Combat Commander – After Action Report – Scenario 28 – No Ingouf Around

Pardon me if you’ve seen this before.

Yes, the August scenario for our Combat Commander ladder tournament is a scenario that I’ve already played twice now.

I’ve even written up one of them.

The other one happened last month, and I didn’t want to do two AARs of the same scenario within a month of each other.

That being said, that one might have been more interesting to read about than this month’s.

Not that the scenario wasn’t fun! I really enjoyed the play.

I’m just not sure how riveting the actual read will be.

You will get to see one of the most colossal blunders in the history of the game (or the most effective mind-fuck ever, you be the judge) in this post, so maybe it will be interesting!

Let’s see, shall we?

But allow me start at the beginning.

Welcome to another adventure on the Combat Commander ladder, that monthly tournament of one of my favourite games where we get to play a different scenario each month from the base game or the many battle packs/expansions that are out there.

Led by the noble Patrick Pence of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame (and he is noble! He’s now Number 1 on the ladder, which means he can’t complain about his luck anymore), this ladder gives all players an opportunity to play a favourite game once a month, and even more if you join the Discord and look for opponents!

I’m sure Tony is waiting for your call.

This month’s opponent was Ted L, who I think Patrick played last month?

Or I could be misremembering.

(Research? What does that mean?)

He’s also a first-time opponent for me and this was a tense match from beginning to end.

In “No Ingouf Around”, US paratroopers (Ted – Green) are facing a big German (Me – Grey) counterattack just off the beaches of the Normandy beachhead in 1944.

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

Like I said, I’ve played this scenario twice already and won as the Germans both times, mainly be squeaking out a VP win when Sudden Death hit.

Even though the Germans are the attackers, I didn’t really attack too much.

Could I do the same a third time?

Let’s find out.

I’ve mentioned the special rules before, but just so you don’t have to go to another post for it, let me talk about them here.

First, the American radio doesn’t come into play until at least Time 2. When Time reaches 2 and later, the American draws a dice roll. If they roll equal to or less than the current Time, they get the radio.

Secondly, there are no exit points! It’s a cage match. Any unit that moves off-board is considered eliminated.

That could be fun.

The Germans start, so it was time to see what I could do against all of that heavy American MG firepower.

Thankfully I started with an Artillery Request, and I wanted to get some smoke out there for my advance.

Maybe I would advance this time!

I then advanced a little bit on the left, trying to see what could happen.

And Wehling’s stack completely broke.

Good thing I had two Recover cards in my hand.

And the Germans drew a Time trigger!

Things were progressing as planned.

Ted started moving his northern American force to avoid the smoke, took some fire, and drew another Time trigger!

Things were moving fast.

Who would that benefit?

Who knows?

Wehling’s group quickly rallied and some more German fire happened, which resulted in a Breeze event, clearing all of that beautiful smoke before it could actually help me.

Esparza did panic in that fire, though.

I let off an Artillery Request at Esparza, but it missed, hitting two American squads who easily passed their morale checks.

More fire on Esparza resulted in another German Time trigger! And hopefully the big attack would kill Esparza.

Esparza died and the other units in his hex broke.

Things were looking up!

That’s where the American Heavy MG was, so I was happy that they were all broken.

And then more fire from Borbe’s HMG killed the team with the HMG!

That was satisfying.

More artillery fire on the Americans in the north resulted in another German Time trigger, meaning we were half-way done (if Sudden Death happened on the first try).

It also resulted in an American broken squad, but I couldn’t capitalize on that.

Instead, firing at Sitner’s group resulted in an American Air Support event, which broke all of Borbe’s stack!

Thankfully, not only did they quickly rally, but they caused a Reinforcement event that brought on another HMG!

American artillery broke both units in Wehrling’s hex and suppressed him, but the morale checks also brought on another German Time trigger!

Time was advancing very quickly.

It was close, with the Germans having a 1 VP lead. It would have been more except for an American Command & Control event that gave them 3 VP.

The German HMG moved into position and some fire was exchanged, resulting in a Blaze right in the middle of the main German concentration on the left, along with another Reinforcement event and another HMG!

And a sniper that broke the American squad on the upper right.

Some more stuff happened, the Americans fired a big attack against Wehrling and they all broke, but a sniper broke an American unit as well.

And a Walking Wounded event brought back an American team!

