Chain of Command Daft Me

 I was going to skip Club night this week but got an invite from Stuart to play Chain of Command and as I am a bit fixated on the new version, I can't lose all the time, I popped along. Stuart wanted to use his newly recruited Volksgrenadiers and the back story was these guys had been instructors at an infantry school in the last days of the war as the British closed in but were determined to go down fighting.

My support roll was dreadful but I figured the Jerries would not have enough for a tank so took an infantry heavy force with a couple of PIAT's just in case, it was also good to command my British for a change. I was the attacker so wanted to make an effort rather than simply build up a firing line, fire and movement does it boys. I set up quite quickly with the idea of hitting the enemy right flank and then moving on the crossroads which were the objective, Stuart countered with his LMG squad and a MMG and squad on my right, he also put a section in a hedgeline opposite my advance, tardy though it was.

Enemy with an inventive Jump Off Point.

MMG dug in, smoke incoming!

NCO takes a hit.

British MMG.

I dropped smoke to protect my right and it worked a treat although I still had to withdraw one squad further back into a wood for protection while I rallied them. I drove off the section on my left and started to move forward only to find some old men and teenagers of the Volksturm to my front, a speed bump at best I thought. No, I had a squad almost wiped out and an NCO bit the dust, my morale fell to 6 from 10 in the blink of an eye. We had now run out of time, this always happens with CoC at the club but I wanted to play and simply learn more. Although my morale was lower than the Jerries I did manage to strike back at the Volksturm and once they were out of the way the road to the Crossroads would be clear so we agreed that the British were ahead. Of course we all know you cannot count on anything in a wargame but it did not look good for the Jerries, we would have needed another hour or so to conclude things.

Next up was the start of the "Many Rivers to Cross" campaign with Matt from the club, the Germans are attacking and pushing for bridges to get their armour into the French rear and on the way to Dunkirk, so the German infantry have to gain ground in order for the pioneers to build a bridge to enable the armour to rush forward and take another bridge defended by the enemy before they can blow it up. Matt chose the French so I was the bad guys.

It was important for me to get off to a good start so I decided to throw everything at the first game, I am not allowed any heavy weapons or vehicles until the bridge has been built so I took a couple of 5cm mortars a MMG and a Stuka bombardment along with a Shabby Nazi Trick of a Fifth Columnist. Matt countered with his own MMG, some AA and a small tank, something which I could do nothing about except possibly drive it off with maching gun fire if the crew got wary.

Bombs Away!

Anyway the Luftwaffe turned up and knocked down one house, they had hardly any other effect on the French forces, a poor showing for Goring's boys. Anyway I forged forward as I had to clear the centre section of the French deployment area and get some men off the table edge, the latter was not a problem but the former turned into a nightmare. My spy Jean Claude managed to interrupt the deployment of one of the French Senior Leaders but it really didn't help, Matt managed to get his MMG into the rubble of the destroyed building and a further section into a small orchard, these two units caused me all sorts of grief trying to get rid of them. I tried outflanking with one section only to have the enemy rifle grenadiers cause them to retreat before getting wiped out or into a decent firing position.

The little tank.

Forward guys.

Careful.

More Jerries.

I did at last manage to break the troops in the orchard and almost, almost get the MMG to run but Matt recovered and put more troops in the orchard and saved the MMG for a couple of more phases. I had an opportunity to shoot down a French leader as he sprinted to save the MMG but failed. I now went forward to hopefully overpower the enemy but my squads had now all taken casualties and frankly were not up to the task, not without me losing more men and casualties had been heavy. My morale had also fallen drastically having rolled dismally while Matt managed a couple of times to get 'nil points'.

Refugees, what no boats?

The bloody orchard.

My only 'heavy' weapons.

I did wonder if I should push things along but the French still had a tank so discretion being the better part of valour I withdrew, I will probably regret this. As the dust settled I had taken heavy casualties and lost 10 men, Matt lost 6, I have two more platoons while the French have one, but I do need those heavy weapons and tanks, the Luftwaffe is rearming. Matt has decided to hold the village and not attempt to interrupt my bridge building so my Second platoon are being made ready determined to do better than First.

I don't care what the fan boys say it is extremely difficult to attack a position in Chain of Command, I thought I was smart and used fire and movement, suppressing fire, smoke grenades and HE but once you step out into the open you are dead meat. 

I am changing sides next week and will be the French against Matt Crump as we fight for the Gembloux Gap. I should be at the club as well, possibly Italian Wars, we will see. 

