Having another go at Chain of Command

Intro
After almost a year of unvoluntary hiatus, I’m quite happy to post a game report – this time around L. and I managed to find some time and play some Chain of Command. By now, this ruleset has been reviewed, analyzed and quite justifiably been discussed a lot on the net. I will therefore limit myself to saying that Chain of Command is a WWII skirmish ruleset with small teams and sections as tactical elements. If you want more information about this rulset, all you need to do is make a Google search.

The game L. and I run yesterday was based on first generic scenario in the ruleset, called Patrol – two platoons bump into each other and mayhem ensues.

The game

The game started with me trying to get into the house complex to the left. All I managed to get in was a BAR team, which managed to get a drop on one German squad, but failed to inflict any damage. In firefight that followed, my team was wiped out to the last man. Their sacrifice paid however unexpected divident, as L. decided to send the squad that killed my BAR team on a long walk around the houses in an attempt to flank me. As things turned out, he never got the chance to spend resources on that march and the entire squad remained out of position for rest of the game.

‘Main event’ took place in the center of the board. L. was favoured by the powers that be on that particular day and managed to retain initiative on three different ocassions early in the game. This allowed him to push his two remaining sqads across the road and pin one of my rifle sections on the height to the left. He had an MG42 in perfect position and their fire slowly picked off my guys, one or two at a time.

In broken terrain section there was another stalemate – one squad on each side took potshots at each other without much effect. Somewhere in the middle of the game, I tired of it and closed the distance with one of my rifle sections. It was a close run thing and both sides suffered heavy casualties, but the assault failed.

In sheer desperation, I threw in my last squad from a jump-off point at the edge of the table. They were far away from the ‘action’, but in CoC, rifles have unlimited range so the distance didn’t really matter. I pushed them forward slow and steady while keeping a constant barrage of small arms fire – in the end, I had a bit of luck and managed to inflict serious casualties on opposing Germans.

L. retaliated by assaulting my isolated and seriously depleted section on the height in the center of the board. Close combat that ensued was surprisingly bloody, but decisive – once the dust settled, the high ground was in German hands.

At this time, with both sides seriously weakened, the game was in the balance. But we were at it for over four hours and were quite satisfied with what we achieved so far. Therefore, by mutual agreement we decided to call it a day.

Musings after the battle
The ‘special thing’ with Chain of Command is that the game starts at the moment of first contact. The action is therefore fast, furious and most importantly, pretty much immediate. This seems to be a litte of mixed blessing, because just as in our first game (run almost a year ago) our positions became locked pretty much instantly. As a result, the entire affair became rather static dice-trow festival, with both sides hoping to roll high for ‘shock’ (morale hits) and ‘kills’. In yesterday’s game, L. picked off my lads in rapid succession, but failed to give me any ‘shock’ points. I, on the other hand, seemed to have my weapons filled with blanks, but dished out serious amount of ‘shock’ points, forcing L. to pick them off and thus being unable to act more decisively with his leaders (despite three ocassions where he retained initiative and had two consecutive rounds at his disposal). The stalemate was finally broken by my third squad, which finally managed to kill three Germans and for all practical purposes broke L.’s right flank.

This rather static nature of the game (for second time in a row) is a bit troublesome, but perhaps not surprising. After all, both sides are of equal strength (a platoon each, with some minor support elements). Also, I read some comments on the net that this particular scenario tends to develop into a static firefight, while the other five scenarios included in the ruleset are of more fluid nature. Let’s hope that’s the case!

Until next time and let’s also hope that it will be sooner than in ten months time!

US Mine Clearing Team and US Engineers from AB Miniatures

Oh yes, AB Miniatures… pretty much everyone into Napoleonics and WWII has probably heard about them and if so, had a bit of a shock after realizing how much they ask for their minis. Personally, I’ve been lured by their Napoleonic sculpts on several occasions, but luckily choose the 6mm path in that department. When it comes to WWII… 20mm is my scale of choice and now that I’ve decided to commit myself to Chain of Command, the siren call of those AB minis was too hard to resist.

