Combat Commander – After Action Report – Scenario 18 – Bridge Hunt

Holy crap, it’s the first week of July and you’re seeing yet another tale from the Combat Commander ladder from me?

That’s right, we actually got our game done on July 1.

That’s dedication!

And both of us having Canada Day off and lots of free time, but hey.

I prefer to look at it as dedication.

Yes, this is another tale from the ladder, that monthly tournament of one of the most fun games ever.

Run by our steadfast leader, Patrick Pence (he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials Youtube fame), this tournament gives you multiple chances to get the satisfaction of playing Combat Commander.

This month’s scenario is from the Mediterranean expansion, pitting some hearty but overmatched Yugoslavian reservist forces against the oncoming German attack in 1941.

My opponent this month is Roger L, who I played in January!

That seemed sooner than normal, but since it was fun to play him the first time, this was good.

Both of us being in Vancouver and Canadian helped us get done quickly too.

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

The Germans (grey – Roger) set up within 2 hexes of the left edge.

The Yugoslavs (blue – me), using the French deck (one discard per turn, yay!) can set up 10 hexes deep from the right edge.

Notice that huge blue river going diagonally across the board?

Yeah, nobody can cross that except for at the bridge in the middle.

Also notice that the Reservist range sucks and they have no machine guns or leaders.

But also also notice the Yugoslav units at the top right!

Yes, at anytime during the game, the Yugoslavs can place those units in any friendly-occupied hex, as a major surprise for the Germans.

You can probably guess where the HMG and one leader is going to eventually set up.

The other special rule is that the German artillery represents offboard German armor that was refueling, so it doesn’t have a huge spread when it hits, but also it pretty much hits every time it’s used.

A “hit” hits the target hex.

A “miss” has a minor drift.

However, since it has no spread, it just hits the hex it lands in and that’s it.

With all that out of the way, could I erase the stink of last month’s luckless failure?

I set up on the hills overlooking the bridge, with one squad actually on the bridge, and then some skirmishers on the other side of the river (including one sacrificial squad that would hopefully take some Germans with him before he went)

I had actually played this scenario once before as the Yugoslavs, and won though it was only through a major error on my opponent’s part.

Roger would not make the same mistake.

He did make the same mistake of drawing bad cards to start with!

He began with a quick discard, and sadly I had no Hidden Unit to play.

I did break down his artillery quickly, though he was able to bring it back just as quickly (though that did mean he didn’t get to use it that turn).

With no Move cards to start, Biermann decided to open up on the skirmisher and hope to do something.

And it did!

Not only did it break the squad, but it brought out the German Hero Dietel.

Lauerbach then opened fire, killing the squad, but I had a Light Wounds card!

That meant that a broken team was still there, ready to cause havoc.

Then it was time for Lauerbach and his men to move, and they quickly stumbled into a Minefield!

The mine’s sucked (must have gotten dirt in their triggers), but they did stop any more movement.

A quick artillery call from Deitel on the broken team swiftly ended their attempts to slow the Germans down.

No, the lack of Move cards was the only thing that would slow them down.

Though Roger did have another one, and Biermann set out to take over the now-empty building.

And were quickly fired upon by the hidden HMG on the heights!

The German squad broke and Roger decided not to attempt to move anybody else.

On my turn, I fired again on the broken squad and they quickly succumbed.

Two points for me!

Some more fire from the heights broke another German, so Roger decided to try to use the artillery to smoke out the HMG.

And promptly missed.

Remember, only a minor drift, so it might not be that bad…except that it drifted right between the hills, blocking nobody.

Since there was no smoke, Lauerbach and all of his men who could see the HMG decided to try and take them out, or at least break them so I couldn’t use it anymore.

And promptly rolled a “Jammed” trigger, breaking all three of his LMGs.

The HMG was picking off squads right and left, but I couldn’t finish them before Roger recovered them.

But now it was time for Roger to move again.

All he was doing was getting Lauerbach out of the Mines. They promptly went off again and the triggers were still dirty.

