Dead man's corner

Since the last bits for our upcoming What a Cowboy campaign are still on my painting desk, and we're taking a break from the Winter Storm campaign, we enjoyed a one-off scenario by William Thorpe for Chain of Command: Shootout at Dead man's corner.

Patrol phase was a bit strange (everything was locked down quickly) because the scenario put the patrol markers quite close together in their starting positions. Nevertheless, they were favourable for my Fallschirmjäger because they could deploy in the buildings.

With two LMG's per squad on overwatch, the Fallschirmjäger covered most of the approaches to the house.

My opponent's Screaming Eagles approached the house from the front and the side through the orchard.

Upon reaching the edge of the orchard, the German LMG opened fire from the attic window, causing casualties. The US medic ran forward to the sound of the guns.

Return fire from the paratroopers managed to wound my junior leader after a few phases however, despite the heavy cover provided by the building.

A double phase allowed me to deploy the two remaining Fallschirmjäger squads on the other side of the table. My plan was to flank the Americans. Counting on the team covering the dirt road on overwatch to keep the Americans away long enough for my Fallschirmjäger to cross the open ground.

My opponent cleverly countered this plan by bringing forward his squad of Americans in the orchard, triggering the overwatch and keeping the Fallschirmjäger in the house engaged while subsequently deploying another squad to fire at the Fallschirmjäger crossing the field.

Also the US mortar started firing at the Fallschirmjäger. This was bad news for the Germans. Their junior leader was hit and knocked out. Caught in the open without a leader to rally them, the Germans were being cut to pieces.

The other Fallschirmjäger squad moved sideways so they could fire past their own troops at the Americans. With a full Chain of Command dice I decided to end the turn to get both knocked out junior leaders back in the game. The downside of this was that my opponent could now deply his Stuart tank.

Although the American squad stopped firing at the exposed German squad and retreated into cover, the Stuart started pounding the survivers with HE.

Fortunately the Fallschirmjäger squad broke and retreated behind the wall before it was destroyed completely.

German attempts to knock out the tank with panzerfausts and a panzershreck all failed. German morale was going down faster than the American morale. After silencing the German LMG, the paratroopers advanced to close down first one and then two of the German jump-off points.

While the surviving Fallschirmjäger team was kept busy at the front of the house, the paratroopers entered via the back and defeated the German occupants in close combat.

Game over for the Germans.

Dispite losing, I really liked the scenario. The terrain invites lots of manoeuvring.