Chain of Command x 4!

 

It seems I might be starting to lose interest in posting to my blog, this does not indicate though that I have lost interest in gaming. Three weeks ago in 5 days I had 4 games of CoC. By now I have completely forgotten the details and in one of the games I even forgot to take any photos. But this is what we have.

Game 1

This was the next game in myself and Graham's Too Many Rivers campaign. We played at Graham's house and this was my second go at Table 5, but turn 6. This was a must win game for me as if I lost and Graham's engineers arrived on table 6, this would give an automatic marginal victory to the British. I was fighting with a platoon missing a whole section and I had minimal support. I felt that the only thing I could do in this scenario (1940 Blitzkrieg) was to drop the British Force Morale so I went with the Bunker Buster with its mighty HE effect. The British have a tendency to stay in buildings and behind walls so the reduction of cover with HE would be useful. I can not remember exactly how the game went but here are some photos.

I do remember that my FM dropped to a point where I had to withdraw thus opening the door to a British victory in the campaign. Graham rolled a d6 and got a 5, a British Marginal Victory in the campaign. Well played Graham.

Game 2

This was an introductory game for one of our club members who had yet to play a WWII miniature game. Helge is primarily a painter now aside from being an important member of the club's Général d'armée and Saga squads. He does, however, have extensive experience in the Warhammer world as well as other fantasy games. He is an excellent player, I am not sure if I ever have beaten him in any game.

We played at his place as he does have an extensive collection of terrain and a very nice gaming room. I brought a 20mm British and German platoons with some supports and we played Attack and Defend scenario from the V2. It was quite a game and Helge had very little problem picking up the mechanics as well as the strategy of the game. I hope to see him again at the CoC table. No photos, I am afraid.

Game 3

The next day I went for a 28mm game at PY's, with whom I have been playing the longest in Montreal in respect to CoC. He also has an excellent gaming room and beautiful terrain and figures. He is in the middle of the Von Luck campaign with Graham so we decided to play whatever he had set up on the table. This was table 2, I believe, and I played the attacking Germans against a well entrenched British Airborne platoon. Again the Attack and Defend scenario from v2.

This was quite a good game and I came close to seizing one of the objectives but time and Force Morale ran out before I could do it. PY played a great game but he probably had 10 double phases to each of my one. This really stymied my advance. Of note is there was some debate about the Attack and Defend scenario design in the game the day before with Helge. There certainly no problems in this game and the scenario was put further to the test 2 days later at the Abyss.

Game 4

This was my last CoC game for the year and it was with Michel, another club member. He has extensive experience with WWII rulesets, I believe most recently with BattleGroup. He has been very open to trying CoC though and this was his third game. I set up the table and brought the figures to the Abyss, our local gaming club. As noted this was again the Attack and Defend scenario. Michel has had enough experience with CoC so we played full game including the Patrol Phase and Support selection.

This was again an excellent game with me playing the Attacking Brits against a German Grenadier platoon. We played along the short axis of the table to speed things up and this worked quite well.  Michel covered his right flank with barbed wire. I made the mistake of splitting my forces trying to attack on both flanks. This did not work out well for me and although I was able to weaken the Germans it was not enough and again a FM failure happened before I could seize the objective. Well played Michel, another challenging game.

Well it was great series of CoC games to end the WWII gaming season, on to 2026!

German Vehicles in 1/72

 

I have had my resin printer busy recently filling in some gaps for my WWII German vehicle collection. I have a Mar 3 Pro and am using water washable ABS resin which works like a charm. I have all switched over to Lychee Slicer which offers much improved pre processing STL files. I have yet to have a failure with it and the hollowing and placement of drain holes is really quite good.

Almost all these STL's are off Thingiverse except the Hetzer which is from RKX kickstarter. It is a bit of work to figure out the scale sometimes but I have found that this online Scale Converter is quite useful. 

37 U304(f) P107

SdKfz 222

SdKfz 221

Pak 40 auf S307(f)

15cmsFH13 Lorraine Schlepper(f)

Hetzer

SdKfz 232

SdKfz 231

I went and counted my German vehicles and have 47! Too many maybe but I think I am close to finished. Probably need 1 more EW PzIV and a Jagdpanzer. 

Thanks for looking.

Warriors with Pavises

This is my second mercenary unit for the age of chivalry, a unit of Warriors with Pavises. Alternatively they could serve as part of a French Warband who can field warriors with pavises. These are Perry plastics, not sure from which box. I found enough right arms with weapons and left arms which I could use to attach a pavise. This was much easier than I thought it would be. I used a shield design for a Paris unit and printed watershed transfers. I will probably add one more pavise to the warrior with the horn.

Trying what to decide what to paint next as I still have quite a number of figures left. Tempted by 8 Genoa Crossbowmen or Mounted Crossbowmen, both mercenary units for the Age of Chivalry.

Von Luck-Turn 1-Patrol on the Ring Contour

Two weeks ago, PY and myself started a new Chain of Command campaign. I had already played this once many years ago but I do not think that we finished it. PY is playing the campaign currently with Graham.

The campaign was written some years ago for CoCv1 but we are using as many v2 rules as possible and since this is a late war game we are using the updated platoon lists. Supports, however, are limited to what were listed in the original campaign, aside from those which are neutral in respect to what was available at that stage of the war. An example would be replen points. 

