War and Conquest Weekend II

Grab a drink and settle down.

 Rob arrived on the Friday night in very good time from Bristol considering it was the beginning of a Bank Holiday weekend, four hours, on Britains crumbling infrastructure that is excellent going. First thing Saturday morning we got set up for the first of hopefully four games, it was a return match between Rob's Spartans and my Seleucids. I am not letting any secrets away here and Rob knows how I feel about Hoplites in War and Conquest, they are far too powerful and easily defeat pikes, the very guys who put them out of business, there I have said it.

Rob took five Hoplite blocks backed up by supporting light and skirmish cavalry and infantry, I took three pike phalanx's and two Hoplite units (of course) with light troops and skirmishers along with some Macedonian cavalry. I had intended to stay on top of the hill but my success against the Spartan flanks got the better of me and I sensed a victory, a big mistake despite having elite pikemen and larger units. Somehow my succesful left flank was held up and my horse archers and Thorakitai failed morale and fled as did one of my Hoplite units, my right also lost it's way and that too crumbled as my useless cavalry ran. As this was happening the rest of my army were pounded into the ground getting absolutely nowhere damaging the enemy foot, despite oodles of dice being thrown I simply could not match the Hoplites saving rolls.

Seleucids on the left, Spartans on the right.

 

The hill.

 

I come off the hill, big mistake.

Here they come.

  

The crises.

Useless cavalry.

I had had one victory in close combat and these troops were the only ones left on the table. I should have stayed on the hill although I am not convinced it would have helped in the end. I had hardly won one initiative roll and this was to haunt me over the whole weekend. Rob was flushed with victory.

Round Two was Thrax's boys against Rob's Western Patrician Roman army, which contained only enough Romans to keep the name, the rest being German warbands and cavalry. I had seen this army once on a gaming weekend and was so impressed I built my own, more of that later. I had brought to the field four Legionary vexilations, Lanciarii and an Auxiliary cohort along with some cavalry and skirmishers.

Romans on the right, and Patricians on the left.

 

The Foederati advance.

Germans run.

 

Desperate fighting along the line.

Robs cavalry ride down their enemy.

Once again I probed the flanks while stretching out my heavy infantry to await the assaults from the Germans, on the left I did well apart from my cavalry once again not trying very hard, but they lasted long enough for me to clear the enemy infantry. In the centre both sides clashed, my boys held and then routed most of the warbands in hand to hand combat, I did lose one unit which was rode down by the enemy general and his bodyguard, but it was too little too late, The score was now even.

We had enough time to set up Game Three and then make a few moves, we retired around 2200 hrs having started about 9am, with breaks for lunch and dinner. This  time I used my Patricians against Rob's lovely Masai army (these he uses like a Celtic army). I had four Legions, two Auxilia Palatina (Guards) along with two large German Foederati warbands, supported by the Legates bodyguard cavalry, two units of Alan horse archers and some skirmishers. Rob had seven warbands of various sizes from small to huge.

 I decided to be aggressive on my right with the Palatina and slowly advance the rest while holding back my left, although I would throw my horse archers forward to annoy the enemy right. Things went very well and I killed off most of the tsunami of enemy skirmishers and got my right flank into a nice position. My Alans and the generals Steppe Nobles shot up two of the warbands on my left and left large gaps in the enemy units, I was feeling very chuffed with myself and my boys, then.......... 

Patricians ready.

 

The Masai muster.

Things looking good for me.

 

Then, two Legions run away, aaagh!

Lovely fanatic maidens.

The big chief.

I lost one of the German warbands and although the other smashed their opponents, twice, they managed both times to rally and still pose a threat while the victorious unit came back to sandwich the remaining Germans. I put the enemy right to flight and began to turn into the centre, the enemy Chieftan charged down into two waiting Legions, my boys held, but only just, in the next turn both of them fled having suffered nothing more than a couple of headaches. My centre had disappeared and I thought of reaching for the white flag, but my left was still in action and the horse archers were handing out devastating casualties, so much that Rob pulled back a unit from his centre and began to send it to the right. This meant I could now match him on my right with the two Palatina legions still in fighting trim. The crises now came as the Chieftan charged in with his large bodyguard against my foward legion, my boys held and put them to the sword, only one unit now remained facing my infantry while those on the my left were being whittled away by the horse archers and left open to a charge from my leaders bodyguard. Rob handed over his sword, a real nailbiter, I had gone from winning to losing and back to winning, albeit narrowly. I was two up.

The final game was with Rob's pet project The Trojan War, he brought two armies, Trojan and Egyptian, I of course immediately went for the Trojans, as Rob got both forces together I am sure his inner Hustler came out. I looked across the table and saw that I seemed to be outnumbered and had far less bowmen, Rob assured me this was not the case and the points values were the same, I am sure they were but from where I was sitting knowing absolutely nothing about both armies and the use of chariots I felt more than unsure of my skills, Rob offered and I changed sides, leaving my beloved Trojans behind.