However, a German sniper did something great for him and something bad for him.

The great thing was that it broke a Yugoslav squad just sitting peacefully in the brush minding its own business.

But the sniper draw eliminated all three broken LMGs.

Subsequent fire on the bridge brought out the Yugoslav sniper who finally found the range, breaking another German squad.

Roger then tried again to smoke the HMG…and again missed.

But the drift actually landed right back onto the target hex!

Thankfully it was only a -2 Smoke.

Then he tried again, targeting the Yugoslav squad on the bridge (shorter distance, easier to hit) and promptly missed. The smoke drifted back onto the broken Yugoslav unit (though sadly smoke does not help with Recover attempts).

Both sides tried desperately to Rout the other’s broken units, but kept failing, until finally Roger hit the big time.

My broken unit could only go back 2 hexes without being eliminated, and Roger drew an 11, sending him back 5.

Bye bye!

Roger then proceeded to rally his guys, running out his deck for the first Time trigger.

Thankfully I had been holding a Dig In for just this purpose, and now the HMG was nicely situated in some foxholes.

Roger fired on the guys on the bridge again, and I drew a Time trigger!

Time was starting to move.

Eventually, Roger had to discard again and I had my Hidden Unit!

I ended up getting a new Reservist squad, and promptly put him in the bushes where the other one had been.

Roger tried once again to smoke the HMG, and again missed (his artillery wasn’t very good this game, almost like the tankers were getting drunk at the service station).

The smoke did land right on my unit on the bridge, though, so it was doing some blocking.

The HMG firing down on the Germans in the forest caused them to break, but also brought on an Interrogation event that caused me to have to discard the other Fire card I had.

I always was trying to save one Fire card for when Roger moved. If I only had one, then I didn’t fire.

Now I was Fireless.

And Roger moved.

Though only to use Dietel to take over Objective 3 and run back.

Dietel then proceeded to make a run with his squad, blocked by the smoke on the bridge…until he wasn’t.

The HMG opened up because I had luckily drawn another Fire card.

Dietel and his men scattered on the road.

They then retreated back to the building hex and promptly rallied.

Then they tried to move again, throwing some smoke grenades into the road (they must have gotten wet since they were only -1) and promptly broke in the road again.

Dietel wasn’t having much luck.

Not much changed after a few turns, though Dietel did rally (his squad didn’t) and Roger got an Infiltration event!

The new German LMG and team appeared…right next to the river, pretty much away from everybody.

Roger did manage to finally get his artillery to hit, but the smoke on the HMG was only -2 so not great.

Roger then running out of cards allowed me to dig some foxholes on the bridge.

Just as an aside, that bridge hex where my squad is, Objective 5, would worth a 20 point swing if Roger could take it.

So it’s very important!

Roger had suddenly found three Move cards.

And I didn’t have a Fire card.

There was a massive shift in German positions.

Not a lot happened for a while, except my broken squad near my board edge rallied and moved back into the fight, and the German broken unit failed to rally but a German sniper broke the bottom of my skirmisher wedge.

Snipers were incredibly accurate this game, though I don’t think they ended up killing anybody.

They were just annoying.

Anyway, my squad quickly rallied.

Roger really wanted to keep that squad broken, though, so he kept firing on them.

They broke, of course.

Some more fire broke a German squad and later on a Yugoslav squad.

Since I wanted to make sure they rallied, it was time for my other hidden units to pop unto the board.

Sgt Fache giving them another 2 to their morale check.

That also bolstered the strength of my skirmish line, making it less likely that Roger could move up toward the bridge unmolested.

It was time for Roger to try and skirt around the south!

He took a chance, stopping a squad in a hex and then trying to move a squad through it.

Sadly for him, I dropped a Wire in that hex when the second unit moved through it, meaning he had to deploy and destroy a team.

Gotta love those defensive actions!

I was actually saving it for Lauerbach, but that was just too juicy of a chance.

My deck ran out, bringing us one round closer to Sudden Death.

I also had a Dig In, which I placed for Fache and his men.

