Combat Commander/ Great War Commander

the_jake_1973 wrote: I dig M44, so this would seem to hit the same notes, but on a closer scale.

I have to thin my current collection before I bring in something else I barely have time for. LOL

I played Squad Leader, ASL, and Up Front a lot back in the 80s, then dropped out of the hobby for a while. Memoir'44 was my reintroduction to WW2 tactical gaming more than a decade ago now, before I graduated to CC, the game which has ruled my wargaming table ever since. So if you like Memoir, you should have no problems with CC's card-driven play. In fact, you'll probably really enjoy the added layer of chaos with the random events.

Great War Commander

Scenario 01 "Birth of a Legend"
Liam and I started our play-through of GWC's published scenrios at square one, with a game of this scenario, which features a young Lieutenant Rommel. The scenario has a reputation of being strongly pro-German, so naturally enough, random selection gave me the French. There wasn't much to choose from in my setup because all of my platoons' deployment hexes were predesignated. I put my command-2 leader with the HMG on the right, in a position from which I could move to cover a likely German move through the fields in the centre of the map. My command-1 leader went on the left, from where I hoped he'd be able to pull together some platoons to form a coherent company. The rest of my platoons were scattered around the map, in positions in which they'd immediately be Out of Cohesion, and so become Suppressed. At least they were in decent cover.

Liam decided not to take advantage of the command chain rules, and set up one company, of four platoons, in the centre; and another company, of three platoons with the HMG, on his right.

The game started with Liam's HMG company opening fire on one of my isolated platoons, which promptly broke, a condition it was to endure for most of the game until it was eventually eliminated. Soon enough, Liam got his centre company moving. One platoon moved to reinforce the HMG company. I managed to break it with OpFire, but it survived to rally later. This was to prove the high point of my fire attacks against Liam's ML8 Fusilier platoons. The rest of the company moved forward to a position in which they were just out of range of my isolated Suppressed platoon covering that flank.

In response to this, I brought up my command-2 leader and his platoon with the HMG, only for the platoon to break under OpFire. I didn't have a Recover in hand; the HMG platoon never rallied; and it was soon eliminated by a pesky sniper. The action was mainly on this flank during the mid-game, with Liam playing two Offensive orders to good effect- putting his company in a position from which it could launch an overstacked melee, and moving his Runner well on the way to exiting for another VP (a later Runner order saw it exit safely). I played a Counterattack against one of these Offensive's fire attack, only for Liam to play an immediate Recover. Liam also made a couple of Air Assaults, one of them from the Dog Fights Strategy Card. Liam picked off one of my Suppressed platoons in melee, with an Ambush that was too much for my Bayonets. Finally regrouped, I managed to play a Hidden Position, giving me a team w/75mm cannon to bolster my command-2 leader's stack. Unfortunately, Liam Counterattacked when I opened up with the stack's firegroup- I was holding the cannon for a follow-up shot- so that the cannon's team was Suppressed. Gah! Shortly after, the cannon broke due to a Malfunction event. Double gah! Meanwhile, as the battle raged on in this corner of the map, Liam's other company ran up to grab Objective 5 (which I knew would give him 5VP thanks to my secret objective, so putting him in the lead), and then launched an Offensive. One platoon ran off the map for a couple more VP, while the rest closed in on my central position (which had already been weakened when another pesky sniper eliminated a broken platoon). These Formations at least survived the fire attack thanks to their Pillbox.

The game ended on the first Sudden Death roll, and Liam won with a handy 9VP.

And that was my first game of GWC. The question is: how does the game feel to play? Is it just CC:E with the serial numbers filed off? My answer to this so far is no. Although we didn't see the command chain rules in action, we did see enough new orders and actions to give the game a feel of its own. And the Strategy Cards saw a lot of use too. Based on this one play of the introductory scenario then, Liam and I are happy with GWC.

So now that I have gone down the Combat Commander rabbit hole with recent purchases of CC:Europe, CC: Med, CC: Pacific, and CC: Resistance, I need to find the further battle packs.