I put chariots on both flanks along with some light troops and put the rest of my infantry in the centre with two large bow armed blocks on a hill. The Trojans put their heavy infantry on the left and extended the line to the right, chariots and light troops were again on the flanks. I decided to push the flanks while holding back the infantry. Rob also pushed his flanks but advanced his spearmen against my right and centre. After a decent fight I lost my left flank, it looked like the same was going to happen on the right as I now realised that my Egyptian chariots had one strike to the Trojan's two, in desperation I threw in a small unit of chariot outrunners these brave lads turned the tide and Hector's carts were routed and pursued, a surprise to both myself and Rob.

The Egyptians.

The Trojans.

The tide is turned.

Forward men, Trojan flank collapses.

Trojan centre collapses.

Meanwhile in the centre my bowmen unleashed hell on the advancing Trojan spearmen, the sky turned dark with arrows and one after another the spearmen units fled due to mounting casualties and bad morale throws. With the core of his army gone Rob called it a day, a very surprising win for me and a very different game to what I am used to.

What about the actual gaming, over four games I had won the initiative on maybe a handfull of turns, in a couple of instances gaining it could have been decisive, but it was not to be. Another thing which was a shame was that that time and again when routing the enemy my boys could not catch them and they got away, rallied and I had to rinse and repeat, the instance with the German warband really was a disaster. My cavalry in every battle were not up to the mark and usually ended up routing, my Bucellerii twice failed to ride down infantry to their front whom they had routed. My horse archers did very well as did the Chariot runners, the only infantry unit to win laurels was Celtae Seniores in the Patrician game, their routing of the Chieftan's guard turned the tide.

 So there we are, a great weekend of battles, real battles with more than a half dozen guys after some farmers cabbages and half a groat. I am grateful to Rob coming all the way from Bristol and being such a great opponent and guest. I have quite a bit coming up in the next month so I am not sure how much wargaming I will be able to fit in.

1940

 My son turned up today eager to start a campaign, we had settled on Many Rivers to Cross, where the Germans are attacking in 1940 and trying to push the British back while building a bridge to enable their armour to surge into France. I was defending a village with an excellent line of defences, the only problem was that I had to throw dice to deploy, hopefully getting the right scores to cover the whole battlefield. 

Well I didn't and ended up with all my patrol markers on my left flank. At my disposal I had four squads of infantry and some AA machine guns, Stewart had taken a Schutzen platoon from 1st Panzer division and his supports included a Pioneer squad and a Stuka bombardment. In came the Luftwaffe and set two of the buildings on fire causing long streams of smoke to hinder the lines of sight, I forgot all about my AA guns in the excitement. As I started to deploy I fell victim to more Luftwaffe nonsense and my mortar team took five shock on turning up as did one of my infantry squads, I tried to bring a Senior Leader on to save the mortar but was then subject to a Shabby Nazi Trick in the shape of a fifth columnist who nullified my leader.

Luftwaffe causing mayhem.

 

I managed to end the turn and the Luftwaffe flew off, Stewart now began to move troops against my right, leading with the huge Pioneer squad and a Schutzen unit, I managed to shoot up the Pioneers but it took time. My Senior Leader was still in thrall to the fifth columnist and I lost the mortar squad when I ended the turn. Stewart decided to call a halt and withdraw before I started to shoot up his platoon. Round 1 to the British.

Under fire.

The Pioneers and Hans and Heinz.

Bad move.

I now had the opportunity to counter-attack but the disparity in the support points put me off along with the terrain I would be fighting across, so I handed the Initiative back to Stewart. This time I left off the extra squad and took a MMG and a sniper team, Bob and Bert, I rolled really low. The Jerries came prepared this time along with a bucket full of support points, a mortar barrage, flamethrower and Pioneer squad, the Luftwaffe were refuelling and rearming.

Once again I had all my patrol markers on my left and Stewart managed to close me down fairly quickly giving me very little ground on which to deploy, I simply could not stop the Jerries taking the right flank. I cocked up again and brought on MMG far too soon, retaliatory fire killed three of the crew right away despite being in heavy cover. Then all hell broke loose as the mortar barrage hit, right on target, Bob and Bert were taken out and my other squads pinned down for four phases, Stewart used this time to move into the village and waited until the smoke cleared.

Jerry flanking my position.

 

The Pioneers again lead the way.

 

Boom, incoming!

