Chain of Command 2

I got in a couple of Chain of Command 2 games in July. The first was a 2 on 2 battle of Canadians vs Germans in 15mm. I was doing well on my flank but progress was slow because of all of the open ground I would happen to cross. But my team mate on my right completely collapsed and that ended the game. He had not been in the greatest of positions but a run of 4 straight phases against him sealed the deal.

My position on the left getting ready to attack to the left.

Frank on the right just before the collapse occurred.

The second game was a 3 on 2 battle with the Germans holding two objectives. I took a tank platoon for something different. We were slow getting going so action was just heating when we had to call it. I could not make the second half so I do not know how it went.

Position at the end of the session. The Firefly had just done a reaction shot to the Pz IV that rolled into the woods at the very top of the screen. The Firefly missed. It is now our turn but the Germans have a COC die that they were going to use on our turn. It is likely that they will use it on my rapidly charging Sherman near the top of the screen.

Russian cottage from 4Ground

Having posted about the relative flatness of the Ukrainian house roof compared to the glorious furriness of the Russian cottage, I realized that I did not post any pictures of it. Here it is in all of its hairy glory:

And here's a pic of the inside.

I do have a couple things to note:

Pro tip #1: Don't just glue the chimney onto the fur and hope it stays in place. Actually make a hole in the fur to glue it solidly onto the MDF. Mine isn't going anywhere but it's not as flat as I would like. I'm not sure but I think the instructions called for cutting a hole and I ignored them. Sigh.

Pro tip #2: While it is nice to break up the flatness of MDF, glue the shutters back against the wall instead of having them stick out at a jaunty angle. They will be much more durable that way.

Ukrainian house from 4Ground

I assembled this house a while back but haven't gotten around to posting about it until now. As with other 4Ground kits, it assembles nicely as long as you dry fit everything first and you follow the instructions.

These kits come with nice details inside and out. The shutters and the cracked plaster on the outside are a nice touch to add a bit of dimension.

But after the lushness of the fur thatch on the Russian house that I have, the absolute flatness of the roof is a bit disappointing. I guess I could add some really thin card over some of the scored planks and add some paint, but that's pretty far down the priority list. It still looks very good on the table.

Support Options for the Germans (Part 3)

The Germans get some long range AT support:

These figures are actually Warlord 75mm gun and crew.

I find the Warlord and BTD figures to blend rather nicely. The BTD figures have more raised detail and slightly better sculpting (IMHO) that make them easier to paint but when painted, it is hard to tell them apart. I think the figure in the background with binoculars is BTD but I'm not sure.

Here's the front view:

Support Options for the Germans (Part 2)

Here's some additional support options. I have two Panzershrek teams (previously photo'd but this picture is much better.

Here's three pictures of the sniper figure:

Support Options for the Germans (Part 1)

Yesterday, I posted the main platoon but that is only half of the figures that I have painted. Here are some of the support options that I have done.

First up, some engineers with some engineery equipment.

The backside show off their labels

 Next, a couple of LMG teams that I can use to convert from regular infantry to panzergrenadiers

Down range shot

 Lastly, an MMG, a mortar, and a flamethrower. I'll use some spare figures to flesh them out into full teams

From the reverse

Germans from BTD

They are finally ready (minus the Dullcote that I want to put on when the weather is a bit more hospitable because it doesn't dry very well at -8 C) for Hot Lead.

I bought these from Stephen after he picked them up from a Black Tree Design sale. They are easy to clean with very little flash. I had only one figure who was slightly mis-molded but other than a slightly off face, you would not know. I really appreciate the detail that the sculptor included because it made the figures easy to paint. I'd easily recommend BTD.

Anyway, on to the figures:




I've marked the leaders and given the platoons a coloured dot to make separating them easier for Hot Lead.



Let's get a bit closer




Everyone's favourite German LMG pose

From the back







































And the whole company (minus the Lt)




One last shot

German Platoon for Chain of Command

I finished the two boxes of Warlord Germans, which is enough to give me 5 sections. Though one box was actually Panzergrenadiers, I did them as regular infantry instead. (A comment on the photos; the actual color of the mat and figures is more green in real life)



The Warlord figures paint up OK but they are a lot of work as the detail is not as raised as on their plastic Russians or on their metal figures. For some of the MG figures, I substituted a thin copper painted piece of plastic instead the ammo box.