If anyone is selling........

Wow, you really went for it, didn't you! As for Battle Packs? Well you could check the BGG market- there are some available as recently as one month ago- but I suspect they'd be snapped up pretty quickly. There are also some available from Second Chance Games . It is a UK games retailer, but they do international shipping. I don't know what the shipping and customs might come to, but they're certainly worth investigating. I've bought several CC products from them and never had any problems. However goes your hunt to slake your thirst for for new CC product, good luck with your new game. I hope you have as much fun with it as I have had down the years.

JM, I came across some ridiculous deals off of Facebook. Couldn't pass it up.

Great War Commander

Scenario 02: "Fix Bayonets"
Liam and I continued our GWC odyssey with a game of this, the second, scenario, which features a French attack on a small village in Belgium in August 1914. Random selection gave me the French, with which I was quite happy, since they have the advantage of numbers and leadership.

Liam's two companies set up concentrated in the village in the centre of the map. Against that, I set up a company with my Highest Ranking Leader in open ground in the centre; another five platoon strong company- with my HMG- in the woods on my right; and a weak, two platoon strong company on my left. My plan was to use my HMG company to suppress Liam's Germans on that flank, then to assault up the centre when the time was right (this was always going to be dodgy against the German HMG stacked with a command-2 leader). My weak, left flank platoon had the option of heading for a distant objective that was worth 5VP.

The game opened with an intense artillery barrage on the German positions, as I was dealt a fistful of Artillery Request orders. Soon, there was one eliminated German platoon and two others were broken. Then came the decisive engagement. I had an Offensive order coupled with an Assaults Strategy Card- which enables moving units to enter enemy-occupied hexes, at the cost of becoming Suppressed. So I declared an Offensive with my right-flank company- I chose that one because it could get units into the hexes of broken enemy platoons- and charged. Liam opened up with everything he had, naturally enough. All but one of my platoons got through; my own post-move fire attack proved futile; and I won the two ensuing melees, for double VP, thanks to the 'Bayonet Work' special rule. So I was now ensconced in the village with the VPs even.

Unfortunately for me, Liam was ready with an immediate counter-attack. He rallied his troops; played an Advance using the command chain rule; and advanced in against all my hard-won footholds in the village, including an overstacked melee against my Leader's stack. I played two actions in the hope of turning the tide against Liam's stack of veteran platoons, but it was all to no avail. I lost both the melees, and Liam was in possession of the village again.

By this point I was looking for a surrender victory, and swung my central company right into the woods, from which I hoped to launch an attack on Liam's weaker left flank. I couldn't get moving however, and the game petered out with Liam's suriving units doing a good job of keeping my men pinned with fire attacks, and picking off any vulnerable units he could. He won with 20+ VP on the first Sudden Death roll.

Another painful but enjoyable session, this game showed off more of what is unique to GWC than my first play of the game. The plentiful use of artillery meant that there was quite a lot of terrain downgrading, notably when an errant spotting round delivered the strike right onto my own spotter, and downgraded his woods to shellholes. And the vicious melee in the village which effectively decided the game was pure GWC, relying as it did on the Offensive/Assaults order/Strategy card combo; followed up by the use of the command chain rules to get both Liam's leaders into melee with a single Advance order.

I'm trying to understand the sort of overall viewpoint of this game. Is it mainly early war skirmishing/open combat in the West and then overall action in other areas that didn't bog? Or does it try to do the endless fruitless strategic offensives once the trenches settled in the West?

The overall viewpoint of Great War Commander?

