Chain of Command 2 – Home Front

 

This was the first Scenario from the excellent (free!!) Pint Sized Campaign, from Bad Squiddo Games, “Home Front”. The fast moving German landing forces, are pushing down toward Romford, after landing near Clacton. Scenario 1 sees the German platoon attempting to push past a weak Home Guard screening force.

The Home Guard were controlled by Simon and Phil. The German platoon was controlled by Rob & Dave. Support rolls were average, with the Germans electing to take a Red Dice, an armoured car and a shabby Nazi trick, of 2 nuns concealing an LMG team! The Home Guard had rather more support points to play with (the platoon rating being -4), so they took a pillbox, a roadblock, some milk churn mines, some Land Army reinforcements and a Beaverette car. This all proved to be a mistake, with only 4 Command Dice to play with!!

The Germans opened with the Nuns walking down the road, shadowed to the South of the road, by a section of infantry and to the North of the road, by the Riflemen of the section who’s LMG team were disguised as Nuns. The German armoured car, skirted around the North of the woods flanking the road, in order to engage and neutralise the pillbox.

The Home Guard, only having 2 pre-located Jump Off Points, were forced to deploy a section to contest the Jump-Off point just West of the orchard. While Sgt Wilson waited, the Germans slipped through the hedge at the far side of the orchard and crawled forward. As soon as the Germans crawled into view, the 8 Home Guard rifles opened fire, inflicting the only casualty suffered by the Germans in the entire game (the Germans being in light cover & Tactical). The return fire from the MG34 and 5 rifles, was rather more effective and shock & casualties soon started to mount, but Sgt Wilson’s section was made of stern stuff and they grimly held on, delaying the German advance.

The German disguised Nuns, after a short detour into the woods (for no clear reason!?), infiltrated down behind Sgt Wilson’s section and pulling the MG34 from beneath their robes, opened fire on Sgt Wilson’s section, from the flank! Dirty tricks indeed!!

However, the Nuns had been spotted and the Platoon Sergeant had sent out a section, to escort the Nuns to safety. However, as these brave lads moved out to help the ladies, the German armoured car hosed them down, as they ran for the woods, fortunately only inflicting some shock!

These brave Home Guard lads burst out of the trees, behind the Nuns, only to discover that they were really Nazi machine gunners! The horrified Home Guard lads surged forward, to capture the traitorous Nazis!

Back on the North flank, the Platoon sergeant called forward the Boys Anti-Tank rifle, to deploy into the Estate buildings. This managed to get a couple of hits on the German armoured car, but to no serious effect and the deadly cannon fire soon silenced the Boys.

The German commander was by now getting frustrated, so he personally led the third German section, at the run, down the entire length of the road, not even bothering to hide! Hearing the jackboots closing on their rear, the Home Guard troops on the road, ran back to man the road block, but the Germans were too close on their heels. The Germans caught-up with the Home Guard lads at the roadblock, and the brave Home Guard lads were forced to surrender!

An interesting game and I would recommend the Bad Squiddo PSC. Production quality is excellent and there are some nice ideas in there. Having only 4 Command dice was a killer for the Home Guard, especially as the Germans had 6 (with their Red dice). Next time, the Home Guard need to take more incorporated support options, or more support options not needing Commands!!

As a fill-in, we then decided to use the same table layout, for a spot of early war What a Tanker. The Germans had a Panzer III, a Panzer II and the Panzer 38T. The French had a Char B, a H35 and an R35. The Germans quickly lost the Panzer III, to a flank shot from the H35. The Char B played a game of ‘squash the Panzer II’, in the central wood. That left the Panzer 38T playing dodge with all 3 French tanks! Eventually they managed to box it in, at point blank range and finish it off!

