Combat Commander – After Action Report – Scenario 27 – Carentan Causeway

After getting my July Combat Commander game done on July 1, July was a long month to wait for another one!

I was going to set up another one in July but ended up not doing so.

Thankfully my August game was also done slightly early, so it was only 5 weeks in between games.

What the hell am I talking about?

Welcome to the latest tale from the Combat Commander ladder, that monthly tournament where you get to play one of the best games in the universe!

Even better than Chog-Larok-Pugh, which is the best game developed on the planet Rigel 3.

(Note, that’s a game you don’t want to lose…unless you can run really fast).

The ladder is run by the electrifying Patrick Pence, he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame.

His renown is actually international!

This month’s scenario is from the Paratroopers battle pack and has a cascading army of US paratroopers attacking a thimbleful group of elite Germans across a wide-open space broken up by a few hedges.

My opponent this month was Andrei F, the first opponent who I have now faced three times, the last time of which was in November 2023.

It was old home night!

Again, both of us live in the Lower Mainland (last month’s opponent is in same actual city as me) so coordinating was really easy.

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

The Germans (grey – me) have to set up their piddly three squads, one crew, and two leaders within one hex of any of the objectives except Objective 1.

Since Andrei would have to run across the board and he wouldn’t get his radio until Time 2, I set up the HMG with a great leader and squad, in foxholes at Objective 3 in the front. There they could command the entire board.

Another squad went up at Objective 5 and a squad with leader and LMG went down in Objective 4.

My spare set of foxholes went on Objective 2.

In this scenario, both Objectives 4 and 5 are worth 10 points, so a 20-point swing (I control them to start).

The Americans (green – Andrei) have to set up within 2 hexes of Objective 1.

The game starts with the Germans having 30 VP.

The other special rules are that Andrei gets reinforcements on Time Track 2 (with radio) and Time Track 4. He also gets a third order on Time Track 2 and a fourth order on Time Track 4 and his Surrender level goes up by 3 each time.

The only other special rule is that roads do not have a negative cover value, which is helpful.

Surprisingly, the Americans have no machine guns but do have three light mortars once everybody’s on the board.

This came up with a Suppressing Fire event, which is when we realized that it would have no effect since Andrei didn’t have any MGs.

Before we begin, let me say that luck played a large part in this one, and brought the game down to the wire, but I’m not going to tell you who benefited from it.

You’ll probably be able to guess.

With that, let’s begin!

Andrei started the game in that classic fashion of having to discard.

My hand, however, consisted of Hidden Mines, Hidden Wire, a Fire card and a Rout card.

With lots of juicy American targets.

Cpt Sitner looked like he wasn’t doing anything, just sitting there in the open.

The HMG opened up and broke him, but only suppressed the squad.

A subsequent Rout failed and Sitner quickly recovered.

It was time for Sitner to charge!

First, he stumbled into a minefield, though apparently they had gotten wet or something because neither attack did anything (coming or going), but when Sitner exited the minefield, he stumbled into some Wire.

Sadly, I didn’t have a Fire card to follow up on it, which allowed the Americans to get really close.

Too close, and they threw some smoke grenades into my foxholes too.

I discarded and ended up with a Fire card, a Move, and two Recovers, but Andrei had an Advance card and two paratrooper squads jumped into von Karsties’ foxhole!

I had a 15-13 advantage, but it was a calculated risk that could have huge dividends if he managed to pull it off.

My best leader and my HMG gone?

Oh my.

I drew an 8, which would make things really difficult for Andrei, so he passed me the Initiative.

And I promptly drew a 10.

Both squads died and the initial American force was looking really depleted.

I fired on Sitner. Maybe I could eliminate all of the Americans and win that way, before the reinforcements came out?

Sitner’s squad promptly drew a 12 Time trigger on his morale check, not only avoiding breaking but advancing towards reinforcements.

Andrei shuffled his deck, then Sitner’s morale check…another 12 Time!

I wanted to keep the Initiative if I could, but I also had visions of winning the game outright so I had him reroll.

A bit confusing, and probably not smart, but still…

Sadly, that had been my only fire card, so when Sitner and friends decided to get the hell out of Dodge and maybe go menace the lonely Germans up north, I couldn’t do anything about it.

Even better, some Assault Fire suppressed that squad, and Sitner was out of the HMG’s line of sight (though the mortar wasn’t).

