Chain of Command Normandy (2)

 After some real life stuff and then a much needed holiday in Portugal General B. and I finally reconvened to play out some Chain of Command. It's great having places you can leave your game set up and then come back to it a month later and just carry on!

Anyway, just a few quick pics of what turned out to be something of an easy victory for the Germans

Got a few posts to catch up as well. Good to be back playing and blogging

US 50 cal.

 General Ballroom and I intend to play through the Old Hickory Pint Sized Campaign. Which requires my US to have rather more in the way of support weapons than I currently own.

First up a 50 cal.

That should give Jerry something to think about

29 Let's Go! Campaign - Game One Probe at La Cambe

Having finished our epic slog through Middle-earth General Ballroom and I fancied an altogether different sort of campaign a Too Fat Lardies Chain of Command Pint Sized Campaign - 29 Let's Go!, to be exact.

This campaign sees US forces pushing inland just after D-Day 1944 and encountering stiff resistance from the Germans.

Unlike other CoC campaigns the American forces get a fresh platoon each game and increasing resources as time goes by - the Germans however are forced to defend with much more limited resources. Victory for the Germans is to be had in delaying the Americans long enough to blow some bridgedes and delay the advance - the Americans win by getting to the bridges before their commander completely loses faith in them.

I will play the forces of Uncle Sam while General Ballzimmer returns in command of the Germans.

First scenario is a Probe game where the Americans win by exiting a squad or team off the far short table edge.

The peaceful hamlet of La Cambe stands ready

The American forces are making their way up the road.

This seems to be the same picture again...

The first American forces appear on the left, protected, hopefully by a hedge.

They are heartened by the rumbling and clanking sound of a Sherman tank!

More Americans deploy on the right covered by a house.

Germans start to appear in the hedgerow opposite and are placed on overwatch.

Just as the Americans plot their next move a fire breaks out in the house in front of them (lots of 6s rolled).

With the Sherman in view a dug in Pak 40 is revealed.

Take aim Hans!

Steady!

Their followed a short exchange of fire at the end of which the Sherman, it's machine gun out of action beat a hasty retreat behind the house

Taking advantage of the distraction the  Americans broke cover at the hedge.

A chastening demonstration of the power of MG42s soon had them back in cover.

A second Sherman appeared and although it briefly lived a charmed life, and indeed inflicted quite some damage on the German gun crew, inevitably the luck ran out.

Another squad of Americans had arrived in front of the garage but soon found themselves under sustained fire.

With a tank ablaze behind them, things were already looking tough for the greenhorn Americans in their first real battle.

****INTERMISSION****

Because we are old and grey and because Chain of Command isn't the quickest of games, not helped by the fact we'd forgotten most of the rules, we called a halt at this point.

One of the advantages of being old and grey is having sufficient means and space to leave a game set up for a week and then picking up where you left off.

****INTERMISSION****

With the German defences all laid out the American's were struggling to see a way forward.

However with the remaining Sherman moving behind the houses to give support they finally began to damage some of the German troops on the left flank.

Meanwhile the squad behind the burning building pulled back.

And the squad in front of the garage broke cover and raced across the road to support the left.

With numbers in place a careful tactical advance began.

One that rapidly became a sprint as a succession of double phases allowed the US infantry to seize the initiative.

The Pak. fired HE, but mostly missed.

And the Americans raced to the hedges.

To throw grenades at the German defenders (with little effect).

They followed this up with a charge, Tommy Guns ablaze.

The fighting was brutal, but the Germans were caught by surprise.

And were driven back, leaving the Americans to vault the hedge. Victory was in sight!

Unfortunately a brutal German counter attack saw only the Platoon Sergeant, his cigar glowing brightly, alive, he fled over the hedges into open ground.

Desperately the German forces poured shot onto the doughty Serg.

It was to no avail, the officer left the field, his dignity, and uniform still intact.

