Friday, November 7, 2014

Chain of Command First Game Patrol

I'm finally making an effort to learn these rules, Too Fat Lardies' Chain of Command.

Also a chance to use my new 2x4 plywood panels to make a 4x4 table upstairs.

Table after patrol phase - jump off points are tiny markers.

Starting forces

First Russian command dice roll

A Russian squad fails to make it to their intended Close Combat opponent. Fortunately, the next phase is their's due to double 6s being rolled on the Command Die.

Force Morale after the next phase's "successful" close combat. Problem is, the Russian side wiped all the Germans but the only one left was a sole LMG crew member. He had like 6-7 shock on, this broke. 

In a couple Phases, the Germans are down to a 2. This happened because the Germans sent the remnents of a team to go capture the Russian jump off point behind the woods. When they were about +8" away from the jump off point, I realized the Russians had yet to deply a squad. So I deploye them more than 6" from the Germans and rolled 17 dice against them...there's one guy left and he's bugging out.

I also realized late in the game that LMGs could attempt to harm tanks, basically set them back, perhaps give some 1 shock, but it would still be something.


First Chain of Command game over. Very enjoyable. Only one turn. 33 phases. Only one Chain of Command Die (total of 10 5's rolled out of all those rolls with 5d6 eAch).


Russian victory in the Patrol scenario. 3 Morale to 0. Germans lost one Jump-Off Point due to losing Morale.


Finally figured out I could shoot my LMGs against the front of the tanks hopefully causing them some shock. Didn't work, but the Pz 35 did get a shot shock hit against the T-40. 


Need to build better teams and support so infantry can take on tanks.


Russians need teams of any kind - their squads are built as squads only. They're not broken into teams like the German squads. Therefore, when I rolled ones, I had to combine them with another number to activate a higher level unit.


Other "Needs"

Markers for various types of tank states - gunner, driver, optics, etc out.

Bigger fields, bigger hills, trees, buildings, roads, rivers - heck - any 15mm terrain.

Work on the support units - I own a few l, just need to build and paint them.

Figure good ways of differentiating leaders and units.

Finish flocking infantry.


Now I want to paint up the Brits I have...and yes, build up a US Armored Infantry Platoon, in honor of the 12th armored Div. But first I want to finish my Early war East Front kit. Need to find some scenarios for this period.


Video

http://youtu.be/N_KRspdqACw

4 comments:

  1. I really enjoy how Chain of Command models a platoon "sending in" it's assets and reacts to events on the table. Some people criticize the game "we only managed to play one turn!" or "the game was over in just one turn!" but they're missing the point that the turn represents a lot of action on the table and the change in the turn is supposed to represent a signifigant lull in the fighting.

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    Replies
    1. Turns are just a construct/term that doesn't mean a whole lot game to game.
      Each phase is a turn.
      If I said there were 31 turns, people would freak out.
      But each phase goes by quickly, so it's not a big deal.

      I liked the flow.

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    2. Since you can become un-pinned until the Turn ends, that's a huge incentive for using Chain of Command dice to end the turn. Which is something we did wrong in our first game.

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    3. Interesting. I forgot that. I didnt want to end the turn because his tank was on a German Jump Off point. However, the Germans were also on a Russian jump off point - depending on the roll of the dice, it could've helped the Germans.

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