top games: wargaming

Showing posts with label wargaming. Show all posts

Showing posts with label wargaming. Show all posts

DMZ Vietnam # 3 - Winning Hearts and Souls (or at least trying)

Third game of CoC DMZ, the Vietnam supplement for Chain of Command. After two games, we are now more confident on controlling the new mechanics and decided to add some complexity, introducing a political dimension to the game loosely based on Charlie Don't Surf, the Platoon-sized rules written by TooFatLardies (full details at the end of the post).

Using this time one of the scenarios included a Surf's Up, the US player was briefed about its mission: he must take control of remote village of uncertain name suspected to be the depot area of NVA units infesting the region. In Chain of Command terms, this is a "Scenario 6 Attack on an Objective" of the main rulebook, in principle winning the US if capturing the jumpoff point located in the center of the village.

But it wasn't to be so easy. As the NVA had important food and weapons supplies hidden in the village, those should be discovered and destroyed. If the enemy could exit its tactical edge with the supplies, the NVA player was victorious even if the US take control of the village. The village was inhabited and any civilian potentially a casualty in a fire exchange would count againts the US (or the NVA!) "Political Score".

Peaceful local peasents (or not?) on their way to tendering the fields

Setting the scene let's see how the table looked opposed the US entry side.

Chain of Command Vietnam - Enter the ACAV

Second test game today with Chain of Command DMZ, the unofficial supplement to play the Vietnam conflict with Chain of Command. In this game we introduced for the first time a vehicle, my "Peace Maker" ACAV model, parked in my garage for sometime now.

We chose this time to play the "Attack on an Objective" Scenario Six of the main rule book. The table had a major jungle (type 2 area) crossed by a dirt road leading to a village which according to the intelligence cources was a major NVA depot area.

The battlefield form the US edge

Storming the Citadel - New Chain of Command Campaign

TooFatLardies just announced a new campaign book for Chain of Command in their "pint-sized" campaign series (Pint = priced as a pint of beer in Richard Clarke's local pub). Storming the Citadel is the first time that TFL moves East, to the time of Kursk/Citadelle, following the trails of the GrossDeutshcland Division.

As usual, the campaign is self-contained with all the army lists, scenarios and special rules, supported by a nice display of maps and historical information. Another one not to miss!

Up Country - Testing Vietnam Chain Of Command Variant (take 1)

Don't panic, despite a long period without posts I'm still here...

As announced early this month, I recruited some of my gaming pals to test the Vietnam War variant for Chain of Command developed by Jason Sendjirdjian in his blog Wargaming DMZ and finally today we could put some minis on a table to see how it works. If you are interested in the period, I stronlgly recommend your browse that blog, lots of wargaming good food for thought and many interesting resources. Note this is NOT an official or TooFatLardies-endorsed supplement.

First things first, if you don't know Chain of Command this is a set of rules published by TooFatLardies to play skirmish battles in the Second World War, typically at platoon level but can accomodate up to a company-size game using the Big CoC supplement.

The rules are mainly focused on infantry units complemented with other weapon supports and 1 or 2 tanks. If you like to dwell in the detail of the rules, I published here a set of posts titled "The Chain of Command Diaries # 1-6" commenting the most innovative aspects at the time of the playtesting.

Whats new in Chain of Command DMZ?
The Vietnam variant basically leaves untouched the core rule mechanics and adds a few bits and pieces needed to simulate the tactics of the conflcit. These changes refer to the terrain, weapons, unit organisations and national characteristics.

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Back to Vietnam War?

A short post with a twofold intention:

First, to show that I'm still alive and kicking. However due to a health problem in the family (my wife was diagnosed breast cancer on 23rd December...), my hobby time has shrinked substantially and I decided to invest whatever time available in painting for Curt's Painting Challenge and playing some games from time to time (lately with Command and Colors Napoleonics).

The good news is that the health problem seems now contained and the doctor is rather optimist on overcoming it, although we'll still have to fight whatever remains of the SOB inside my wife´s body and the treatment will last 8 months to a year.

Second and the main reason of the post, the possibility of returning to play the Vietnam period, albeit not with Charlie Don't Surf but with a new set based on the popular Chain of Command World War II rules.

This is fact NOT an official supplement, but the lone effort put up by blogger Jason Sendjirdjian, who has been extensively reporting the progress on the rules and the lists in his blog Wargaming DMZ for most of 2016. This chap very generously has compiled and nicely edited a 41-pages pdf document (here) with all stuff needed to play the game.