The first thing to say is that, based on Combat Commander as it is, GWC is a small-scale tactical game. The basic units are platoons to CC's squads, and forces engaged are battalions to CC's companies. These changes strike me as appropriate to the structure of command and control on the WW1 battlefield. As for what the game represents in the various theatres of war? The basic game is published with scenarios that represent battles from all the major periods of the war on the Western Front, battles that feature the Germans, natrually enough, against the French and later the Americans. These start in Belgium in August 1914 and lead up to the Battle of the Marne in September of that year. These represent the "early war skirmishing/open combat" to which you refer Gary, and, as such, are played on maps of regular terrain with the occasional hexed pockmarked with shellholes. The action then turns to Vimy Ridge in May 1915, in a scenario which features a French attack across the blasted moonscapes so familiar from imagery of WW1 battlefields, and against the all-too-familiar trenchlines.

I won't go into detail on the rest of the scenarios. I'll just note that they pass through Verdun and the Somme in 1916; introduce tanks in 1917; and feature the Americans too in 1918. Many of these scenarios take place on heavily cratered maps with little covering terrain and with cover provided by fortifications, though some of the later ones again feature largely intact terrain as actions took place over new battlefields. This represents a conscious decision on the part of GWC's designers. Their intent here is to show how both the battlefield and tactics evolved throughout the war. As far as I can understand it, this will continue with the planned expansions, the first of which- featuring the British and Commonwealth forces- is hoped to be released later this year. Undoubtedly many of the scenarios in this expansion will also take place on the Western Front, and will represent a similar chronological progression to that seen in the GWC basic set, but I have also heard talk of Turkish forces appearing in the expansion so that there can be scenarios set in Gallipoli.

Hexasim- GWC's publisher- also have plans to produce expansions covering all the major theatres of operation in the war, so there should be lots to look forward to for fans of the game.

Yeah, that's helpful! The -->platoons and battalions makes more sense to me for units with very little discretion at low levels until late in the war when giving low level units discretion to attack/exploit was one of the innovations of the period.

I'd be interested to hear how the "moonscape" scenarios are, those are the ones I'm not even sure how you'd game at this level.

You'll be hearing about the 'moonscape' scenarios in due course Gary. And I'm not sure how I'll play them either, given the regular whippings Liam delivers when we play the Combat Commander system. His experience of chess (a game I was never particularly good at) has given him a strategic ability to think several moves ahead that simply confounds me. It's a testament to how much I like the system that I keep coming back for more after the near endless run of defeats I've endured!

Great War Commander

Scenario 04: "En Avant Les Grelus"
Liam and I continued our play through of the published GWC scenarios with a game of this scenario, featuring a 1915 French attack on fortified German positions on Vimy Ridge. This is the first scenario to take place on a 'moonscape' battlefield so typical of WW1 imagery. Random selection gave me the Germans, so I set to with what, in the end, was a rather poor setup. Y'see I'd set up a curtain of wire on my right flank, only to leave the bulk of my forces covering that flank, instead of the open flank across which I could've expected Liam to make his advance (because of my wire, naturally enough). Sure enough, Liam's forces were massed on my left, where I had little to cover their advance.

Then came the 'Chewed-up Ground' special rule, which saw 14 random hexes selected: any units in those hexes were suppressed, and any Fortifications downgraded. This immediately put paid to my Pillbox, in which I'd placed my Highest Ranking Leader with a Platoon w/HMG, to hold an objective worth VP to me. I also lost a couple of my Trenches to this. Next was the 'Opening French Barrage'. This didn't go well for Liam, the only effect of it being an errant barrage which broke several of his own units, including his own Highest Ranking Leader. The net effect of this was to delay Liam's opening Offensive.

Pretty soon I was in what looked like a strong position: Liam had lost his two best leaders leaving the bulk of his Platoons out of cohesion and suppressed, and I had a tidy VP lead. Liam confessed later that his personal morale was wavering at this point. But neither of us had reckoned with the power of Liam's artillery. Strike after strike rained down on my positions, chewing up my Fortifications, and breaking, suppressing, and eliminating my Formations as they found themselves denuded of any cover except shellholes. It was thanks to this that Liam was able to regroup his isolated platoons around his surviving and his reinforcing leaders, and move with relative impunity in the face of my neutralised HMGs. As more and more of my Formations bit the dust under this relentless barrage, it began to look like the end was inevitable. And it was. Liam forced a surrender with two melees on the penultimate time period.

