My son came over to play the next game or games in our Abbeville campaign, because he had won the last one he 'Blitzkreiged' on to the next map so as not to lose a turn, the down side was that he had to use the same force he had won the previous game with. The bad news for me is that despite getting some half decent support points these troops would not arrive until Turn 2, a dubious requirement in Chain of Command as Turn 1 can sometimes last all game, so I was at the mercy of the Hun.
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| German end of the table. |
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| British end, who picked this? |
Stewart was coming over some open ground with the odd hedge to give him light cover, I put down a couple of squads hoping to inflict some damage but, as we Scots say I did hee haw. My own squads were now shot to pieces. I decided I could not suffer any more casualties so I withdrew, I was so cheesed off with this game I forgot to take pictures. Stewart had come a long way to give me a game and the first clash took less time than it took to put the table together.
We quickly set up for the next game, which was one of my least favourite scenarios 'Going With A Bang' a real uphill struggle for the defender, I got one free engineer squad and had to buy another as one would not cut it. I decided to use my untested platoon as it was at full strength, Stewart did the same. I took a couple of MMG's and a Morris C9 armoured car, the Jerries brought an infantry gun, pioneer squad (15 men), and a mortar barrage.
I dropped an MMG in order to catch Stewart as he deployed, I had intended to back it up with a second but they had found a NAAFI canteen somewhere along with my mortar men and engineers, I also brought on a squad to take a nearby house before the Germans were fully deployed. Then the bad guys turned up, I unleashed Hell but did nothing but discomfit the birds in the trees. The huge squad a returned fire and my machine gunners began to die. More Jerries were now turning up and I deployed a second squad to catch them, nope, again I dealt out a couple of headaches but needed an undertaker for my guys from the return fire, "Make that four coffins."
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| Germans turn up and my men suffer. |
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| The killing blow. |
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| Stewart gets ready. |
Soon this squad broke and ran, so I put my last squad in the line, the armoured car meanwhile did nothing, does the NAAFI do deliveries? Then in it came, the mortar barrage hit bang on target, the result of which was the destruction of my newly arrived squad, I had had it and called a halt, four German squads were now positioning themselves for the end of the barrage to attack anything which was left, I saw no way out. Once again I had been shot to bits.
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| Incoming! |
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| Yes British 'armour' and I use the term loosely. |
I looked at the next scenario in the campaign, basically a blank field with one building and a couple of hedges, what support the British had required the use of two, yes two, CoC dice to come on, the enemy could scupper this if the British ever managed to get two, by using one to delay further their arrival. The up shot of this was my men gave up and were looking for signs to Dunkerque.
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| The disparity in losses, again. |
So that is the third early war campaign out the window, each one has been a disaster for the defender, and yes I did win several of the games but only just. Some parts were unclear, perhaps I could have used armour in this one, but if I did and the Germans cannot get heavy support for the first several moves what would be the point of the game, no fun for the other guy. And the book scenarios are just rubbish, there I said it. I won't bore you with some of the other anomalies which turned up and there were a few.
Does anyone actually play test these before letting them loose?
My biggest gripe and it may surprise players of CoC is that the five dice command system stinks. You very rarely get more than 2 dice to command the troops, both Stewart and I suffered from this in the games as have Matt and I, you might at best get 3 you can use, the rest are 4's, 5's or 6's or combinations of them all resulting in getting nothing from your troops. Sure they can help but if you are attempting a coordinated attack then forget it. Stewart failed repeatedly to get a 1 to bring on his support options, I was in the same boat, I got one support option on during the second game. I have to admit I have had more enjoyable games with Bolt Action than I have had with Chain of Command.
I have some ideas which may bring back some fun but I don't have time to go into them at the moment and to be honest I also don't have the inclination.
Elsewhere I finished my Sherman 105, my American armour is now complete.
Can't say I'm surprised to read your views on CoC, or any other rules from the same stable, just surprised it took you so long... Bolt Action v2 for me all day long. Mind, I don't win those much either! Your new Sherman is very nice, I wish it many wins!