The Germans jumped across the hedge and into the street. One squad broke but Lauerbach and his men were fine.

Of course Roger had a Recover ready, and a resulting sniper broke my southernmost squad once again!

One of the two broken German squads recovered.

Thankfully, I had another Fire card, so Fache let loose again on Lauerbach, breaking both him and his squad again.

And I had another Fire card!

The HMG let loose, and Lauerbach and his squad were quickly toast in the road.

Roger needed something to happen, so after some inconsequential stuff, Dietel and his men stormed toward the bridge, assault firing at the Yugoslav on the bridge and then Dietel called down some artillery to smoke out the HMG.

I was thinking about using my Fire on his move, but for some reason I held back. I think because I thought he may be advancing into melee down south with one of my squads and I wanted to save the Ambush.

Probably not a wise decision, since now Dietel and squad were pretty close to the bridge.

And my HMG was in smoke now!

I decided to Fire anyway, activating a bunch of units for some low-odds attacks (as defenders should).

Dietel then fired on the the bridge squad, breaking them.

And I didn’t have a Recover!

Subsequent fire from Dietel (wow, Heroes are pretty good when they can activate multiple times) killed that squad.

The bridge was wide open!

I could have survived a 20-point swing (we were at 29 points for me), but I didn’t want to have to face that possibility, so I decided to run another squad onto the bridge to take that dead squad’s place.

And Roger didn’t have a Fire card!

Everything was back to normal.

I decided to move a squad from open ground on the hill to the woods below them, and Roger fired at them.

And drew a Time!

Sudden Death was here…and it quickly passed as Roger drew a 10.

Dietel himself ran onto the bridge to take Objective 4 (turns out both he and I had Objective 4 hidden objectives, so he needed it).

Some Yugoslav fire on Dietel to try and get him out of there brought the Yugoslav Hero onto the board! Reinforcing the squad on the bridge.

After much discarding, I did some more low-odds attacks to whittle Roger’s deck down and see what carnage I could cause.

He drew a 12 Time trigger and that was that.

I ended up winning with 26 VP and thankfully Roger had never been able to take over the bridge.

I was surprised my skirmishers had actually remained in place too!

I ended up losing 3 units, but gained a squad with a Hidden Unit, so it wasn’t too bad.

Here’s the final map.

This was an incredible game.

I was fairly confident for most of it, when Roger couldn’t get his Move and Fire cards coordinated (he either had one or the other, but rarely both) and his artillery kept missing.

But anything can happen and I was waiting for it to.

While I wasn’t particularly lucky in this game, I didn’t have the bad luck that I had last month.

Some good things happened, some bad things, but nothing too onerous.

That HMG on the hill was just devastating, dominating the board even when he wasn’t able to fire (and he was able to a lot).

There were a couple of times where I had Sustained Fire cards in my hand (+2 to your firepower but if you draw doubles (like 5-5), your gun breaks) and I was tempted to use them.

But I was conscious of how easy it is for the French deck to cause jams.

Both times I seriously considered it (rather than just in passing), my subsequent fire roll was doubles.

I just didn’t trust my luck! And it worked out.

The French “Discard 1” penalty really didn’t affect me this time.

Sure, there were a couple of times where it would have been nice to discard 2.

But I usually had at least one useful card in my hand.

Roger is a great opponent and, since we live in the same city, we really need to play some games live!

We are now 1-1 against each other, as he beat me handily in January.

Maybe a third time soon?

If you enjoyed this, why not join us on the ladder and you might get a chance to play with a bunch of people who also really love this game.

Tony’s around 24/7, I believe.

At the very least you’ll have one game.

How can you go wrong with that?

This win puts me at 26-24, a little breathing room.

Next month’s scenario is from the Paratroopers battle pack, so there will be some American paratrooper action!

My July game is done so early, what am I supposed to do the rest of the month?

Hey, how about a pickup game?

Anyway, until next time, my advice to you is to always get your heavy machine guns up on a hill if at all possible.

You will thank me later.

Combat Commander Ladder – After Action Reports

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