Paul and I played “Bessarabian Nights” today. A strange scenario with a random placement of Soviet units all over the map. Paul took the Soviets and I took the Germans.
Everything seemed to be going fine for me, steadily inflicting losses on Paul, until I vaccated a victory point hex which Paul took meaning he held all five victory hexes and he won the game.
Basically I’d been so busy concentrating on inflicting losses on him that I’d forgotten the objective! Doh!
Played scenario 6 “Paralized fron the West Down†from CC: E today with Paul. I took the Amercians and he defended with the Germans.
I moved to the center of the map taking the central building relatively easily but despite a large MG FG firing across the road never managed to break Paul’s units twice before they recovered.
I simultaneously flanked through orchard to take building 4 but was didn’t get the movement cards I needed to move into the German rear and capture some more objectives.
I won in turn 9 with 17 VP. Four of the VPs were a secret German victory chit on building 4.
My best shot of the game was a 16 FP group that rolled a 12, but Paul’s units recovered before I was able to rally them again!
Played scenario 5 with Paul today. He won as the Russians.
Played scenario 4 from Close Combat:Europe this afternoon with Paul. He attacked with the Americans and I was defending as the Germans.
Paul lost one of his 2 point leaders on one flank very early in the game which stalled his attack on that side of the board despite a few very effective fire groups which destroyed all my units on that side of the board.
Once that attack stalled I realised the best strategy for the game was to get through my cards as fast as possible to advance time and end the game as early as possible.
Paul cleared the approaches to the other side of the objective building and then used his artillery to smother the approaches with smoke and advanced through it.
Unfortunately he wasn’t fast enough and didn’t get enough Move cards. As he closed on the building the game ran out of time, leaving me with 24 VPs and a win.
Four:nill to me so far!
Paul and I played our third game of Combat Commander: Europe today, playing scenario 3, and it was a truly excellent game.
Paul took the Germans attacking across a heavily wooded board trying to capture a building. I setup up my Russians in the woods and covering the approaches to the objective building.
Paul started very well, advancing through the woods and eliminating most of my units in close combat. As he advanced on the objective building it looked like he had the game in the bag having inflicted so many casualties that he only needed one more kill to cause a Russian surrender.
In the struggle for the building I was able to eliminate his +2 leader causing his attack to stall, although I was left with only a leader holding it. Over the next couple of turns I received a number of reinforcements that prevented the objective from falling and stalled Paul’s attacks.
A couple of quick Time! events meant that the game ended with me having 17 VP for a clear victory, truly snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
Finally we are getting the hang of the system with the game flowing a lot better and we are unlearning our bad ASL habits (for example, in ASL brush hexes are a minor obstacle, in CC:E they are a major hindrance to fire through them).
Great game…
Paul and I played Combat Commander: Europe again today. We played scenario 2 “Hedgerows and Hand Grenades” which I won with 11 VP playing as the US.
Paul and I played our first game of GMT’s Combat Commander: Europe this afternoon. Played the first scenario with me taking the Russian’s and him taking the Germans. We both really enjoyed the game – sort of simple ASL with cards – despite making some major rules mistakes. I won.
