Chain of Command pick-up game: Brits vs German infantry

Last week I witnessed the sad destruction of some Panzer Grenadiere caught in a ditch of death. This week the campaign was not on so I asked for a pick-up game so I can concentrate on learning the rules. There were three of us. I also got to use my own Germans. My miniatures don't see a huge amount of use (e.g. none basically) so it was really cool seeing them on the table. 

Let's be real: I got my butt kicked. I am pretty sure I made a few tactical errors from the offset, but by the end of the night I was just trying things out to try and get to grips with the rules.

Now I am well aware that Chain of Command 2.0 is being released in "Spring 2025" and find it ironic that I waited until now to finally take the plunge. I recall it being 2013 as I was slowly getting back into miniature painting and wargaming (even though I didn't actually play a wargame for a long time) and I heard about Chain of Command. I was shopping around for a rule set to get into. Battlegroup, Bolt Action, Chain of Command. I also had Crossfire from ages ago, and still haven't played those rules. I eventually settled on Bolt Action and played a couple of games of it but decided it was too gamey. Then I went for Battlegroup and bought the rules, then did not play them for six years as I committed to 6mm Sci Fi. Chain of Command I rejected because it was 28mm, 6x4 table, and had less emphasis on vehicles. 

Discovering a local wargames club really helped, and having sat through some games I am convinced that these rules are pretty fun. The guys here also try not to play it in a too gamey way - so while leaders technically have a leadership radius, if you can't see a squad, you can't command them according to the guys here.

One aspect of the game that is different/interesting/infuriating is the Patrol Move phase. Games can be lost in this part. We both managed to get three half decent jump off points. Working out where these go has convinced me to buy one of those Army Painter laser pointers that lays down a red straight line along the board, showing line of sight. 

We sort of made up a scenario where the objective was to get one unit off the enemy side of the table. Alex concentrated on flooding the village and was going to storm through the woods to get to the edge. I was going to flank around the village with two squads and try to gun it across the fields. 

This is the squad I was using to lead the charge around the village. They performed well at first. I actualyl managed to roll 3 double phases in a row which was cool, but led to my downfall.

I lined a squad up in the woods, far enough in to not be visable but they also couldn't shoot out of them. I was just going to camp them there. I should have probably put them at the edge of the woods to fire out or maybe should have tried to advance to the village. 

The brits spent most of the time laying down smoke over my squad in the woods. I had them on overwatch for most of the game.

I loaded my final squad into the Hanomag and ran it up the road and across the field to try and support my other squad. But I also used my three double phases in a row to charge my squad up to try and take over the enemy drop point. I took no pictures of it but they didn't move enough and ended up JUST short of the drop point, leaving them exposed in the open while Alex deployed a squad behind the hedge. I had a CoC point so used it to interrupt him firing on me by charging into close combat and prompty had my entire squad wiped out. The game was over at that point basically. 

Soon after his PIAT team caused my Hanomag to have 2 shock, my senior leader was wounded and Alex then charged into the woods with two squads. I did a lot of damage to his squads and caused them to retreat, but my entire right flank was very vulnerable and Alex was about to run his Universal Carrier up the road and off the table for the win. 

I learnt a lot about the rules with this play through. I enjoyed it immensely. I actually liked not having tanks on the table. I am pretty happy with the idea that I actually have quite a lot of what I actually need to play this game. I will wait until the new version comes out and try to get a bundle with Chain of Command dice and the tactical/overwatch markers, maybe even shock trackers. 

The buildings are all scratch built by Andy. I cannot even begin to say how cool they are. He inspired me to look into how to make my own. 

Chain of Command - Diving in

Image taken from https://www.brigadegames.com/assets/images/rules/wr-tflcoc.jpg

 Last night I went to the club. I almost didn't go as the guy I played Memoir 44 with last time hadn't responded to my late in the day message asking if he was coming. I arrived late and almost walked off as I couldn't see an obviously WW2 table. But then I saw it, 7 guys around a table. They asked if I wanted to be Poles or Germans. I explained I have a German name so they kicked me to the other side with the Germans. 

It was Chain of Command again. I was not annoyed, but I was still undecided whether to jump into those rules or not. I had a PDF of them that I procured last year but I had not read it. I struggled to keep up a little with the command dice, but decided I would buy the book, only to find that Too Fat Lardies are working to release Chain of Command 2.0 this Spring and have taken the first book down from the website. Luckily I have the PDF.

