Dual Session--WARMACHINE & Combat Commander

     Paul and I played a game of WARMACHINE on Friday the 30th of July.  The 35 point throwdown was between Khador and Cygnar and the scenario was Break The Line.  We had decided to play fully painted armies after the introduction of MKII came out in the spring and what a great feeling to see all the models on the table with some fabulous terrain.  Allister Caine took the field against Kommandant Irusk with the goal of holding three of six quadrants on the board at the end of the third round.  Khador deployed as a hard little knot in the center of the board with Iron Fang Pikemen and a Demolition Man-O-War unit accompanied by Irusk.  On the left flank the Winter Guard and a Destroyer held vigil.  The right flank was occupied by Widowmakers and a Manhunter.

Khador at setup

     Caine set up with most of his forces spread out evenly across the front of his deployment zone.  There was two units of Arcane Tempest Gun Mages, three Hunters (!) and two Gun Mage solos, as well as the Black 13th. It looked grim for the Khador army as they had no long range weapons (just range 8" blunderbusses) besides the Destroyer.  The only hope was to move forward as fast as possible and hope to get to grips with Cygnar before they were all shot to hell.  And that is basically what happened.  

Cygnar at setup

     On the first turn all of Khador advanced.  Most with some sort of defensive buff.  Man-O-War under Iron Flesh, Iron Fangs with Shield Wall and Winter Guard with Bob and Weave.  Cygnar also moved forward but a little bit more warily, trying to use what cover they could, still pretty spread out.  Khadors big mistake was deploying the Destroyer so far from Irusk as he had to run back in order to be granted the spell of Superiority from his 'caster.  Second round saw the Widowmaker taking some shots at the Hunter on their flank, causing only one point of damage with their Sniper ability.  I thought that they would be able to benefit from their Camouflage skill but the Gun Mage unit benefitted from True Sight.  Within a turn they would be destroyed to a man, although their true purpose was to tie-up the Hunter and the Gun Mage unit.  The Gun Mages on the left flank took out a good number of Winter Guard although it would have been more if the Kovnik Joe hadn't given them the tough ability.  Additionally, some of the shots of the Hunter got through to kill off a couple of the Man-O-War unit.   Caine also arrived in the second round and activated his feat, taking shots at everyone in line of sight although that nuber was decreased significantly by a cloud effect thrown out by a member of the Black 13th.  Third round saw Cygnar taking possession of some of the zones of control, if only for their part of the turn.  Khador continued their advance forward and got into charging range of some of the Hunters and one of the Gun Mage units.  They did a good job of knocking down a 'jack and eliminating some of the Gun Mages.  After their charge they regrouped thanks to the help of the standard bearer and sat tight in Shield Wall.  The Winter Guard did a good job of knocking out some their opponents, the second Gun Mage unit.   After this round, the center was looking weak for Cygnar as well as having some fraying around the edges.  Cygnar tried a little something on their turn and then ceded the battle to Khadors overwhelming melee units.
     Thoughts on this game:  Khador did a good job on set-up in that they threatened most parts of the board equally.  Key if you want to keep your opponent from discerning your true goals.  Also learned was that units really need some sort of attachment, preferably the officer and standard bearer.  A character solo doesn't hurt either.  Both of them are used to increase the inherent abilities of the unit and make them pack a bigger punch and defend with greater acumen.  The other thing that I learned was that tier list (which Paul used) are very specialized.  They give you some good zing in specific situations but they have some very big weaknesses.  Once I engaged Cygnar in melee they were pretty much done because of the preponderance of weak melee models.  For the most part I think that a balanced list is best although that will not stop me from fielding a tier list.  They are just so "fluffy" and the story aspect of one of the things that drew me into the game in the first place.  
     
