Chain of Command AAR - Hedgerow Hell

I'm a married man! A few Saturdays ago (the 16th March to be precise), I married the love of my life Laura. The wedding went off without a hitch, Laura looks amazing, the rain staying away and a great night was had by all. Strange how after all the months of planning, the night itself flashed by so quickly - I didn't even get around to see all the guests, and we only had 70! I'll post some photos up once we get them back from the photographer - who also happens to be my very talented sister, Liss!

Laur and I then headed off to Bali for a week long honeymoon. We stayed out of the busy Kuta area, in a villa with a private walled garden and plunge pool. It's an amazing place once you get out of the tourist trap, and we both had a really relaxing time. Even managed to get a bit of a tan!

So, now I know I said last post that I'd be posting more BTH2 planes, and they are photographed and just waiting for me to post them up. However, in the intervening weeks i've had the opportunity to get involved in the play-testing of the up and coming Too Fat Lardies ruleset, Chain of Command.

Chain of Command is a platoon 'plus' level rule-set for WWII. As always with the Lardies, the rules include some great innovations, and focus on the role of leaders on the battlefield. 
Rich Clarke has placed some excellent taster videos over on the lard island blog, which explain the main rule mechanics and include a play-through. I do urge you to check them out, along with Neil Shuck's recent Meeples and Miniatures podcast on the rules.

The bridge and Nez Corchu

So, while I'm carrying on with the playtesting, i'll be posting up some After Action Reports, as well as some pics of units as I add to my WWII 20mm collection. For the playlist below, my British infantry platoon from the 6th King's Own Scots Borderers, with a Churchill Mk III in support, faced off against a platoon of German grenadiers from 21st Panzer Division, aided by a tripod mounted MG42. The Germans had to a bridge over a small river, snear the (fictional) village of Nez Corchu in the Normandy bocage country. For the commanders, I've used the characters I developed with platoon forward.

Without further ado...


Seize the Bridge at Nez Corchu, mid June 1944.

Patrol Phase 

British entry point

Chain of Command begins with a patrol phase. In this phase, markers representing pre-battle reconnaissance patrols advance from entry points until they are within 12" of an enemy marker, when they are locked down.


The British patrol markers entered from a single point down the main road to the bridge. Being the attackers, they got a number of free moves. Then the Germans began to move out. Eventually the markers were all locked down in the vicinity of the small village straddling the road to the bridge. The patrol markers were removed, and three jump-off points placed for each side. The Jump off markers are placed in cover back from the patrol markers. Think of it as the patrol markers representing the furthest point of advance, and the jump-offs as 'safe' points on the battlefield from which the force commander can feed uncommitted sections or fire-teams into the battle.

German and British patrols lock down

Jump-off points placed, and ready for action

Turn 1

So, with deployment sorted, the game proper began. Chain of Command plays as a series of phases, each making up a turn. Each phase represents 10sec or so of action. At the beginning of each phase, the active player rolls a number of command dice which allow them to activate sections, fire-teams, leaders or support teams. Turns are more considerable periods of time, and represent the ebb and flow of battle. Additionally, any 5s rolled accumulate on the 'Chain of Command' dice (more on that later), and 6s can affect the turn sequence, granting the player multiple active phases.

Cpl Robson's section set off towards Nez Corchu

British attack develops

Achilles II moves up. Slowly.

The British started the ball rolling, deploying a rifle section under Corporal James Robson. Robson's section soon headed up the bocage lined road towards the hamlet. A lucky roll on the command dice meant the Brits could take the initiative early, and so on to the table came a second section under Corporal Angus Duncan, along with the Churchill III, the mighty Achilles II under command of Sgt. Norman Dudley.

 The British plan was to send Robson's section down the main road into the village, clearing the way for the churchill. Duncan's section would advance through the bocage on the right, hopefully outflanking any defence of the village. Finally, Corporal Bill MacLaggan's section would go wide on the left, trying to bypass the village entirely and reach the bridge, cutting off the German
retreat.

Movement in the Boulangerie

The Germans chose to remain hidden, hoping to ambush the advancing sections at close quarters. Robson's  section moved more cautiously as they approached the village of Nez Corchu. this was a good move, as the Germans deployed a rifle gruppe under Gefreiter Enno Holzmann to their jump off point in the village bakery and opened up with their MG42 team, killing two men and causing shock to the unit. Had Robson's men not taken cover by adopting a 'tactical' stance, they may have fared much worse. As the Bren team fruitlessly attempted to silence the MG42, the British deployed their 2" mortar team and sent it scurrying down the road. When the bakery came into view, the team set up and fired a smoke shell, hitting the target and blocking Holzmann's line of sight.