Oh, I finished the last 'official' unit of the army of Maximinus Thrax, some skirmishers, two more extras are in the wings but I might move on the Fallschirmjager gift, still undecided.

I bought a new book, I am loathe to buy anything written by a woman, mainly fiction I must admit, sorry but there it is, I have got a new book on the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain by Victoria Taylor, I watched her talking about the subject on WW2TV and was impressed, so a giant leap forward for me although I found Barbara Tuchman a great historian.

How to lose an Empire in an Afternoon.

Back in 2022 Ed beat my Patricians using my Romano-British, after that battle I pretended that he was a British usurper to the Imperial Purple named Edicus "Proceritas" (the tall) who had invaded Gaul, the local forces not being up to the task of stopping him. Meanwhile the Magister Militum of the West, Aetius, had gathered his field army and marched to confront the upstart. The German tribes (Rob Broom) across the Rhine had taken advantage of the confusion in the Roman ranks to invade the Empire, seeking glory and booty. They were met by Aetius, defeated and sent packing, we played this as a remote game on Zoom. Bouyed by his success Aetius continued into Gaul and today, after a long break, met the army of the usurper on the field of battle.

I took five Legions supported by cavalry, skirmishers and German Foederati, Ed had four units of Milites of varying experience along with cavalry, skirmishers and allies in the shape of Saxon and Welsh warbands. Ed deployed most of his missile troops backed up by cavalry on his right while the infantry lined the centre and left, I was set up in the same way with my cavalry and some missiles facing his and my infanty opposite his foot. I was a bit unsure about the amount of firepower he had mustered and hoped to at least drive away his skirmishers and weaken his cavalry before I attacked. The infantry I would hold back until I successfully smashed the enemy flank.

Romano-British line.

Both sides.

Romans deployed.

British cavalry.

Now what?

 

Things started out fairly well although I forgot my Bucellarii had bows as they were Huns, and lost an opportunity to shoot in the first phase. I sent some slingers fleeing for the rear and moved the Germans through a wood to engage the massed bowmen behind it. Ed countered by charging my skirmishing Alans, I won the combat and his mounted Milites broke and fled, I was feeling confident. The Germans now went after the bowmen and scattered them but couldn't catch them, they in turn were hit by the Saxon warband, I had a lot riding on the Germans as they had armour and the Saxons did not, my hopes were misplaced.

The lines advance.

Slowly lads, slowly.

It all looked so good.

Things begin to get out of hand.

Who let the old guy in?

Ed's Saxons hit the Germans and sent them running, he also charged my victorious Alans with his mounted Comitatus and the nomads promptly fled and left the table, they would be back but not for a couple of turns. I needed the initiative in the next phase but did not get it, disaster loomed. The Foederati were swept from the battlefield, his Comitatus retired out of charge reach of my Bucellerii and worst of all the Welsh swept down from their hill and cut down Quinta Macedonica and their officer in short order, this rout also sent the Regii Legion running. To their right the Anglevari had held but the Gallicani Honoriani had lost their combat and also ran, I had lost a third of my forces, I was shocked to say the least.

Going pear shaped.

The Celtae falter.

I managed to rally the Regii and threw them against the approaching Welsh, I had no great hopes they would beat them, the Gallicani had also rallied, could I hold on. Ed now threw his leader and his bodyguard into my elite Palatini the Celtae Seniores, these lads braced themselves in shield wall but it was no good, they held out for a time but eventually ran like everyone else, the Gallicani were now the only infantry left standing against a surge of the enemy. Over on my left the Bucellerii and Aetius were in combat with the Romano-British Comitataus cavalry and slowly pushing them back, but this was the only bright spot in the darkness. Before the Celtae had broken they had managed to kill Edicus, Aetius himself had taken a wound but was still active with his bodyguard. The forces of the usurper had won the day but the man himself lay dead amongst the Romans his men had slaughtered.

All that remains of my infantry.

Aetius' less than grand bodyguard.

 

During the night the leaders of the victorious army clashed with many wanting to return to Britain with as much booty as they could carry and others wanting to claim Gaul for themselves, Katharina the widow of Edicus, a forceful woman backed up by commanders loyal to her dead husband argued for a march on Rome, why take Gaul when the West lay at their feet? On the other hand the loss of the battle for Aetius proved to be fatal as men from the army, riled up by disgruntled legionaries, murdered the general later that night as his bodyguard stood by. Can anyone save Rome?