Here are the front of some of the figures:


And here is the back:


Now that I have painted them, there are a couple of details that annoyed me. First is the epaulets are under the webbing instead of under. Not only is that wrong historically, it is tougher to paint. The second annoyance is the Sam Browne style strap they added in addition to the Y straps. I'm not sure why the gave both types of strap because hat that is supposed to be doing but it is something you don't often see in pictures of German soldiers. Unfortunately, it's molded in so I was left with the choice of either painting it or scraping it off. Painting seemed like less work.

I have 60 or so Germans from Black Tree Designs and I suspect that they will see far more table time than the Warlord plastics. They are just better looking and far more durable. I've already had to fix more German plastic weapons than I have Russians and the Russians have seen twice as much action.

In summary, while the Warlord plastic Russians are excellent, the plastic Germans are not all that good. I understand that Warlord have redone their panzer grenadiers and they are better. If so, make sure you are buying the new ones and not the old ones.

A Horde of Russians

Having basically completed all of my 28mm Russians, I thought I would take a picture of them. I basically have a full rifle company according to the 1944 TO&E (of course there's lots of disagreement on what that actually looks like).

I also have a scout section and a tank rider section. I could easily make a full platoon by moving figures around. The observer doesn't actually do anything in Chain of Command but I have the figure so I put him in anyway. The observer and radio men were for communicating with the division, not for artillery (or they used flags if the radio wasn't there or working)

The tank hunters can use a molotov cocktail, panzerfaust, or AT grenade. I just remove whichever AT weapons they are not using.

The mortar is actually an 81mm but I'm going to use it to represent the 50mm mortar that was with Russian companies earlier in the war. I have another one that I haven't finished and a 120mm mortar that I will use to represent a pre-game barrage.

Not pictured are my two T34/85s. One is finished and the other is partially finished.

Oh, and there's also one rifleman who got placed into the wrong box.

Big Chain of Command: Russians vs Germans

This is David's report of the game:

Last Friday we had 5 people (Ian, Stephen,John,Ray and myself) chewing up the tundra in Mother Russia using Chain of Command. 

Stephen, Ian and I were trying to end the evil machinations of the Nazis but with mixed success.  We were the attackers and had 6 squads of inf, 1 T34 tank, 1 team of anti-tank inf, 1 sniper while they had 3 squads of inf, a Herzer tank, an anti-tank rifle team, a minefield and a stretch of barbed wire.

It started well with a Russian arty barrage having an impact on the arrival of die Krauten although they did get more people on table faster than the  Germans did the last time we played this. Stephen's right flank inf platoon moved ahead as did my left flank platoon while Ian had the tank, sniper and anti-tank team.  My leftmost squad had terrible movement rolls leaving them in the open for Nazi fire to hit.  My other two teams got to a hill where they could shoot down at  the Germans.  

Stephen moved a squad into a field and eventually used a CoC die to relocate a jump-off point to beyond the barbwire.  He then brought on a squad which inflicted casualties on the Nazis over there but they stabilized the situation with their tank. My rightmost squad inflicted damage before they took a pummeling from the Bosch and had to pull back into the woods and down a slope.  My left somehow held on under the withering fire of 2 squads (one in a building) for most of the night before they had to retire during the last phase.  

Our tank rolled along in a big circle on the right and back towards the centre where it poured HE into a machine gun nest in the building until an anti-tank rifle team appeared beside the house and scored a lucky hit on it.  Tank gone!  Stephen's forces in the field inflicted damage on the Krauts and my centre team dealt out some hurt to a machine gun and others.  

All the while, morale was dropping and the Germans were getting so close to getting to roll only 4 dice per phase.  12:30 came so we packed it in but it could have gone either way.  It would be the Russian turn if we continued and we just needed a couple of kills on one almost gone German team and on the anti-tank gunner and that probably would have been it (thanks for a number of German leader casualties).  However, the Stephen's morale status was almost as bad and mine was a bit better so it could have gone either way.  Thanks to Ian for running this.

Operation Brushstroke

Mission:

To complete enough 28mm troops and support units to run a game of Big Chain of Command at Hold the Line on June 20th.

Assets: 

I have an number of friends who have some German troops that I can use if I don't get mine done. I also have a semi-dedicated painting space. I also have a good uniform reference book.

