Chain of Command Market Garden campaign game 3

For the third game in the Chain of Command Market Garden  campaign I introduce some new terrain I've been working on. The roads on this table have been made by applying a acrylic caulk/paint/sand mixture on the backside of some brown wax cloth. The cloth has been cut to shape once dry. I think it worked out pretty good, although there's a bit of warping going on at the ends of the pieces. I wonder if I should store them compressed or glue bits of wire to the ends to keep them flat? What about the colour, do you think I should give it a drybrush?

Anyway, here's the game, commentary embedded on the pictures as usual:

In a nutshell, a big firefight developed on the open area of the map. The Germans had the upper hand at first but the brits rebounded (perhaps aided by us playing the shock reducing rules wrong). The British made a flanking manoeuver forcing the Germans to deploy a portion of their force in opposition, but this fight never got off the ground as the German force morale disintegrated.

A third loss for the Germans but this was the toughest game yet. Now the British started to take an appreciable amount of casualties as well, and not a moment too soon! The next game will be the last in the campaign.

Playing a Green force versus an elite force is definitely tough. The difference in firepower is great and only by a significant terrain advantage (troops in buildings versus troops in woods in a firefight) was I able to stall what seemed inevitable again. The Green force gets loads of points for support options to make up for the difference but the difference in Force morale means that the Green force will still be easy to rout in comparison and even with plenty of support choices the lower amount of activation dice means it is more difficult to take advantage of the greater numbers.

For casual Chain of Command play I recommend sticking to a maximum of one "level" of grade difference. Greens versus regulars or regulars versus elites.

Chain of Command Market Garden campaign game 2

We continued our Market Garden mini-campaign from WSS 74. In our previous game, the British paratroopers and the green SS recruits clashed for the first time. The Germans were sent running, suffering two permanent casualties and two miss-next-games for the campaign. The British managed to shrug off all their losses.

This game takes place shortly after the last encounter. The SS have regrouped and set up a more substantial defence near the road to Arnhem. This time around they have some light entrenchments and a halftrack in support. How will the paratroopers fare now?

Commentary is embedded in the images, as usual

 

 

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So, another clear defeat for the Germans. This time they suffered 6 permanent casualties and 3 miss-next-games, as well as losing one NCO as captured. The paras suffered two permanent losses and one miss-next-game. I really have to think about how I will play the Germans next time. They have the numbers and ample support compared to the Brits, but are doomed to lose in a long range exchange of fire. The grade difference between the forces means that it's easy for the British to hit the Germans who don't know how to keep their heads down yet, whereas the Germans struggle to hit the elite British hiding in terrain. The Germans also suffer from poor force morale, which means they will break long before their numbers suffer heavily. I find it prudent to retreat my force when I start to be penalised on chain of command dice, as I cannot take advantage of my numbers at that point anymore.

The campaign system of Chain of Command (the "at the sharp end" -expansion) also includes the success of the platoon commander by tracking the opinion of the CO and the men in relation to the platoon commander. At this point, the morale of the Germans has not yet suffered nor the opinion of the CO soured, but the British player will receive additional support next game and the men have an even higher morale rating. I'll be in for a tough challenge, that's for sure!

Chain of Command mini-campaign set during Market Garden

I got a game of Chain of Command in and decided with my opponent that we would start playing a four game mini-campaign I found in Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy #74. Excellent magazine by the way, I traded my Wargames Illustrated sub for it and couldn't be more pleased! Amyway, the campaign pits a British paratrooper platoon against a green SS platoon during Operation Market Garden. It gives us a reason to try out At the Sharp End, the campaign supplement for Chain of Command. We rolled out our own personal commanders and all.

The German platoon

The British paras (part played by BEF, I think)

The first scenario was  a recon mission with the platoons bumping into each other along a Dutch highway. Commentary in the pictures.

A defeat for my Germans, but only a minor one. The Brits ended up surviving without a single casualty, the Germans lost one man permanently and a couple of miss-next-games. This is good as crippling the platoons right at he start of the campaign would be quite boring.

I'll tell you more about the campaign system and such after we do our second game in the near future. Suffice to say now, Chain of Command is really growing on me and I think it provides the best "feel" of commanding a platoon of troops I've yet experienced. The fact that it's a campaign also provides an additional layer of realism as neither player can sacrifice too many troops just to win one scenario.

ASL Pegasus Bridge scenario 1 and campaign start

I had the opportunity to play some ASL at this year's Kinkkucon. The scenario was PB1 from the Pegasus Bridge Historical Module. The module has scenarios and a campaign detailing the glider landing near the Caen canal bridge and the fighting that ensues. If you are unfamiliar on this famous D-Day action, check it out at Wikipedia.

The scenario we played starts at the very beginning. British troops land near the bridge on gliders and proceed to take the bridge from the poor-quality German troops guarding it under the cover of darkness. This was the first time we have used the glider landing rules, but more importantly, we have never played the night rules before. The glider rules are quite easy and you only have to do them at the beginning (and we still managed to make a mistake with them), but the night rules are much more comprehensive and dramatically change the way the game plays out. Not only is visibility limited, but units on the move might stray off course, get spooked and fire when they're not supposed to, or in the case of defenders, are not easy to get to move at all. Also, the rules concerning gunflashes, starshells and such are somewhat detailed. Still, we managed to play the scenario through in decent time and hopefully didn't make too many errors on the rules or learn them wrong.

We rifled through the Pegasus Bridge rules and the rulebook for information on where the wind was blowing at the start of the game but couldn't find it. We ended up randomizing the wind, which forced the British player to land his gliders much further away from the bridge than would have been the case historically. Later on we spotted the predesignated wind direction on a different scenario card than the one we played, but the damage was done. The British attack was delayed by about a turn because of this and made the scenario more difficult for him to win.

Here's the action. I've embedded the commentary in the images to make it clearer.

So, the British failed to take the bridge but then again, the Germans failed to retreat over it. We decided to have a go at playing a campaign game while we're at it and recorded all necessary stuff for later use. The situation as it stands is that the British player will receive some reinforcements in the next couple of games but the German player (me) will receive nothing until dawn. There's not quite a platoon of conscripts guarding the bridge from Cafe Gondree so it will be interesting to see if anyone is left alive after the next scenario. The Germans will get their payback come dawn though, I'm sure.