This whole thing coincided with my hand being really crappy, and also the first of MANY American Battle Harden events.

I swear it was like Andrei had seeded the Event deck or something.

The Germans up north refused to break and finally Andrei ran out of Fire cards, so he had to discard.

Bringing out not just a hidden unit but also a blaze right behind Sitner!

I chose a crew and LMG to inhabit the empty foxhole in the middle.

Finally Andrei had an Advance card and Sitner and his men jumped into the German foxhole.

Only one German with no leader against all of that, they quickly succumbed and Andrei gained a nice 22 points for Objective 5 and the dead German squad.

Not time to panic yet.

Filled with bloodlust, even with a broken mortar crew, Sitner started advancing on my HMG, and I still didn’t have a Fire card!

He even threw smoke grenades over the hedge (in addition to Battle Hardening, I swear Andrei was just creating smoke grenade cards out of thin air, he had so many).

After a lot of discarding and two attempts, Andrei rallied the mortar crew and everybody jumped over the hedge and into the 6-smoke.

Thankfully, I had drawn not one, but two Fire cards.

And I had Hand Grenades, so even with the 6 smoke, it was a fairly respectable fire total.

Not huge, but a 15 while the American morale numbers were 9, 11, and 10 (with Sitner being the 10).

Shouldn’t be too hard, right?

The mortar crew passed and was battle-hardened, but the already veteran squad failed (he only needed a 5 or more!).

Even worse, Sitner drew a 4, which caused Andrei to give me the Initiative and rerolled to save him.

But now it was my turn, and I had another Fire card.

And promptly drew a 12 Time trigger.

My deck was almost out anyway and a 19 firepower attack against an already broken squad would do some damage, so I kept it.

The reinforcements came out, and on one of the morale checks, Andrei promptly drew another 12 Time.

The squad was safe, but Sitner’s roll was not as good and he broke too.

Here’s the situation after all that. Sitner’s a “sit”ting duck right next to the HMG, but a whole shitload of American troops just showed up.

I had one more Fire card!

But Andrei used the Advance he was going to use to jump into my foxhole to instead jump over the hedge and out of sight.

The new Americans fired on the HMG and didn’t do anything except bring out a Walking Wounded squad on my morale check.

My one dead squad came back…and showed up in the middle of the ground, though thankfully the brush on the road helped obscure them a little bit.

Then shit really got real.

Blankenship and his men decided to move out, drawing withering fire from the HMG with many Americans breaking.

Not only that, but a German Reinforcement event that brought out a new SS squad and the American deck ran out, bringing on the other American reinforcements.

Suddenly the board was pretty full!

The SS squad wasted no time moving into the foxholes at Objective 2, joining the LMG crew.

More German fire killed Blankenship’s squad and suppressed him.

That’s when the newly-arrived Buehler decided it might be time to call some artillery smoke down to cover Blankenship’s men.

Which promptly missed and sent a bunch of smoke into the swamp on the north side of the board.

More fire eliminated Blankenship’s stack entirely.

Poor guy barely got off the road.

More attempted smoke missed again and came back onto Buehler and his men, which actually wasn’t too bad.

At least they had some protection.

Andrei finally drew a Recover card and Sitner and his men were fine, but the two broken units in the south refused to rally (one of them took at least three attempts needing an 8 or less before finally rallying).

More smoke artillery actually was on target, minorly drifting to blanket the open ground in smoke.

But sadly not obscuring the HMG.

It was time for Buehler to move out, after some Assault Fire breaking the recently-rallied Walking Wounded squad.

The HMG opened up, causing a sniper to actually hit Sitner.

He was just “sit”ting there!

The move only cost the Americans one more broken unit, though.

I tried to rally the broken unit in the open but drew a 12 Time and advanced the game instead.

Things were getting closer to Sudden Death!

More American smoke artillery actually hit, but the minor drift pretty much made it useless.

But the board sure did look like somebody lost control of their BBQ.

Slowly but surely, Buehler and his men made their way along the south edge of the board toward Objective 4 (another 10-point objective, so a 20-point swing if Andrei captures it).

As they started getting close, Esser (who had been sitting out this battle before) and his men opened up.

Even with only an LMG, it was devastating for one squad, though more smoke grenades brought out a 10 smoke onto the road and the American deck ran out.

