Combat Commander Europe: first impressions

So we've had some opportunity now to get familiar with Chad Jensen's Combat Commander Europe, and what a nice beast it is. We're not surprised it is still getting re-printed 14 years after it was first released. For those not familiar with it, CCE is the first iteration of the Combat Commander system, and simulates platoon to company level combat in Europe, with German, Soviet and US forces comprehensively covered off in this boxed game.

CCE takes the old formula of a hex and counter game, where counters represents fire teams, leaders and weapons teams and adds the trademark GMT Games card-driven mechanic, where the player is limited by a hand of up to six cards and a restricted order choice mechanic (you also see it in Command & Colors of course). 

The cards are also used to cover offer extra actions - e.g. your men decide to toss smoke grenades - and random events  - e.g. reinforcements, obstacles, morale.

There are some very nice aspects about CCE. It has a lot of moving parts under the hood, but can seamlessly reflect everything from a bunch of demoralised Russian militia in 1941 to crack American troops fighting their way through the hedgerows of Normandy. Note: there are NO TANKS in this game. It focuses on just infantry battles with some limited artillery support, which I guess is realistic as tanks are not meant to be platoon level assets.

The game captures some of the themes which seem pretty consistent in historically accurate WW2 platoon level combat games. Leaders are a big bonus when it comes to moving formations. Squads can get isolated and pinned down and increasingly left behind in the flow of battle. Individual casualties seem less important, it is more a question of keeping your men moving and not leaving them to contemplate their own mortality for too long.

I can really only comment on the first three scenarios in the game so far. We played Bonfire of the NKVD last night. It has taken us three games to really get a proper grip on the system, but I feel we are there now. I'm 0-3 so far having played the Germans in all three battles. What follows are my thoughts on the first three games.

German rifles advance in Poland, summer 1941

Fat Lipski: Germans vs USSR  1941

Bear in mind we got a lot of rules wrong in this one. My big error here was not keeping an eye on the time mechanic in the game. There are no dice in Combat Commander: the dice are on the cards, so you are always pulling cards off your deck to generate results. These also tell you when an event happens, or a sniper attacks for example. When you run out of cards, you reshuffle the deck, but the time marker also advances at the same time. In this one I suddenly realised that the Germans had a distinct combat advantage over the Russians, and I needed to hustle to fulfil my objectives. Sadly by the time this realisation sank in the game ended and the Russians won.

Hedgerows & Hand Grenades: Germans vs US 1944

I was the defender in this game against the Americans. The US platoon was very, very efficient and backed up by artillery. My Germans were largely  unmotivated conscripts, and it showed. I had to sit tight and defend a number of French farmhouses but got pounded by mortar fire relentlessly. This was not helped by an all-American hero (the result of an event) who managed to pick up one of my abandoned light machine guns and go on a rampage worthy of Johnny Rambo in his prime. We misread the morale rules here, so my troops cracked sooner than perhaps they should have.

Bonfire of the NKVD: Germans vs USSR 1941

I was back on the offensive in Poland in 1941. The Germans at this stage of the war, in Operation Barbarossa, are in excellent shape with some awesome line units. We had the rules sorted by this stage. Again I made a major error by over-estimating the quality of the Russian militia I was facing. I should have hustled to the Soviet command post and assaulted it as soon as possible with everything I had. 

My problems were compounded by a lack of move cards near the start of the game. I had to keep discarding my deck - the Germans can discard their entire hand, unlike the Russians who can only discard three cards in a turn - until I got the cards I needed. This is just one of those things with Combat Commander but it can really mess with your plans. I then got into a major firefight with some militia in a collective farm which I spent the majority of the game trying to take as a staging post to attack the company command post. 

My troops proved unenthusiastic about storming the building, and by this point I realised I was running out of time - AGAIN. I was nowhere near taking the command post (surrounded by barbed wire and with an MG emplacement), which was worth enough VPs to win the game. The defender in these battles receives VPs the longer the attack takes. I could see the game gradually getting away from me. Once again I totally over-estimated the capabilities of the Russians, probably because I was still scarred from my Normandy experience. Russian militia are NOT US Army Rangers.

This is a really nice game and I love many of the innovative mechanics that lie within it. As an intellectual exercise I will import many of these into the WW2 company level miniatures rules system that is currently cooking in my head.