Combat Commander After Action Report – Scenario LoM #6 – One Steppe Beyond

Have you ever been in a situation at a bar where you’re getting punched in the face, and rather than, I don’t know, getting out of there, you just stood there and took it?

Until suddenly you keeled over unconscious from the repeated blows, with your last thought being “I could have left, you know”?

Hopefully not, as that would suck.

But figuratively speaking, that’s how I spent my Saturday morning!

Welcome to another tale from the Combat Commander ladder, that monthly tournament where you get to play one of the greatest games of all time on at least a monthly basis.

Ok, “greatest” may be an exaggeration, but certainly one of the most fun games.

Run by the vigorous Patrick Pence (he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame, and I should probably watch the last couple of CC videos that I haven’t had the chance to!), the ladder is never stopping.

Though it is a couple of years away from running out of scenarios for a couple of the months, I think?

Anyway, April’s scenario is from the Leader of Men battle pack, a bunch of tournament scenarios with limited special rules and just straight-up tactical skill.

A Russian recon force and a German recon force meet on the Steppes of Central Russia in 1943.

Chaos ensues.

My opponent this month was David P, a guy who I have played (and lost to) once before, back in January 2024.

Could I turn the tide this month?

The Germans (grey – David) set up within 4 hexes of the left side while the Russians (brown – me) set up within 4 hexes of the right side of the board.

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

The only real special rule in this one is that setup is simultaneous, so you don’t know what the other guy is going to do.

You have to play it by ear!

The other two special rules are the removal of two potential objectives chits and the rule that neither side can voluntarily leave the board.

IT’S AN OLD FASHIONED CAGE MATCH!!!!

All objectives are worth 2 VP, which means you want to gain control of what you can as soon as possible.

Let’s see how this sorted out.

Let me start by saying that both of us start with a Heavy Machine Gun, but only one of us actually placed, moved, and used it with any effectiveness.

David started by discarding (as I later learned, he didn’t draw any Move cards, but a ton of Fire cards).

I started moving toward the objectives that were within easy reach, which is how I discovered that the German HMG was actually on a Level 1 hex and had a clear line of sight to Objective 5!

And the open ground hex next to it. And some open ground hexes around it.

David used his second Fire card on his turn to blow that squad away, getting the early first blood.

It wouldn’t be the last.

On my turn, it was time for my fire!

Which is when I discovered that I had poorly-placed my HMG and it couldn’t actually see anybody except the lone squads in the south.

Which is fine, but doesn’t really do much to counter his HMG.

I did run up a sacrificial squad to take Objective 5, knowing they’d be dead meat.

They almost weren’t, but they did break immediately and I had no Recover card.

Sure enough, they did die on the next German turn, though I did play Light Wounds to keep a Russian team there.

I did keep firing on the Germans in the south, especially the broken squad, trying to get my first enemy kill by firepower in a long time.

But it wasn’t to be.

The Russian team died on David’s next turn, because of course he still had Fire cards.

I don’t think he ever didn’t have one, actually.

Dave then repositioned his HMG to have an open line of fire in the south.

I only point this out because it will end up making a big difference.

I fired my mortar at the HMG hex, hoping for a bit of luck because it’s in the open and not in the trees like it used to be…

…and promptly drew a Time on the to-hit roll.

Yes, that’s definitely a hit!

But it let David put foxholes in that hex with a Dig In, effectively neutralizing any chance of the mortar making a difference.

Also on that fire and those morale checks, David drew a Suppressing Fire event that suppressed my HMG crew, literally before it was going to fire!

That wasn’t nice.

This is also the turn where David started picking apart my guys in the south.

And what I was talking about at the top of the post.

Yeah, I probably should have moved those guys out of the line of fire, right?

Well, it didn’t help that I had no Move cards!

I thankfully was able to Recover before they ended up dying.

This time.

Here’s the situation after the next Time trigger, as not much of note had happened since then.

The Germans advanced in the north some, since I was hiding behind the trees.

Actually, I wasn’t hiding.

I DIDN’T HAVE ANY FRICKIN’ MOVE CARDS!