I had walked into the second game of a short campaign - Polish airborne in Market Garden defending against a hasty attack by the SS. The crazy thing is that the campaign is that it takes place over the space of a few hours - probably shorter than it takes to play one of the games!! A platoon of Poles were going to occupy these buildings. The Germans were tasked with advancing over open, boggy ground. Ground overlooked by three buildings. It was going to be a bloodbath probably. The brown straight bits represent drainage ditches and provide light cover. The hedges provide light cover and do not block LOS.

We thought it would be good to put the half tracks on first and use their MGs to keep the defenders pinned while we tried to advance the two remaining infantry sections up the drainage ditch. The polish sniper in the attic of a building shot at one half track, causing the crew to bail and abandon it. Just ridiculous. Throughout the course of the game the remaining half track would keep pretty steady fire on the defenders though.

In the end, this is how far we advanced. The squads just got massacred in the ditch and our command points(??) slowly deteriorated until it hit 0 and we lost the game. We inflicted 7 casualties on the Poles and killed one junior officer, all of which were replaced immediately in the campaign. I think they will start the next game with one casualty and a slightly worse new junior officer. The Germans start with a brand new platoon but have no other reserves. 

So here we are. I decided to print out a copy of the PDF and bind it up for now. I will be reading it over Easter. My understanding is that the 2.0 rules are largely the same. I am committing. I am joining my fellow club members.

Chain of Command - US infantry vs Panzergrenadieren

Last night at the club (I LOVE that I can say that now) we played a pick-up game of Chain of Command. A US platoon vs a Panzergrenadier platoon. I was on the Panzergrenadier side. It was a meeting engagement where there weren't really any objectives other than to break the enemy. 

I am unfamiliar with these rules. I have seen about them and have heard good things, but because it looked like they were marketed at 28mm I didn't really bother. I neither want to collect that scale nor play in it and was unsure that if I ever found a club whether they would go for 20mm. As it stands they play a bit of every scale in loads of different rules. I might have to invest in some more rulesets...something I never thought I would do. 

I don't know what to think of these rules. I need to read them first. I think the scale is just below what I want. Two games and no vehicles so far, but even when we were chosing our support the options were only an Sdkfz 250 with MG team level of vehicle. No tanks. The US player brought no vehicles whatsoever. I would rather have a few tanks and an AT gun. Hence why I like Battlegroup so much. 

There is this initial movement phase where you move these tokens around the table, they must remain within 12' of eachother and as soon as they go within 12' of an enemy token they get locked in place. Then once all are locked down, you triangulate where the jump off points will be. Then and only then do you start bringing units on the table, but that all depends on the command dice rolls. You roll 5 and each number means something else. It is a fascinating mechanic and one I struggle to comprehend how the guys at Two Fat Lardies even came up with it. 

I think I like the rules. It makes for an interesting battle. But we do spend a lot of time checking with the rules. The QRS was like 4 pages long! FRONT AND BACK! I will probably end up buying the rules and having a peruse. 

The way the jump off points ended up we had one behind this bocage and intended to deploy and run up to the barn. Unfortunately the US had a jump off point behind the barn and got there first. We made a decision to not deploy anything there until the US squad was in the barn, then we would land a flamethrower team in the field and blast the barn. They would have no cover and we had 12 attack dice. We knew he would be exposed but thought it would be interesting. As it happened the rolls were dreadful and we had 4/12 dice hit. The US then succeeded the 4 saving rolls. No casualties, no shock. 

Luckily we also deployed a squad who had 21 attack dice. They messed the US team up, and the flamethrower team had another two attempts. We managed to wipe out the fire team in the building and kill the junior officer. In the whole game that was the only unit that got wiped out. There were no other US casualties. They had a lot of shock on this flank though. Our squad stayed behind the bocage just pouring fire into the barn and the rest of the team who were behind that low wall next to it. 

On the other flank, we deployed a full squad in the hope that they could rush up and take the US jump off point to help break their morale. We advanced under a lot of cover, dodging mortar shots. The game ended with the squad here, pretty much unable to move. They were firing into the building behind the high walls just at the top left of the photo. The US player deployed their final squad right in the middle to cover that area. We debated jumping out into the open and taking out the jump off point but decided against it. We had a squad in the middle also who we tried to run up the road to hit the rear of that large US squad in this picture, but the rolls were dreadful. 

We lost a couple of men from this squad. Our senior leader on the long rectangle base was rounded but came back into action. 

The game ended when we ran out of time. Our morale had dropped from 8 to 5. The US had dropped from 9 to 6. They were better off there. But in terms of position on the table, we had two full squads who were about to start flanking around the barn to get behind the remaining US forces. We called it a marginal German victory. The US team said that if it were a campaign game they would have started withdrawing a little while ago.