Combat Commander – After Action Report – Scenario 04 – Closed for Renovation (The Sequel)

If you’re experiencing deja vu with this post title, think of us poor Combat Commander ladder players!

June’s game was the same scenario, but how the sides were chosen was different (and of course, the opponent would be different, most likely).

Didn’t matter to me. I was still the Americans, and I was still destined to lose.

Or was I?

Welcome to another tale from the Combat Commander ladder, administered by the indescribable Patrick Pence, he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame (ok, I guess by calling him indescribable, I just described him? Is that a paradox? My brain hurts).

Anyway, as mentioned in June’s post, this scenario has an American force of Elite and Line troops attacking a rather large building in the center of the map that’s loaded with Germans.

No, it’s a chateau, not a castle.

And it contains nothing but death, in the form of two heavy machine guns.

Surprisingly, in this sequel play of this scenario, the Americans are actually winning a bunch of games, so it’s not as lopsided as I mentioned in the June write-up.

Would I be one of ones who did better?

This month’s opponent was Max R from out east, so we had to once again navigate a 3-hour time difference. Thankfully, he didn’t mind being up late on a Friday night.

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

The Germans (Max – grey) set up everything except a Weapons Team and the Infantry Gun, anywhere up to 9 hexes from the bottom edge of the board, though the Wire has to be adjacent to a building hex.

Then the Americans (Me – green) set up in the top row, followed by the Germans setting up their IG.

After seeing Max’s set up, I didn’t change a thing from my June setup, thinking that it was more an execution problem than a bad plan. He only had one squad on the right side, though I figured as soon as I put a major force over there, the Infantry Gun was going there.

I was right.

The only change was that now Buehler was attacking the chateau while Wray was attacking down the road. I was also looking to possibly flank the chateau rather than exiting, but we would see what happened.

Once again, the American radio would be heavily relied upon for smoke, because that is a lot of open ground to cover.

Also, I had no idea that there were a bunch of freakin’ zombies in this field.

More on that later.

Let’s see whether I could change history by actually doing something positive this time.

Unlike June, I didn’t start with any Artillery Request cards in my hand, so I couldn’t lay down any smoke.

Instead, I had a couple of Moves and an Advance.

Wray’s men were out of range of the squad in the southeast and the Infantry Gun can’t Opportunity Fire, so it was relatively safe to move them. I just had to move them separately in case some Wire or Mines popped up out of the ground.

But nothing happened.

Buehler’s men then Advanced over the wall to start their assault, hoping for some smoke to come soon.

What I wasn’t expecting was that Lauerbach took it upon himself to move his guys and one of the HMGs over to cover the right flank, making it really deadly for Wray to keep going like that.

They might have to stop and do something about it.

I hadn’t drawn any Artillery, sadly, but I did draw three Smoke Grenades actions!

This helped my advance toward the chateau, on the edge of the map.

That and the trees kept Schrader from firing at me.

Anyway, having used 4 cards on my one order, I was finally able to draw some artillery!

Two in fact.

Lauerbach decided to make himself useful and fire at the one squad of Wray’s that he could currently see in the building, using a double Sustained Fire action on it for more firepower, and promptly drew a 5-5 dice roll.

Doubles break the gun, thus playing two actions means it was gone, so Max quickly gave me the initiative. My guys broke anyway.

Buehler used the first artillery to bring down his own smoke, which did a pretty good job of getting in the way of that pesky German HMG.

Wray quickly followed up by radioing for some smoke to save his ass, and it landed pretty well too!

Sadly, it didn’t save Wray’s broken squad, who succumbed to a KIA event as the smoke was coming down.

First blood to the Germans!

After a quick German repositioning in the chateau, Wray and his men made their move.

One squad over to the line of trees to see if maybe they could do something against the chateau eventually, while the rest of Wray’s men headed towards the gully.

No way Lauerbach could fire through all that smoke.

I mean, he could have, to churn some cards, but it wouldn’t have done anything to me.

Buehler’s men then Advanced another space.

I once again had a Mover order, so Wray and his men jumped into the gully while the treeline squad hurried past the German HMG in the chateau.

Things weren’t going too badly!

For those of you unfamiliar with Combat Commander, you can’t see into a gully unless you are adjacent or have a height advantage of some kind. Thus, Wray and his men were safe from prying eyes.

Lauerbach couldn’t have any of that, with his HMG useless, so he advanced into the road to see about taking out Wray and company.

I had four Fire cards in hand (including two Ambushes, if it came to that), and Wray was only in -2 Smoke with some Hand Grenades, so he let the .50 Cal rip into Lauerbach’s group.

A 19-firepower attack (after die roll) and Lauerbach and his men were hustling for whatever cover (i.e. none) they could find in the road.

(This is where Max admitted that he could have sworn he had a Recover card in his hand, and I could commiserate. I’ve done that before, knowing I have a card and then when I need to use it, it’s not there)

Not to be outdone by Lauerbach (or maybe to distract Wray from him), the Infantry Gun, crew, and squad moved adjacent to Wray as well.

I still had 3 Fire cards, so firing on them was a no-brainer.

A Sustained Fire offset the smoke and a 20 firepower attack quickly decimated those guys as well.

Unfortunately, a German morale check resulted in a Breeze that blew all of that wonderful smoke away.

After some ineffective German fire on Buehler’s guys, Wray unloaded one of the Ambush Fire cards and blew Lauerbach and his men to shreds in the open road.

Because of course I had drawn another Sustained Fire as well.

I rolled doubles so I broke my .50 Cal but I was moving too fast and Max was already wanting to give me the Initiative to try and save them (I had given it back to him earlier to save a squad from breaking).