Next turn, in a pair of attacks from the HMG stack, my HMG squad panicked and then died, as did Maisky.

I was leaderless in the south.

I was discarding like crazy to try and get some Move or Fire cards, but I kept drawing Recover and Rout cards.

Recover is good! But they don’t help you attack.

This is also when I started drawing my string of useless Defender-only cards as well.

David decided to push forward in the north, running in to take Objective 5 even though he might get decimated.

The squad did break, but that was it.

Here is also where I knew my first touch of despair.

I drew an Interrogation event, meaning I could look at David’s cards and make him discard one.

I saw a Recover and two Fire cards.

Really???

Of course, the Recover card had to go, but I knew that more lead was coming my way and I had no way to stop it.

The Germans were sitting right there, broken in the forest on Objective 5, and me with no Advance card.

Until I finally drew one!

Of course, David retreated out of the hex first.

I did Advance into the hex and retake the objective, which was nice.

They then threw hot lead down on the broken German squad in the open, finally getting me a kill by firepower for the first time in forever!

The exhilaration did not last, though, because during a previous German recovery attempt, a sniper had broken the squad in that hex.

Even broken, and with the mortar team having a limited range as well, they were within range of Schrader’s stack.

What harm could making a 3-firepower attack on them do to me? And maybe I’d get lucky?

How about a German sniper hitting the squad again, killing it?

Does that work?

They shouldn’t have stuck their heads out from behind the trees.

It did break both Schrader and his squad, so that was good at least.

This was also when I finally got smart and moved my guys in the south out of the sight of the German HMG before they died.

Which was good for them, but allowed David to reposition it to attack the north again.

I finally had Move cards, but no Recover cards and that HMG was lurking, so I couldn’t attack in the south (even with a field-promoted leader).

With the HMG moved, I retreated out of Objective 5, which allowed the newly-rallied Schrader to Advance back in.

Here’s the situation at that point.

I was thinking good thoughts at this point, though.

I had drawn 3 Ambushes! I had a huge stack ready to pounce into the objective.

I just needed an Advance card.

Oh, and for my guys to survive Schrader’s fire, which they should have been able to do but, well, couldn’t.

More German fire killed the squad and panicked everybody else.

In desperation, with only one Time left before an almost certain Sudden Death (only an 11 or 12 would keep it going), I jumped into Schrader’s hex even with a broken squad and suppressed Gulkevich.

I still had 2 Ambushes!

But with the way my morning was going, you knew that David had 2 Ambushes as well.

I was at a 5-1 disadvantage, which was made worse when he drew a 9. I gave him the Initiative back but it only reduced it to a 7.

Having to roll 11 for mutual elimination, you can guess what I rolled, right?

Not an 11, that’s for sure.

I was about ready to concede, but still wanted to see if I could salvage something, and the game was almost over anyway.

Sure enough, on David’s next draw for Recovery, he drew a Time trigger and the game mercifully ended.

Here’s the final situation.

I didn’t make a huge number of mistakes, but not moving my HMG into position to actually counter the German one was a really bad one.

I should have had it up north. With the leadership and Rifle Squad range, I could have actually reached the hex where David’s HMG spent most of its time.

And we would both have been in forests!

The second problem was not retreating out of the line of fire when David kept on having Fire cards.

I got burned with some bad luck and bad cards sometimes, but credit David for taking every advantage that I offered him and running with them.

It was back and forth for a while, but finally my guys just couldn’t put up with the firepower.

But I killed my first unit, so that’s a good thing at least!

David is a fun opponent and we did really enjoy this game.

It also took just over an hour, so it was quick!

This loss puts me at 31-28 in my ladder career.

Not bad, but I could be better.

Hopefully that will start next month!

Next month’s scenario will be from the C3i magazine scenarios, so anything goes with that.

If you enjoyed this write-up, why not join us on the ladder, where you too can play a monthly game and also probably a bunch of other games as well?

I may start having more free time in a month or so. You might be able to play me!

My advice to you as I’m finishing up is to get out while the getting’s good, if you find yourself under constant assault and can’t do anything else about it.

Until next time, take care!

Combat Commander Ladder – After Action Reports

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