Combat Commander After Action Report – Scenario #10 – Commando School

Just in case you were all faked out by my supplemental after action report last week, this is the official June game of Combat Commander as part of the ladder tournament run by the indomitable Patrick Pence, he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials Youtube fame.

I have to put that “Youtube” bit in there just in case you think he’s famous like me as a blogger.

Or a lumberjack.

Anyway, it’s June and this month we go old school with a scenario from the original Combat Commander: Europe base game – Commando School.

My opponent this month was Asher, who was returning from a hiatus from the ladder (I actually forgot to ask how long he was away). He was lucky enough to face me!

Whether that was good or bad luck we shall see.

(Don’t forget that you can click on the pictures to blow them up…I mean, not literally but you can make them bigger)

Commando School has a German counterattack (me, grey) against some Russian commandos (Asher, brown) who had been part of a Russian amphibious operation on the Black Sea.

We each had a private objective and the public one was that exit points were doubled.

The Russians can set up 12 hexes away from the left side of the board. The Germans, setting up second, can set up 3 hexes from the right side.

The Russians are defending (meaning they get to use all of those great Defender cards) and the Germans are attacking.

Only one special rule of note. Due to the Russians being commandos, they aren’t wearing any underwear get to add +1 to their melee rolls.

Not only do the Germans set up second, but they go first, so let’s begin!

One of the neat aspects of this map is that one-hex hill in the German setup area where a great leader and a heavy machine gun can just dominate at a distance.

However, there are enough buildings and other blind hexes that it may not be a good place to put it depending on the Russian setup.

If it can’t see anything, it can’t fire, and the Russians aren’t the ones that are going to be moving all over the place.

Thankfully, Asher put some units in good sight of the HMG, and I happened to draw a good Fire card in my initial hand.

(I also drew 3 Recover cards, which isn’t as handy)

Sgt Esser, being a 2-leader, could command a couple of different hexes in addition to his own, which made the fire pretty withering.

The Russian squad that was attacked twice would have died, but a Light Wounds action broke it down to a Team. I rolled really high on both attacks.

The Russian in the south was ok, though.

Asher responded with some fire in the south, breaking Biermann but having 3 Recover cards, that didn’t matter!

Second turn brought the same attack from the Germans, breaking the squad in the south and suppressing the team. But most interestingly, a German sniper broke Lt. Khukovsky!

That made things better for me, as it gave me an opportunity to move in the north (he was leading a .50 Cal machine gun with a 9 firepower).

Of course, I had to wait a turn because I had already used a Recover order and couldn’t do another one that turn. It’s always good to have a Recover order ready when you Move. Just in case.

Thankfully Asher didn’t have his own Recover card.

And Lt. Schrader was off!

He and his men raced across the street, expecting fire but not getting it. Until they got in front of the .50 cal, which opened up…and didn’t break them!

However, Asher played another fire card against the last guys moving across the road…and broke them.

My attempted rally just suppressed them (being on the road really sucks).

Asher was finally able to advance Khukovsky and the .50 cal into a building and he rallied everybody.

With the .50 cal in position across the street, Schrader and his men got out of Dodge (and the broken unit got out of the road).

And then the Germans opened up the HMG again!

Breaking Khukovsky and the MG crew.

That was totally unexpected!

Schrader took advantage of that to charge, unleashing a horrific flame thrower Assault Fire that burned Khukovsky and his men out of the building.

He then retreated back out of the road and into the building across the street from the remaining SMG squad.

Meanwhile, Schrader’s other squad decided to take advantage of the opening and run to get off the board.

Next turn, Schrader charged through some smoke to attack the remaining SMG squad with the flamethrower, but sadly nothing happened (except I had to give up initiative because Asher’s low-odds attack would have broken my Pioneer unit, and then Asher gave it back to me when my flame thrower rolled a 12 attack roll).

With that flame thrower right next to them, I think Asher didn’t want to chance facing that so, with the +1 melee roll for the Russians, the SMGs charged!

It was a 9-7 firepower advantage to the Germans. Anything could happen!

I drew a 6…too low for my blood, so I gave initiative back.

And drew an 8.

Could Asher draw a 10?

No…he only drew an 8 (which would have killed us both if I hadn’t given up initiative).

He gave up initiative and drew a 4.

Worse, my melee roll drew a sniper that broke the Russian in the south.

On my turn, German fire killed the squad in the south.

Things were not looking good for the Russians.

Two more Germans moves brought the northern squad closer to exiting and Schrader taking Objective 5.

Then I realized I had neglected to take Objective 3 with the squad moving for the exit!

That would become important later…well, somewhat important.

Let me stop a moment to tell you what was in the big Russian stack.

An 6-firepower SMG unit, a 2 leadership leader, and a 3-strength team along with a Satchel Charge.

In other words, there was no way I was going next to them without an Assault Fire action to fire in the same order I moved.

A German KIA event killed the broken Russian team with the light machine gun.

Asher only had that one stack left, one loss away from Surrender.

I moved the exiting squad back to take Objective 3 and they stumbled into the only Mines card Asher saw all game, breaking in the middle of the road.

I recovered them and advanced them into the building objective and they broke again (they must really not like mines!)

Before I could rally them again, a Russian sniper killed them, my only loss of the game.

Then Bikovets advanced next to me. I could almost see what was coming but I had no Move or Advance card to get out of the way!

I did have a Fire card for my next turn, though, so I let them have it with the flamethrower and my inherent firepower.

Everybody panicked, but a Commissar event actually ended up rallying his squad that had just broken!

(This was the fire attack that caused the successful Russian sniper).

Fearing another attack (and knowing that he had an Ambush card, but not knowing that I had 3 Command Confusion Cards and two useless Artillery Requests and a Rout in my hand), Asher charged with his last remaining units, even though two of them (including the leader) were broken.

Patrick joined us just in time to watch this final melee.

Asher had one Ambush card, so I broke my leader.

This left the firepower at 7 for the Germans and 9 for the Russians.

This should have been an easy win.

Instead, I drew a 10 and Asher drew a 6.

The game ended via Surrender (and the fact that the Russians had no more units on the map).

Here’s a final look at the map with all objectives revealed.

Notice the complete lack of Russians.

(That smoke should have dissipated at our first Time Trigger. Oops).

Asher was a great opponent, very patient with the really bad luck he had.

I started off with hot fire attacks and never really looked back. My snipers were effective and both melees could have gone either way.

He also only had two Defender cards the whole game. One Entrenchments and one Mines.

I felt bad welcoming him back to the ladder with this scenario.

But I guess you take what you’re given!

I hope to play him again in a more even matchup.

That puts me back at 13-12 for my ladder career. I have so far resisted the urge to fall under .500, but there is still July and August to do that.

Next month’s scenario comes from the Mediterranean expansion.

I wonder what it will be?

Until then, if you enjoyed this after action report, how about joining us on the ladder?

The camaraderie is great and you’ll never lack for a game if you want it.

In the meantime, why don’t you put out that fire?

Combat Commander Ladder – After Action Reports

To see all of my Ladder After Action Reports since May 2021, go here!