The first game is scenario one from the main rulebook, we are using the v2 scenarios: The Patrol. In this campaign the Germans with a Panzergrenadier platoon are attacking a defending platoon of British Paratroopers. The campaign uses an interesting mechanism where in the first scenario the Paratroopers are dispersed in the parachute drop so there full platoon is not available for the first game. 

125th Panzergrenadier

SL

3 Squads

Supports 5

Sniper

Red Dice

12 Para (Elite)

SL

Sniper

3 Sections minus Bren Team

Supports 0

The Game 

The usual great terrain by PY with the German approach to the right. I ended up pretty far back with my JOPs. while the Brits were well lodged in cover.

This was a very short game, as I made a ridiculous mistake early on. The photo is from the final phase before I withdrew. For some reason that escapes me, I brought on my SL when I only had one squad on as well as the sniper. This squad did some significant damage to one of the Para sections, but PY was able to bring on all 3 squads and the PZ squad got massacred. At this point, FM had dropped and it was time to get out of there. Victory to the Paratroopers Turn 1.

Summing Up

German Platoon 1

CO -1

MO 0

Platoon Leaders Outlook Content

Platoon 1- 3 dead, 2 missing

British Platoon 1

CO +2

MO +4

Platoon Leaders Outlook Affable

Platoon 2- 2 dead, 1 missing

+2 on FM roll

 

Many Rivers-Turn 5-The Open Road

To carry on with our Many Rivers campaign, myself and Graham got together at his place a week ago for the 5th turn on a new table. The Germans are finally able to bring on some vehicles, which would be useful in the Blitzkrieg scenario as victory is determined the attacker getting 2 units off the table before the defenders accumulate 2 Chain of Command dice.

Forces

Guards Platoon #2 (missing 3 men)

FR 0, 5CD, Regulars

Supports (7)

1 Minefield

2 Entrenchments

Extra Section

Schützen Platoon #3 (missing 3 men)

FR +1, 5CD, Regulars

Supports (12)

Shabby Nazi Trick

Engineer Team

Red Dice

251/1

PGB

PzII

Game

Looks easy enough

I not sure what I was thinking but I played a horrible Patrol Phase which saw me well back without any cover aside from on the right.

I got my troops on, but the destruction was so massive I completely blanked on taking photos

Summing Up

Again this was a fairly quick game and I withdrew because my loses were massive. I probably should have packed it in after the placement of the JOPs. In a game where I needed a 3 on my CD, I kept on getting 4s. I should also note that Graham had I 5 double phases in a row just before the end of the game. I did get my 251/1 with an infantry squad half way up the table but by then I had lost almost half my platoon and the Brits had 11 CoC pips. Really going to have to rethink how I play the next attempt on this table. What a disaster!

German Platoon #3

Platoon Leader Outlook: Secure

Men’s opinion: -2

CO’s opinion: -1

German Platoon #3: 10 dead and 4 missing next game

German 1st Platoon has lost 5 dead , 5 missing for next game

German 2nd Platoon has lost 8 dead, 4 missing for the next game

British Platoon #2 

Platoon Leader Outlook: Happy 

Men’s opinion: 0

CO’s opinion:  -1

British Platoon #2: 2 dead, 0 missing next game

British Platoon #1: 5 dead, 2 missing next game

Many Rivers Turn 4a-Farm and Road

Getting a bit behind in my blog postings. This is a game from about 10 days ago at my place featuring a Blitzkrieg from Table 3 to Table 4 in our Many Rivers campaign. I had won our last game and decided to Blitzkrieg the next table with the surviving forces from the previous battle.

Forces

Guards Platoon #2 (missing 4 men)

FR 0, 5CD, Regulars

Supports (12)

AAMG 1

2 Minefields

2 Barbed Wire

2" Mortar

Extra Section

Demo Team

Demo Team (free)

Schützen Platoon #3 (missing 3 men)

FR +1, 5CD, Regulars

Supports (19)

Shabby Nazi Trick 1

Red Dice 2

Smoke Barrage 2

le.18 IG 4

Stuka Attack 4

Pioneer Squad 6 (10 men)

Game

The table, the 3 area of bushes represents clumps of trees, not forests. They block LOS and provide Light Cover. They do not slow movement.

Patrol Markers and JOPs from the German attack area.

View from the Britisg=h defensive line with the Stuka attack, not a whole lot of success destroying buildings, just one which was inconsequential.

Side view of the table, this was the Going with a Bang scenario from the 1940 handbook. Graham had to take out 2 culverts to win the game. I added in the railroad track for the fun of it but we treated it as a road for game purposes as laid out in the scenario.

Lots of smoke in this game

Summing Up

Well this was a fairly quick game with the British withdrawing before they could destroy either culvert so the road is now open to the German advance and in Turn 5 they are now able to bring in AFVs. Graham was a bit unlucky with the placement of his JOPs as neither was close to a culvert so he had great difficulty deploying his demolition teams. He decided to withdraw to preserve his platoon.

German Platoon #3

Platoon Leader Outlook: Secure

Men’s opinion: 2

CO’s opinion: 0

German Platoon #3: 3 dead next game

German 1st Platoon has lost 5 dead , 5 missing for next game

German 2nd Platoon has lost 8 dead, 4 missing for the next game

British Platoon #2 

Platoon Leader Outlook: Happy 

Men’s opinion: 0

CO’s opinion:  -2

British Platoon #2: 2 dead, 1 missing next game

British Platoon #1: 5 dead, 2 missing next game

It was a busy week and I have 2 more CoC reports to post!