This is a period that gained traction in my group when Charlie Don't Surf was first released a few years ago. It was (actually IS) a very good set of rules and an excellent simulation of the tactics and atmosphere of this grim theater of operations. Truth is that after a lot of playing my gaming group attention moved to II World War with Chain of Command, and Vietnam fell into oblivion.

With the limitations emerging from obligations with my wife treatment, I'll try to lead a Vietnam reinassance within my gaming group... time now to undust my Grunts, Charlies, NVAs and M 113s!

The good news are that we already have all we need in terms of gaming material and in 28mm, so no need to invest (much) money in a new project. I hope the rules work good, I haven´t even read the pdf yet (will do tonight) but considering the hard work already put by Jason and his demonstrated knowledge of the conflict, I'm honestly optimistic.

I strongly recommend visiting Wargaming DMZ and if you fancy show your gratitude for the generosity shown by the author sharing all this wrok by leaving a comment in the last post.

Old Hickory Campaign Games 4 and 5 (conclusion)

This weekend we played turns 4 and 5 (conclusion) of the Old Hickory campaign for Chain of Command. If you remember when we stopped in early December, the Germans had already won two games through the "orange route" and were now arriving to the final US defensive line at Le Neufbourg.

The US players called all reinforcements scattered in the different approaching routes to concentrate now into the village and to put a strong opposition despite overwhelming odds. The US side also played their last air support card in the 4th turn, resulting in the dispersion of the German attacking columns, winning the game and gaining some breathing space.

After this, the German deployed a new platoon form the general reserve (the one used in game 3) and then we moved to game number five, which as you will see resulted in a new straight German victory and also de conclusion of the campaign.

Old Hickory Campaign Game 3

The third game of the Hickory Campaign concluded with a decisive German victory, causing a bloody havoc on the US units that had to pull out into Le Neufbourg, the objective of the offensive. Frankly, the position of the US players is in serious risk as the game today eliminated some critical scarce assets like ATGs and men.

The game was played in the Orange 2 map of the campaign booklet and corresponded to a Scenario 6 "Attack-Defend" in terms of the Chain of Command terminology. The German was of course the attacker and the victory conditions called for them either to wipe the resisitance in the table or force a withdrawing due to Force Moral erosion.

Old Hickory Campaign Game 2

The second game of the Old Hickory campaign finished with a German victory. A very funny game in which for the first time in life I saw a F1 race between three German Hanomags, competing to reach first the US table tactical edge.

Following the initial setback of the campaign when the Allied airforce dispersed the concentration of German units at its jumpoff area, the German HQ activated the second company (2 platoons) and ordered an attack through the same Orange route of the first attempt.

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Old Hickory Campaign Game 1

German HQ (H-1 hour)

News that the heads of the assault columns are now in the jump-off positions and ready to take on the arguably unprepared US troops near the railroad line (area code name Orange 1) are received with satisfaction at the Das Reich regiment HQ.

Suddenly the deafening noise of aircraft engines flying at low level fill the air and the dreaded black and white stripes of the Allied air force the German officers eyes ... luckily the planes pass away leaving the HQ unmolested, but almost immediately machine gun and bomb explosions are heard towards the jumpoff area followed by black smoke columns .

A devastating air attack has dispersed the German forces, with the units running in panic pursued by the Allied Typhoons and the Mustangs. After what looks like an eternity, the planes finally leave and it's time now to take stock of the damages and regroup the surviving forces. The attack is cancelled and will be postponed at least for the following day.

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And this is how the first turn of the Hickory campaign ended... played without placing a single model on a wargame table and actually resolved by Whatsapp! Let me explain what just happened.

As commented in the previous post, there are three attacking routes and the Germans must select one; the Allied had an air interdiction asset that had to be allocated to one of the routes before the Germans announce their attack. If they select the same route, the Germans suffer a devastating air attack and their units are dispersed and unable to take the offensive, losing the game.

Incredibly, both decided to choose the Orange route, which they communicated to me this same afternoon. Must reckon that I had a big laugh and the poor German players were in total shock for this unexpected (and unknown to them) option in the Allied hands.

All this was settled communicating with the two groups of players through Whatsapp!

This is one of the advantages of playing campaigns and using independent umpires: incresed for of war and uncertainty; and of course more fun (specially the umpire). More surprises in store for both sides... and only I know.. Wa-ha-ha-ha!!

