Combat Commander After Action Report – Scenario LoM #8 – Codes in the Sunrise

It’s weird, but I feel funny not having posted about a GMT game in almost 6 days.

But here I go again!

It’s time for another adventure from the Combat Commander ladder. The ladder is a monthly tournament run by the supreme Patrick Pence, he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame. Check out the channel not just for the monthly Combat Commander games, but also all of the Commands & Colors goodness!

Don’t get a big head, Patrick.

(But he’s rocking that shirt…)

Anyway, this month’s scenario comes from the Leader of Men battle pack of tournament scenarios.

Codes in the Sunrise tells the story of a team of British commandos, just after the Fall of France, doing reconnaissance and collecting information from German units.

This unit was scouting a local hotel seeking to capture prisoners.

My opponent this month was Matthew V, who was playing the British. I had the German defenders.

One bonus for the Germans in this scenario is that the British are in Recon posture, which means they only get 5 cards and not the attacking 6 cards in their hand.

(Don’t forget that you can click on a picture to blow it up)

Objectives 3 & 4 (circled) are worth 2 points each. Otherwise, points just come from killing units and exiting your own off the board. And the German secret objective, of course.

The Germans (grey) set up first and can start up to 9 hexes from the right side of the board. The British set up last and start up to 2 hexes from the left side of the board.

There are a couple of special rules, but like most of these tournament scenarios, they aren’t much.

First, it’s pre-dawn, so there is a hindrance in each hex equal to the number of spaces between the current Time marker and Sudden Death. So you start out at a 5 hindrance and it progressively gets better.

Secondly, the Germans can put up to one unit, one team, one leader and one weapon on either the 1 or 2 space on the Time Track to come in later in the scenario. That’s a way so you can see what’s happening and deploy some units to take care of it.

I took advantage of that and placed Corporal Rettenhaus, a Rifle squad, and a light machine gun (LMG) on Time Track 1.

I figured what I had could hold off the British for a little while.

I almost paid for that.

Many of the earlier games that I had seen, the British made a 2-pronged attack, at the top and bottom of the map.

Matt didn’t do that, instead rushing the hotel.

Even though my private objective was #5 (the hotel) for 2 points, I knew that if stuck around, I would die.

So I retreated as soon as I could, going into the woods behind the wall.

The third special rule is that if the British are next to a broken German unit, they can discard an Ambush action card to get 1 VP. Matt never did that (I don’t know if it ever was possible).

With that, we began!

I had set up my mortar behind the wall to the north. I wasn’t sure if they’d ever get a shot

As soon as the British stepped into the hotel and I had a clear shot, even with the 5 hindrance, I fired my kill stack…and broke my LMG!

Not a good start.

Casey also moved up along the north edge, but he didn’t really do anything for a while.

I also moved the north guys up to watch the wall and the mortar closer to everybody else.

And then Lyndhurst tried to run across the road…and paid for it.

Lt. Schrader’s stack and accompanying squad were merciless this game.

Though one squad did actually get past them.

And it produced the British hero, Smythe.

A man that I grew to hate…

I was able to rout the two units into the hotel, leaving Lyndhurst alone in the street.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t actually kill them, or Lyndhurst.

That grew annoying.

And that’s when Smythe became really annoying.

First he ran to the south, finally stumbling into some Wire on the road (though sadly out of my line of sight).

Keep in mind that heroes, unlike any other units in Combat Commander, can be activated multiple times in the same turn.

Matt also Advanced Lyndhurst back into the hotel, since he couldn’t draw a Recover card to save his life.

I decided to send one of my squads down to the Objective 3 building since it looks like Matt would be taking it.

But Smythe used two orders to basically move off the Wire and then into the building.

I kept the squad moving down, since I had an Ambush card in my hand (and was hoping to draw another one by the time I got there).

Sadly, Matt had two Ambush cards and took care of them.

Have I mentioned that I hate Smythe?

Matt finally drew a Recover card and Smythe headed north toward the second objective. As he did so, I fired a low-percentage shot at him and my deck ran out.

With the time advance, my reinforcements came. As per the special rule, they can go into any German setup hex…so they promptly took back Objective 3! Of course, earlier I had drawn another secret objective due to an Event and it made Objective 3 worth 3 more points. So it was imperative that I keep it.

