To end the year (other than tomorrow’s Friday Night Shots post and maybe something for Saturday/Sunday, I don’t know yet), I thought I’d write up one of this year’s most fascinating Combat Commander games I’ve had that wasn’t actually...
To end the year (other than tomorrow’s Friday Night Shots post and maybe something for Saturday/Sunday, I don’t know yet), I thought I’d write up one of this year’s most fascinating Combat Commander games I’ve had that wasn’t actually part of the monthly ladder.
My good friend Ted and I have been trying to play a monthly game and back in October, we thought we’d try to guess what the November ladder scenario would be, since that’s from the Stalingrad battle pack.
He left it up to me to choose the scenario.
I chose scenario #42, Rumanian Defiance, as it hadn’t been played before on the ladder and it didn’t take place in the depths of the city with all of the special Stalingrad rules.
(I’m not sure why they spelled it “Rumanian” instead of “Romanian”, unless it had a “u” in it in 1943, but to keep things consistent, I’m going to spell it that way throughout this report)
(You can click on each picture to blow it up if you want to)
This scenario has a bunch of plucky Rumanian (Teal, me) units defending an airfield from the Soviet (Brown, Ted) onslaught during Operation Uranus, the attack that surrounded Stalingrad and created the meatgrinder for the Germans and resulted in the annihilation of an entire army.
The Rumanians use the Italian deck instead of the German.
They also are in Defend posture, meaning they get to use all of those fun Defend only cards. The Soviets are attacking, of course.
The scenario has some interesting special rules that appealed to me as well.
First, the Rumanians can give up Initiative to have their Machine Guns (3 Light and 1 Heavy) become German instead of Italian. They’re still more prone to breaking because of the Italian deck, but they can repair much more easily.
Secondly, the Rumanians get any combination of seven Wire and Foxhole counters.
Third, it’s Winter terrain, so fields do not exist and Orchards only have 1 hindrance instead of 2. (I just realized as I’m typing this that this is the same map that our December ladder game used!)
Finally, the Rumanians can not exit the map for points. They are trying to keep the Soviets from exiting but they can’t exit themselves.
Would they show their pluck?
Or would Ted plow right over me?
This was back in October, so I don’t remember!
Let’s find out together, shall we?
The Rumanians set up first, up to 12 hexes deep from the left side of the board. I decided to concentrate in the south a bit, since my MGs could reach the north as well. There was a force up there to keep Ted honest.
Of course, after we started and I saw how concentrated Ted was in the north, I began regretting that strategy.
My two mortars we kind of out of position for any kind of effective fire.
In fact, before we started, there was a bit of hilarity.
I completely misread which side of the board that the Soviets came in on!
I set up and Ted asked if I really wanted to set up all that Wire to prevent me from routing and retreating?
I had set it up behind me.
He graciously let me fix that.
One problem the Italians (Rumanians) have is incredibly short range.
Ted took advantage of that and moved his northern force into the gully.
After a Rumanian discard, they moved some more. Ted sent a team out to see if I had a Fire card, which I did. They survived and jumped into the gully.
Then the rest of the guys moved, with Sgt. Bikovets discovering that the wily Rumanians had mined the gully! Only the team with him broke, though. Another team with a satchel charge came out into the open and promptly broke as well.
Of course he had a Recover, but the satchel charge team didn’t rally.
Ted decided to try and move forward again.
It didn’t go so well, with multiple units breaking, including Bikovets when exiting the minefield.
And a new Rumanian unit showed up behind their lines as well!
Lots of action early.
I was actually kind of surprised that he didn’t have another Recover order ready, but apparently not.
Some Rumanian fire took care of a couple of the broken Soviet units in the north. First blood to the Rumanians!
Ted then advanced the Soviets in the south to the hedge so they could actually see out across the board. They saw a bunch of Rumanians in the buildings across the way with an HMG and very little cover for them to advance!
Here’s the situation after a Rout order which managed to actually get Ted’s teams to safety rather than out of position.
Oh, did I mention that the Soviets have artillery as well?
That’s what the guys in the south were going to do.
His first attack on the HMG building actually did hit, but did no damage and caused the first Time trigger.
There are only 7 rounds in this game before Sudden Death comes in, so the Soviets do have to move. However, the Rumanians only start with a 6 point lead so they can’t afford to lose much early.
The Soviets finally recovered their troops, but one of the events was a new open objective, which resulted in a “if somebody controls all objectives at Sudden Death, they win” objective. The Soviet need to advance became a bit more urgent.
The Soviets then did some repositioning up north, first sending a team out to see whether the Rumanians had bullets…which they did.
Everybody got where they needed to go, but one of the resulting Soviet morale checks triggered Time again.
More Ted trickery up north with movement to see if I had a Fire card (or maybe he was going to Assault Fire me with the Satchel Charge? I forget) resulted in the team stumbling into more mines. They got in fine, but trying to leave they broke in the middle of the road.
I was nervous about those satchel charges. Would be nice to get rid of them.
I didn’t.