Robson's section takes cover, as the 2" mortar moves up

Literally the next German command dice was three 6s, which ended the turn immediately clearing the smoke just laid.

End of Turn 1. The British attack develops, and meets resistance.

Turn 2

Robson heads for the house

The beginning of turn two saw Robson's section loosing men and gaining shock from the Germans in the Bakery. Holzmann's gruppe was exacting a heavy toll, and the German defence was firming up. the Platoon Feldwebel, Rudi Böhler, deployed along with a tripod mounted MG42 and a second rifle gruppe under Gefreiter Heinrich Baer. Fortuitously for the Brits, the 2" was activated again and again was smack on target with the smoke. Nonetheless, Robson's Bren team remained hunkered down on 'tactical', while Robson led the rifle team in a mad dash to towards the house across from the bakery from where they could better engage the enemy.

Churchill moves up.

The Churchill was taking its sweet time trundling up the road, as was Cpl Duncan's flanking section. Even the deployment of Platoon Sgt Arthur Campbell had not been able to counter some very poor movement dice rolls. McLaggan's section, on the other hand, had swiftly moved through the bocage and was poised to break through the last hedgerow and come around the German flank.



Just as McLaggan and his section emerged from the hedgerow, the Germans deployed their last uncommited rifle gruppe, under Gefreiter Willi Reiniger. Reiniger's gruppe opened up immediately, killing one man and lightly wounding McLaggan, but only inflicting one shock.

McLaggen's section emerges...

...Into the waiting muzzles of Reiniger's gruppe

Duncan's men attack with grenades

Meanwhile, on the right, Baer's gruppe moved up to the hedgeline and went tactical, just as Duncan's section reached the other side. I was unsure of how to treat this encounter (Rich has since clarified that these troops should count as in close combat - which makes sense). In any case, both Duncan's and Baer's sections avoided firing through the hedgerow and resorted to throwing grenades. This saw Baer's troops coming off much worse, taking several casualties and a few points of shock.

McLaggan's men turn the tables on their ambushers

Back on the left, the Germans activated Reiniger's gruppe to fire again at McLaggan's troops, when the British interrupted the turn using their Chain of Command dice. Instead, McLaggan ordered his men to open up on the Germans, and some lucky dice rolling saw the Reiniger's men suffering 4 casualties (including Reiniger who was badly wounded) and 5 shock, which sent the remnants of the section reeling back towards the bridge. With all German assets engaged, the platoon commander, Leutnant Andreas Dörpfeld deployed at the bridge and rallied the fleeing men, just as the turn ended again.



Turn 3

Holzmann's MG42 team switches targets

As soon as the smoke in front of the bakery cleared, the 2" mortar again fired dead on target. Robson lead his riflemen into the building across the road and engaged the enemy killing several of Holzmann's men. However, the remainder of Holzmann's men finally had a target. With one deadly burst from the MG42 team, Robson's rifle-team was decimated, leaving the Corporal with only one rifleman remaining.


On the right, Duncan abandoned the grenade-throwing and led his rifle team through a gap in the hedgerow and into hand to hand with the remnants of Baer's men. In the brutal hand to hand, both sides took casualties and shock, but when the dust cleared it was the outnumbered Germans who held the hedgerow. Duncan and the survivors fled back through the gap, past the uncommitted Bren team and ran straight into Sgt Campbell, who berated Duncan and led the men back back towards the hedgerow.

Hand-to-hand in the hedgerows

Baer's men hold the line

McLaggan's Bren team heads for the bridge

On the Right, McLaggan's route to the bridge was clear. He ordered his beefed up Bren team to move quickly towards the bridge and engage Reiniger's tattered gruppe, while he personally led two men to secure the nearby German jump-off point.

Achtung, Panzer!

Despite the British taking heavy casualties around the bakery and in the hedgerow fight, the game was almost up for the Germans. Their force morale had taken a hammering, and now the mighty Achilles II finally clanked its way into the battle. As the turret rotated to engage the tripod MG42, the Germans scurried back into cover. Baer ordered two of his men to take a panzerfaust and to stalk the iron beast, while he led the remainder of his section back to the new defensive line. The Panzerfaust hit but failed to penetrate, and the coaxial besa MG made short work of the two landser.

