Combat Commander – After Action Report – Scenario 61 – Surrender is Out of the Question!

The fickle finger of fate.

Sometimes she’s good to you and the finger has chocolate on it.

Sometimes she’s bad to you and you don’t want to taste what’s on it.

And sometimes she’s both.

Which can be a thing of nightmares, actually.

That sums up my Saturday morning!

Welcome to another adventure from the Combat Commander ladder, that monthly tournament of one of the greatest games out there administered by the tremendous Patrick Pence, he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame.

After losing last month, I was hoping to get back to my winning ways this month.

This month’s scenario is Surrender is Out of the Question! (the exclamation mark is in the scenario title), a scenario from the Normandy battle pack and it uses some of the Normandy rules as well.

It’s a few weeks after the Normandy invasion by Allied forces and in a brilliant pincer move, they’ve surrounded a whole bunch of German units.

A contingent of Germans attempt to break out of the encirclement by attacking elements of the 1st Polish Armored Division, and chaos ensues.

My opponent this month was Eric P, somebody else who I have never played on the ladder before.

Here’s the setup.

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

The Poles (Eric – tan and using the British deck of cards) set up on the hill that they’ve recently taken while the Germans (Me – grey) are attempting to rush past (or perhaps even eliminate) the Poles.

The Poles have a series of Wire and Trenches and not very many units.

The Germans have a bunch of units with more coming in on Time 1 and Time 2.

The Germans are the Attacker (6 cards) and the Poles are the Defender (4 cards)

Exit points are doubled as well.

The scenario uses both the Normandy rules and the Night rules, which add a whole bunch of things.

First, artillery calling smoke immediately breaks the radio (due to low ammo supplies). I’m the only one who had a radio capable of smoke, though.

The hedges are +2 to cover and movement instead of +1.

Roads do not have a negative cover effect.

Night rules, there is a hindrance between firer and target equal to the range between them.

What’s worst, though, is that neither side can just discard a few cards.

If you discard a card, you have to discard your whole hand!

That really bit both of us a few times this game.

There are other effects, but they didn’t really impact the game any.

However, some scenario special rules include the German artillery being basically off-board Tiger tanks. This means that the area of effect is just one hex, not a spread like most artillery.

The other special rules didn’t matter in our game.

So who got horribly fingered by fate?

(Editor: “Ewwwwww”)

Let’s find out!

The British surrender level is just 8 units, but with an HMG on the heights above me, fully assaulting the hill seemed like a bad idea.

However, the first finger hit when Eric (the only person who draws a private objective in this scenario) drew the “Objective 5 is worth 10 points” objective.

Which happens to be right where the HMG is usually going to be stationed in a trench!

Even with double VP for exiting, this made my strategy of exiting a bunch of guys off the board a bit chancy.

And there was that nice small stack of units on the right side as well who seemed like they were lonely and looking for company.

So I decided to put my SS squads on that side (heavier firepower and bastards in melee) and the other guys (along with the better leader) on the left.

The guys on the left would move up the left side of the board, hopefully being able to smoke the HMG and then decide to either move off the board (it could still work!) or pivot and assault the trenches from the other side.

First turn and the Night Discard rule bit me in the ass.

Drawing three Recover cards, two Fire cards and a Rout is not good!

But since I didn’t want to discard everything, I did a very low odds attack on the HMG, hoping for a sniper or favourable event.

Didn’t happen, of course.

After that (and drawing a Command Confusion to replace it), I realized that it was pointless to keep doing that and I discarded my whole hand (after Eric had already done so).

Eric discarded again, but I had drawn some Move cards!

Time for the attack to begin, and with the Night hindrance even the HMG didn’t have a lot of firepower.

Operation “Dave May Be Able to Attack For Once” could now begin!

(There’s a reason they don’t let me name Ops anymore).

Next turn, another Move card! Otto on the right continued moving toward the hill.

I also did a low-power Fire against the trenches because I wanted to get two cards out of my hand instead of one.

A British sniper ended up breaking the SS squad in the road!

I played a Recover, where he only needed a 10 to rally.

And he was promptly suppressed due to rolling a 10.

Why do I mention something so minor?

No reason.

After all that, I now had a hand of four Fire cards, a Recover card and a Command Confusion.

One of those Fire cards was an Ambush, so I didn’t really want to discard.

