Thursday 6 September 2018

Chain of Command Campaign (2) the Campaign Ladder

Having sorted out my platoon it's time now to work out the details of the campaign ladder.

At the Sharp End details a basic ladder structure and then gives several examples of how to adapt that to suit your own needs and preferences.
Given that Gen B. and I have limited attention spans and that we'd be fitting games around other games with Steve I think the full 13 rung, 11 or 12 game campaign is probably a little ambitious for us. So I've gone with an abbreviated 4 rung, seven games max. campaign.

In AtSE Rich illustrates such a campaign with a well researched historical example. I'm far too lazy and less well read than the Lardmeister so I decided on a different approach. I rolled some dice for the scenarios and then made up a story to fit. 
I knew I wanted scenario 6  Attack on an Objective as the climax so rolled 3 dice for the other scenarios, getting 3, 2 and 4. So Attack & Defend followed by Probe and then A Delaying Action. We also know that as I have US infantry and General B. Heer and a collection of French buildings Normandy would be the setting. This then is what I came up with.

Early July 1944. After some fierce fighting around the small village of Tromné-sur-Ilq the Germans have pulled back to a defensive line in the woods and hills beyond the village.
Some distance behind these defenses, on a prominent hill stands the church of Saint Martha le Préféré. Command believes the Germans are using the church tower to coordinate artillery in the area and so Lieutenant Wilson and his platoon have been ordered to break through the defense and "kick the krauts out of the goddam egg lease". The Germans, understandably wish to prevent this.

Assuming Wilson and his men break through the defences, they'll then fight a kind of running battle with the Germans in the bocage (Probe) before the Heer form a defensive line to try and hold up the advance (Delaying Action). Get past that and they can oust the Krauts from the church tower.
What can possibly go wrong?

5 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Means you can to get your big church out for the final game. Assuming of course I can win the preceding ones.

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  2. I can't wait to get the church on the table :-)

    Tromney read this out to Martha, they both laughed.

    I've emailed you my leaders backgrounds Tom.

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  3. About 4-7 games is a nice length for a campaign. The 12-game ones can drag a bit.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I'm hoping 4 rungs gives us 5 or 6 games.
      (Well actually I'm hoping it gives us four games and I Winthrop all. But that seems unlikely :))

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