Better late than never.

McLaggan's men engaged Reinegger's small group, while the Cpl and his small team made for the bridge. 

Last defenders

As the Churchill lumbered up the main road, Holzmann's gruppe fired their panzerfaust down onto the passing tank narrowly missing. Another burst of coax severley wounded the Gefreiter, finally breaking the German force morale and, with their escape route blocked, the tattered remnants surrendered. The bridge was secured, but two of the British sections had suffered heavy casualties.






 SUMMARY

Achilles II heads for the bridge

So, that was my first game of  Chain of Command. Thanks for sticking with me this far, I know it's turned into a bit of an essay, but I hope it was a fraction as enjoyable to read as it was to play. I realise now that I didn't allocate enough dice for the Panzerfaust, and if used correctly there's a much higher chance that Achilles II would have become a flaming wreck, possibly tipping the scales in favour of the Germans. The game took about 2-3 hours, although it felt very fast indeed. Its a very immersive and engaging game, and playing it feels like you are watching an episode of Band of Brothers. The command dice system really does make you think about how you will allocate your limited resources, and the Chain of Command dice are extremely useful. If it wasn't for the ability to Interrupt Reiniger's attack, it would seem unlikely that McLaggan's path to the bridge would have been so easy.

I can't wait to have another crack at the rules, and as soon as i've finished the batch of commission stuff on my table, I'll be adding to my German forces, and then starting on some British paratroopers.

Up Diddley Up Up...

It's now a little under two weeks till I tie the knot, and things are full steam ahead in wedding planning. Both of us being students, we're doing as much as we can on our own in order to keep the budget down. This was pushed to the extreme when we had a problem with the bridesmaids dresses we'd ordered, and Laur (with yours truly assisting) ended up making the three dresses!

I also had my bucks night in Sydney, and am happy to report that I was not left chained to a lamppost, that both eyebrows are intact, and that I have no new tattoos. That said, a large amount of beer (only good ales!) was consumed, and I was politely asked to leave a pub after - and this is allegedly, as I have hazy memories of the event - dancing on a table.  

So, in-between the hangovers and manic wedding preparations, i've finally managed to put some dullcote on the first few 1/300 scale aircraft for my 2013 Bag the Hun 2 project. As I mentioned in the last post, I was given a whole load of tiny white metal airplanes, a 'full sized' Hotz mat, and a copy of Bag the Hun 2, and Squadron Forward, along with Check Your Six! and the Battle of France and Battle of Britain scenario supplements. I've perused both rulesets, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Lardies ruleset is the one which has 'grabbed' me.

Shiny new Hotz Mat!

My plan is to paint up bits and pieces as I go in order to get progressively bigger and more complex games. I'm coming to this air war thing as a complete novice, and so I've been taking advantage of university holidays by getting a fair amount of background reading in. Alongside James Holland's excellent 'Battle of Britain', i've been reading ospreys and other assorted information on the 1939-40 period RAF, Luftwaffe and Armee de l'Air. The Osprey Aircraft of the Aces series seems rather good, if the quality of the writing does vary from author to author. The Hurricane Aces is in particular an excellent read. I've also ordered the huge 'After The Battle' book on the Battle of Britain, and am looking forward to getting my hands on that weighty tome. I'm also going to get a couple of biographies by British and German pilots. 'Fighter Pilot' and 'Spitfire on my Tail' look to be rather good, though if anyone has any suggestions i'm all ears. 

So, as a result of my reading, it seems that most early clashes during the Phoney War (or Drole de Guerre / Sitzkrieg) comprised a sections or flights of fighters clashing with reconnaissance aircraft or other patrols.  In order to game these actions, I've painted up a few sections and bomber aircraft which can double as recce kites. So, without further ado, on to the pictures. All plane models are from Scotia Grendel, apart from the Potez which is from Heroics and Ros. 