Description:

As listed on my inventory page, I have the following things to paint:

• 95 or so Russian figures to add to my existing 46
• 1 45mm AT gun
• 58 German figures
• 1 T34/85
• 1 Hetzer
• 1 Sdkfz 222 armoured car
• 3 Sdkfz 251 halftracks

I have about 6 weeks to complete them.

Plan:

1. Assemble all the figures and vehicles, scrape flash, and clean joins. Status: 55 Russians done. Target: May 4th.
2. Prime everything. Target: May 8th.
3. Paint the Russians. Target: May 25th. 
4. Paint the vehicles and other supports (except for the halftracks) Target: June 1st.
5. Paint the German figures. Target: June 15th.
6. Paint the halftracks. Target: June 16th.
7. Dulcote everything. Target June 18th.

Other items:

• Scenario design
• Scenario briefing
• CoC reference sheets
• More JOP markers
• Moar terrain!

Chain of Command: Debut for my Russians

A couple of weeks ago, David hosted myself and Richard. I brought my Russians and David used his Germans.

For support, Richard and I chose a T34-76, a preliminary bombardment, and a sniper. David, with the Germans elected for an Adjutant, a minefield, and two wires.

The game started off with Richard aggressively sending an entire section moving quickly towards the the enemy JOP on the left. I chose a more conservative route by sending a two man scout team on a circuitous route on the right. My objective for the scouts was to threaten the JOP on the right and force the Germans to deploy a section there to defend the JOP.

It took a couple of phases before David could deploy anything. That Russian bombardment is nasty.
By the time he did, the Russians had overrun the leftmost JOP. This started a firefight in the wheat field.

Because the Germans outgun the Russians, Richard upped the ante and brought on the T34 (disguised as a T34/85) and a sniper to add support to the Russian section. I probably should have brought on my section too but there never seems to be enough 3s.

Eventually, the superior firepower for the Germans routed the Russian section. At this point, David realized he had not put his minefield and wire down, so we put them in place.

To replace the routed section, I brought a section on top of the hill. David ran his damaged section to safety behind the hill. He also managed to deploy another section. He put my section under cover fire while he moved the rest of his section up behind the shelter of the fence.

With its initial target vanished behind a hill, the T34 turned its attention to the new target. This time the Russian shooting was much better and the German casualties began to pile up.

In the climax of the game, David deployed a panzershrek team. Needing only 6 or better on 2D6, he rolls a 5, which caused the tank crew to duck, but nothing else. In retaliation, I deployed my last section to wipe out the panzershrek team. On my far right, the scout team was finally ready to go for the German JOP. But David deployed his final section and wiped out the scout team. However, this left the weakening center section in trouble and David decided to pull back and concede the table.

In hindsight, the Russians should be very aggressive when they have a bombardment happening. If I had coordinated my scouts with Richard's section, we might have overrun two jump off points and really put David in a bind.

Finally, our best wishes go out to Derek's father and we hope that he recovers nicely.

Bonus:
Here's David's account of the affair:

Well, last Friday saw the Germans being attacked by the Ruskies.  While the Reds raced across the table to capture a jumping-off point their artillery barrage kept the Germans off the table for quite a while.  Finally the Germans scored a 5 or 6 and one squad appeared and laid into the Ruskie squad that was in the process of capturing the jump-off point.  Unfortunately they only killed 3 and it turned into a slogging match with a Red tank appearing to take part in it as well.

On the German left flank a Red scouting team stole through the woods to get close to another jump-off point while a second German squad finally arrived in the centre and came under sniper fire then a squad appeared on the hill to fire down on them.  After much shooting the German right flank squad finally broke the Red advanced squad and their 2 survivors ran for the table edge.  The German squad then recaptured the jump-off point and hid behind the hill crest.  They lost only 3 men and are now known as The Immortals.

The centre squad though was hit by the sniper, 2 Red squads and the tank.  The vacated the centre position for safety and ended up with 2 survivors as well but they did not rout.  A German panzershreck team  popped up and suffered from the bad dice luck that plagued the Germans all night.  Needing a roll of 6 on 2 dice to hit the tank they rolled 5 and on the next phase were wiped out.

Meanwhile on the left flank the third German squad finally appeared  and immediately fired  at the scout team.  Again, the hapless Germans' luck was bad and they were able to kill only 1 of the 2 scouts.  The next phase they managed to kill the last 1.  At this point the German commander decided that with 2 full strength squads and a tank closing in the Germans should retire.  The Germans lost about 1/3 their forces and so did the Russians but that tank was getting close.  Good job by Ian and Richard who were the commies.  We were down to 3 players as John and Derek had to cancel at the last moment.