Sadly a re-reading of the victory conditions made it clear that although he might be entitled to a medal this did not win the game for the Americans.

By this time US morale was running low and despite heavy shelling of the Germans stranded in the open eventually the US forces were driven from the field. The Germans hold La Cambe!

A great game with some really cinematic moments - the duel between Pak. 40 and Sherman, which could have gone either way, the epic race across open ground by the US squad, the brutal fight in the hedgerows and the final desperate attempts to shoot down the sergeant all made for a great game.

It feels like a tough one for the Americans to win - not helped by my barrage scattering off the table and then my FO being shot before I could call it up again.

Looking forward to a re-run (and I've ordered a third Sherman!)

Blitzkrieg Commander - British v Italians 1941

I bought the Blitzkrieg Commander rules way back in the post pandemic period, along with a starter set of British (and a few extras). I also persuaded Stephen to buy a force. We painted them up and then never played a game. Then I persuaded Martin to paint up a force, which he did. And still no game was forthcoming. Until now!

A simple set up for an encounter game with 1000 point forces. I struggled a bit with the army list picking - we both felt a little more guidance about what a "typical" force might look like would have been useful. There are loads of lists, some of them seemingly quite obscure so a little more guidance for actually putting a first force on the table would have been preferred (by me at least). I suspect the answer is to find an OOB for a specific time or battle and use that as a basis - but I hadn't done that and I'm not all that familiar with WW2 desert forces.

Anyway we fettled something together. Martin initially had a Recce vehicle in his Italian force, but a look at the rules and the basic nature of our battle had him swapping that for more regular tanks. With that we were off.

About 24 hours before we were due to play I realised that although I'd painted well over 1000 points of troops and tanks I'd not actually made any command. So a quick root in the spares and grabbing some 50mm circular Warbases bases I threw three together. They're a bit ummm, unfinished in the pictures...

One command with Matildas supporting infantry.

The other command - A13s and Mk VIs

Everyone arrived on time for the start.

Italians hove into view on the far horizon.

The air grew thick with the razzy noises of underpowered Italian engines.

Low command values and moves of only 10-15cm meant it was slow going.

Eventually a firefight broke out on the British right, and with a flash one of the A13s went up in smoke!

The Italians made good use of opportunity fire.

The light tanks went in to hiding.

Frustrated  by the incompetence of his fellows the CO took Command and ordered some of the infantry and one of the Matildas forward.

The light tanks took advantage of a double move to hurtle to the other flank to threaten the advancing Italians.

One Matilda covered the flank

The remaining A13 was doing a grand job of holding up the Italian tanks. Mainly because I kept failing orders to get it out of there and had to rely on opportunity fire.

Italian tanks didn't like it up 'em and some were supressed.

But inevitably more Italian firepower was bought to bear and the second A13 brewed up.

Thick smoke was now all that protected the British flank.

The Mk VIs sprayed the Italians with fire, but they'd dug in and the shots had little effect.

Meanwhile the Matilda failed to provide much support and the mortar had little effect.

Soon after this we'd reached the turn limit. The butcher's bill was relatively light, but with three British tanks in flames to only one Italian it was a victory to the forces of Mussolini!

It was very jolly to finally get these forces on the table. The rules were mostly straightforward, though we need to look at how exactly opportunity fire works. It was interesting to discover part way through that Martin had a PDF that included several bits of errata and updates that my book didn't...(I thought I was going mad looking for the rules for Dug-In - turns out I just didn't have them).

I liked the look of the game but everything felt quite slow - I'm used to my infantry moving twice as far in Warmaster. The command of 7s and 8s made it feel a bit like using an Orc and Goblin army - maybe only getting off a single order each turn. I don't think the "stand up fight" scenario worked particularly well as a game - I think we'd be much better recreating some real battles, or at least trying some more varied scenarios with more authentic OOBs.

All that said it was good fun and I certainly want to play some more.