Belaya Smert

I finally have finished the layout and editing on my Chain of Command campaign for the Winter War between the Soviets and the Finns in late 1939 to early 1940. 

I have placed it on Wargames Vault for free, this allows me to update it easily. I am already finding some minor typographical errors and I would like to add more period photos gong forward. Here is the link to download the campaign. 

Comments and game reports are always appreciated.

 

Storming the Citadel-Game 2

A couple of days ago, myself and Graham got in a second game in our Storming the Citadel campaign. I had already played this scenario with William as documented in the previous blog post. I had won but it was a close run thing.

This time we played on Graham's table as you can see below.

Forces

Germans (FM 9, Supports 3)

1942 Panzergrenadier Platoon (less 7 men)

Adjutant

Pregame Barrage

2 Engineer Teams

Soviets (FM 9, Supports 2) (less 6 men)

1942 Soviet Rifle Platoon

8 minefields

2 entrenchments

Game

Patrol Markers and JOPs

The only photo I took of the game, as you see Graham placed the 8 minefields Straight across the table, but more importantly they were at least a foot from my closest JOPs. I placed a PG squad in cover next to the forward JOPs. I was hoping my PGB would allow me to get forward quickly to the minefields. It did not work out that way. Graham entrenched one section on his right flank. Although this was a long range he was able to weaken both my squads. I placed a 3rd squad on the left with the SL and advanced my squad on the right.. In response, he placed his entrenched 2nd section in the clump of foliage close to the minefields. A battle of attrition ensued. This went back and forth and I was able to drop his FM to 6 but by now I was suffering attrition as well. I still had not placed my engineer teams. I checked the loses on both sides and I could see I had lost fewer men than the Soviets, so decided to withdraw. Like Scenario 1 in this campaign, this table is only played once. Best to reserve my troops for the next 2 battles, where I have to actually win the table to advance. 

Summing Up

Well that will be it for a while as Graham is going away at the end of March for a couple of weeks and this sojourn in Montreal has come to an end. 

Crossing the Minefields

 

William and myself got together for a quick CoC game a couple of days ago. He wanted to play theSoviets again but this time we set up a 1942-43 game using one of the scenarios from the Storming the Citadel campaign. Incidentally, this was the next game in my campaign with Graham. 

The Germans have to clear 4 minefields of the 8 placed on the table by the Soviets (2 of which are dummies). They get 2 free engineer teams and the Soviets get 6 free minefields.

Forces

Germans (FM 11, Supports 1)

1942 Panzergrenadier Platoon

Adjutant

2 Engineer Teams

Soviets (FM 9, Supports 2)

1942 Soviet Rifle Platoon

8 minefields

2 entrenchments

Patrol Markers and JOPs

Half way through the game, with the entrenched Soviets giving the Germans hell. William did put down a 2nd entrenchment next to the first while I put my last platoon behind the engineer team. There was a lot of shooting back and forth but ultimately once weakened, I initiate Handgranaten to charge.

It was an interesting game, I am not sure it is possible to clear 4 minefields in this game, I did identify 2 dummies and cleared one before the Soviet FM dropped to zero. Although, I ultimately won the assault on the entrenched Soviets it is pretty tough even with the Soviets being pinned. It took 2 rounds and it was only on the second that I broke through. 

Dracula's America-Shadows of the Colonies

I had my first game of Dracula's America for several months last Friday with Luis. It was the first game in Luis's Canada version of DA. He has put an enormous amount of work into this with different items and several new entities and creatures. It is set in the 18th century. 

I had very little time to put together an idea for a posse (less than 24 hours). I had painted several figures for another ruleset The Devil in the Wilderness and felt it might be cool to use these. This game is focussed on the Salem Witch Trials in the 17th century but with a bit of thought I put together a backstory where I could move them to the 18th century.

After the Salem Witch Trials several of the accused fled north into the remote forests of Maine and the Maritimes, beyond the reach of Puritan courts. Living quietly near communities of the Wabanaki Confederacy, their descendants preserved a darker and more secret tradition recorded in a hidden grimoire begun by the original fugitives. Passed from generation to generation, the book contained cryptic symbols, forbidden rites, and whispered accounts of ancient powers tied to the wilderness, including stories drawn from Wabanaki mythology of spirits and shapeshifting beings that could move between human and animal form in the deep northern forests.

