It’s hard not to do the usual and remark something along the lines of “I really should play more Chain of Command.” It’s probably my most played game over the last decade, yet I always find I could stand to play a lot more of it. In this game, we played Scenario 4: Delaying Action, in which one side has to take an objective and the other side just needs to hold out long enough to sufficiently delay their enemy.

I was on the defense as the Germans. The early turns saw me staying off the board as I waited on my enemy to appear. I managed to capture the right third of the board in the patrol phase, so I had three buildings I could leverage to cover the table. My plan was to manage my side with two sections, an MMG, and a sniper distributed across the buildings, then keep a section in reserve as a counter play.

Early game saw my opponent move onto the board and take the commissariat building putting a sniper on top and a section inside. I failed to get a good photo, but he also gave me my first real problem: an entrenched HMG able to lay fire downfield. The HMG reduces cover level of its targets, and with my men in wooden buildings, they went from being in light cover to being in the open. Deadly. I had to solve it, which is why I deployed both a section in the blue house (above) and a sniper.

You can see that HMG behind a puff of smoke on the top right above. On the left side, you see my opponent sneaking some scouts up the board alongside a supporting section on the other side of the barn. He was aiming to run up to the objective. By this point in the game, I had managed to start the Final Countdown, so pressure was on to take the objective.

I had concentrated fire and neutered the HMG, so now my problem was handling these two sections advancing quickly up the board under pressure.

Or so I thought. He used the Soviet national rule that enabled him to deploy a scout section off an existing section on the board. Suddenly, he had two sections basically on top of the objective. With 4 turns left in the countdown, I had to pull off a hell of a counter. Only… He forgot one thing.

I have to commend my opponent. He did such a great job of layering smoke and covering fire to enable this advance. Unfortunately, he forgot my third section. What you also don’t see is the LMG in the church window and the HMG in the house that fired before I revealed these boys. I took advantage of a fortuitous double phase to deploy and charge into melee after laying down intense fire.

And just like that I had won my first Chain of Command game in goodness knows how long since I last played.

Unsurprisingly, it was brilliant. This was an excellent match and a celebration of everything I love about this game. I’m so thankful we set it up.

I hope it isn’t my final COC game of the year, but if it is, it was a darn good one. Chain of Command: it never fails to deliver.