That was a severe defeat, my army simply fled or gave up at every opportunity, it started with the Germans and then not being able to grasp the initiative at a moment of crises sealed my doom. Bad luck played its part, for instance I put officers with the Legions from the frontier to bolster their morale and they both went down at the most inopportune moments, but I also think I made some bad decisions in the middle which might have spared me some grief. Ed played well nevertheless and simply marched across the table sweeping everything in his path. Despite the beating I enjoy these rules and the little story I have built up has been a blast. Come and try your luck while I am on the ropes :).

(I used different names on Facebook as I had forgotten what I used before) 

A Nip in the air

Something different at the club this week, well the same but with a twist, Chain of Command Far East, Malaya 1942 to be precise. Now I am not a fan of WWII Japanese and would never play them but I was offered the chance to play against them this week so my 1944 British pretended they had left their shorts at home and plunged into the Malayan jungle.

Guessing the Japs would be infantry heavy I also took plenty of infantry and my only nod to armour was a Universal carrier carrying a Bren team, I was defending with a Japanese roadblock to my rear preventing me from leaving the table which of course was my objective, they were also inches from my Line of Communication marker which if they captured would make it twice as difficult for me to retreat.

Somewhere in Malaya.

 

Japanese roadblock.

I managed to quickly swamp the Japs at the roadblock and prevent them from moving on the LOC marker, I also managed to set up a line of defenders ready to block the main enemy effort which would be coming down the road. Things looked very good from my perspective albeit it was taking time to move through the damn jungle around the roadblock and actually reduce the enemy squad there. The little carrier also turned up in the rear of the Japs and although they shot at it with an anti-tank rifle the little 'tank' remained unscathed and a pain in the Imperial rear.

Looking good.

 

No, disaster, run away.

I was so engrossed in the game I forgot I had an MMG waiting to come on, this was a big mistake on my part. As time counted down Paul threw a wild charge into half a squad holding my right, this should have been a walk over for the enemy but my boys actually held and beat them, Banzai that mate. Sadly the Japanese at this point were aggressive, so they did not fall back but continued fighting, this sealed my doom, I quickly lost a squad, a leader and a Jump Off Point which caused my morale to plummet. On the other side of the table I sent two squads into a nearby Jap section, I lost and was pushed back, this meant another JOP was left undefended, I gave up. In short time I had gone from winning comfortably to losing desperately.

This is a lot different from fighting in Europe with CoC, the jungle terrain which comes in all shapes and sizes is a real struggle to move through and has all sorts of nasty effects, I found it very frustrating and it took a long time to get anywhere, where my objective was turned out to be really, really deep jungle. There are a lot of characteristics to get your head around in order to give an historical feel to the forces, the Japanese at first seem to have the upper hand but I believe the shine is taken off this as the war progresses. It was an interesting game.

My second run out of CoC was back in France, 1940 with Matt Crump taking the French and me attacking as the Germans. I had an infantry force with a StuG III for support. my objectives were in a village at the opposite end of the table. I didn't get far in the Patrol Phase and managed to set up a measly 12" from my table edge. I would have a long way to go to win the day. I set off determined to make some kind of effort at attacking and not simply setting up a fire base and wait until the French died in droves. Someone should have told my StuG crew we were here to win, I was relying on them to weaken the defenders but that did not happen and their efforts left a lot to be desired.

Now boys, now!

French on one objective.

Vorwaerts or whatever.

Matt made a wrong move and sent his rifle grenadiers into a wood outside his defensive cordon and I took the opportunity to attack and wipe them out, but I could not continue into the French troops lining a nearby hedge who were waiting for me. I tried suppressive fire and overwhelming fire on the French left but could not sustain it and had to pull back. Once again time was running out and it was obvious it would take hours for my StuG III to make a dent and by then I probably would have had no infantry left to push forward, also we would have fallen asleep.

French cordon.

That's where we should be Johanne.

I was frustrated at my lack of progress in this game, I also made some mistakes which might have given the StuG more of an opportunity of handing out punishment, but them's the breaks, I won't forget next time. CoC2 again showed that it plays better than 1 although I am more convinced than ever that its strength lines in playing small campaigns and not one off battles. Therefore if things go well I will kick off a couple over the next few months.

Tiger, what's a tiger?

A little tank.