ReplyDeleteI gave them a good try but the command system is just so limiting and certainly does not remotely allow realistic tactics. I also agree with V2 for ‘the other game’ but it also needs tweaks.
ReplyDeleteOh dear more miserable games of CoC, I had better get my copy up on EBay before yours. Nice work on the 105, it looks suitably care worn.
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil. I have a couple of ideas to try out, the command dice mechanic is so bad it detracts from the decent aspects of the game.
DeleteWell you've certainly played enough CoC to have an informed opinion. I don't think anyone could say you haven't given it a fair crack. At least the games looks great!
ReplyDeleteI can put on a decent table which helps I think, thanks. I just come away with an overall sense of frustration rather than of enjoyment.
DeleteI see increasing frustration with CoC with each of your passing games. Is there a solution? Nice looking Sherman! There! Way to end on a positive note.
ReplyDeleteI think there may be a solution Jon but the test will have to wait.
DeleteHaving followed your experiences with CoC I am not too surprised with your feelings George. I played a few games many years ago - too long to remember if I enjoyed them or not. "Friction" is all very well, but if a system seems designed to limit what the players can do, the fun element would seem to be missing.
ReplyDeleteIt’s a strange one Keith as I played some really good campaigns at first but these recent ones have been no fun and so frustrating. I have some changes I would like to make which will have dyed in the wool Lardy’s spinning.
DeleteWe're trying out Bolt Action first, sounds like its the better choice. Fellow Reject Dan uses Rapid Fire, which always seem to give a good game?
ReplyDeleteBA comes in for a lot of stick but you generally don’t come away with a frustration headache. Yes there are things which grate but against a decent opponent nothing which cannot be sorted.
DeleteHi George. I can see you are quite frustrated with CoC and I do not disagree with all your comments. I do not see a problem with 5CD as 50% of the time you can activate something. The CoC pips are much more valuable now. And speeding up the wait for Turn 2 can be done by staying off the table until you get 6 CoC pips and end the turn. But it is frustrating! I do agree about the scenarios in the 1940 Handbook, aside from Going with a Bang, I have little interest in playing them.
ReplyDeleteBut I have had a lot of great games and v2 was a significant improvement especially in the scenario design. I have been playing for 13 years now and had a lot of games.
CoC is just not for some people as I can see from the previous comments. I have never played BA so I just cannot compare it to CoC.
Good luck with your planned changes.
You can activate something every turn but some combinations leave you unable to properly command your troops, 24446, 11556, 35566, the chance of getting 3 dice with which to mount a defense or attack is around 15%. I don’t say 4 or 5 are useless but lots of them are not perfect for getting the best from the game. BA is just so different from CoC they cannot really be compared. Thanks for commenting John.
DeleteNot my cup of tea either, I find that Iron Cross (No Easy Ground), Bolt action, gives much better games. I just find CoC tedious. Although it seems to have a large following!
ReplyDeleteTedious is a good description for many of my games.
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DeleteHi George. As old fashioned as it sounds, I get much better small scale battles from the Crisco Kids older ruleset, Troops, Weapons, and Tactics.
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with old rules, I have played Johnny Reb for over 30 years and WAC for 12.
DeleteI sympathise with your frustrations, I don't know why but CoC games seem more prone to frustrating dice runs than other games. Interestingly my worst experiences were also in 1940's games - in one I couldn't get a single unit of my platoon through the barrage and onto the table before being overrun, the lone support unit that managed to turn up was swamped. OTOH I still enjoy CoC but think the additional uses for CoC points has been overdone.
ReplyDeleteI must try Rapid Fire at some point, I've heard so much but every time I look at the rule book I am not enthused, but then I often find playing is the only way to judge.
I have a couple of ideas to try out even though there seems to be a ‘’tweak at your peril’ vibe. I have had several games which simply did not get off the ground for one side and were no fun at all. They seemed like WWII for grown ups but they are not.
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