The barrage ends my hopes.

  was done for, I had hoped to injure his core platoon as they advanced but having suffered losses which dropped my morale from nine to four I had to think of the battles ahead, I withdrew having barely scratched the Boche. The baddies now decided to opt for 'Blitzkrieg' so they have to attack the next table with the same men and supports they used for this table, no big deal as they lost no one, but they get one move nearer their goal. 

And yes, once again it is Chain of Command, Matt turned up today and we started a second Abbeville campaign, much different from the first and with different forces, the British from the 51st Highland Division against the German 57th Division. The last one was very difficult for the British to win and the third battle was pointless, we both agreed.

So this time I was again the attacker for the first three games, and for this one I took an extra infantry squad, a mortar and brought back Bob and Bert the sniper team and my ace was a Vickers VIC tankette, which it was doubtful the Germans could knock out but could drive it away. Matt also took an extra squad and his usual foul French collaborator, Louis to snipe away at my boys. The terrain was such that the Boche would be sitting in a large wood while I had to get them out of it.

Near Abbeville, again.

I slowly deployed what I could as my JOP's were quite far back, so it took time to get into a position for my assault, this allowed Matt to get a decent firing line in place, he still had one in reserve and of course Louis turned up. I had to spend time and orders on hunting Louis but I got him fairly quickly, I then had an idea to push the tank up the road and capture the furthest away enemy JOP, but I left it too late and instead put the tank to use supporting my upcoming advance. This came as my men moved into the wood along the roads, I had managed to outnumber the three German squads in front of me and this helped in the prolonged firefight which ensued.

Onwards boys.

Clank, clank.

Looking for the Fifth Column.

It was not all plain sailing however as my tank proved fairly useless at hitting the enemy and several Bren teams and NCO's hit the dirt or were wounded, somehow the teams left behind held up as my morale plunged to six. I was also able to take advantage of a good number of double turns to start to punish the Hun, Matt's morale fell to four and with a couple more Bad Things Happen rolls to make he handed over his sword.

Jerry waiting.

 

Here we come.

 

Closing in.

 At last a game I was more than happy with, I felt I had used my command rolls well and that meant a lot, Matt expected me to be caught entering the wood but he had deployed too far back, if he had been further forward I would have been shot up before reaching the cover, but then again I would have sat in my wood and the nearby house and traded shots across the road. In the next game we are back with a British advance across fairly open ground, deja vu?

There won't be a lot of Chain of Command for the next post and maybe the one after, this Saturday and Sunday will be a War and Conquest marathon with Rob Broom, eight different armies will be in action from the Trojan War up to the Fall of the West. I really am looking forward to this. 

Frustrated Moi!

 Good friend Billy turned up from beyond The Wall for a couple of days of Chain of Command a welcome visit. I found three linked battles we could easily do in the time allotted as a full campaign would be out of the question, it was an attack on a town, the first table the approach, the second the outskirts and the third the town itself. It was originally with Americans as the attackers however I do not have Americans so changed it to somewhere in East Prussia in early 1945 and I took the Soviets, Billy chose Panzergrenadiers for his defenders.

I had to tweak things as V2 of the rules are now out so we went for Probe, Attack and Defend and finally Attack on an Objective, the only other thing we took from the original was that the Soviets had to use six support points on armour. The terrain was fairly open for the first battle so I took support which hopefully would injure the defenders at the opposite end, an infantry gun, a HMG and a Lee tank. The Germans had very little in the way of support and ended up with some entrenchments.

First table, Jerries at the far end.

M3 Lee, a good tank for this.

Fritz waiting.

My top man gets wounded.

So near yet so far.

Billy set up two of his squads on the edge of a wood and I started to deal out casualties, I also set up my LMG squad in a wood and this added to the firepower heading Fritz's way. At an early point we got to the third turn which meant the Final Countdown had started to end the game, I still had nine phases to go to get along the open ground and prayed for a double turn to cross this and exit a unit off the table, I took my time and still pelted the enemy line, eventually they withdrew as the clock ticked down, I now just needed to go forward. However we were on Sudden Death where any double six would end the game. What did I throw after waiting ages for a double six, a double six, the game was Billy's.

How was the game, I was disappointed that I didn't manage to get more results from shooting up two squads, I might have managed to throw my tank and some infantry up long before the end of the game was nigh, but even with his reserve squad holding the wood anyone in the open would have simply been shot up, I really did need that double move to sprint for victory, just not when it happened.

 For the second game I had pretty much the same force, this time I had to capture one of two objectives, again Billy kept his defenders way back almost on his table edge, I pushed my men up the table looking for firing positions. I sent my tank up in support and it found itself ambushed by a panzerschreck team which took me completely by surprise, I almost cried as the tank went up in smoke, but wait, Billy had misunderstood the rules and the ambush could not happen, I did a little dance in my mind while Billy regretted showing his ace in the sleeve. The tank quickly backed off out of range, however in fear of the 'schreck it didn't do a lot more.