New Chain of Command Campaign rolling!

Seeing my club gaming buddies somewhat inactive, I decided to stir things a little and have put in motion a new campaign for Chain of Command. We'll play the supplement Old Hickory confronting US and German units in Normandy. This campaign is specially challenging for the former, as they face a brutal counterattack of the Das Reich division (operation Luttich) in late July 1944 in the Mortain area.

Historically the counterattack failed thanks to the stiff resistance put by the US 30th Infantry Division "Old Hickory", a relatively untested unit arising from the National Guard, despite facing a veteran German formation.

This campaign supplement presents a conundrum to the US player, as the Germans can chose attacking through three different axes and the Americans must distribute their limited assets before the actual campaign starts to cover all possible routes of advance.

The response of my gaming group to the campaign proposal has been phenomenal and now I have six players enrolled. Therefore I will have to accommodate more forces than those stipulated in the book and will be using the Big CoC large battles supplement to play the campaign.

The campaign will start tomorrow December 8th (national holiday in many European countries). You may like to follow live in Twitter the progress of the game (@AnibalInvic) but I'll also be debriefing here shortly after each game.

Back in the Saddle

You may have noticed a drop of the blog’s activity lately. Nothing to do with my health or loss of gaming mojo… in fact the result of the biblical-scale club’s premises flooding last June, forcing its closure and hence resulting in a very low wargaming activity… I managed just a few games in a friend’s house over the summer and September (see my previous post from late August).

Not having much to comment, I have been investing most of my gaming time in painting my Napoleonic figures and reducing my lead pile. Those who follow my Twitter account may have seen my progress in that front!

The good news are that I may enter now into a more active wargaming phase, as the club doors opened again just yesterday; so hopefully I’ll be playing most of Sundays from now on, as in the past.

The grand opening

I went to visit the premises only today… by the way, throwing my first dice in weeks, with three games of Command & ColoursAncient played this morning (great, fun game for Sunday morning or a casual match any afternoon!!).

Salivating after many months

The new refurbished site is wonderful, we have gained in terms of light, quality and safety too: taking advantage of the disaster, the club “junta” decided to undertake a safety study and adapt the place to the local regulations. This means also that we can now organise public events too, hopefully attracting additional membership.

Kudos also to my fellow club colleagues comprising the “Junta” and its President Tomás (aka the KlubFuhrer) for the way they have managed this most unfortunate event and how they have put back in operation the club is a reasonable timeframe.

Returning to the gaming activity, what is the pipeline in the short term?

I guess mostly Napoleonic, but I’m afraid that not a lot of Sharp Practice. The rules are great indeed but have not captured the imagination of my gaming group as Chain of Command did.

And the main reason is the game scale: playing skirmish games in the FIW or AWI period is OK; but frankly speaking, when moving into the Napoleonic period, one wants to see large masses of men, horses and guns moving in a table and this is an experience that Sharp Practice cannot provide, they are not designed for large scale battles.

Sharp Practice: The Battle of García Hernández

Background

The Battle of García Hernández took place on 23^rd July, 1812 the day after the victory of Wellington at Salamanca.

The defeated French army left the battlefield covered by General Maximillien Foy’s 1^st Infantry Division, a fresh French force as it did not have an active role in the main battle. Foy`s forces comprised two brigades with two regiments each and artillery.

Foy’s also got a light cavalry force reinforcement commanded b y General Jean-Baptiste Curto, with 2 squadrons of the 3^rd Regiment d´Hussards, two squadrons of the 26^thRegiment de Chasseurs and one squadron the 28^th Regiment de Chasseurs.

According to French sources (but not mentioned in the British reports) the cavalry rearguard also comprised elements of the Division de Dragons commanded by General Pierre Boyér, in charge of protecting the artillery train retreating ahead in the north.

In the British side, Wellesley took personal command of pursuers, forming a group with the 1^st Infantry Division, the Light Division, the light cavalry brigade of General Anson and the heavy cavalry brigade of General Von Bock (1^st and 2^nd KGL Dragoons Regiments), the latter being part of the reserve division the previous day.

At dawn of July 23^rd, both Anson and Von Bock initiated the persecution.

Sharp Practice Corunna Campaign Errata

As you probably know, the 2016 TFL Summer Special released yesterday includes the full Corunna 1809 campaign for Sharp Practice that we´ve been designing, testing and playing over the last two months.

