Another epic game of Chain of Command yesterday at my wargaming club. Set in France in 1940, A French chasseur platoon attempted to block the passage of Schutzen Platoon from a Panzer Division. Despite losing two jump off points, the fire from the Chasseurs starting taking a toll on the Germans forcing some elements to pull back. The panzer III advanced and exchanged shots with the Renault R35 until the French tank commander was killed. The panzer III was blinded by a barrage of smoke bombs care of the French mortar team while the French deploy an antitank gun. The panzer pressed ahead but the gun crew scored a hit killing the panzer's driver. One of the French section's broke under concentrated fire from two German sections. The French had fought bravely but their morale was becoming fragile under the German attack.
They should have done, my Force Morale was down to 2 (from a starting value of 8). Another section breaking or a leader being wounded could have been enough to reduce it to zero. It was 4pm at that stage and everyone else had packed up so we had to end the game assuming that the French would have retreated.
Oof, that hits home. Way too many games run just a little too late, and we end up having to call it instead of having a satisfying conclusion.
One guy sets up the games in his basement, so we sometimes call it for the day and come back the following week to pick up the next turn. That works pretty well for the longer slugfests!