Chain of Command - Diving in

Image taken from https://www.brigadegames.com/assets/images/rules/wr-tflcoc.jpg

 Last night I went to the club. I almost didn't go as the guy I played Memoir 44 with last time hadn't responded to my late in the day message asking if he was coming. I arrived late and almost walked off as I couldn't see an obviously WW2 table. But then I saw it, 7 guys around a table. They asked if I wanted to be Poles or Germans. I explained I have a German name so they kicked me to the other side with the Germans. 

It was Chain of Command again. I was not annoyed, but I was still undecided whether to jump into those rules or not. I had a PDF of them that I procured last year but I had not read it. I struggled to keep up a little with the command dice, but decided I would buy the book, only to find that Too Fat Lardies are working to release Chain of Command 2.0 this Spring and have taken the first book down from the website. Luckily I have the PDF.

I had walked into the second game of a short campaign - Polish airborne in Market Garden defending against a hasty attack by the SS. The crazy thing is that the campaign is that it takes place over the space of a few hours - probably shorter than it takes to play one of the games!! A platoon of Poles were going to occupy these buildings. The Germans were tasked with advancing over open, boggy ground. Ground overlooked by three buildings. It was going to be a bloodbath probably. The brown straight bits represent drainage ditches and provide light cover. The hedges provide light cover and do not block LOS.

We thought it would be good to put the half tracks on first and use their MGs to keep the defenders pinned while we tried to advance the two remaining infantry sections up the drainage ditch. The polish sniper in the attic of a building shot at one half track, causing the crew to bail and abandon it. Just ridiculous. Throughout the course of the game the remaining half track would keep pretty steady fire on the defenders though.

In the end, this is how far we advanced. The squads just got massacred in the ditch and our command points(??) slowly deteriorated until it hit 0 and we lost the game. We inflicted 7 casualties on the Poles and killed one junior officer, all of which were replaced immediately in the campaign. I think they will start the next game with one casualty and a slightly worse new junior officer. The Germans start with a brand new platoon but have no other reserves. 

So here we are. I decided to print out a copy of the PDF and bind it up for now. I will be reading it over Easter. My understanding is that the 2.0 rules are largely the same. I am committing. I am joining my fellow club members.