France 1940 - The Bridges

A good while ago I managed to pick up a Cigar Box Battle river mat on eBay. I had long been thinking about the interesting challenges of a game with one side having to make a strategic withdrawal across a river and the other trying to seize the crossings. Finding the mat advanced my plans for that game. Unfortunately the pandemic got in the way and with all my projects the timeline extended well beyond the original plan.

But after picking up not just one but two bridges from Sarissa Precision things got under way. I had chose a road and a rail bridge, so I obviously needed to build the track to go with the former and decided a station would also be a good addition. I also wanted to make the game big both physically (a 12 foot by 6 foot table) but also from a Chain of Command perspective; this meant at least a company a side. Fortunately I had collected sufficient 28mm figures to make that work. So I finally put the game on at the club. 

It saw a rag tag French outfit as the defender facing a determined German company supported by a platoon of tanks. The French were made up of a platoon of Foreign Legion and a platoon of Tirailleurs Sénégalais on one side of the river, needing to withdraw across the bridges and a Motorcycle platoon holding those bridges. The French also had some support in the form of an anti-tank gun and some engineers in a truck - the latter to demolish the bridges before the Germans could capture them intact. Along with two Bouteilles Incendiaires, two roadblocks and a couple of full Chain of Command dice for the withdrawing troops, this was the defending force. The Germans, in addition to their infantry company and tank platoon, had an Adjutant, a Pioneer team in a Kubelwagen, a SdKfz 222 armoured car, an infantry gun and a truck with four rubber boats. It wouldn’t have been an early war game without a Shabby Nazi Trick - the German players selected a fifth column sniper (Jean-Claude). We played through the patrol phase which saw some interesting jockeying for positions around the buildings on the German side of the board. With jump off points then positioned we were ready for the meat of the game.

The Foreign Legion were covering the French left flank and the Tirailleurs Sénégalais on the right. The Germans began their advance with the platoon on their right flank making serious progress until they encountered the Legion. The other German platoons soon found that the Tirailleurs weren’t going to be easily dislodged and put them under heavy concentrated fire. The roadblock constrained the easiest route for their Panzers and so the main armoured advance was through the farmland to the right of the road. 

Repeated exchanges of fire were telling on the French forces as they tried to hold the Germans long enough for their engineers to deploy and mine the bridges. 

Eventually they began to fall back but not before taking serious casualties. Meanwhile Jean-Claude who had been placed in the church tower (it’s traditional!) was causing the French some unexpected problems. 

With the French C-in-C desperate to blow the now mined bridges he ordered a full withdrawal but this was easier said than done with the Germans covering most of the routes to the bridges.

The Tirailleurs were aiming for the road bridge but when they got there the C-in-C ordered them to switch to the distant rail bridge so he could blow the former. 

Meanwhile the German pioneers were making heavy weather of destroying the roadblock and the motorised elements of the German force were still held up as a result.

In the end only a single Legion section got to safety before the second bridge was blown and with neither side having been able to meet their victory conditions I declared the game a draw.

Blitzkrieg 1940 - First Play

With the release of the Blitzkrieg 1940 early war supplement for Chain of Command, I was keen to try out one of the scenarios with my 28mm French infantry.

Of course the first issue was I didn't quite have the right numbers of figures (why does that always seem to happen?) so I needed to do some tweaking to the forces and add an appropriate backstory.  In this case that the French had already been engaged and had fallen back to regroup having taken some losses.

I took the French and prepared for the German onslaught.  My opponent made excellent use of the Stuka attack and Shabby Nazi Trick options which, along with some spectacular dice rolling (as you can see below) meant a French defeat; however, we played again and, with a much less effective dive bombing attack, I managed to hold them off the second time.

Here are a few photos from the game (usual apologies for the phone camera quality pics):

Market Gardening

I have a little remiss in my updates of late - so a little later than planned...

Lenin popped over again recently and we played a couple of tabletop games including a slightly impromptu game of Chain of Command.  We played Scenario Six: Attack on an Objective from the rulebook and set it around Operation Market Garden.

A British Airborne platoon supported by a section and Sherman from XXX Corps are trying to capture a crossroads held by the Germans.  Lenin took the British and I prepped my defensive position (and a little surprise for them).

