In this weekend game we fought a WWII city fight game, Russians against Germans, using a house ruled version of Chain of Command.

For the first day the battle flowed back and forth with the Russian SMG platoon moving forward to engage the German 1st platoon. A KV2 entered the table in their support but it only lumbered slowly forward and did not manage to get into the action. Later in the day the Russian SMG platoon commander deployed his elite scout section to outflank the German command. Two sections of SMG’s flanked the other side of the German position and brought them under heavy fire and forcing them to fall back. The German leader using a Chain of Command die to move a jump off point before it could be overrun. The German panzer grenadiers moved slowly when they came onto the table but then deployed from their APC and moved over to threaten the flank of the advancing Russian machine gunners. However, they had casualties first from the overwatch fire from an A/T rifle team and Maxim team from the other side of the square, then from the fire from a Russian SMG section.

On the opposite flank the German 2nd Platoon were performing better. Their 1st squad deployed and tried to flank the Russian rifle platoon's position but the Russian senior leader had a flash of ‘inspiration’ and cried out “UHRAAAAH!”, sending three infantry sections charging rashly forward. The first two sections charged the deployed German section but only one made contact. The ensuing melee left both the Russian and German sections routing. The third Russian section ran towards the unmanned German third jump off point but in the German follow up phase came under heavy fire from a platoon on the 2nd jump off point and were forced to take cover behind the ruined walls of the building. When a German StuG arrived on the road on the flank of the Russian section it was forced to fall back. The Germans took advantage of the situation moving their second section forward with a flamethrower team to re-secure the jump off point with the StuG slowly trundling up the road in their support. The Russian infantry holding the T junction was under heavy fire from German infantry and A/Tgun and were pinned and looking for a miracle to save them. Their only hope was when a SU76 and T34/76 arrived on table on the road to their rear. 

At the end of the day things were even with the German 2nd Platoon under pressure on the left and the Russian Rifle Platoon under pleasure on the right. The Russian 2nd Platoon still had one infantry section unused holding their jump off point facing the square with the Maxim gun team. On the other side, the Germans still had their last infantry section deployed in a building on the other side of the square.

Next day things begin to hot up in the combat as the Russians continued to push forward. The Germans had to deploy their Panzerknacker section as infantry to fill the gaps. The Russians take fire from the Panzergrenadiers and the 2nd Platoon's 3rd section but in response wipe out one of the Panzergrenadier teams and their junior officer. On the other flank the Rifle platoon is saved when they get a double move and their senior leader activated both times allowing him to rally the shaken markers off the infantry platoon and use a Chain of Command die to rally them. This end of turn game had all four commanders having to roll a series of ‘bad things happen’ tests with junior leaders exiting the table with their routing units.

The Rifle platoon managed to bring up another section and bring the German infantry section holding the jump off point under heavy fire from front and flank and routing the sole remaining survivor. Their fourth section finally moved forward to prepare an attack on the depleted German 1st section and senior leader. The German StuG attempted to manoeuvre through the ruined buildings to attack the Russian infantry holding the T section. They got stuck initially but then managed to move forward coming under fire from a Russian A/T rifle team. After three shots the A/T rifle finally managed to get a hit, causing a shaken marker by hitting the gun optics. As they manoeuvred in the building the StuG exchanged shots with the T34/76 with both sides missing. The SU76 made its way up to the central square and began shelling the German infantry section holding the building on the opposite side of the square.

The last untouched Russian rifle section made an assault, first on a pinned German infantry platoon, causing the last survivor to rout, then on the next turn assaulting the German senior leader who only managed to roll a double ‘1’ in his turn when he tried to get away. In the ensuing tests the German 2nd platoon morale dropped to zero and they retired. The first platoon managed to hold on for another turn before they also went down to zero morale and retired. At this point the Russian Rifle platoon are down to morale 4 and the SMG platoon is the only unit on table still with a full set of command dice.