Chain of Command 2 – Entering St. Lambert, Take 2

This was our second trial game of Chain of Command 2, so we wanted to up the ante slightly. We also wanted to have a direct comparison with the original Chain of Command. Fortunately, not long ago, we had played Scenario 2, from the “Closing the Gap” PSC. This scenario had a standard Canadian platoon, supported by a Sherman tank, attempted to cross the river and enter the outskirts of St Lambert.

The town of St Lambert was defended by a standard German platoon, supported by a Panzer IVH. The Canadians also had 9 points of support (electing to take a 4^th infantry section and a 6lb A/Tank gun) and the Germans had 5 points (electing to take Pak38 and a 2^nd Senior Leader).

The Canadians were played by Dave & Mal and the Germans played by Rob & Steve.

Under CofC2, the rulebook scenario 4: “A Delaying Action” introduces an Objective around the centre of the table (in the red box). The German patrol markers also start quite well forward, so this was going to be a short Patrol Phase!! The Canadians gained one free move, but ended up a point down on Force Morale (FM), so really gained no benefit. However, they did secure Jump Off Points (JoP) out toward the woods on their left and a threatening JoP in the woods to the South.

The Germans managed to establish a JoP in the orchard to the North-East and one further back in the village, overlooking the river, to the South of the bridge. The Germans then elected to place their Objective JoP in the ruined house, just to the North-East of the bridge.

The Canadians opened strong, pushing the Sherman forward, to laydown suppressive fire on the central German JoP/Objective, while Red & Blue sections pushed through the woods in the North, toward the river. The Germans responded by deploying Red section in the orchard, while the Panzer IV moved up, to try to get a firing position on the Canadian infantry.

After an initial misplaced smoke round, the Canadians laid an effective smoke screen on the far bank of the river and pressed Red section across. However, just as Blue section was about to enter the water, the wind suddenly picked-up blowing away the smoke (The Canadians rolled a triple 6!).

Fortunately, the Canadians soon rolled a couple of double 6s and managed to scrabble Blue section over the river and into the woods. The Canadian Red & Blue sections then started to infiltrate through the North side of the woods. The Germans, realising that the Canadians were attempting to out-flank them, pivoted Red section round to overlook the likely line-of-advance of the Canadians, while deploying Blue section, to guard Red section’s left flank.

Another double 6 allowed the Canadians to change axis and move South to the edge of the woods. Red section, spying the exposed flank of the German Red section, fixed bayonets and rushed forward. Spotting the Canadians coming out of the woods, the German Blue section moved to support (being within 4” of the melee). The Canadians still had a ‘3’ in hand, so moved their Blue section up to support Red section and fortunately got a decent move roll, turning the melee into a one-on-one, section-on-section fight (this is another V2 change). However, the bigger V2 change is the melee result rolls. Now a 5 just causes Shock and a 6 causes a kill. Melees are far less deadly now, to both sides!

The net result of both melees was that both Canadian sections were both thrown back.

Back in the centre, the Germans deployed their Pak38 into the Objective ruined house, missing the Sherman with it’s first round. As the Sherman had been laying down effective fire on the German Blue section in the orchard, driving them back, the Panzer IV edged around the corner of the building, to get a shot at the Sherman. However, the Sherman struck first, severely shaking the Panzer crew, but, in turn the Pak38 then immobilised the Sherman! Realising 2 vs 1 was not good odds, the Canadians deployed their 6 pounder. Boom! One ex Panzer IV!?

In amongst all this excitement, the Germans had used their Chain of Command dice to end the second turn, thereby starting the “Final Countdown” (sneaky Rob!). This put the time pressure firmly on the Canadians!

The Canadian Blue section, led by Sgt Buchannan, saw their chance. Realising that the Germans, who had just defeated them in hand-to-hand combat, were now retreating further back into the orchard, the Canadian Blue section raced toward the objective (another double 6!), surprising the Pak38 crew and driving them out of the objective house. The Germans had felt safe, as they had deployed Yellow section, on the Eastern bridge approach, alongside the objective. These guys would normally have been able to quickly reinforce the Pak38 crew. However, the same double 6, that allowed Sgt Buchannan to storm the Objective, had allowed Lt Bowe to lead the Canadian Yellow section, over the hedge, onto the road and then a full 15” down the road, before finally charging over the bridge, into the startled German Yellow section!