So I fired again, on the right this time.

Didn’t work, but still.

The SS squad then rallied.

Klein on the left then tried to Advance his whole force but he stumbled into some minefields.

That brought on a British mortar team as reinforcements.

That’s the last we will hear about that mortar team.

German fire from Otto finally rolled a 12! Which was also the first Time trigger, of course, bringing out the first round of German reinforcements.

Here’s the state of the board after that.

Just a note that both times I was able to get some actual good firepower onto a trench, Eric had a Concealment card ready to make it a piddly attack instead.

Thankfully I was able to consistently draw a Move card, so Otto continued the assault on the right.

And I had managed to keep the Ambush card!

But it was the only one I had, in a hand that had three Rout cards, a Recover, and a Command Confusion.

I couldn’t just keep drawing one card at a time and hope to succeed, so I finally had to discard everything.

Eric just happened to have a Fire card and poured some adjacent fire down on Otto.

While everybody broke, I did get a Reinforcement event with a weapons team and LMG.

(In hindsight, I probably should have taken the leader).

Thankfully my new hand also had a Recover card in it.

And an Advance!

And an Ambush!

First, I moved Klein and his men up the left side of the board, expecting at least some fire down on them.

When that didn’t happen, it was time to rally Otto and his men.

And they did rally!

Though one drew an 11 on his rally, thankfully needing a 13.

Why do I mention something so minor like that?

But I only had one Ambush and my attack was only going to be a 9 strength (assuming no Ambushes). The Poles would have a 13 (12 if they broke the Team).

I got a little gun shy, so didn’t use the Advance.

I decided to fire some artillery at the HMG. Not smoke, as that would have broken the radio.

Just a bombardment.

The drift landed in the Wires at the base of the hill, but two events happened. The first was a Blaze in the southeast and the second was a Battle Harden event.

I hardened the SS squad with Otto.

That battle hardening made me decide to actually do the attack.

Why? The numbers were still not in my favour.

But for some reason it just seemed like a good idea.

Sadly, Eric had an Ambush too so I had to break my leader.

The values were still not in my favour and I figured I had just cost myself the game.

It was 12 (Poles) to 8 (Germans)!

This is only something you do when you’re desperate.

Then Eric rolled a 3!

Getting a 15 was certainly doable for me, and higher was possible too.

So was lower, and knowing my luck, that’s what it would be.

Fate was smiling down at me, though she also had a hidden dagger as well.

I drew a 7, resulting in a 15 and mutual annihilation!

I could have given up the Initiative to draw again, but with an equal chance to roll lower as to roll higher, and with the Polish Surrender level being so much lower than mine, I figured the trade-off was worth it.

An overall +2 VP to me and the Poles were down to one leader and 5 losses short of a Surrender loss.

And I could exit on the right side of the board with almost no problem.

Then it turned out that Fate’s little dagger while she was smiling actually turned out to be a nuclear missile.

Another German move card sent Klein and friends further up the side of the board, resulting in some massive HMG firepower coming down off the hill.

That’s ok, I have a Recover card! A great German leader too!

Shouldn’t be a problem.

My deck ran out, but we were only on the 2nd Time trigger and I would be getting a few more reinforcements.

Then the Polish deck ran out…still not too much of a problem.

Then on one of my morale checks, I drew a Time trigger.

Sure, he passed the morale check easily, but that’s three Time triggers!

So I passed the Initiative and drew again.

They broke, but I still had some Time to do things.

And a Recover card!

Klein just needs a 9 or lower to rally, then his squad would just need a 9 or lower.

No problem!

Klein rolls an 11.

Yep, no rally.

Ok, the squad just needs a 7 or lower.

Not much of a problem!

They roll a 12.

Not only do they not rally, but another Time that I can’t do anything about!

Both of my Time triggers were in my top 7 cards.

Ok, sure, the first two didn’t rally, but the veteran squad in the open just needs an 8 or less.

Not really a problem…is it?

They roll an 11.

Are you fucking kidding me?

That is now five Recover rolls in this game that were 10+.

The squad all the way in the back rolled a 3 and rallied with no problem.

Thank God!

(That was sarcasm, by the way)

Eric, like any merciless conqueror competent player should do, poured the fire down on Klein and killed both him and his squad.