Schrader also dug in with the Time trigger.

Smythe kept running north, taking Objective 4 with multiple orders (the bastard).

Subsequent German fire at the squad in the open brought on British reinforcements.

Funnily enough, Matt rolled a number that resulted in only one possibility: Corporal Cook, appearing on the British board edge.

And then Lyndhurst tried again…

And paid for it.

He rallied everybody but one team, but he couldn’t move off of the street before I fired again.

I routed the team back into the hotel and then fired again, breaking Lyndhurst again.

A subsequent Rout moved Lyndhurst back into the hotel

I spent an Advance card moving the mortar next to Schrader so that they could all be activated together.

All the better to use more cards! The Defender’s dream.

Then Smythe reared his ugly head again. (Really, it is ugly. I’ve seen it).

Using two orders, he moved toward the squad in the north and then advanced onto them.

I dropped Wire on him, but I should have done that sooner than I did, rather than waiting until he was right next to me. I should have known he had an Advance card as well.

Needless to say, Matt had two Ambushes and I had one. So Smythe broke again but my unit died.

Casey was free and clear!

He moved into Smythe’s hex to, I don’t know, congratulate him or something?

Matt then had another Recover and rallied everybody, except the team all the way in the back.

And on subsequent fire, a German sniper broke Cook!

The British fired again, and the German sniper broke the satchel charge squad in the middle of the street!

I quickly fired on them and they died.

There was a lot of discarding in this game, but finally I had my Hidden Unit action!

I rolled and drew a Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) and team, and hey…an open setup hex with at least one cover.

Why not Objective 4?

Another objective retaken after Smythe left!

I was feeling good…sadly, that didn’t last.

After a British Time Trigger, the Germans successfully routed the broken team off the board for one more VP.

After some discards, Casey made his move!

He ran down the street, not taking any fire until he was back in the woods, from the HMG.

Two events happened.

First, the Germans scrounged the British satchel charge!

Secondly, the British got a bunch of points from a Command and Control event.

Seeing the mortar crew in melee danger from Casey, Schrader swiftly did a switcheroo and switched places with them.

Casey, not liking the sight of all those German guns, retreated one hex north.

Matt finally drew some smoke and Lyndhurst and his men tried again to get across the road!

This time, they succeeded, though the squad broke (that mortar team really laid down some fire once they were in the woods!)

Matt quickly recovered them, though.

Thus began a continuous switching of my mortar and Schrader because for once I couldn’t draw a Fire card to save my life.

With the mortar now threatened by Lyndhurst, I switched them back.

The German deck ran out, but the smoke had served its purpose.

With one turn to the first Sudden Death, Smythe demonstrated once again why I hate him with the heat of a thousand suns.

Because as I said, I couldn’t draw a Fire card!

So he ran into the Objective 4 building preparing to Advance into the HMG hex.

But first, Lyndhurst had to retreat from the Schrader kill stack.

I knew what was coming, so discarded my entire hand, hoping for a Fire/Ambush.

To no avail.

Even with the next discard.

Then Smythe pounced, but with only one ambush! He only had a 1-firepower advantage on me…but drew better so the HMG died. He had to draw an 8 or higher to win (7 would have been mutual).

He drew an 11, so I gave him the initiative.

He promptly drew another 11.

The dance in the middle continued, with Casey moving next to the mortar. So I quickly did a Move switch and now Schrader was facing Casey.

And Casey retreated, but not before Matt brought in another squad next to the mortar.

So I switched again!

This continued for a little while. Early in the game, I often had a Fire card that I was saving for Opportunity Fire.

But now they had all dried up.

Until I finally drew one!

And I had a Satchel charge too.

I had visions of finally killing a British unit!

(Incidentally, I also had the mortar fire on Smythe, and received for my trouble a Shell Shock event that ended up breaking the mortar team)

The satchel charge attack hit and I drew a 12 Time Trigger for the firepower! Matt wanted me to reroll that, especially since we would be going into Sudden Death, so he gave me initiative.

I drew a 10, so it was pretty massive anyway, especially with no cover!

They broke.