The Germans briefly attempted to recapture the objective, using the depleted Blue section, but Sgt Buchannan’s men were having none of it, kicking them back out of the house, before rolling a double 6, on the first phase of the “Ticking Clock” to end the game!? Close run stuff!!

This was our second outing with CofC2. We wanted to try AFVs and were pleased with the results. AFVs are no longer hopeless white elephants, waiting for a spare 3! We hadn’t planned to exercise Close Combat, but ended up with 6 fights! Under V2, Close Combat is no longer the Section man killer it was. It is still decisive, with plenty ‘back & forth’, so a good improvement. I really liked the introduction of Objectives and the Final Countdown & Ticking Clock introduce some real cinematic jeopardy!? All-in-all, I like CofC2.

What a Tanker, 22nd Jan 2025 – “Panther Hunt”

We decided to dust off an old Lardies favourite, “What a Tanker”, for our Wednesday Zoom game.

Instead of my usual 15mm WaT scale of choice, as we were playing over Zoom, I opted for 28mm, in the hope that the bigger vehicles would be more visible over Zoom. Taking on board the observation that urban WaT game was more fun than ‘open field’, this would be a struggle for a village crossroads.

A Panther, backed up by a diminutive Hetzer, (commanded by Rob) took on two Sherman M4s and two Cromwells (commanded by Mal & Steve). 82 points a side, on revised points scheme. The objective was to either eliminate the other side, or have the only vehicles within 12” of the crossroads, for 3 consecutive turns. Both sides had one dummy blind.

Rob’s Germans opted to send the Panther South and the Hetzer North. The Allies (Mal & Steve) opted to send the M4s North and the Cromwells South.

The Hetzer scooted forward to take an overwatch position, just North of the Church. It’s first target was an M4 attempting to flank the church. A hit, but no damage, just driving it back. The second M4 then edged forward, to take a shot at the Hetzer, a miss! The Hetzer returned fire, driving this second M4 back, before a second shot brewed it up.

Meantime the Panther had taken up position at the South end of the church. One of the Cromwells rashly exposed itself, flanking to the South of the village. Bang, one shot, one burning Cromwell! The Panther then swung out, to take out the second M4, which was trying to flank to the North of the church.

The second Cromwell then showed itself, attempting a flank shot on the Panther. Another miss, double 1!? The Panther pivoted, but no Aim dice!?

Having dealt with the second M4, the Hetzer dashed down, to try to get around the rear of the last Cromwell (bravely completely ignoring the Allied blind!). Steve’s Cromwell was having none of this and backed straight over the hedge, just South of the Hetzer. Reversing on, the Cromwell briefly slowed, to take a pot shot at the flank of the Hetzer. Another miss!?! Allied gunnery today was appalling!

By now the Panther had joined the Hetzer, but suffered the first German miss of the game! The Cromwell driver rammed it in reverse, only to be hotly pursued by the Panther, at which point the Cromwell hoisted the white flag!

Fun game. 28mm vehicles are visible over Zoom, but do take up a lot of table space. But still a cagey and tactical game.

Chain of Command – Closing the Gap, Scenario 2, “Disaster at St Lambert”

 

Lt Buchannan surveyed the outskirts of St Lambert with some dismay. This was going be a tough nut to crack! The river looked deep and he could see a Panzer IV nestled down behind a barn in the centre of St Lambert. OK he had mortar support, a Vickers MMG and call on a Sherman, but unless he could get across that river, unseen, this could turn into a bloodbath!

The Canadian patrolling did manage to establish a toehold on the East bank of the river, well North of the bridge, so the Canadians pushed red section across and started to creep Eastward, trying to flank to the North of the village. The Canadian red section crawled cautiously forward, until they could just spy the German red section, waiting behind a stone wall, to their front.