Didn’t help that when Ted tried to Recover him, he became suppressed, though he did ultimately Advance him off the road and behind the hedges.
The Rumanian position became a little worse when a Soviet fire attack broke the already suppressed Cpl. Dragomir! He was vital to leading the northern defense.
Even worse, when I tried to rally him (needing 10 or less), I drew an 11 so he was suppressed again.
Some inconsequential stuff happened (though Dragomir did rally, as did the Soviet team with the satchel charge, and a Rumanian sniper broke another Soviet squad), then Ted got cheeky with the satchel charges, taking advantage of me not having a Fire card to move both satchel charge teams next to my units.
As well as the rest of his guys!
I was not impressed.
Especially since I couldn’t do anything and had to discard again!
Sure enough, Ted did a massive attack on Dragomir’s hex.
First the firepower broke everybody, then the satchel charge came.
On his to-hit roll, Ted drew a Shell Shock event, which ended up killing Dragomir even before the charge hit!
The charge finished off the squad.
However, Bikovets was finally in range and sight of the Rumanian mortar, and it was time to take care of him!
Ok, it just suppressed a squad and broke the team, but it still felt good.
I then played a Rout order and managed to rout one Soviet unit right to the edge of the board…and as I’m going through the log to type this, I realize I missed another Soviet unit to Rout.
But Ted took advantage of an opportunity and made some more moves in the north to put pressure on me, also taking the building objective.
At this point, I seriously thought I had no chance to win.
And then came another break to really force that thought down my throat further.
Ted proceeded to Recover his forces, and during the ensuing rolls, rolled a sniper that broke my squad next to the satchel charge team!
Which of course he was already going to be attacking them with it anyway.
They died an ignoble death.
Things got worse with Bikovets and men jumping into the Rumanian foxholes to melee!
Could things get any worse for the Rumanians?
Taking objective 4 gave the Germans 8 points, putting them in the lead for the first time.
Of course, now the Rumanian HMG had multiple targets, so maybe something might happen now!
A couple of quick Time triggers helped move things along, giving me 2 points but still behind.
But the second one brought my reinforcements in!
They’re kind of wimpy units, but at least they’re bodies.
During the subsequent Rumanian morale checks from the artillery that brought on the second Time trigger, a sniper broke Lt. Gulkevich in the south. Ted had a handy Recover card, though, and promptly drew a Time trigger when trying to rally him!
There were some shifting positions, and the Rumanian deck ran out again.
Suddenly, we were one round away from Sudden Death and the Soviets only had a 2-point lead.
Could the Rumanians pull it out?
A Soviet Battlefield Integrity event didn’t help matters, unfortunately, giving them 4 more points.
And one of the Rumanian reinforcement squads died too, giving Ted two more VP.
I was back to despair.
The Soviet Hero had appeared earlier, rallying a squad that was ready to Rout off the board (if I could draw a Rout card). Ted then proceeded to make two Move orders to have him pop up in the Rumanian building next to the mortar.
Cheeky!
The Rumanians rallied and then fired, breaking the squad next to their mortar, and a Sniper broke Gulkevich again (he didn’t really do much this game other than cower behind the hedge and call down a couple of artillery barrages).
I then managed to kill the squad threatening my mortar, for 2 VP! Still at 6 Soviet VP, but getting there.
Ted proceeded to move the Hero out to (probably) try to take out my broken mortar team in melee, so I dropped some Wire on him.
That felt good.
After all that, let’s see where we are. There was some shifting of the Rumanians in the buildings in the south, and of course the Soviet Hero was still in Wire.
I finally had some units to Fire with who had good position!
So on my first mortar shot, I promptly drew a Time trigger.
But a 7 was drawn, so we went on!
(And I neglected to take my VP, so it should have been Soviets at 5 VP).
The mortar managed to break a squad and more fire broke a Soviet team.
Soviet fire broke the mortar team in the building, so the Soviet Hero jumped into his hex for melee!
No threat to him, since he’s not worth any VP.
I did manage to Ambush him, though.
Which ended up saving them, as the resulting rolls ended up being 11-10 for me. Without the Ambush, it would have been mutual annhilation.
However, it didn’t last as the next turn, Ted obliterated them with fire.
Two more Soviet VP.
The Soviet deck ran out and the game ended with a 7 roll.
The Soviets ended up winning with 7 VP (actually 6, given me forgetting to take one earlier), but it could have been closer than it ended up being.
I was despairing, but then got a ray of hope before having it cruelly blotted out.
I always enjoy these games with Ted, and they’re often close.
Ok, there were two that were blow-outs, so I didn’t bother writing them up (since they aren’t Ladder scenarios, I didn’t feel it was worth it).
This didn’t end up being the November scenario, but we both thought it was a good one so maybe next year?
Anyway, if you enjoyed this report, or the other ones I’ve written, why not join us on the ladder? You get to play with a great group of guys and you get to play Combat Commander at least once a month.
What could be better?
Combat Commander Ladder – After Action Reports
To see all of my Ladder After Action Reports since May 2021, go here!