You may know that I gave up with the expensive Winsor and Newton brushes some time ago and began to rely on bundles I picked up from ABC Brushes, I then decided to try Rosemary brushes as they give you a bit of chocolate in the package and they have a good reputation. I also thought I would take the advice of lying them flat to dry therefore stopping the bristles from fraying at the ends. I can now report that is a lot of codswallop, I have around ten of these brushes and yes, the hairs do fray, stood up or lying down, I will though confirm they have excellent points on them, but the down side of that is they do not hold a lot of paint, perfect for small details but not 'splashing it all over'. I have bought ProArte for that side of things, but they do tend to hook at the ends. Now recently I cannot escape something called Temu on Facebook and they/it offers 100 brushes for a quid or less, now even if one brush does a couple of figures that must be a win win?

I am enjoying reading Max Hastings' new book Sword, which is both exciting and sad as it deals with the personal experiences of men during the run up and landings on Sword. One passage caught my eye "McKinnon stood in a Highland bonnet, playing his bagpipes on the bridge of the destroyer Undaunted as craft ploughed past." The first ship I served on in late '69 was the Undaunted, it was a training draft for only a few weeks running out of Portland, she had portholes near the waterline and we slept in hammocks, I remember even then thinking the ship seemed tired. Although only 17 I do remember being allowed cans of 'Yellow Peril', small tins in a yellow tartan of Younger's Tartan Ale. I was glad it was only a few weeks, Tartar was like a cruise ship in comparison.

HMS Undaunted.

 

High Water Mark?

 Time for another clash between the Blue and the Grey, this small part of the Valley has seen three battles between the combatants with each getting larger and larger as troops are drawn in from surrounding areas with both sides desperately trying to get an advantage in numbers. This time as both licked their wounds from the recent combat at Bartlett's Creek the Rebs advanced once again to pressure the Union forces, circumstances had allowed them to steal a march and position a brigade behind the Union position. General McCabe could only pray that General Johnson with the surprise troops would turn up at the appointed time and at the right place.

The battlefield, Union camp on right.

At 0630 the Confederates advanced, holding back their right flank and sending four brigades against the Federal right hoping that this solid wall would sweep away the defenders and then turn on the Union camp and roll up the Yankee left. I was given the task of holding the Reb right with two brigades and acting in a threatening manner to tempt the Federals in front of me to attack, this turned out not to be a problem as a full division was in front of me and seemed happy to take me on.

The Rebs march at dawn.

Union left moves out.

Yankee artilley moved swiftly forward to take my line under fire while cavalry skirmishers moved on my right, more infantry were behind them, I threw in a reckless charge against the skirmishers and ended up losing that regiment as they were overwhelmed by the troops moving up. Things were looking precarious from my viewpoint as I moved men from left to right to build up a firing line. Over on my left the juggernaut had been stalled as one of the leading brigadiers fell from his horse momentarily stunned by a sharpshooter in the woods on the hill, the confusion was brought under control and the whole line moved forward against the thin blue line on the hill. From my perspective it looked like a walk in the park, but Yankee Gary put up a stalwart defence as his men fell around him, despite horrendous losses time after time the Federals stood their ground.

Rebs approach Gary's Hill.

 

Ferocious fighting.

Gary under pressure.

Union pressure my position on the right.

Riders now came from the Union rear areas warning of Confederate troops behind the lines, although they had arrived on time they had appeared behind the Federal left giving Matt time to pull back a full brigade and rush artillery towards the threat, at this point he continued to pressure my men on their hill and it was not looking good. Gary on the Union right was now trying to rush troops to support his crumbling defence on the hill but they found themselves under fire from Rebel guns which took the reserves in the flank time and again. Despite this the Federals carried on but their morale began to break and several regiments fled leaving a large gap between the Union divisions, the men on the hill had had enough and they too fled to the rear.

Rebel surpise attack.

Rebel race for the camp.

The Confederates now turned on the Union camp and headed for Matt's right flank, Matt had now weathered the suprise attack on his rear but with the collapse of Gary's division he had no option but to pull back. I did not have the infantry strength to follow up and prevent the break off although my guns did continue to pound away at the enemy. The battle was over.

 We had been fighting for just over six hours and it proved an excellent game and visually a perfect wargame. My thanks to the guys for taking the time.

 Nothing else to report, I did go to the club last night and played a game, not a wargame simply a bit of fun. My painting has slowed down again for reasons I won't go into for now although I have now taken delivery of the last packs to finish the army.