Spanish Civil War CoC at Cannon

Today I played a big game of Chain of Command using Scrivs' extensive Spanish Civil War collection at the Cannon Wargames show in Retford.
We were originally due to play a WW2 Game using James and Scrivs collection of WW2 East Africa troops, as a climax to James' Keren campaign from Salute last year. Unfortunately James had to pull out at the last minute, but Scrivs manfully stepped into the breach.
So Matt and I made a more eventful than really necessary trip to Retford where we met Scrivs, who'd already done most of the setting up and were soon joined by James (the other one) ready for the off.
James and I took on the guise of the oppressed Republican Freedom fighters, whilst Scrivs and Matt were the Filthy Fascist Lackeys.

The table looked splendid and we played a very jolly and leisurely game with plenty of breaks to wander around the stalls.

Here's the eye candy:

 The calm before the storm

 Moroccans approach the Republican lines

 Anarchists de-bus

 Artillery arrives

 Francos men sample the Rioja

The last few brave men hold out

Here's a couple of those pictures in black and white for a period feel.

After quite a tussle Matt's forces eventually overwhelmed my right flank, but were given a thoroughly bloody nose in return. However the Panzers rode to the rescue and after a succession of double sixes giving them five (!) consecutive turns the tanks hosed down my centre and my forces broke and fled.

James was then overwhelmed by the remaining forces and the foul Francoist forces held the field.

It was a great way to spend the day and with great company. Scrivs collection is amazing for something he only really began this time last year.
Pop over to his blog for all his Spanish Civil War goodness

The show itself seemed quite quiet to me, which gave it the feel more of a "gaming day" with your mates than a wargames show, and I did hear a few traders bemoaning the lack of custom. Hopefully the show will keep going as its a good venue and there's a gap in the calendar at this time.

Man the Barricades! - Spanish Civil War Chain of Command

This week I was supposed to play two games of Warhammer.
In the event, changes to the Dad's Taxi schedule meant I didn't play either game (apologies, General Ballroom) but as one door closes, another opens and instead I managed to inveigle myself into a game of Chain of Command with Scrivs, James and Northstar Nick.
Specifically a Spanish Civil War version of the game.
Scrivs and Nick had provided all the terrain and figures, and it all looked absolutely splendid.

I refused to play the fascists, and so was given some of the forces of La Republic to command.
I checked with El Nick what to do and he instructed me to "Man the Barricades!" so I did.

Here's the eye candy:

The Table in all it's glory.

 Man (or woman) the barricades.

 No pasaran!

 Into the orange grove, men!

 Run away Jose!

 More Republicans bolster the cause!

The Fascist armoured car breaks through but the banners still wave.

My apologies for the yellow "cast" to some of the pictures. Lighting at the White Hart leaves a fair bit to be desired.

In the event we didn't finish the game, mainly because we were chatting and not focused and Scrivs had to explain everything to me in words of one syllable.
But a great time was had by all.
Nick's men drove off James' fascists in a hail of bullets, but the police I was facing managed to flank me through the orange grove before driving their advantage home with the armoured car.
Honours pretty much even I'd have said

This was my first time with Chain of Command, and not having previously enjoyed my TFL experience with the Dux Britaniarum rules was unsure what to expect. I know CoC has had lots of love recently but I was suspicious...
Turned out I needn't have been. The game flowed very well and I got a handle of the basics pretty quickly. It all seemed to make sense and the nice "multiple six" mechanics that break the IGO-UGO flow worked nicely I thought to create those moments when suddenly one side or another flows forward unexpectedly to seize the initiative.

James an I talked about Americans versus Fallschirmjager, I started thinking about buying an International Brigades force from Nick and I even texted Stephen during the game, thinking we might revive our abandoned Bolt Action project from a couple of years ago as a new Chain of Command project.