I did have a Light Wounds card so the squad just became a broken team, but they never factored into anything again.

Fate fired her nuclear missile and just obliterated me.

Eric kept firing down at the broken veteran squad but couldn’t quite kill it.

He did, almost, but on the morale check roll, the squad brought out Dietel, the German hero! Who rallied the squad just in time for them to break again.

I had also started moving my reinforcements ahead, in the hopes of doing…something.

I wasn’t sure what, but we’d see what happens.

I had two Artillery Requests now, but Eric had just broken my radio, so I had to use one to repair it.

I decided to take the chance and use the second one for an attempted smoke.

Remember, the German artillery only hits one hex, not a spread.

I fired it at the HMG…hit!

Roll for minor drift, it stays right where it is!

And it’s a -10 Smoke!

Holy shit.

It’s almost like Fate saw what she did to me and decided to throw me a bone or two.

The HMG was effectively out of action now.

Eric kept firing with the guys who weren’t smoked, and managed to suppress Dietel but the squad would just not die.

I then foolishly tried to burn a Rout card on myself with the units on the left, forgetting that one of the broken units was a squad, not a team, and there was nowhere for him to rout to if he did!

And he did, rolling a 10.

Gee, how surprising.

I had to deploy him and eliminate a team just for stacking limits.

At this point, there was no way I was exiting enough units to make up a 30-point difference, so it was time to see if I could root out the trenches.

Then I got one more lucky break and one of my snipers actually hit, breaking the Polish leader!

Here’s the situation at that point.

Sadly, salvation was not to be.

Biermann and company moved up onto the heights, even throwing some smoke, and got adjacent to one of the Polish trenches.

Fire rained from the trench, and only broke one German! The squad broke.

Of course, I had a Recover card.

He only needed a 7 or less.

Easy, right?

Rolled a 10.

It figures.

More Polish fire broke the team in the hex.

But I had another Recover card!

I actually had two for once.

Surprisingly, everybody rallied!

Then Fate just decided “to hell with it” and poked me in the eye, rubbing her finger really hard in there.

My deck was almost out.

There were two smokes to remove when that happened, but of course I would keep the -10 one on the HMG.

Eric decided to fire a Starshell just because (to get it out of his hand, mostly).

I could remove the Starshell instead of a smoke, but that didn’t really matter.

On the Starshell to hit roll…Eric drew a Time trigger!

So he got to remove the HMG smoke instead.

And we were 2 away from Sudden Death.

Of course, the Starshell drifted off the board so I couldn’t even remove it anyway.

I had nothing in my hand that was useful, so I had to discard everything, causing another Time trigger for my deck running out.

One more!

With the HMG now liberated, Eric blistered Biermann and company with firepower from the heights.

Everybody panicked, and me without a Recover card.

But I did some moving and on my draw, I drew a Recover card!

And mercifully, Eric didn’t have a Fire card.

It was time to bring Biermann and friends back from the brink. Maybe they could do something.

But Fate decided to try poking the other eye…

I promptly draw a 12 Time trigger for my first rally.

That is seven rally attempts that rolled a 10 or higher. And two 12s!!!

Sudden death happened, and of course that time I rolled low, ending the game.

Here’s the final situation.

I go on a lot above about my horrible luck, but Eric took great advantage of everything, playing very skillfully and just holding on.

Given how he played, I could very well have lost anyway, even without Fate deciding to disembowel me so she could see what my guts looked like.

Fate just made it a certainty, starting with the 10-VP objective and going from there (while throwing me a few casual “atta-boys” to mollify me).

Eric was a joy to play against, and many thanks to him for getting up early on a Saturday morning in order to get this game in.

I wish him much future success, except in any rematch that might be in the offing.

This loss puts me at 22-21 in my ladder career.

I really need a win next month.

Next month’s scenario is from the Resistance expansion, where I seem to always end up losing.

This doesn’t bode well!

If this interested you (and you can stop laughing at my fate for a moment), why not join us on the ladder?

We’re a great group of people who just love playing this game.

You can usually get a pickup game going at any time, day or night.

I don’t think Tony sleeps.

Until next month, my advice to you is to…I don’t know, make some pagan sacrifice to the fate gods or something before you play?

I got nothing.

See you next month!

Combat Commander Ladder – After Action Reports

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