Second table, far end the baddies.

Infantry gun.

Once again.

Jerries dug in, again.

I managed to get right up to the defenders, again holding the rear area, and a fierce firefight ensued, it was hampered by the fact my supporting heavy weapons could not get a line of sight on the Jerries or were hiding from a real ambush. I was extremely frustrated at my efforts to break the two squads holding the line, although I slowly reduced them and had stunned or wounded every officer in the area Billy kept holding on while my own casualties mounted. I was reduced to four morale points but still kept plugging away, a decent couple of phases also reduced Billy to four, it was a race to the bottom. I was then reduced to two and Billy still had four or three, whoever got decent Command dice would win. Neither of us could manage it, then I threw two five's, absolutely useless, Billy took the lead with a double turn, that was it, I had to take two morale checks and they took me to zero Force Morale. I looked forlornly at my tank which had at last arrived to turn the tide, too little too late.

Part of my frustration was in throwing double turns or turn ends time after time, this actually reduced me to two or three command dice which were mostly useless to what I needed while giving the Jerries multiple CoC points, I think about one and a half CoC dice at least, maybe two. The endgame became very exciting with both sides hoping for that last throw which would force morale checks which would secure a win, sadly I did not get them.

 The next day we were set up for the Soviet attack on the village, it had been a long day and I did not sleep well and got smart or confused and changed for a SMG platoon thinking they would be more useful at urban fighting, I wanted more infantry but had to use six points on armour, so out again came the M3 Lee to which was added a regular rifle squad. Billy put down a minefield on the main road and again took a panzerschreck, although he tried to confuse me talking about German tanks.

Third table.

Once again he held back and put his defenders in positions well back when they did show up. I rushed forward, trying to get my SMG bonus's and soon had all my squads deployed, it was only then I realised my mistake and that they had a range of 18", and most of my squads were out of range. I used the tank as a jump off point and then retreated it to a position where it could cover some buildings at the end of the village, once again it was ambushed, hit and immobilised, you do not need armour if you have a panzerschreck. At this point I gave up and pulled my troops back from their forward positions in the rubble as they only provided targets for MG 42's. The game was up and I shook my head.

Into the rubble.

Sneaky.

Grenadiers just waiting.

Billy offered another game and he would take the Russians, there was a hint of 'I'll show you how it's done' there, I said he should take rifle squads but he was adament on using the SMG's. The Soviets came on quickly apart from the tank which again was keeping out of the way of an ambush which meant it was basically useless. The game followed the same process as before, I deployed squads well back and shot up the Red infantry without fear of retaliation, although their LMG squad and the rifles tried they were outshot by the grenadiers and forced to pull back. Billy bravely tried to swamp my right flank but I covered this with my last reserve and the effort came to naught, as did a probe on my left. He got close but the short range and the wall of fire the grenadiers could throw out stopped him. I got one game in the pan.

Billy captures a house but is out of range.

Hiding behind the ruins.

 

Time for my grenadiers to let loose.

This one was almost impossible for the Soviets to win with an SMG heavy force and I honestly do not think a rifle armed force would have had much more of a chance. I made a mistake and suffered for it, but it only meant I realised I was on a hiding to nothing quicker.

The games threw up some strange results, as the attacker my Force Morale was usually lower than the defenders. My throwing the double six to ensure my defeat in game one made us both laugh. The insane amounts of double and treble turns I got in game two got me nowhere and merely built up Billy's CoC points. I took a pre-game barrage in game three and my first or second roll ended the turn and made it pointless. I have not mentioned the Soviet sniper team of Svetlana and Anastasia, who turned out to be hopeless, both for me and when Billy changed sides, no Hero of the Soviet Union or Red Star for those two, back to the kitchen.

I don't care what many CoC players say about the realism of the game versus certain others and how realistic tactics win the day. Yes there are many mechanics in the game which you can use to make the pendulum swing your way and some you ignore to your peril. But in the end it all comes down to the five Chain of Command dice, if you don't get a good spread you are doomed until the next phase, for example if you have only one Senior Leader and get four 4's, three are useless. So, like every other wargame is luck still a part of it, yes and no, the challenge is to get the best out of the roll you get but, there is always a but, some times you are just stuck. I have played a couple of games with the use of the 'Red' dice which allows you to throw six dice and although there are restrictions the game flows much better. A ramble but I now have combat fatigue.

So, a visit from an old wargaming opponent who wanted to have a dram with me and some games, despite my wailing and gnashing of teeth at thowing buckets-o-dice and seemingly getting nowhere, a great couple of days, and very much appreciated.