The Paras advance on the left...

... and the right of the road

Moving through the crops

Rushing across the open field

The Paras advanced rapidly across the whole width of the table and, whilst my troops were in hard cover, they were also lower quality and unable to concentrate their fire.

An overview showing the crossroads

I moved more men up into the upper storeys of the buildings to gain a greater arc of fire and so be able to concentrate it better.  Unfortunately Lenin then deployed his Sherman and took out the upper storey of one of the buildings entirely!

My surprise - a Tiger!

Whilst my Tiger came as an unpleasant surprise the Paras kept the initiative long enough to inflict a large quantity of casualties before I could get the Tiger into position.  When I did it shook of a couple of hits from the Sherman and a PIAT and then took out the Sherman.  But it was really too little too late as more casualties broke my force's morale and we withdrew.

Another enjoyable game of Chain of Command which presented to really interesting challenges.

Chain of Command - At The Sharp End

Too Fat Lardies have just released a campaign supplement for their Chain of Command rules called At The Sharp End and so I had to pick up a copy to add to my collection.

At The Sharp End is 47 pages in the same style as the Chain of Command Rules but is only available as a standard PDF from the Lardies website.

After a brief introduction the book is split into four sections.  The explains their approach to campaigns and then suggests three different types that you can use (No map, simple map, full map).  The second section provides the rules for conducting the campaign itself.  The third section provides rules for creating the characters involved and the final section provides guidance on how to build a campaign.

Everything seems pretty well laid out and, as with a lot of the Lardies stuff, it looks like it will be a good read whether you actually end up using it for an actual campaign.

Crete, 1941

Our second game of 2014 was another chance to play the Chain of Command rules by Too Fat Lardies.  In this case Lenin converted a scenario from one of the Skirmish Campaign books on Crete.  I took command of the Fallschirmjaeger and he took the Allied forces.

As with our previous game the patrol phase was an interesting component and something I think is a great aspect of the rules.  Of course I didn't have quite enough Jump Off points (4 per side) and so a little improvisation was required.  In the end the placement of them was a little tricky but I think worked ok.

Deployment is something I think we are both still coming to terms with - as both of us were rather too keen to get as many of our toys onto the table as quickly as possible.

I split my force, with the majority being deployed on or near the hill on my left and with a single section on the right to harass the enemy.  Lenin ended up with most of his troops on the ridge on his table edge but with a section further forward in a small wood.

I deployed my MG team to cover the ridge and started to lay down fire as I continued to deploy men on my left.  This gave me a base of fire which allowed my MG armed section to advance through to some rocky cover and set up there.  My other section advanced through the vineyard towards Lenin's advance section.

Lenin attempted to suppress me using his Bren but the power of my MGs was quickly felt.  He added a substantial amount of rifle fire to it which then gave me a little more of a headache but ultimately the power of the German MGs was decisive.

With Lenin taking some serious casualties on the ridge, his Bren team being forced to withdraw and his advance section pinned in the wood we called the game.

In the post game analysis we decided that the straight conversion of the Skirmish Campaigns scenario probably didn't make things easy for Lenin and that, in future, we would probably look more closely at aligning it with the Chain of Command approach.  All in all a fun game though and we'll certainly be playing the rules again.

First Play: Chain of Command

Given that both Lenin and I have decent sized collections of 28mm World War 2 figures it was only a question as to which of us would put on the first Chain of Command game.  In the end it was Lenin with his Panzer grenadiers and US infantry in a scenario set in Italy.

As normal I played the Germans and we selected our platoons and support.  Selecting support was tricky given that neither of us had played before but I can see it presenting some interesting challenges once we really understand how best to use the various options available.

We set up the terrain and decided on the standard patrol scenario from the rulebook.  Then we began the first novelty of the rules - the patrol phase.  This certainly made both of us think and I can see that with more games under our belt it will be a very interesting part of the game.  We had both diced for the initial starting points for our patrol markers and I ended up in the centre (which proved somewhat fortuitous for me) with Lenin over on his right flank. With the farm complex having been set out in the centre of the table this meant I could move my markers into it more quickly and easily than Lenin which with my preponderance of MG teams would prove to be a significant game influence.