Right in the middle of things, ready to be killed again.

Unfortunately, a subsequent American “Scrounge” event brought back his HMG, put into the same stack as the 50 cal.

That was appalling.

I was able break his radio and then call down some artillery of my own.

I tried to smoke the 50 cal, but it drifted to the south and engulfed my units in the rear rather than in the front lines.

Which didn’t matter, because a Breeze event during the US Recover order that rallied all but one of his squads ended up dispersing all the smoke anyway.

But it also spread the blaze! Things were getting hot in my staging area.

American fire also ended up killing the LMG team in Wehrling’s hex, bringing the VP total to even again.

This also resulted in the US deck running out, bringing us to Time 6!

Not having a Recover card, I quickly advanced Wehrling and his remaining squad over the hedge and into the road, but out of LOS of all the Americans.

Borbe and his HMG fired on the American team that appeared in the wide open space in front of them, breaking them.

They unfortunately rallied before I could kill them and started retreating.

I couldn’t have that!

I finally killed them a few rounds later for one more point.

Ted tried to Recover a broken American squad, but drew another Time trigger!

With a 1 VP lead, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.

My hidden objective would give me 3 VP, but I wasn’t sure which objectives Ted had.

That will be important, especially because the Sudden Death roll meant we would keep going.

I advanced a little bit on the left and kept firing from Borbe.

Here’s the situation at this point.

A lot of minor stuff happened, I kept firing trying to kill another American squad.

I had a 1 VP lead, but then my psychosis triggered.

I started thinking…I will have 4 VP, but what if Ted’s objectives (he had drawn another one earlier in the game) gave him 5? Or even 4 and he had Initiative?

In hindsight, this was incredibly stupid. The odds of that happening were slim.

But I thought I needed to try to kill at least one more unit and I wasn’t succeeding at just firing at squads behind the hedges.

So I decided to move Borbe, charging the Americans and hoping to get into a good melee. I only had 20 cards left, so it was time to do it.

I had a Recover card and an Advance card, so I shouldn’t have any problem, right?

Ted had a Fire card (of course), and swiftly broke everybody in the hex.

But it was time to Recover!

And Borbe just as swiftly failed his morale check.

This resulted in the HMG team also failing to rally (though the squad did).

On the next turn, Ted fired again, and quickly killed all the broken units in the hex.

It was a massacre.

I tried some artillery and drew a Time trigger, which ended the game.

We didn’t add his VP from objectives to the final score, but in looking at them, one of them would have given him 2 VP and one would have given him 1 VP.

Which means I would have won with 1 VP if I hadn’t done that dumb move.

I know what I was thinking when I did that, but I don’t know why I was thinking that.

Sure, he might have won anyway, but charging his guys really gave me no chance to do anything against him.

Borbe and his men might have recovered, but then what? I was still two hexes away. I think I was planning on firing heavy point-blank with the HMG, and then maybe doing something after that.

I don’t know.

All I know is that it wasn’t the smartest move I’ve ever done.

None of that is to detract from Ted’s play. He played very well, and he actually psyched me out though he didn’t realize it at the time.

He wasn’t trying that hard to advance on me to gain at least one point, so I thought “if he’s not trying to gain VP that hard, he must have some good objectives.”

That’s another reason I tried the desperation move.

And it worked for him!

He was a great opponent, fun to play against, and it was a really fun game to play. Also quick!

Like I said, though, while it was really fun to play and I enjoyed every minute of it, I’m not sure how great of a read it was.

I hope you enjoyed it.

This leaves me at 21-18 in my ladder career and a 2-game losing streaking.

Next month, we move to the Pacific for two months, meaning we have to relearn everything we’ve internalized for the last 10 months.

But it will be fun!

Hopefully.

Congratulations to Patrick on advancing to the top of the ladder. Only fitting since it’s his, right?

Meanwhile, I fall a bit further, but it will be cool to see who I end up playing next month.

If this interested you at all (and I hope it did!), why not join us on the ladder?

We’re a great group of guys (and Kai as well! Really happy to have Kai on the ladder and I hope to play her some day, with the added bonus that we’re in the same time zone) and always willing to play a pickup game if you want one.

Until next month, my advice to you is don’t charge an American MG when you really don’t have to.

It won’t work.

See you next month!

Combat Commander Ladder – After Action Reports

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