I called the posse the Darkwoods Occultists and based them on the Skinwalkers faction but if I had given it more thought I believe the Salem Sisterhood would have been a better fit. I sent my posse list to Luis Friday morning and amazingly enough he generated some beautiful cards for the posse.

Burroughs was the Hero and the Archanist, with Puljinskews, Skadegamute and Alten were the Veterans. Lovecraft cognoscenti will recognise the names of Curwen, Hutchinson, Oren and Nadek. Alden and Pukjinskews are skin walkers and can shapeshift into a Werewolf and a Werebear. The Flying Head (Wendigo) was converted into a Medium Flying Entity. When I vsualise the Wendigo I think of Algernon Blackwood's novella. 

Anyway on to the game, it was a lot of fun. Essentially it was quite simple with the only goal having as many figures as possible within 4" of the centre marker. I thought I had it but in the last move Luis was able to get 2 figures in place so we ended up with a tie. 

I have had some reservations about Dracula's America but I really enjoyed this game. I think that I liked this game as the figures were not complicated with a lot of skills and weapons. This made it much smoother to play. I think I would be happy to play one-off games but maybe less so campaigns.

Scouts Out: Rescue Operation

Myself and Gabriel got together for our 2nd game of Scouts Out!, a WWI skirmish game. We had a lot of fun with it the last time so I was happy to have second go. Gabriel provided all the figures and the central terrain, we found the rest on the shelves at the abyss. 

We decided to play the rescue scenario, a French officer is marooned in the ruins of a villa in No Man's Land and the Brits (me) have to rescue him before the Germans (Gabriel) capture him. We played on a 4x4' terrain with the Frenchman in the middle and the forces lined up on the edges. 

Forces

Germans

NCO

LMG

Flamethrower

Sniper

4 Grunts

Brits

NCO

LMG

Pointman

Sniper

4 Grunts

Game

I got into position pretty quickly and was able to contact the French Officer and start to escort him to the British edge. I thought things were going well and wondered why the Germans were holding back but they cleverly moved quickly to both flanks (they have a bonus movement rate) and before I knew it my force was wiped out and the Officer was captured.

It was quite a fun game with very simple mechanics but with a variable initiative. 

Eastern Front: Storming the Citadel

This past Monday myself and Graham got together to start a new Chain of Command campaign, this one centred on the Eastern Front during the Kursk offensive. Graham has recently painted a platoon of AB Soviets and we wanted to get them on the table.

The campaign is pretty simple, and to win a major victory the Germans have to blast through 6 tables in 7 turns. Three of the tables are one off battles, but it is still a challenge as table 3, 4 and 6 can be fought over several times. We play the games using CoCv2 scenarios but tables 2 and 5 are quite novel in their objectives so we will go with those scenarios as written in the campaign. Of course, the orders of battles and supports as listed in the campaign booklets will be used. I should note that the campaign uses all 6 basic scenario types as listed in the rulebooks and it is notable that they are played in order!

Scenario One: Eyes Down!

This is played as the Probe. Minimal terrain on the table with the Germans having to drive the Soviets off the table by dropping their Force Morale to a point where they lose a Command Dice.

Forces

Soviets FM 9-Supports 6

1942 Rifle Platoon

Replen Point

5cm Mortar

Medic

Sniper

Germans FM 11-Supports 5

1942 Panzergrenadier Platoon

Sniper

Senior Leader

Game

Of course, I only took few photos.......

.....the game was about 90 minutes, it started as a bit of a slugfest and really could have gone either way but I think my dice were a little better and having the higher starting FM helped the Germans being the victors in this first game.

Summing Up

Graham has done a very nice SS to track progress.

Hopefully we will get to game 2 this coming week.

Hengist and Vortigern

Last Sunday, myself and Robbie got together for our long delayed game to cap our Limes campaign. The campaign was won by Robbie's Britons but we had planned to put together a final battle which included the two Heroes of the Britons and Saxons. 

