Smolensk 1941 : Chain of Command

As most of you know I am a long term fan of Bolt Action but have often toyed with CoC. So when George   Offered to play through a WW2 campaign using the rules it was a great opportunity to try them out properly. George has collected all of the figures for a number of these smaller ‘mini’ campaigns so we plumbed for Smolensk 1941. You can find George’s post here http://musingswargameslife.blogspot.com/2022/12/careful-what-you-wish-for.html

Shout out to the guys that write these campaigns as the details and effort are fantastic. There is if you are interested a run through of the whole campaign on Utube.

I’m not going to run through the background which is covered in the Utube video, suffice to say the battle over three days focus around the town of Yartsevo, the winner is the side controlling the three central tables after 8, 10 turns (Battles) the Russians picked by me as I rarely get to play them, get to attack first turn and my force attacked table 3B from table 4 which I already control.

The Russians have either an Infantry Platoon or a small Armoured platoon, and as is the way with CoC you can add to this with extra support depending on a series of simple calculations and dice rolls. The Russians although obviously out gunned have a big advantage in that the infantry platoon is expendable and can be replaced each battle the Germans must be much more careful. Above my Russian starting force, with George’s lovely version of Table 3B

My support, an extra 50cm mortar, a Maxim MMG and a sniper [Annastasia] I also had a pre start barrage and an adjutant who apparently helps get troops onto the table. We didn’t I’m afraid take too many photos as we were too engrossed in the battle.

After the usual pregame scouting etc we ended up with jump off point running roughly along the length of the table, I didn’t manage this well but will have a better idea in the future, as this actually helped the Germans giving me more ground to cover. The after several issues with barrages and delayed entry etc the Germans set up a strong defensive line   With good cover.

It took ages for the Russians to actually get on the table with initially only exchange of machine gun and mortar fire to softened up the defenders, eventually though getting the hang of things the Russian senior commander started to get the three infantry sections forward, putting one into the train station but not opening fire until the rest of the force was ready to break for the attack. Anastasia managed to relocate into the railway station clock tower causing much distraction to the Germans and wounding  one of their leaders. Eventually though she was forced by heavy fire to retreat. Hopefully she will be back !

The Germans dug in by the stone bridge and behind the farm, they put down a tremendous level of fire !

A third section is brought on to the left as well

After several turns the Russians are forced to give the assault a go with both commanders really expecting this to be a massacre

Somehow the combination of the three units with the senior officer now brought forward start to lay down enough fire to shock and then pin the Germans at the bridge. They also manage to defeat and push back the German section behind the farm, each kill being critical with such small squads. With the majority of the Russians still on the table and two of the three German squads broken, the Germans withdrew rather than risk higher casualties.

The Russian senior officer celebrating his surprising success, the railway station in Yartsevo is taken.

Great game and thanks to George for the set up introduction to CoC. Fair to say neither of us expected that outcome as the Germans were putting down a wall of lead and the final assault was to some extent just to test how bad it really was attacking Germans across some open ground. A couple of good rolls, some ineffective German fire and careful use of COC dice to interrupt gave the Russians an unexpected victory. I’m sure the Germans won’t be that easy next time. I suspect both sides will be beefing up as the next battle may be more critical.

So my thoughts on CoC the basics are pretty easy to pick up. I had no idea what I was doing in the patrol phase and completely messed up. With the command roll you always have the possibility that you can’t do anything which I am sure can be frustrating, watching the Utube videos it was amazing that players were simply rolling their dice and then simply declaring they couldn’t do anything so moving on. Games where the dice might by pure luck prevent you carrying out your carefully developed strategy can be frustrating but it is no different for example in Lion Rampant. I do like the attention to detail, squads and team and weapons etc…which is different (although not necessary better than BA). What I do like ‘at the moment’ is the detail put into developing the forces which allows a more realistic feel to the attack vs defence scenario. I can see that the attack vs defence may become slightly predictable ? Obviously it wasn’t in this battle which kind of proves the rule, but for example there was no incentive or sense in the Germans moving all they could and should realistically do was dig in at the back and lay down as much fire as they could. Obviously as this was my first battle I have nothing to compare it with others will have more experience.

We made a few mistakes with the rules but those we made probably evened out, Annastasia was actually better than we thought, both sides may have lost NCO’s quicker but this will come with a few more games. Defenders don’t get barrages which slowed down the Russian deployment but as the Germans couldn’t shoot them at that point it didn’t matter. All in all really enjoyed the Game, looking forward to the next instalment. It has of course got me thinking about a CoC force, Germans and British I can do with my current forces but it has given me some ideas…after all I always need another project.

Games are coming thick and fast as we approach a Christmas lull and we just finished another back of beyond battle which I’ll post in a couple of days.

Matt 😀