Desert Campaign # 5: The Empire Strikes Back & Grand Finale

With the British Empire counterattack today, our Desert Campaign started mid-January concluded with a failed attempt to take the Axis main HQ position. A long game this morning where continuous blows from both sides to the enemy had the battle unresolved almost until the last minute, when one of the British infantry platoons (Polish) moral level fell to zero, leaving the Allied side with no other option but to concede defeat.

The scenario today was the third rung of the campaign which corresponded with the "Attack to an Objective Scenario 6" of the Chain of Command main rules book. In this case the objective was the main HQ of the Axis armies located at the oasis of Wad-de-Fak and the prize was to capture Rommel himself! Alas it was not possible despite a daring and aggressive attack of the Empire troops.

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Desert Campaign Game # 4: Revenge of the Sij

The stunning Axis victory in the third game of the campaign, with the destruction of 2/3rds of the British tank force and the Indian infantry taking significant casualties, made the Axis players to be bolder than anticipated and instead of reinforcing the positions recently won, they launched a counterattack that could be decisive to win the campaign.

With the British now cornered in the first rung of the campaign ladder (see At the Sharp Endcampaign book for more detail) it was expected to be an all-out fight: a defeat in the game today would put an end to the campaign with the Axis emerging as the victors.

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Desert Campaign Game # 3: Panzer Battles

The North Africa desert campaign continued today with the third in which the Axis troops after being badly mauled in the previous encounter, were now to conduct a defensive retreat action (scenario 4 of the Chain of Command book).

An what an epic struggle it was: the DAK Panzer section won several iron crosses and other garlands, taking revenge on behalf of the beating received lat week by its brother infantry platoon. The Panzers on its own sent the enemy Indian infantry platoon reeling out of the table, destroying almost two sections and then almost totally wiped-out the British armour assets.

The Heroes of the Day

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Desert Campaign Game # 2: When the DAK melted like ice in the heat

The second game of our Desert Campaign resulted in a total disaster for the Axis player, whose DAK platoon received a severe punishment and lost almost a full section. This time the Indian troops were much more cautious than in the first game and took revenge from the shameful rout suffered.

The Axis players decided to take a defensive stance and not counterattack; they had one DAK and one Italian infantry platoons, this time supported by an anti-tank section instead of an armoured platoon. The ATG section had one 88mm guns and two Pak 36 guns.

The table was similar to that of the previous game: the Axis deployed on the left of the map below, in a position at the foothills of a defile in the desert; this side of table edge is dotted with hills (up to two levels) representing the area just outside the gorge. The Empire troops should move in a relatively flat terrain before reaching the enemy positions.

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Desert Campaign Game # 1: Indians and Panzers Do Not Mix Well

The first game of the campaign played this morning resulted in a quick Axis victory... so quick that there not a single shot was fired before the British troops rushed off the table in a stampede!

But before the report let's talk briefly about the background. As posted yesterday, ours was designed as a short 3 scenarios campaign with a maximum of 6 games, following the recommendations included in At the Sharp End, the companion scenarios booklet to Chain of Command.

This was a Big CoC game confronting one Italian infantry platoon, one infantry and one armoured DAK zugs vs two Infantry platoons (Polish and Indian) and one armoured troop.

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New North Africa Desert Campaign for Chain of Command

After a couple of casual games in North Africa in the last weeks, my gaming group and I have decided to embark ourselves in a new short campaign for Chain of Command. Campaigns are truly more fun to play than individual encounters, as decisions taken today on how to use your force and spend your precious assets) can have a dramatic impact in the following games.

I took the lead and have arranged the campaign, acting as umpire or taking an active seat if any of the players fails to attend one game (I will only take tactical decisions, but will not intervene in the selection of supports or the general strategic decisions).

The context will be the rearguard actions of the Axis forces in the winter of ´41, with the British taking the initiative. With six players signed, we'll play a Big Chain of Command campaign, each force comprising 2 infantry platoons and 1 tank troop.... with a tweak that I cannot disclose now (but I promise to release the full details once we finish).

This will be a 3 rungs campaign as described in At the Sharp End with a maximum of 6 games allowed, covering an attack on the main defence line of the Axis (scenario type "Attack Defend"), a pursuit (a scenario type “Delaying Action") and the objective ("Attack on an Objective" scenario).

The first game will take place on Sunday* so stay tuned next week to read the first battle report here.

*The Spanish weather office  has activated a cold weather alert today and ofr the rest of the weekend... just a thought came to me this afternoon: wouldn't it be ironic if we have to cancel the desert game because of a snow storm?

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2015 Gaming Season Jump-Start: Alamo in the Desert

My 2015 gaming season opened today with a Big Chain of Command Game in North Africa. The game confronted an Italian infantry platoon (green) and one Italian (M/13) and one German DAK (Pz III and IV) armoured squadrons vs. two Empire’s infantry (regular) and armoured squadron respectively.