Minefield marker

In Chain of Command, you can buy 6" square minefields. Fortunately, the tongue depressors I bought are 6" long. So I printed out a sign using my DYMO label maker (it even has the skull and crossbones symbol), pasted it on a small piece of plasticard, and put the sign on a post.

The post and the rest of the tongue depressor are just variations on my fences.

How to fence

Here's my basic steps for creating fences for 28mm figures:

Materials:

• 6" large tongue depressors
• Matchsticks
• White glue
• 30 gauge florist's wire or similar. The florist's wire is thin and flexible enough to bend easily but it's quite sturdy
• Brown craft paint and mid-grey paint
• Turf mix (mine started out as 2 parts fine to 1 part course but I think there's far more fine now)
• Optional: scalpel or chisel-blade for an exacto knife

Steps:

1. Start by drilling 3 holes into the tongue depressors. The holes should be slightly smaller than the matchstick.
   
2. Dab a bit of glue on one end of the matchstick and stick it into the hole. If the hole is slightly smaller, you might have to rotate the matchstick a bit to knock the corners off to get it into the hole. The tighter the fit, the better. Repeat for the other two holes.
3. When the glue is dry, use the scalpel or chisel blade to flatten the bottom if the matchstick pokes through a bit.
4. Slap the brown paint over the entire construction.
5. Take about an 8" length of wire and curl a little hook into it. Put that on one of the end posts and then wrap the wire so that you have complete loop.
6. Keeping some tension on the wire, loop around the middle post and then loop around the other end post. Snip off the excess. Dab a little white glue on the loops to keep things in place. If you have bit sticking out from the snip, encase it with white glue.
7. Add a second wire to the fence repeating steps 5 and 6.
8. Cut the posts just above the upper wire. Paint the ends brown
9. Take some grey paint and dry brush the grey on keeping some of the brown exposed in lower areas.
10. Apply white glue to the brown tongue depressor.
11. Apply your turf mix to the glue.
    

Fencing

Time for some crafts. I've started to create some fences for my 28mm figures. Here is the first couple, which are simple "Do not trespass" style wire fences. In Chain of Command, they might prevent "on the double" movement but that is about it.

On the second fence, the post snapped as I pulled the wire tight. So we have a broken fence instead of a fully intact one. Not a problem.

Soviet Platoon for Chain of Command

At Hot Lead, I purchased a box of 28mm Soviet WW2 troops from Warlord along with a MMG and a mortar (technically an 81mm but it will serve as a proxy for a platoon mortar). I finally completed them last weekend.

Here are the troops ready to kill the fascists.

 

These figures paint up nicely. Here is a section:

To give you an idea of how nicely they are sculpted, here's a close up:

Most of the paint is Vallejo. I used Russian Green for the helmet, Reaper tanned skin, Russian Uniform Green, Leather Brown for the belt and cartridge cases, Violet Green (?) for the blanket, and I think Khaki for the straps and puttees. I then gave them a coating of my depleting Devlan Mud was. I then went back and hit the high areas with the original colour to counteract the darkening and colour change done by the wash. I finished them off with a couple of sprays of Dullcote. I've never used it before and it's a little shinier than I thought it would be.

Just in case my troops do not show sufficient bravery and self sacrifice, I've done a Commissar. Unfortunately, the picture does not show the nice blue he has on his cap. Trust me, it's there and nicely painted too.

I have some anti-tank troops as well. Here are the tank hunters. I can have them throw an anti-tank grenade or a molotov cocktail. I've updated the flame in the cocktail after this photo so that it is a bit brighter than what is shown here:

Here is the longer ranged solution:

Here are the metal figures I bought. I prefer the plastics to the more cartoonish metals. Judge for yourself. Here's the mortar team:

And here is the MMG team (at least the ones that came in the blister pack. Obviously, I'll add a couple of rifle men in the game to bring the team up to full strength):

Finally, a sniper team. This is my favourite photo because it captures the animation and detail in these figures best.

I do have a few questions though. I want to get another platoon. I could go for another box of Warlord but I'm wondering about the Wargame Factory Russians. Are the comparable in size and bulk? Would they mix and match well? Do they have a nice mix of weapons and poses? Do they have options that are not available in the Warlord box?