Now, my first AB minis are ready for gaming table. The price is still making me grind my teeth, but I won’t lie, I find those sculpts absolutely lovely! Crisp molds, very dynamic and useful poses, faces with character despite the tiny scale! As a consequence, painting them was pure joy and I probably spent a lot more time on them than I should.

So far, I’ve finished two sets. First of them is US Mine Clearing Team, consisting of six figures.

The other set is US Engineers, consisting of eight miniatures.

Paint job is a mix of recommendations from net, painting guides and my own ‘best guesses’. All paints are Vallejo Model Color unless otherwise specified.

• Jacket and leggings – 60/40 mix of 884 Stone Grey and 821 German Cammo Beige
• Webbing – 819 Iraqui Sand
• Sachels and other engineering equipment – 821 German Cammo Beige
• Helmets, flamethrower, bangalores – Game Color 64 Yellow Olive
• Trousers – 873 US Field Drab slightly tinted with 941 Burnt Umber
• Boots – 846 Mahogany Sand
• Rifle belts – 940 Saddle Brown

Najewitz Little Farmhouse and barn–ready for action

Seems like every single post I make here starts with “It’s been a while since the last post…”, but this time around it’s really been a while since the last post! Funnily enough not because stuff isn’t moving forward on wargaming front, mind you! The fact is that April, which didn’t even earn a single post here, was quite busy and fruitfull, thank you very much. But “real life” made it impossible for me to make any pictures and let’s face it, what’s the point posting something without pictures, right?

And so, here are finally some pictures, this time around from the finished Najewitz buildings that figured prominently and ‘in natura’ in my previous post. By now, they’re finished, painted and ready for featuring in those Chain of Command games I keep planning for.

Since those buildings are no longer available on the market, I will limit myself to saying that they’re very nice, but also very labour-intensive – couple of hours at the minimum needs to be spent on cleaning them up, glueing, sanding and filling. “Ready for deployment out of the box’ they’re not. But… once finished, they do look quite presentable and I look forward to putting them on the gaming table!

As for their preparation, they’re certainly a learning experience. I’ve cut some corners this time around and, after priming them in grey, I dealt with the interior quickly and efficiently with help of light cream paint in a spray can from Montana’s Gold product line. I’ve recently remembered about the existence of Montana and their spray cans and now I absolutely adore them. For those unfamiliar with the company, they produce spray cans for grafitti paintings. Wide range of colors, matte finish and very durable. Two coats were more than enough to paint the inside of my buildings. If you can find them, give them a try!

Exterior of the houses was painted with more traditional paints and techniques. Humbrol enamels were used on the stone barn. I tried to vary the shades of brown and do some wet-blending, but as usual I’ve chickened out in regard of palette and the end result is pretty uniform and boring. Oh well, maybe next time… The farm house was painted with… acrylic wall paint bought at local DIY shop. Perfect coverage and a whole lot cheaper than stuff from GW, Vallejo and such! I finished everything off with some Vallejo washes, just to dirt things up a bit.

Here are the promised pics, hope you’ll like them!

1/72 US Heavy Weapons set from Plastic Soldier Company– painted

Took me just two months, but they’re now done. Final impression after putting some paints on them? Neeeaaah… my initial impression hadn’t changed that much – they are cheap and they are adequately detailed for a wargaming table. It should be enough and yet, somehow, it isn’t.

Oh well! Judge for yourself, what do you think?