     Later on in the evening we played two games of Combat Commander.  We have been taking great delight in the scenarios in the new Normandy battlepack.  This time say the Germans opposed first by the British and second by the Canadians.  The first was a beach breakout by the British.  They were aided in their approach by well placed smoke rounds before the game started.  This and timely draws of the Recovery order allowed the first sortie to quickly leave the beach assault a bunker.  Taking the bunker involved also killing an officer and taking out an artillery piece.  Once in the bunkers and trenches the British had litte trouble finishing off the old men and boys that the Krauts chose to man their defenses.  Fortuitous weapon breakage and poor, poor defense/offense draws helped the British in their inexorable advance.

The Canadians surrounded!

     The second scenario saw elite German troops marching on an urban area held by mediocre Canadian forces.  This time the pendulum swung the way of the Germans.  The Canadians couldn't draw a decent defense card to literally save their lives.  The Germans executed a text book advance-and-flank maneuver and it was over rather quickly through surrender.
     Thoughts on these games:  When attacking it is important to have several Move and Recovery orders.  Units are more likely to be broken when moving and it is essential to get them recovered before they take more fire.  Conversely, when defending, it is critical to be able to fire to stop troops but even more critical to finish them off once they are broken.  This speaks well of fire groups that contain a mortar.  If the mortar can break some units then you can clean them up with unit or weapon fire.  Another point to remember, if you have the chance, have some Ambush actions in your hand before you try an Advance.  This allows easy clearing of enemy when you go to engage them hand-to-hand.

Combat Commander Plays

Assaulting from the beach.  The Americans have driven the Germans back from the left flank.

     Recently I have gotten in a couple games of Combat Commander (Normandy battlepack.)  After the assault on Pont Du Hoc gun emplacements we played a beach scenario with me playing the role of the United States.  The idea was to move inland from the beach and capture a series of communiction trenches studded with bunkers and foxholes.  The second scenario took place in the bocage country after the beach with victory coming from surrender of your opponent or exit points by moving off a designated map edge.  In both games the Americans were triumphant but only with a little bit of luck.  I can understand why some people complain that there is too much luck in the game.
     For example:  In the second match in the bocage, the Americans tried to move across a road, through bocage and into a field.  They were having no success and getting hosed down by the Germans and the casualties were mounting fast, approaching the surrender level.  During one of the defense rolls the Americans get the reinforcement event and pick the 155mm radio.  At this point the momentum radically changes and the Americans start calling fire down on the Germans with devastating effect.  Add the radio to the fact that the American's had a leader that could activate like a hero so he was calling multiple Artillery Request orders on the same turn.  The whole lynchpin of that episode was a random event card....
     Continued thoughts about Combat Commander:  1.) If you are attacking you must have a general plan.  This forces you to cycle through cards until you have what you need to put the plan into action.  For instance, if I want to move a mass of troops forward I like to have a Move order, a Recover order and maybe an Assault Fire action in my hand.  I don't like to move guys into or across enemy firelanes unless I have a Recover order in my hand because I always get gunned down.  2.) Tactical flexibility.  Like Kenny said, "You have to know when to hold 'em.."  Sometimes if you aren't getting the cards you want you must formulate a plan around what you have.  This can put your troops in a tight spot with fewer options but there are times when you just have to keep your troops moving rather than hunkering down under a withering barrage of bullets.  Hand management is huge in this game.
     I continue to find this game intriguing and coming back for more.  I think this game is getting close to surpassing WARMACHINE in plays.  I also like it because you can pull it off the shelf and get to playing and 15 minutes rather than the large setup of WARMACHINE and the transport of all the models.

Back in Action

Okay, now that the World Cup is over I can get back to this blog and gaming. The last month has only seen me play a couple of games and dab some paint on one miniature.
A couple of days ago I played another game of Combat Commander (Normandy battlepack.) This scenario saw the Americans trying to take the Pont du Hoc gun batteries. They were tasked with climbing the cliff and taking over six different bunkers. A daunting task as they could only advance up the cliff faces or get up with a special rule at the end of the time advance sequence. The Germans (who I played) were set up on the top of the cliff hunkered down in the bunkers with plenty of light and heavy machineguns as well as medium mortars. The Americans did well the first couple of turns as they got a goodly amount of leaders and troops up the cliff and successfully assaulted a bunker to establish a foothold. After that it was all downhill. They couldn't seem to get anything going and really felt the dearth of smoke grenade action and move orders. A couple of lucky white phosphorous events got some smoke out but by then there was a serious traffic control problem at the top of the cliff as the Germans gunned down American troops with impunity. From there the game quickly ended after victory points started adding up and time advanced to sudden death during round ten.
A good game for the Germans with a hint of payback from the last time that we played the map. Last time the Americans had a textbook, cliff-scaling, German-smashing scenario where most everything went their way.