Thus, we backtracked and my MG was fine.

The reroll didn’t change anything as German bodies littered the road.

I then successfully routed the broken squad under the IG, though not the team itself.

Here’s the situation over there at that point.

I had thankfully drawn some more artillery, so Buehler called it in to see if he could bring back some of that wonderful smoke.

It ended up drifting right into Schrader’s hex!

So much for that HMG.

Wray also fired on the IG crew, but somehow they stayed resilient in the face of withering firepower and just dove for cover.

The IG crew recovered, then opened fire on Wray in the gully. While his men were fine, Wray’s nerves broke and he cowered behind Private Lovaas.

Not only that, but the German Hero, Dietel came out, rallying the German squad on the edge, and I drew Reinforcements, bringing out a mortar team that never even moved, much less contributed to the fight (I rolled terribly so I didn’t have much of a choice, because the leader option was really crappy).

Schrader then decided that he didn’t like being covered with all of that smoke, so he decided to move out and take things to the Americans.

One squad jumped into the road and paid for it.

Schrader ran into the woods with visions of challenging Buehler to individual hand to hand combat, but instead faced a lot of bullets coming through the trees.

Thankfully for Max, he had a Recover card and Schrader’s entire stack rallied (though the Germans in the road didn’t).

He opened fire with two separate shots on two of Buehler’s squads, breaking one, but also bringing out the first zombie!

Thankfully, it was my zombie and while I had been very fortunate not to lose anybody in my assaulting, I did have the one KIA casualty that I could bring out.

And they just happened to appear in the chateau with the one remaining German squad.

After some more German fire, the American deck ran out and we had our first real Time event. Max quickly gave his Germans in the middle of the road some foxholes.

Buehler got ready to unload on Schrader again with a massive attack that broke everybody.

The American satchel charge followed up and finished them off, except somehow Schrader hid up in a tree and survived.

In the process, the German deck ran out, bringing out Sgt White and His Flamethrowers!

They were bigger than the Beatles back in the day.

Of course, Schrader’s morale check resulted in a breeze that blew all of that beautiful smoke away.

Thankfully both HMGs were gone so it was no longer quite as dangerous.

On the next turn, another massive attack finished Schrader off.

You can’t hide when all of the tree leaves are gone!

A few more artillery requests and the battlefield once again had a bunch of smoke all over it.

More Buehler fire on the squad in the foxholes on the road brought out a German scrounge event, so now there was another HMG hiding in the building on the left side!

The Germans quickly opened up with this newly-found treasure, not only breaking an American squad but also bringing out more zombies!

They were discovered in Objective 4, a building that Wray had left behind a long time ago.

Max continued firing on that broken American unit, and their successful morale check produced more zombies!

Sadly, no American units were dead, so it had to be a German zombie.

They appeared on the wire in front of the HMG.

I then finally managed to kill the German in the foxholes on the road.

Then begins a string of some of the best sniping I’ve ever seen.

The German squad in the chateau fired, causing a German sniper to break one of Wray’s men in the gully.

Then the HMG opened up on the American MMG squad in the open next to Buehler, and the sniper broke them before the fire attack actually ended up killing them!

Good and bad luck for me…

Then, on a German Rout attempt, a third sniper broke another American!

I’ve never seen three snipers hit all on the same turn.

I’ve seen them activate, but not hit.

Why did I say “good” and bad up there for my squad dying?

Because Dietel charged to get into the same space as the IG and Wray opened fire, bringing out more zombies!

If my squad hadn’t died, then I would have had to bring out another German unit.

They appeared just behind Buehler’s attack.

Things were getting down to the wire, because I had finally drawn an Advance card and I had three Ambushes in my hand.

Before anything could happen, though, the Germans in the chateau once again fired on the Americans sitting next to them in the other room.

I only needed a 6 to make the morale check…and rolled a 4.

Curses!

However, even being broken, with two Ambushes, the Germans would be dead.

It would just be a matter of if Max had an Ambush too in order to trigger mutual annihilation (which would not gain me control of the 30-point objective.

Before we could find out, though, I discovered that Max had booby-trapped the hallway in the chateau!

If the minefield killed my guys, then no melee would happen and he would maintain control of the chateau.

A German 3 dice roll made that a moot point.

Which was good, because I rolled a 4!

Max didn’t have any Ambushes so the chateau fell and I had 30 more points.

At that point, Max conceded, 20 points down and two unit deaths away from automatic Surrender anyway.

Here’s the final map.

Once again, my attack had never actually reached the chateau.

It came down to American zombies to win the game.

Max was a great opponent and we had a lot of laughs.

Many thanks to him for being willing to be up late!

I’m sure he’ll give somebody a run for their money next month.

This game also had a couple of firsts for me.

I’ve never seen that many Walking Wounded events (I’ve seen four Reinforcement events, as Patrick might remember) and I’ve never seen three successful snipers on the same turn.

So weird.

Not only that, but mid-way through the game, my Move cards completely dried up.

I had a shitload of Fire cards, but no Moves.

Hence why my attack never reached the chateau.

Thankfully, I prevailed.

This win puts my ladder record at 33-29, which isn’t too shabby but hopefully I can better that next month.

Which may be hard, because I’m not sure I’ve ever won a Pacific scenario, and that’s what’s on tap next!

Yes, the Combat Commander: Pacific scenarios are next month.

Who knows what we’ll get?

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?

There have been a lot of people asking for games lately, so you never know.

Before we head out, I’ll reiterate my advice to you from June.

MORE SMOKE!!!!

Yeah, Tim’s graduated from power to smoke.

See you next month!

Combat Commander Ladder – After Action Reports

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