Alas, when I downloaded the issue, I discovered to my horror that my eagle eye failed to spot several mistakes in my latest revision of the article just before publishing. So here are the corrections in case you are interested in taking note:

In page 13, the note with an asterisk about General Colbert should be deleted, it does not apply to the 4th scenario.
In the same page 13, in the British reinforcement table, the Marksman Thomas Plunkett should also be deleted (again it does not apply to the 4th game of the campaign).
Less important, the photos posted at the end of the article are from Cacabelos not Bembibre.

Sorre for the inconvenience.

Also worth noting that we introduced a British "Rifle Column" organisation in the artcile. But recently, we have realised that the brunt of the fighting was in fact undertaken by the light infantry with the support of Rifle companies distributed among the main British force.

Therefore, if you like a more historically accurate approach to the campaign, we would suggest using the Light Column Force of page 98 of the rules instead, as the backbone of the British forces for the campaign.

TFL Summer Special 2016 Released

Just a quick note to let you know that biannual TooFatLardies Special (Summer edition) is out and full of gooddies for Sharp Practice and Chain of Command aficionados. It includes (unshame publicity) the full Corunna Retreat campaign designed and played by Club Dragón members of Madrid. As usual, incredible value for money at GBP 6.0 price.

Full content follows:

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Sharp Practice: The River Neira Crossing

The final game of the Corunna Retreat campaign for Sharp Practice was put to test today. In this scenario, we saw the British crossing a major obstacle (the Nerea river at Constantin) with the French in hot pursue. The full campaign will be published in the cinoming TFL Summer Special 2016.

To achieve a victory, the British had to cross the only passable point (a bridge) with at least a 75% of its forces (equal to 48 models with the OBs used). The British forces started the game fully deployed on the south bank of the river.

The initial French forces were off table, but only the cavalry contingent was available in the first few, reflecting the scattered situation of the French column. After each Tiffin card, the French player rolls a D6 dice and if the result is equal or less than the turn number, the infantry command cards are then added to the deck.

Sharp Practice: A Belated Xmas Gift

Today we playtested the third scenario of the Corunna campaign for Sharp Practice. That we expect to publish in the incoming Summer Special 2016 In this case, it was inspired on the events of January 6th 1809 (Epiphany Day) when, having lagged the main army column, the paymaster's cart bullocks died and the army's silver was in danger of falling in French hands. General Paget had to retrace back all the way to where the carts were stranded and ordered the money chests to be thrown over the nearby cliff.

The game is played across the longest edge of the table. The table is actually a straight road with several terrain features offering light cover to the units, the number of items randomly calculated and placed. The British stranded cart at a certain distance of its tactical edge based on a die throw; and its deployment point at 12” from the cart. The French enter through their tactical edge, the deployment point located on the road.

The British must empty the cart and throw the money over the cliff. This is accomplished as a task with 16 points (see chapter 10 of the Sharp Practice book) undertaken by a brigade of men under the command of a level I leader. They can start moving the money from the cart after the 3^rd Tiffin card is out.

Sharp Practice: A bridge at Cacabelos

We are currently working on a small campaign based on the retreat to Corunna by Moore forces for Sharp Practice. The campaign rules are not ready yet and Richard Clarke already warned that we should dump away the Chain of Command mentality, as in this period battles are less important than outmanoeuvring your foes in the field. For this reason, the plan is to play four interlinked scenarios instead of a full campaign with the same forces. Eventually (...this is our intention..) the campaign will be published in the Summer Special 2016.

The game today was the action taking place on 3 January 1809, a rearguard defensive battle of the British at the town of Cacabelos in El Bierzo (Leon) area. It is a well known action because the French commander General Colbert was killed by a British rifle marksman called Thomas Plunkett killed at an uncertain distance. There is some confusion about this event, but likely a known impatient Colbert risked too much when reconnoitring the advanced outpost and rifleman Plunkett took his chances... and hit bang on target.

Dashing French Dragoons

Sharp Practice: The Storm of Cascajales de Alba

The French and British forces in the Iberian Peninsula fought today for the control of Cascajales de Alba, a small poor village in the border with Portugal, but key to the French defensive line in the Tagus valley.

This was Scenario 5 of the Sharp Practice book. The French were on the defensive this time and to win, the British must capture the house with the blue line on the map below. The French had a Regular core force plus 10 support points, invested in a gun with leader level I.