Sgt Bowe decided to throw caution aside and dashed the red section Bren team into position, behind the hedge and opened fire, hoping to silence the exposed German MG42. With both sides suffering, the Canadians then pushed the much depleted yellow section forward, hoping to flank South of the German red section.

However, Sgt Sumnur spotted the Canadians leaving the wood and rushed the German blue section from South of the road, into the house just NE of the bridge. But, as the Germans bundled into the building, one of them kicked over a stove (bl**dy  fours 6s on the Command dice!!). Soon the house the Germans had just entered, was a blazing inferno, forcing them to tumble back out onto the street, in disarray.

The Canadian Yellow section breathed a sigh of relief and seeing that the firefight between the two red sections was starting to go the Canadian’s way, called for blue section to deploy (from the moved Jump-Off point), to storm the German position behind the wall.

The Canadian blue section swarmed forward, through the orchard, to attack the Germans behind the wall, but even pinned down, the Germans threw them back, the Canadians also losing the section Corporal . To add insult to injury, the Germans then deployed yellow section, in support the depleted red section and the Panzer IV rumbled forward, to lob 75mm rounds into the orchard.

Even the normally gung hoo Sgt Bowe had to admit that it was time to abandon this attac! Across the other side of the river, the Canadian FAO frantically searched for targets, as did the Sherman that had just trundled up, but all they could see was the smoke from the burning house next to the bridge.

Canadian losses were 12 men, including the blue section NCO. German losses weren’t light, with 8 men down, but with a high force morale, these losses were almost immediately recovered.

V for Victory

Chris & I decided to try out Scenario 1, “First Encounter”. Chris brought his Yanks along, who I confronted with my Germans. The Germans opted for 3 Reinforcements and an MMG, as support. The Yanks also took the 3 man Reinforcement option, plus a sniper team. Then their Special ability yielded another support point, adding an MMG. This was to prove pivitol!

The Scenario objectives are to seize the 3 objectives (circled in red). The Yanks deployed from the bottom left corner and the Germans from the top right.

The Yanks sent Blue squad to their right, to overwatch the culvert objective. They sent White squad to their left, one team to cease the left flank gate objective, while the other team set-up overwatch just to their right. In the centre the HQ team attempted to move toward the central objective, supported by the MMG and the sniper team.

The Germans pushed Red Squad toward the culvert on their left, while Blue Squad and the HQ team pushed toward the central objective, supported on their right by the MMG.

The German push toward the culvert soon came under fire from the US overwatch squad in the woods overlooking the culvert. Despite suffering a lot of Stress, the German Red Squad rifle team managed to reach the cover of the culvert, supported by covering fire from their LMG team.

In the centre the US White Squad BAR team quickly lost a showdown with the German MMG team and was forced to fallback. This allowed the Germans to push forward Blue Squad’s rifle team toward the central objective. However, combined fire from the US HQ team, MMG & sniper team, quickly pinned down, then routed the German Blue squad rifle team.

However, concentration of US MMG & sniper fire on the German Blue Squad rifle team, allowed the German Blue squad LMG team to locate the US MMG and Sniper team and then start to suppress them. The Germans then threw forward their HQ team, who managed to reach the hedge, just to the left of the central objective, driving back the US HQ team.

But, the US platoon leader managed to rally his HQ team and redirect the MMG & sniper team fire on the new German threat. The German HQ team was quickly pinned down. Worse was to come, as over on the German left, at the culvert, the German Red Rifle team was first pinned down, Panicked, then routed. This enabled the US Blue Squad to redeploy onto the left flank of the German HQ team, causing them to Panic & break.

Overall, a smooth first game. The rules seem to play nicely, with fairly intuitive, consistent mechanics. The Stress morale system is quite effective, forcing players to divert limited management resources, to rallying pinned down teams. Overall looks like a good one from Tomahawk Studios.