Two rounds to Sudden Death.

And a broken German squad right next to them.

Later on, Andrei advanced a unit into its hex and, while I had an Ambush, I decided not to waste it. Which was good because Andrei had one and didn’t even bother rolling.

More artillery smoke and more bad BBQ.

These French people should really clean their BBQs before grilling out.

It was time for Buehler to continue the assault.

Of course with more smoke grenades.

Esser still opened fire, even through the 5 smoke.

While only one unit broke, Buehler and his stack stumbled into some Wire, meaning that the squad nearest Esser was out of Command.

That was unfortunate for him.

Oh, and they were also fired upon, of course.

While his men were fine, Buehler himself panicked.

And the last American squad drew a 12 Time trigger on its morale check, bringing us one round away from Sudden Death.

The Americans were getting closer to Esser, though, and also gained 2 VP from an event, bringing the total down to 19 for the Germans.

Taking Objective 4 would give the Americans 20 points (plus 5 VP for killing the units).

The decks were still pretty hefty, with the Germans having 39 cards and the Americans having 57 cards.

Could Esser hold out?

Esser fired at the veteran squad next to him, which was in the open, and didn’t manage to do anything to it, though a Breeze event blew all the smoke away!

Finally, after a bunch of discarding, it was time for Andrei to jump into Objective 4 for melee.

We both had one Ambush card, so an American squad broke and after calculating totals and discovering it didn’t make any difference, I broke Esser.

This was for a 25-point swing right before Sudden Death.

After the Ambushes, it was German (8) against American (10).

Things were looking bleak.

But then I drew a 9!

Andrei had to draw higher than 7. Shouldn’t be too hard, right?

It wasn’t…he drew an 8, but I gave him the Initiative since this was so important.

On the reroll…he drew a 12 Time!

Wait…Time moves it to Sudden Death.

A trigger is dealt with before the results of the roll are calculated.

That means we’d have to resolve the Time first and roll for Sudden Death.

If Sudden Death occurs (Andrei would draw a 7 or less), then the melee doesn’t end and I end up winning with 19 points.

Andrei could give me the Initiative and reroll that, but that risks losing the melee if he drew badly.

It was a monumental decision, but ultimately Andrei decided to let the Time go through. He had the Initiative so he could reroll the Sudden Death roll.

The first roll…a 3.

That would have cost him the melee if he had rerolled the 12, but this time he gave up the Initiative to reroll Sudden Death.

And drew a 5, ending the game.

I ended with 20 points (I had drawn a Secret Objective chit that gave me another point).

Here’s the final situation.

Holy shit, that was nerve-wracking.

As Buehler was advancing and as Time advanced, I was really worried I wouldn’t be able to stop Andrei.

All of that smoke (despite drifts that weren’t what Andrei wanted) kept the HMG from doing anything at the end of the game.

Esser’s eyes just got wider and wider as the Americans encroached.

I knew the melee was coming and I couldn’t draw more than the one Ambush card I had been saving.

My fire, which had been brutally effective earlier in the game (Andrei was cursing his luck a lot) couldn’t stop the onslaught.

If that melee had gone Andrei’s way, I think I would have lost this game because I wouldn’t have had time to make up the points I lost.

I do like the fact that Andrei’s reroll would have lost him the melee anyway, meaning that choosing to chance the Sudden Death roll wasn’t a mistake.

Andrei is a great opponent and I’m glad that he’s my first 3-timer.

He battled through bad luck and also a lack of Recover cards for a while, though sadly I couldn’t always take advantage of that.

This win puts me at 27-24 in my ladder career, so I can afford to lose one or two here and there.

Not that I want to, of course.

If you enjoyed this, why not join us on the ladder and you might get a chance to play me.

Zilla, we are waiting for you!

You can usually get a pick-up game going from somebody.

If you can’t rely on Tony, you can’t rely on anybody.

At the very least you’ll have one game.

How can you go wrong with that?

Next month’s scenario is the first of two Combat Commander: Pacific scenarios, meaning everybody will be crash-reading their rulebooks to try and absorb the changes and Noel will be called upon to keep us all honest.

In the meantime, my advice to you is to clean your grill.

You really don’t want the entire countryside to be smoky like that.

Unless you’re attacking somebody, of course.

Combat Commander Ladder – After Action Reports

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