Having completed the patrol phase (rather quicker than I had wanted - leaving one of my markers further back than I was hoping) we placed our jump off markers (I hadn't had a chance to paint the resin ones I got with the rules - although I wouldn't have had enough as we needed 3 each) so I used some oil drums I had handy.

We both ended up deploying our forces relatively early on in the game and I suspect this might not be the best approach in quite a few circumstances.  It suited me as I could get two of my MG teams into defensive positions in the farm house and my other sections ready to move up to take positions in the farm yard.  As it was the windows in the farmhouse didn't give me the coverage I would have liked and Lenin managed to deploy his men in my blind spots.  He then began to advance on my position.

I began to move my men up but we ended up exposing one team to one of the US squads and they didn't enjoy the experience!  Lenin moved up into what he though would be a good position but exposed himself to my MGs and came under a hail of fire.

Lenin tried to advance another two squads under cover of some mortar fire (he was desperately trying to justify having smoke but apparently the Americans didn't issue those rounds at this time).

Meanwhile I moved one of my sections around the farmyard in order to flank his retreating first squad.

Whilst Lenin managed to do some serious damage to one of my MG teams which was trying to redeploy, I managed to catch two of his sections in crossfire and as a result won the game.

We both enjoyed playing the rules and they are certainly worth trying again although I think we both need to learn from this experience and also do a bit more reading just to make sure we're getting everything right!

First Look: Chain of Command

Just in case you've been hiding in a cave somewhere you may not have been aware of the release of the latest set of rules from the TooFatLardies - Chain of Command - which are designed for Platoon level games using a 1:1 man to figure ratio.

Given that I have enjoyed playing most of the Lardies' previous offerings and having had my appetite whetted by their YouTube videos, I decided to take the plunge and pre-ordered the rules.

I went for the bundle which included a hard copy, the tablet enabled PDF version, the branded dice, markers and the resin jump off points.

It may seem a little strange to have both the hard and soft copies but I have to admit that having a real book to read through and consult is still something I like - even this far into the 21st Century; however, the PDF does have the advantage of being searchable and so is more useful for checking on things during a game.

The hard copy is produced in a very similar style to I Ain't Been Shot Mum III, their company level rules, in that they're an A4 paperback.  They are 104 pages in a two column format broken up with pictures, diagrams, tables and examples:

The core of the gameplay will be familiar to anyone who has played the recent offerings from the Lardies with command activations, variable movement distances and shock; however, they have two new features which make these rules quite distinct.

The first is the patrol phase - this happens before the main game with both players moving patrol markers in order to determine the limits of the scouting that both forces have carried out before the engagement.  Once completed this will establish the non man's land between the two forces and their available jump off points.  The jump off points represent the locations which the units can reach safely without being observed or engaged by the enemy and provides a really interesting advance from the standard Lardies blinds system.  The new approach allows for flexible deployment, ambushes and the ability for the enemy to secure on of your points and really limit your options.

The second new feature is the dice activation system and associated Chain of Command dice.  Rather than using a card activation system (which has long been one of their trade mark mechanisms) Chain of Command has each player roll a number of dice determined by their force and affected by in game results.  These dice then determine whether teams, sections or leaders may be activated or whether the Chain of Command dice should be increased or whether the turn will end.  Turns are divided into a variable number of phases with initiative alternating (unless determined otherwise by the activation dice roll) and only ending on specific rolls of the activation dice.  This approach makes each phase and turn somewhat unpredictable giving you some real challenges and decisions to make.  When a leader is activated they can use their command activations to activate individual teams or sections, or to remove shock etc.  The Chain of Command dice build up until they reach a level which allows you to use them for certain bonus activities - like deploying some troops in an ambush or ending the turn - providing additional options.  All in all they sounds very interesting and I'm looking forward to getting them to the table shortly.

The rules also cover all the other stuff you would expect (support weapons, vehicles etc.) and include six generic scenarios and army lists for Germany, Great Britain, the US and the Soviets.

The accessories I picked up included four nicely cast resin jump off point markers (each different), acrylic pinned (12), tactical (6) and overwatch (6) markers, and four large d6 with Chain of Command printed on one side (in place of the six).