Final thoughts on this scenario: Germans need to get their leaders up in the bunkers as soon as possible to be able to direct fire from the mortars and machineguns. They also must be able to move troops around quickly in order to respond to the Americans stacking up on one side of the map. The Americans need to get up the cliff as soon as possible and start tossing enough smoke so that at least some will remain on the map after a time advance. This is all important as it allows the Americans to move past the first captured bunker and attempt to assault or bypass the remaining bunkers to gain victory points. I think that spreading the American troops along both cliffs would have the greater effect of splitting the concentration of fire from the Germans across two fronts rather than loading one side down with troops and possible encountering traffic control problems when hexes become overstacked.

That game marked our 50+ play of Combat Commander and I am itching to delve into different types of hex and counter games. With that in mind I asked Paul to pick out a new game to play for our next session and he picked Warriors of God by Multi-Man Publishing. This looks to be a tasty little game that relies on area control and leans heavily on the use of leaders. Simple little rulebook that is well laid out and rules that don't look that hard to learn. Looking forward to it.

Combat Commander Match

Played a game of Combat Commander tonight from the new Normandy Battlepack. The Battlepack comes with maps, counters, scenarios and special Normandy rules. We played the first scenario in the pack and it used new rules such as starshells and night modifiers. Some of the other rules in the pack that we didn't play with were dealing with things such as armor support, rural roads and swimming. There were around nine or ten new rules that were pertinent to Normandy. The new maps look fantastic like other Combat Commander maps and the chits were also standard fare including new commanders.

We played the Pegasus Bridge scenario, Germans v. British. The Germans were tasked with holding a bridge head surrounded by trenches and wire. There was an artillery gun and a pillbox to complete the defenses. The Germans had poor troops (conscript squads and green teams) and one leader. Reinforcements would arrive on the three or four time box. These were volksgrenediers and rifle squads as well as another commander. Would the weak troops survive in time for help to arrive? Could they hold the bridge?

The British enter the map from a glider so they must be in or adjacent to two specific hexes at set up. The Limeys, mainly paratroopers and elite teams, set up in two groups. One occupied some woods near the map edge and the other started rather forward in the open. Allies had to capture the bridge for victory points. The first couple of turns were the perfect storm for the British. They steadily advanced into and over some wire and stumbled into the front trenches after approaching under the cover of smoke. The most the Germans could do was minimal harassing fire and a little shuffling around of troops. The British machine kept rolling as they continued to assault and capture the infantry gun and pillbox as the Germans made a strategic retreat to the other side of the bridge and into some trenches. At this time it kind of turned into a stalemate with victory points shifting back and forth and the frontlines holding. Time passed and we forgot to do the night sniper at every time event for the entire game! Reinforcements arrived for both sides but the Germans were the only ones that got their reserves into the fight (although, it was mainly to die.) The momentum died around the seventh time box and ended on a sudden death on time marker nine. I could be slightly off about the end, hopefully Paul will correct me in the comments! British won with two victory points. It was a hard fought battle that stayed tight through most of the game. The British big push at the beginning was the keystone to cementing their victory because without that there was no way they could have made it to the trenches as the Germans were throwing out lots of illumination and had a steady hand of fire cards after the push. It is much easier to break those paratroopers when they are moving in the open under illumination.

Overall it was a very fun game that had just the right mix of back and forth to make it feel like you were always in the game. Being able to use Artillery cards was huge as it made cards that are a lot of the time useless have some worth. I am looking forward to see how the remainder of the new rules change the game play experience. I give Normandy Battlepack a 4 (out of 5) finger salute!