positioning your leaders for maximum flexibility will help you make the most of the cards you have.

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