First impressions of “Chain of Command”

For the wargamers who just arrived from outer space, let’s start with a short introduction to “Chain of Command”. It’s one of the “newest” rulesets from Too Fat Lardies and it’s a WWII skirmish ruleset. One miniature represents one man and one vehicle or artillery piece model represents a corresponding single real world piece of equipment. The ruleset focuses on combat between forces of platoon size with some reinforcements. While it allows the player to directly control every individual figure, the basic manouver and fire units are squads of 8-12 men. Those can be further split into (usually) two teams, which is how most units of that size operated in real life. Specialized weapon teams, such as bazooka or medium machine gun teams provide additional firepower. Command and control is performed by ‘leaders’ of two types; junior leaders usually lead individual squads and weapon teams, while senior leaders provide control at platoon comman level, allowing coordination between individual sub-units of the platoon. Ruleset caters for support units in all forms and shapes – tanks, mortars, artillery (both on the table as well as off-board), engineers, etc are all handled. D6 dice is used throughout the ruleset.

“Chain of Command” has been around for a while now (about three or four years, I believe) and many reviews have allready been written about it, both in printed publications and online. So I will not try to reinvent the wheel by writing yet another lengthy review that will hardly add anything new to what’s already been said and written. If you’re interested in a detailed analysis, I recommend for you to listen to episode 106 of Meeples&Miniatures podcast or read an excellent review posted on Anatoli’s Game Room blog. Both of them provide a very good overview of this ruleset.

So what’s the point of this post of mine then? Well, I hope to provide a ‘rookie’ gamer’s initial impression based on two games I’ve run yesterday. In the first one I acted as Game Master, in the other one (enriched by my impressions of the first game) I took over one of the gaming seats.

The setup

Since it would be a first experience of the ruleset for all involved sides, I’ve picked up the most basic generic scenario that is included in the ruleset – an encounter between two patrols in no-man’s land. In this setup, the players start by establishing their initial zones of control with help of simple meta-game. Basically a bunch of markers are moved over the board until they come into 12’’ of one of enemy marker. Once this is done, players select their jump-off points in territory they control – computer game players can think of those as spawning points. These define where individual squads, teams and leaders can be deployed on the table.

To further simplify the task of ‘first game’, I decided to play on smaller area than recommended 6x4’ table. The game would be played on my kitchen table, which is only 5x3’. The terrain setup was my own creation – i basically threw whatever terrain I had available on the table with hope that this random arrangement would provide for a good game.

Finally, I decided to limit order of battle to a single basic platoon and no support units. So both sides (German and American) had their three squads consisting of an LMG team and rifle team to play with. Each of the squads was led by a junior leader. Furthermore, Americans had at their disposal two platoon leaders and a bazooka team, while Germans had a single platoon leader and a panzerschreck team.

Game one

In our first game the Americans, played by T., managed to gain control both of the hill and the house in the initial phase. This gave him a huge advantage from the start and set the tone for the game. He deployed one squad in the house and the other two along the ridge of the hill. L. responded by deploying one of his squads in the hedges by the crossroad and the other one in the woods by the ‘northern’ foot of the hill (by the chairs in the picture above ). The MG team of that squad gained a foothold on the hill, deploying in the rock outcrops in its northern end. And that was it… both sides started to hammer each other, with Germans clearly getting the worst of it. After a fire-fight lasting over several phases, L. suffered eight casualties to two of T, the  machine gun teams of both of his deployed teams were wiped out and the remainder of the squad in the hedges by the road was pinned by T.s fire from the house. To put it plainly, he was screwed and he knew it. Thus, we ended that game.

Game two

T. left our company by that time and L. and I gave it another go. Wiser by the experience, L. managed to claim the posession of the house in the initial phase of the game, while I grabbed the hill and the high ground to the south of it.

L. then proceeded by deploying a squad on second floor of the house and another by the wall outside the walled house court. I responded by establishing the line of fire along the ridge with one squad, deploying the second in the rough ground at the southern foot of the hill. I deployed my third squad behind the hill, out of sight. My plan was to move it around the hill and hit the house from the north. Once again, L. never bothered to deploy his third squad, probably waiting with it until he found out my intentions for the squad behind the hill.