We decided to play the Fight around the Fire scenario from the Age of Invasions sourcebook which we felt would be historically plausible. As we all know, Hengist and his brother Horsa were invited by the Vortigern, King of the Britons, as mercenary fighters in his battles with the Picts and the Scots. 

We also know that the Saxons betrayed the Britons in the Treachery of the Long Knives. The Fight around the Fire fit this history. 

I was surprised that Robbie showed up with an army of levies accompanied by Saxon mercenaries, he usually selects a hearthguard heavy mounted warband.

Britons

Vortigern

2 units of Saxon Mercenaries

1 unit of Levy Archers

2 unit of Levy 

Saxons

Hengist and Horsa

3 units of Hearthguards

2 units of Warriors

Here are some photos of the game.

Starting Positions with the Saxons to the left

The Saxons split their forces to wipe out the Briton's levy archers

Hmmm! The archers are still there 3 turns later

The Saxons furiously hit the Briton's shieldwall 

Hengist's blood rage gets the best of himself and he throws himself against the shieldwall, supported only by his brother Horsa....unfortunately he fell in battle.

It was a fun game with the Britons winning, I think the score was 20-15 which was closer than I thought before we did the calculations. I had lost all my Hearthguard as well as Hengist. Thanks for the game Robbie, it was lot of fun.

On to the Eastern Front

 

I have been wanting for sometime to play some Eastern Front games. There is no question that most of the TFL campaigns for CoC are for the Western Front with a significant focus on Normandy. All good....but playing the Soviets is always a challenge especially because of the significant changes in platoon organisation throughout the 2nd World War. Most of my gaming on the Eastern Front has been during the Winter War with large 14-15 man platoons with no team structure. Version 2 of Chain of Command which covers 1944-45 has significant changes with smaller sections and now broken in 2 teams. My previous post details some work on Russian buildings so I was excited to put them on the table. I offered to put on game with my William so we met at the l'abyss this past Saturday.

Scenario 3: Attack and Defend. Patrol Markers and JOPs. Soviet Attackers from the left and German Defenders from the right. The Objectives were the Oil Tanks and the Ruined Building.

Soviets (FM 9, Support 12)

V2 Rifle Platoon

Captured Panzerfausts

Pregame Bombardment

Entrenchment

Mortar Bombardment with Extra Phase

Maxim MMG

Germans (FM 10, Support 7)

V2 Grenadier Platoon

MG42 MMG

Ig18 IG

Adjutant

It was a good game, I did not take any photos until the end. The game was quite close with the Soviets capturing the Oil Tanks within a few phases. William was also able to land the Bombardment quite accurately which covered my MMG, IG as well as one Grenadier squad and the Rifle team in a 2nd squad. It looked like I was doomed but I was going into the end game with a good advantage in FM as the Soviets were a bit unlucky in their FM throws. I was able to Handgranaten the Soviets who had captured the Oil Tanks while throwing 3 grenades (I had 5 commands), this was enough to break the section but also rout several leaders. I was a bit lucky with my dice, it was an excellent tactical game with William aggressively attacking. 

My next CoC game will feature the start of a Eastern Front campaign with Graham, stay tuned.

Russian Terrain

 

Here are 3D printed terrain pieces from the Russian collections of 3D-Print Terrain and Hartolia. They have been printed at 1/72 scale for some Eastern Front WWII gaming with Chain of Command. Aside from the church they were all printed recently on my Centauri Carbon printer. I think the church was printed on a Creality CR10 printer. Quality is like night and day!

Looking at photos from the early 20th century, it appeared that most building were unpainted so I went with this for the rural buildings. I airbrushed the wooden buildings with Dark Umber, followed by dry brushes with Khaki, Dark Grey, Light Grey and Deck Tan. I might go back with some white paint for the window frames but that would be about it.

The fences are mdf from Things from the Basement, they were airbrushed with Dark Grey and then dry brushed with Light Grey.

I am quite happy how they came out and they saw the table 2 days ago.