The scenario chosen was an Attack & Defend from the Chain of Command main book, winning the game the attacker if forcing the defender out of the table due to casualties or drop in the Force Moral to zero, while maintaining a Force Moral of at least level 3 himself.

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When Bravura is not Enough - A Big Coc Battle Report

Source: The Imperial War Museum

Today marked my return to the battlefields after a long spell since mid-August. My gaming mates had been intensively testing Big Chain of Command mixing infantry and armoured units over the past weeks and it was time for me to catch up.

Our initial intention was to play a Normandy battle, but the late-minute absence (due to a family incident, thank God not serious) of the Fallschimjager platoon commander forced us to change on the spot to a North African scenario, as we had most of our stock of models in the club.

In this game, an Italian infantry platoon and a troop of tanks (3 x M13) were ordered to retake an oasis recently conquered by forces of the 4^th Indian Division; the Empire forces also received the support of a tank troop of Matildas. We used the “Attack & Defend” scenario 3 conditions of the Chain of Command book for this game.

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The Fall of Tobruk - A Chain of Command AAR

Last weekend the first Afrika CoC campaign concluded with the last game, in this case with the attack on the central objective of the campaign: the inner perimeter of Tobruk. As I commented in a previous post, for different reasons I've been less active than wished in the campaign and have only played a couple of games including this final chapter.

With eight players interested, we structured the campaign around two different fronts with 2 opponents per side each, using the "ladder" system described in At The Sharp End, the CoC campaigns companion publication. We allocated 2 infantry platoons and a tank troop to each front, with no further reinforcements.

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Bit of an Update

Usual readers may have noticed that this blog has been somewhat neglected recently, but my life is gone thorugh an hectic period recently and my gaming activity has been low since late April: additionally I have found few interesting topics worth making you waste your time.

Real life interfered, in some case for good, in other for bad. As for the latter, my wife’s beloved father died in early May, a very sad loss and a relief at the same time as he’d been fighting for 3 years against a very aggressive cancer; personally it’s been hard for the loss itself, but also because it brought me memories of my own father’s passing away now 15 years ago (June 1999) after a similar and cruel fight against the same son of a bitch (sorry for the words). Now all our attention and love is being focused in my mother in law, still recovering from the loss of his partner for over 60 years

The good news (but of little consolation in these circumstances) was that after a year unemployed I was offered as finance director in a newly created energy company. Just when I thought there was little future of a 50 years-old professional, I happen to meet coincidentally with an old boss of mine, who was searching from someone for this vacant post and offered me the position… a rare alignment of planets?

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Birthday Present Finally Arrived

A photo of the book I gave to myself for my (recently passed) birthday, that arrived yesterday sent by Amazon. Lee Hadley of Big Lee's Miniature Adventires blog fame brought my attention into it in a recent post commenting several WW II books. 

This a large-size and 600 page-thick tome featuring the trip of the author, Jean Paul Pollard to the North African battlefields in 2011 (from Tunisa to Egypt). Armed with a camera, he spent several months taking photos of the same locations of the contemporary war-era photos. Really interesting and a real must for anyone interested in this was theater.

Excellent and highly recommendable, just enjoying it tonight sitting in my favourite reading sofa and drinking a truly cold beer (summer already arrived to madrid today!)   

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Assault on Tobruk!! - Introduction to our Afrika CoC Campaign

STOP PRESS: The Afrika CoC campaign is finally in motion!

The final arrangements were agreed during the week and finally last Sunday the opening game took place. The post today wants to be an introduction to the campaign framework and will be followed by more detailed battle reports of the different games as we did with our Stalingrad campaign.

The campaign will be conductedusing the excellent supplement published by TooFatLardies called At the Sharp End that was already reviewedhere on February. As a remainder, the campaign system works around a “ladder” of different scenarios starting in the “no-man’s land” and moving up and down in steps (outposts, main line of defence...) depending who wins each game, until reaching a central objective.  

Our campaign setup is Tobruk and the year is 1941. The Empire troops are garrisoning the city and Rommel’s German panzer elements will have to breach the fortress defences and ultimately conquest the city.

Due to the large number of players involved (eight) we have decided to play in two different areas of the battlefield, with 2 Axis and 2 Empire players in each area respectively. In principle, each side in each area will command 1 infantry platoon (with the supports available in the CoC Armies lists for each type of scenario) and 1 armoured elements troop.

Each side will also have a reserve of men and tanks (1 platoon and 1 tank troop) that will be distributed between the players depending on their individual performance over the games. Wounded and replacements are handled as per the campaign book.

Two final house rules to govern the campaign:

·         In the first two games it is supposed that both sides are undertaking mainly recon efforts, so no heavy armour will be allowed to be chosen as support   

·         The difference in terms of “ladder steps” between two areas in the same side will not be larger than 2 steps; if higher, the troops in the most advanced position will have to yield at least one step to avoid being flanked and surrounded

The first game of the campign was played last Sunday resulting in one Empire victory and one Axis victory. A battle report will follow soon, so stay tunned.

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