In some respects our game developed in similar manner to the previous. L. blasted at my guys in the rough ground, while I tried to hit him hard with fire from the hill. The pressure mounted on units on both sides, but yet again an impass seemed to occur almost instantly. After a couple of phases I grew tired of this static character of the game and decided to take a risk. I ordered the squad on the hill to fire suppressive fire at the Germans in the house – this is a temporary state where the incoming fire won’t cause any damage, but automatically reduces fire effectivness of any enemy units that are in the sector where suppressive fire is ‘applied’. This was a preparation step for my next action, which was a mad dash across open field toward the house by the rifle team of the squad in the rough ground.

As Germans hunkered down under suppressive fire, the advancement was completed without any casualties. L. reacted by dropping a couple of grenades on my guys who were now huddling directly below, hiding behind the arcade walls of the house. My luck held and noone was hurt by the explosions. Naturally, as soon as I had the opportunity, I pushed on into the house. A vicious close combat for control of the house now took place… with disastrous consequences for the my side. Once the dust settled, six out of my soldiers were dead, with the sole unhurt man trying to patch up his wounded leader. Normally, such outcome would rout the survivors, but considering the enclosed surroundings we agreed that my survivors were now POW;s.

L.s triumph came however at a cost of three casualties and a wounded squad leader. Another round of whittling fire from the hill completed the grim job, breaking the German squad and forcing them to flee the house.

At this time we were at it for five hours and were more than satisified with the entertainment of the day. Thus, the second game also ended inconclusively.

Musings after the battle

After a single evening, it is far too early to say anything definite about this ruleset. But there is a couple of things I can say with conviction even after this brief exposure.

• First and foremost, I am not at all surprised that so many people have been raving about ‘Chain of Command’ over last couple of years. It is a cracking ruleset and I will definitely invest much more time and effort into it.
  
• In one rather important respect, ‘Chain of Command’ seems to be a very different beast when compared with other similar rulesets (‘Arc of Fire’ and ‘Bolt Action’ comes to mind). Let me explain.
  
  Over the years, I have learned to identify (and also exhibited myself) in gamers a phenomenon that I believe can be called ‘a stress cone’ – once a player sets his mind on a ‘target’, be it an enemy unit or a specific location, its destruction must be accomplished. And as the game progresses, this target increasingly becomes the sole focus of gamer’s attention. When this happens, a certain blindness to alternative solutions seems to occur. Flanking manouvers, an often valid option of breaking of contact and re-deployment or employment of less obvious assets is no longer considered – the initial goal must be accomplished. What’s even more important, it must be accomplished by direct assault and destruction by fire or close combat. To an unengaged observer, such behavior may seem odd, sometimes even bisarre. But if you think about it, we all occasionally exhibit it and many of us much more often than not!
  
  So what does this have to do with ‘Chain of Command’? Well, in most wargame ruleset, the initial phase of the game consists of manouvering the units into contact with the enemy. As this takes time, it also allows players to logially consider their options. Once the units come into contact and ‘combat’ starts to happen, player’s attention shifts to the actual action. He may then enter further and further into this ‘stress cone’ I’ve mentioned above. What seems to be special about ‘Chain of command’ is the fact that with this ruleset, the opposing units can be deployed pretty much on top of each other directly at the start of the game. And indeed, this is exactly what the designer of the ruleset states – a game of ‘Chain of command’ starts with opponents already in contact with each other! In other words, players are placed immediately at the small end of the ‘stress cone’ with consequence of ‘shootout’ games being a very tangible possibility if one is not careful and remains cool-headed. But if a player manages to keep his cool and remembers the simple fact that you don’t have to shoot at an enemy as soon as he’s visible, this ruleset has a possibility to provide a damn realistic experience of low level combat in WWII setting.

Allright, enough of ‘deep thoughts’ for this time around. Let me round this post up with repeating the sentiment that ‘Chain of Command’ seems to be an excellent ruleset. If you haven’t yet, you should definitely give it a shot (pun intended).