Tuesday 12 February 2019

Chain of Command - Trial Game

Well we girded up our lions, watched the Lardies instructional YouTube clip on Playing Chain of Command (CoC), scanned the rules and QRS (6 pages!) and had a run through game using the Probe Scenario!

There's not a lot to say on the rules yet but after our next go I think we'll have a good idea of our thoughts on CoC.

For this trial set in 1940 the Poms were on the attack with an infantry platoon beefed up with and extra section, a Mk VI tank and two UCs. The Germans had an infantry platoon and selected an ATR and PAK 36 ATG to boost their defences.

We played one full turn which was terminated by a triple 6.

We ran through the Patrol Phase and because the British rolled well as part of the scenario rules it put the Germans in a tight spot from the beginning basically starting on their edge of their side.

Basic infantry movement and firing and close combat all worked okay (no one tried chucking a grenade though).

Regarding Command Dice the 3's and especially the 4's were interesting as we tried to get our Leaders to use as many of their actions as possible.

No one combined dice at any point because we didn't think of it!

Oh and we never used any of our CoC points even though the British gained 8 as we were so tied up learning the basics.

There was a lot of rules and table referencing but I suspect that will diminish as the rules get used more. I think these hold promise and are an improvement on TW&T (ableit leaders in TW&T maybe are reflected better no sure yet at this stage). We are going to try another game next Fortnight and we will try the Patrol scenario.

A few pictures taken after our session...

The field of battle, from this angle the British were attacking from the left across the fields.

My late war Brits posing as BEF guys sheltering in shell holes...

A German PAK 36 and crew, they spent their time taking pot shots at infantry as the British never deployed their armour (learning the infantry rules were enough to keep us busy!)

The British extra infantry section arrived late and started to flank the Jerry position!

Alan's excellent JOP's which we used for the game...

My el cheapo JOP's...

Our Patrol Phase markers are just painted poker chips with relevant flags, eminently suitable and look the part...they are only used briefly anyway...

We are using poker chips to determine units status, these are the 'key' ones so we know whats what...

....they fit under the figures stands nicely as seen below the section deployed along the hedge have two 'levels' of shock...

Thanks!

13 comments:

  1. Fantastic idea for the poker chips under the bases. It does not take away anything from the excellent terrain and troops.

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    1. Hey Ben!
      Thanks for checking out our CoC trial!
      Poker chips they have so many uses!
      😀

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  3. Hey Stu,
    I have the opposite thoughts on CoC to you and liked what I saw during the test run on Monday and also what I've viewed on the net in relation to the rules.
    No skepticism or worries for me I'm interested in persisting with CoC given their good track record and widespread use.
    I am not concerned with the mechanics of rules as long as the give a good balance of playability and (in my mind) realism. Cards, dice rolls, activation levels whatever gets you away from chesslike predictability or mathmatical equations is good. No players will replicate stupid on field decisions or random actions of real battles, bring on these variables.
    Cheers
    :-)
    Quote of the day, Marshall Ney "Wellingtons retreating..."

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    2. Hey Stu,
      I disagree with your summary comments.
      12% chance of double 6 on five dice is in my opinion acceptable, that’s roughly a one in eight chance so your four double 6s in a row was a one in 4,096 chance (8x8x8x8 I believe) yeah that’s going to occur all the time.
      Blucher in my experience can be just as random so again in my mind is a poor comparison.
      I believe the dice were very unusual in the game we played.
      Do not concern yourself with the maths any more I’ve pulled CoC from our next session and won’t try it again on a TSOG night but I will continue to use them on other occasions.
      Cheers!

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    4. Hint, I'm not personally offended in anyway.
      But I think slamming a set of rules activation system after one game is a bit over the top.
      I'll stick with my belief that this game did not feature 'usual' dice results as per my previous post.
      😊

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  4. I love your figures – what make are they? I keep resisting moving to 28mm but these just might tempt me!

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    1. Hey Alistair,
      Thanks for checking out the Blog.
      Both the British and German figures are mainly 1/56 Italeri plastic figures. The ones I got came boxed with glue, pot of base uniform colour paint and a nice paintbrush. There are a spinkling of Warlord metals in there including the PAK 36 and crew.
      I used 1/56 figures for skirmish gaming only and smaller scales for bigger games!

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    2. Didn't realise Italeri did 1/56 figures – thanks for the heads up. I have WW2 stuff in three scales already – just trying to resist a fourth for platoon-level games. Am sticking with 1/72nd for this due to space but they do tempting! Thanks

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    3. Yeah I sort of know what you mean my WW II figures range from mm to 10mm to 20mm to 28mm!!!!
      The 1/72 20mm ones date from my school days!

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  5. You sound as bad as me! Just recounted and it's actually four scales! 6mm, 10mm, 15mm & 20mm – I must stop there!

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