This game was characterised by two things: the destructive power of Liam's artillery, which ground down my defences so that my forces were slowly but surely broken then eliminated. Fully 7/10 of my casualties came this way IIRC. The other thing that was characteristic of this game was big turns in which action erupted all across the battlefield. Whether it was Offensives, or massed Moves led by a Command-2 leader, Liam was making big plays which saw a lot of OpFire in return. These plays were much bigger those typically seen in Combat Commander, for reasons of numbers of units involved, and the openness of the terrain.

So, four games in, what are my early impressions of Great War Commander? The main thing I have to say here is this: this is the familiar CC system for sure, but, as was achieved with CC:Pacific and CC:Resistance , GWC is not just basic CC with the serial numbers filed off. Like CC:P and CC:R, GWC is a game that poses its own set of tactical challenges, and provides players with the tools to address them.

The more of these recaps I read, the more I want to at Great War to my collection even though I prefer the air war to the ground war in the time period.

As an aside, I traded away some long ignored Brettonian miniatures for CC Normandy and Stalingrad. A good trade indeed.

I'm pleased to hear that you're enjoying my AARs. And that you're going all in on CC. Yes, that was indeed a good trade. I'd say that the two battlepacks to look out for next are BP#5: Fall of the West , and BP#6: Sea Lion . IMO, these add the most interesting scenarios to the collection you've already got. BP#5 in particular has tanks.

BGG has a Combat Commander guild with a ladder competition that I joined so I can get more practice with the game.

I need to find more local opponents.

Great War Commander

Scenario 05: "This Is Our Place"
The fifth in Liam's and my playthrough of the GWC scenarios, this game featured my French defending against Liam's Germans at Verdun. There are two variants of this scenario: the map is either Woods or Destroyed Woods- we opted for the latter to make the game slightly more open and fluid. The French setup is random: their four leaders have to set up in four randomly located Pillboxes. Three of mine were located quite close together on my left- they got my three best leaders and the bulk of my forces, and the two HMGs; the fourth was isolated on my map edge, where I just placed a lone platoon with my weakest leader. Liam's forces were set up in a line along his map edge.

The game opened with Liam bringing forward his main body onto my forces while moving a light company- a leader and two platoons- down the edge of my open right flank: exit VP I thought. I didn't draw a Fire card for ages, so was forced to make a tactical withdrawal in the face of the threat of the two German flamethrowers. At the same time I swung two companies forward and right, out of their pillboxes, to form a line which could fire on the Germans as they came forward into my line. Liam concentrated instead on moving his flanking company and his reinforcements off for exit VP, surrounding and eliminating my lone covering platoon in melee as he did so. This cost me a precious Fire card, played for a useless Ambush, and put him in front.

I paid for that Ambush when Liam finally did come forward: I OpFired, as you'd expect, only for Liam to play his Sturmabteilung Vor Strategy Card, and cancel it. Oh how I wished I still had that second Fire card. I did at least have a Hidden Wire, which I promptly dropped on Liam's Highest Ranking Leader, with his flamethrower team. This stopped Liam's move in its tracks, although he was still able to Advance in for a couple of successful melees. The game became cagey again at this point, as Liam sat back on his solid VP lead. I had no choice but to inch forward to get my HMGs in LOS of the Germans. Liam won the ensuing firefight despite my best efforts, and won a convincing victory on the first Sudden Death.

Liam won this game with exit VP. I should've had a stronger company on my map edge to move to forestall that. Also, the decision to play with Destroyed Woods instead of Woods was a big factor. The extra hex's LOS contributed to the game's cageyness, but perhaps the main effect was to make Liam's exit VP strategy more viable, increasing, as it did, a company's move from two hexes/turn to four. Exit would still have been possible if the map had been Woods, but it'd've been much slower