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.

TooFatLardies' Chain of Command: First game and impressions

There's been some buzz on the net about Chain of Command lately. It's a "platoon plus" sized WW2 skirmish where each player typically controls a platoon of infantry along with a bit of support like a tank or weapon teams. The intro videos TooFatLardies have published showed an interesting spawnpoint based system and even though the game looked like there's a lot of randomness going on I bought the PDF to give it a go. I went to my friends' place where we set up an eastern front scenario and played it with three players learning the rules as we went on.

The game starts with a "patrol phase" where players alternate turns moving patrol markers on the table. These markers must form a continuous chain with max. 12 inch gaps and once the markers encounter enemy markers, they are locked 12 inches apart. This serves to draw the line of battle on the table and is a nice little metagame to try and get an edge over your opponent with. When all the markers are locked, they are used to deploy three or four "jump off points" on the table. Let's just call them spawnpoints because that's what they are. These spawnpoints are placed in cover outside enemy LOS and can be used to deploy units on the table during the game. The idea behind this is that they represent areas on the field where the platoon leader can send his units to without the enemy seeing them advance, giving the game a fog of war element and the players some tactical flexibility. It pays not to deploy all your troops at once but see how the situation develops and keep some reserves. The spawnpoints also serve as victory locations and their capture denies the enemy of their use. A bit quirky but works well in practice.

We played a very basic match with just two platoons (3 squads and a commander) of similar infantry facing each other. Additional support was minimal. The German side got an adjutant leader to the platoon and the Soviet side took a sniper team. The terrain was laid out to represent a village in some woods so there's plenty of cover and LOS obstacles around.

The opening setup

The core gameplay happens in "phases" which each player alternates taking. During these phases the phasing player rolls typically five dice and consults the pips. 1's allow him to activate small teams, 2's allow him to activate whole squads (which typically consist of a rifle section and a LMG team), 3's activate junior leaders (squad NCO's who have better flexibility in commanding the squad than what you get on a 2), and 4's activate senior leaders (typically the platoon HQ who can command all troops in his command range). The amount of 6's rolled indicate whether the next phase will alternate to the other player, whether you get a double turn, whether the turn will end or whether there will be a random event.

All rolled 5's increase the players' "chain of command dice" which is another special mechanic to activate special abilities. You accumulate pips on the die for each 5 rolled, and once you have six pips, you have one special ability to use. These abilities range from moving spawn points to interrupting the opponent's turn to springing ambushes. Having one of these points in use while still having some troops undeployed is a good way to keep your opponent on his toes.

The Soviets move fast to claim a German spawnpoint.

The Soviet player got a good start by rolling a double turn on his first roll. This means he rolled a double 6, and was allowed to take another turn after completing his first. This allowed him to deploy a squad of infantry on the table and move it to take one of the German spawn points before the Germans could deploy anything. I guess they really caught the Germans with their pants down! The Germans quickly deployed one of their squads to the nearest spawn point and moved to reclaim the lost one. If a turn ends when one of your spawn points is in enemy hands, it is a bad blow to force morale. Too bad the Soviets had time to deploy their squad on overwatch, and there was no other way to get to the spawn point but over open ground.

The Germans lurk behind the house as the squad leader tries to figure out what to do.

Reasoning there is no other way, the NCO split his squad and had the LMG section set up on the right side of the house pictured above to lay down covering fire and have the rifle section assault the Soviet position from the left. Too bad it was the LMG team which drew the Soviets' overwatch fire and the team sustained a casualty and enough shock to pin them.

The LMG is pinned.

The Rifle section advances on the Soviets.

Meanwhile on the Germans' right flank, the Soviets began deploying and moved to take a fence along the road in the middle of the table. This game them hard cover whereas the Germans advancing towards them from the woods had only light cover. A firefight started and the Germans were indeed racking up more casualties and shock. This prompted them to deploy their third and final squad to help the second one, and the increased firepower helped them pin the Soviet squad. This was not before the German squad lost their NCO though. The Soviets deployed their third squad in the center of the table and advanced towards the ruin near the center.

The Soviets take position behind the fence.

The Germans gain numerical superiority and whittle down the pinned Soviets

Meanwhile near the captured German spawnpoint, the Germans launched their attack. They could not stall any further because the third unengaged Soviet squad was one move away from coming to assist the ones who captured of the spawnpoint. The platoon adjutant commander came to the scene and after some verbal advice, the squad NCO attacked. The rifle section lobbed a grenade on the Soviets causing a casualty and a point of shock, and then charged. The result was messy. Since the Soviet squad had not been pinned, they were all too ready to receive the Germans and killed them all in a brutal round of rattling dice, losing only one man in return. The Squads' LMG was shot up by the center Soviet squad. The platoon adjutant found himself alone against two operational Soviet squads.

A grim result of the German charge.

On the other flank, the Germans got their only success of the day. The fresh..er German squad charged the pinned Soviet squad at the fence with much more success than their compatriots, routing those who would not die. When they tried to advance across the road to threaten the Soviet spawnpoints, they were caught in Soviet fire from the Squad at the center of the table and were pinned.

The platoon adjutant was captured in melee, and at that point the Soviet player used one Chain of Command point to end the turn, which crippled the German morale. Their morale had dropped steadily during the match because of losses and the spawnpoint was the final straw. A total defeat for the Germans.

Closing thoughs:

Chain of Command seems like a fresh contender to the platoon-sized ww2 ruleset race along with Bolt Action, Rate of Fire and the like. The game introduces mechanics I haven't seen elsewhere and the system works well. The rules are written in a way that might confuse the player a bit. There were several points where we were uncertain on how to interpret the rule, and the command system takes some getting used to. The book refers to Units, Squads, Sections and Teams with different rules, which can add to the confusion. The book says squads and sections are the same thing, but could they not have used just one of the terms since you already have to differentiate between units, squads and teams when doing activations?

The game can also be a bit random. The melee system seems to give a lot of dice for leaders in melee, making a lonely leader more than a match for four men attacking him. Rolling poorly on activations might leave you frustrated, but since each phase represents only a few seconds, having a squad unable to activate for two or three phases is ok realism-wise. People have complained that the game only lasts for a turn or two, but they're missing the point. The end of the turn means a "significant lull in the battle", which might not even happen in every match. It didn't in our game.

Apart from these gripes, the game works well. Movement and firing is easy and the suppression system works as it's supposed to. I'll need to play a couple more games to see if this is a keeper however.

Oh, and we played a game of Talisman too.