The Second World War, Chain of Command, 28mm

In the Edinburgh club two of its most senior members are collectively known as “The Old Stoners”. They’re a bit like Stadler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show, only more laid back. Anyway, every so often they rave enthusiastically about a new set of rules, proclaiming them the greatest thing since sliced bread. They’ve been gushing over Chain of Command for months, ever since being inveigled into play testing the rules for Too Fat Lardies. So much so, in fact, that I promised them I’d give the rules a go. This is the result. The game was an encounter engagement – as clash between two platoons in Normandy – one British, the other German. One of the key features of Chain of Command (Coc) is the “Patrol Phase”, which establishes the front line without wasting time.It reminds me a little of the pre-game sequence in Koenig Krieg – both are designed to get the troops into contact as quickly as possible. The British entered from the road on the front left in the photo above, while the Germans appeared from the one on the top right. You have four counters, which you move forward 12″ at a time, until they reach 12″ of an enemy counter. Then they become locked down. When all of one side has its markers locked, the phase ends. Three of the four markers are used to site the side’s “Jump Off Points” – the places where the troops can deploy. These are sited 6″ back from the patrol marker, and in cover.This done, we began the game. Over the next few bounds my British deployed in the hedged field complex in the centre of the table, in the trees facing the cornfield, and in the mill near the bridge. The Germans appeared in the farmhouse, in the hedged field beyond it, and in the lane on this side of the farmhouse. This meant that the battle began pretty much right away. The German tripod-mounted MG42 in the cowshed of the farm had a great field of fire, and effectively kept me out of the road leading to the mill, and the cornfield. Strangely enough, its line of fire was only blocked by the small apple orchard in front of it. When Alan, playing the Germans, deployed in the lane to the side of the farm I opened up from the mill and the bridge, while another section’s Bren team fired up the line of the lane, from the corner of the hedged field in the centre of the table. First blood to the British.My Vickers MMG opened up from the woods behind the wheat field, firing at the Germans in the hedged field on the far side of the road. This worked well for a bit, but then the MG42 opened up, and my Vickers team were cut down to one man. Casualties were also mounting among the rifle section who shared the same copse, so I pulled them back behind the cover of the wood.  This rather handed control of that part of the battlefield to the Germans, but without my Vickers team I was on the losing end of the fire fight.Things were going a bit better around the mill. There my section plastered the Germans in the lane, and when Alan reinforced them with his last squad, then they got caught in the crossfire. My Bren team firing up the lane earned its pay that day, as first one German fire team and then the other broke and fled to the rear. At that point I used my Chain of Command dice to end the turn, which meant his broken units were removed from the table.That though, was the British high water mark. That damnable MG42 swivelled round and started peppering my rifle team clustered on the bridge, forcing them to run back to the mill, to get out of the German line of fire. Apart from the Bren team the rest of my central rifle section hadn’t fired a shot, as it was effectively trapped by the German machine gunners. I really wish I’d given myself a mortar – even a 2″ one – but this was a learning game, and we kept it as simple as possible – no mortars, no artillery, no vehicles. Eventually I began moving my section out, getting ready for an assault through the orchard to tackle the machine gun nest. Fortunately for my little figures, we ended the game before they were called upon to launch this suicidal charge!Over on the left my rifle section had worked its way beyond the little wood, and was busy engaging the Germans in the hedged field again, safely out of the line of fire of the MG42. I was actually getting the best of the exchange of fire now, as all of my troops could now concentrate against one German LMG team.  At that point we brought the game to a close. We’d sort of fought each other to a stalemate, and neither of us could easily regain the initiative without risking heavy casualties. The final tally was 7 British killed, and 14 Germans. While my British got the better of the exchange, the Germans had clearly made the most of their deployment, and turned the farmhouse into a fortress.I have to say, I now rather agree with The Stoners. Chain of Command is an innovative rules system, and it works very well. Rather than explain in detail how it functions  you should check out the Youtube videos which do that to perfection – the first of them can be found here. In the past year or so I’ve played Second World War skirmish games using Disposable Heroes, Rules of Engagement and Bolt Action. CoC is much slicker than the first two rules sets, and provides far more depth and less non-historical nonsense than Bolt Action. I’ll try them out again once I’ve re-read them, but I can see myself throwing out my copies of these older rules, and sticking to CoC from now on!

Tags: Chain of Command