For the Royal Air Force, i've started out with a section of Hawker Hurricane Mk.Is. These will be marked up as No.87 Squadron aircraft, and the red nose denotes a flight leader. I chose No.87 Squadron because they fought with the BEF air component throughout the Phoney War and Blitzkrieg, and then fought through the Battle of Britain with No.10 Group. I also liked the Squadron motto, 'Maximus Me Metuit' (The Most Powerful Fear Me). I've also got a squadron's worth of Spitfires, which will be painted as No.609 (West Riding) Squadron. I've also begun making some cards for characters and to keep track of individual aircraft. I'm using Squadron Forward for No.87, and have generated a squadron's worth of pilots. I've mixed in fictional characters with some actual personalities. No.87 Squadrons (fictional) commander is the dastardly Squadron Leader Hercules Grytpype-Thynne (Goon Show reference anyone?). Decals are from Dom's Decals

Red Section, No.87 Squadron

My BTH2 Cards, I stole the layout from Per at http://persprojects.blogspot.com

I've got unpainted Bristol Blenheim Mk.Is, Fairey Battles, and Vickers Wellingtons, but first i've painted up three Handley-Page Hampdens, marked up for No.44 (Rhodesia) Squadron. I know that they weren't part of the Advanced Air Striking Force (AASF) which was based in France, but as I chose to paint them up as they were involved in Bomber Commands early campaigns. I am planning on trying to adapt the rules to cater for the actions the Nachtjagd, German night fighters, against Bomber command, so the Hampden will enable me to play test some ideas.

For the French Armee de l'Air component, i've started with a section of American made Curtiss Hawk H75As. I've also got Morane Saulnier 406s, Bloch 152s and Dewoitine D520s in the bare metal. These are painted up as SPA76 'Les Cigognes' (The Storks), part of Groupe de Chasse I/5, which flew out of Suippes. French aces Jean Accart and Edward Marin de Meslee were a part of this unit. Accompanying the Hawks is a Potez 63.11 from Groupe de Reconnaissance II/33.

1er Patrouille, SPA76 'Les Cigognes'

A solitary Potez 63.11 of II./GR33

BTH2 cards for SPA 76 'Les Cigognes', GCI/5 of l'Armee de l'Air

In the next update, which will be a brief one and will be along before the end of the week, i'll be outlining the Luftwaffe's finest.

Send Three-and-Fourpence...

The last couple of weeks has been a blur, and with the wedding now only three weeks away, i'm not expecting much more out of the next few. Nonetheless, while preparations may be proceeding apace, I have managed to snatch a little time for gaming related things.

So, accordingly this update is a little brief, but hopefully does still hold some interest. Most of my painting time has been taken up by commission work, but i have managed to take some photos of a few odds and sods for my Sharp Practice project. For this year, i'm planning on painting up another three 10 man french groups of Line Infantry (incidentally making a 1:10-ish scale Line battalion), along with some Leger voltigeurs and chasseurs, and a limber set. Up against them, I'd like to finish off a few more Austrian 12 man groups, an artillery piece and limber, and perhaps some of the new Perry chevauxlegers. Add in some Bavarians and Wurttembergers, and I've set myself quite an ambitious target. 

Alongside the 1809 guys, i've also got the first of my Peninsular War British, an xmas pressie from Laura. In the metal (and plastic) mountain i've got a box of the perry Line infantry and some metal rifles, all to be painted up and organised into 8 man groups with accompanying Big Men. Laura also got me an excellent 28mm sloop, along with a load of the superb Paul Hicks sculpted Brigade Games Royal Navy jacktars. 

The French reinforcements

So them's the plans for Sharp Practice in 2013. I've also recently become the owner of a plethora of 1/300 scale WW2 aircraft (1939-40 RAF, Armee de l'Air and Luftwaffe mostly), a copy of both Check Your Six! and Bag The Hun 2, and an excellent european fields Hotz Mat. More on my BTH2 plans in future posts though, for now, on to the latest Sharp Practice French reinforcements.

First off, I've painted up the tete de colonne (the battalion command) of the 3e Regiment de Ligne. Comprising 1e and 2e portes-aigles (the eagle bearer and the halberd armed eagle guard), a drummer and grizzled sapper, this base is a complete redux. The first version went on eBay to help fund the purchase of Laura's engagement ring, so it's perhaps fitting to post these guys up a few weeks before the wedding. The uniforms for these guys are supposed to be for the 3e Regiment de Ligne, which served in St. Hilaire's  division of Marshal Davout's III Corps in 1809.

Next up, the first of four planned line infantry fusilier companies. After what was most likely far too much research into something so trivial, I've ended up not painting the 1st company pompoms in the usual vert fonce, but rather in the bleu-de-roi. The 2nd company will be the infamous orangey-brown aurore, 3rd violette, and 4th cramoisie, which i'm reliably informed is a purplish red. At the head of this company is a new big man, the dastardly Lt. Montalban. 