I was going to finish them off, but he drew a 10 to pass the morale check! (He needed a 9). So I gave him back the initiative.

And he drew a 9.

I don’t know if he heard my sigh or not.

Even worse, the sniper on his morale check broke Rittenhaus’ squad!

Objective 3 in the south was wide open now.

That gully prevented me from firing on them. I could have fired Rittenhaus to chew up some cards and get closer to Sudden Death, but I didn’t think about that until just now.

Of course, the entire British force jumped on Rittenhaus and while I had an Ambush, it didn’t matter with so much strength.

They both died. Matt had to deploy and then kill a Team, but that didn’t really matter.

The British were at 6 points and I knew they’d be getting 5 more at the end of the game. I had no strength to take back the objective and no way to prevent all of them from exiting anyway for more points.

He then had the audacity to rout my mortar team back into the gully!

At this point, it was pretty much over. My internal morale was almost gone, but I decided to see if maybe I could pull out a Combat Commander lucky break.

Matt moved Cook forward in the hotel, so I thought maybe I could kill a couple of units and actually take objective 5 back!

So Schrader charged across the street.

I was one death away from Surrender, but what the hell? I might get lucky.

Which prompted another series of retreat and advance, with Schrader chasing Cook to the back of the hotel.

The British deck ran out, but Sudden Death didn’t happen.

Lyndhurst had exited so he came back, having left a squad in the Objective 3 building to prevent any German shenanigans.

Another Time Trigger happened, but that also didn’t trigger Sudden Death.

Then the game ended in the most ignominious way possible.

I tried to move the mortar across the road.

The British fired at them.

They broke.

On the British turn, they fired again.

That fire caused a Sniper…which targeted the team.

Game over due to Surrender.

After we finished, I “rolled” to see what the result of the fire would have been, which ended up just leaving them suppressed.

The game would have continued!

Of course, I had no Recover cards, so it probably wouldn’t have been long.

Here’s the final map, along with VP.

Anyway, Matt was a great opponent.

Nice, funny, we had a blast even during a game that took 3 hours and 16 minutes. It didn’t look like it would be that long.

We both had a run of good luck, then bad luck, and my luck ran out at the end. I did make a couple of missteps, though. I don’t know if they cost me the game or not, but they made it more difficult.

I wish Matt the best of luck in future games and I hope to play him again!

It will be fun.

Yeah, that too.

Anyway, that leaves me at 12-11 in my Ladder career.

I really need to get a win streak going.

Next month’s scenarios are from the C3I package of scenarios, so who knows what it will be?

If this sounded fun, why not join us on the Combat Commander ladder? We’re a great group of guys and you’ll always have a willing opponent if you want to play.

And lots of laughter as well.

Until next month, enjoy the dipsy-doodling…

Combat Commander Ladder – After Action Reports

May 2021 – Scenario #112 – Sonnenwende
July 2021 – Scenario #23 – No Man’s Land
August 2021 – Scenario #34 – Encircled at Hill 30
September 2021 – Scenario A – Grassy Knoll
October 2021 – Scenario M6 – Breakout
November 2021 – Scenario #35 – Spartakovka Salient
December 2021 – Scenario #51 – The Uneasy Wait
January 2022 – Scenario #65 – Road Trip
February 2022 – Scenario #75 – Sturmgruppe Beton
March 2022 – Scenario #90 – The Man Who Would Be King
April 2022 – Scenario LoM9 – Operation Mercury
May 2022 – Scenario #119 – Sky Fall
June 2022 – Scenario #9 – Rush to Contact
July 2022 – Scenario #14 – At the Crossroads
August 2022 – Scenario #30 – Red Skies At Night
September 2022 – Scenario E – West Tank Barrier
October 2022 – Scenario M4 – Templeton’s Crossing
November 2022 – Scenario #41 – The Commissar House
December 2022 – Scenario #53 – Deeds Not Words
January 2023 – Scenario #67 – The Orient Express
February 2023 – Scenario #82 – Hidden Guns Lash Out
March 2023 – Scenario #91 – The Battle of Trafalgar
April 2023 – Scenario LoM8 – Codes in the Sunrise
May 2023 – Scenario #105 – La Fiere Counterattack