Lt. Montalban

Final lot for this update is another addition to the French leading cast, Lt. Lemoine along with his 4 pound cannon and crew. The gun and bits and pieces are all from Nic at Eureka, and are fabulous, crisp castings with excellent detail. I find the front rank cannon a bit clunky.


  

All these figures are Front Rank, which I know are often disparaged but I find quite charming. You might also notice the bridge, river sections and ford, all recent additions to my gaming terrain made with the excellent 'Magic Water' resin which, while having a steep learning curve, comes out a lot better than white glue or gloss varnish.

 

So that's it for now, next update will undoubtedly be regarding all Spitfires, Hurricanes and Messerschmitts as I embark on my first foray into aerial wargaming with Bag the Hun 2, so stay tuned!

2013, Onwards and Upwards!

The gallant Premierlieutnant Istvan Nagy.

It's hard to believe it's been so long since my last posting. Since then, I've had a month long practicum teaching French at a local high school, which was quite an experience. That led into the silly season, when besides a rather impressive haul of Christmas and Birthday presents, I also got a dose of shingles which knocked me out for a few weeks. Add in some planning for a wedding which is VERY rapidly approaching, and the year simply flew past. It feels like I had blinked and then it was 2013! 

Sidney Roundwood, the man behind the superb Roundwood's World blog, recently posted a post which was a round up of 2012, which has prompted me (albeit belatedly) to do the same. 

On the whole, 2012 was a rather spectacular year for me. From January to July Laura and I were on our exchange to the University of Leeds. I had the opportunity to take some fascinating classes,  and managed to come through with a couple of 'firsts' (as fr as i can gather the equivalent of a High Distinction). I travelled down to Triples at Sheffield, where I met up with people i'd chatted to via email and forums but had not met in person. I even managed to get in a game of Dux Britanniarum run by Rich Clarke and Sid Roundwood. Besides visiting the excellent Royal Armouries at Leeds, I headed down to the RAF Muesum in the North of London, where wandering around the Spitfires, Hurricane, Messerschmitts and a plethora of other aircraft I felt like a kid again.

While travelling around Europe, I visited museums, castles and historical sites in Budapest, Andalucia, Tuscany, Stockholm, Berlin and Paris.

The consummate professional, Major Driant

I returned home inspired to get gaming and to crack on with some projects. I got back into gaming with the lads at the local gaming club, and my 20mm WW2 British army has now seen a lot of action. I also began digging out my 28mm Napoleonic figures and organising them into a force for Sharp Practice. Alongside this, I was pottering along with the commission work. 

University for the second half of the year seemed to swallow almost all of my time. I particularly struggled with French, as i'd missed a semester of a sequential course while I was in Leeds, so was forced to play catch-up. I ended up scraping through that course with a pass, which thankfully was balanced out by the HDs I got in the other subjects. 

Then prac, christmas, shingles and here we are. 

As I see it, 2012 has been a very successful year for gaming, but an absolute failure for this blog (three posts in 12 months!!) and for painting (it's not even worth mentioning the pitiful number of figures i've completed). However, I managed to get in more gaming than I have previously, met a bunch of people in the UK, visited a plethora of historical sights, museums etc, and even managed to get in a few games of Sharp Practice with the guys at the club. 

So, some New Years resolutions seem to be in order. 

1. More blog posts! I'm hoping to get at least two per month. These will track the process of projects i'm working on, as well as giving some AARs from solo and club games. Who knows, i might even throw in some book reviews and finally get around to posting some updates about the museums and sites i visited in Europe.

2. Paint more figures. I've set myself a few projects for this year, and want to limit myself to these as much as practicable. More on what these projects are next update. 

3. Keep up with the gaming. I've really enjoyed actually getting some gaming in, and am determined to keep on with this. 

So, pretty simple right? Lets see if I can stick to it!

And just because I want to keep this update pretty, and inspired by Alte Fritz (of Der Alte Fritz Blog i've included some pictures of my Sharp Practice troops on a New Years Parade.

Chat Soon!
Ben

The Kaiserliks on parade.  My gradually growing K.u.K Austrian force has now seen some action.

And the forces of l'Empreur. As with the Austrians, i've plans to expand these forces considerably.

The leading cast, Austrian Big Men.

And Les Grandes Hommes, the Emperor's finest. 

The elite companies of the first battalion, 3e Regiment de Ligne.