In the Bleak Mid Winter!

Two weeks ago I asked the guys at the club to do an introductory game of "Chain of Command" (By the Too Fat Lardies!) and I was delighted that this club meet yesterday they dis so. Now having played the rules I am an immediate convert to the rules! I thought they worked so very well. And here is what happened.

We used 28mm Winter War troops with the Russians attacking the Fins. All figures terrain and rules knowledge supplied by Dave who helped me with the Fins and opposed by Kev and Ian who had played before and had the Russians.

Once the forces were worked out both teams had a few extra points to spend given the scenario. The Russians bought a T26 tank and a Medium (80mm) Mortar. While we, the Fins selected a company runner (to help bring on reinforcements and issue orders, a sniper team (cheap option but quite handy so I was told), another T26 (To counter their tank threat) and a Chain of Command dice (In case they had a preliminary barrage and we wanted to end the turn quickly!) And that was all the points spent. At platoon level 1 tank a side is VERY generous as historically speaking the ratio during WW2  was 600 troops to each tank even in Battle of the Bulge and D-Day.

The Russians went first and rolled the command dice. The result was that they could bring on the mortar the T26 and a squad and get the next go straight away. In the second phase they moved the squad up and brought another squad onto the board as well as advancing the tank. We, Dave and me, had nothing on the board to stop them.

 And that is where the action starts and the Finns get a phase. And we get a good dice roll and can bring on the T26 (at the table edge) the sniper and a squad. Shown in the picture above. I got luck and the sniper fired straight away and managed to wound a Russian NCO. (I needed to roll 1 or less on d6 and rolled a 1).A pair of phases were played and the sniper managed to wound a second Russian NCO (Again needing a 1 on d6 to do so and getting it!) Mean while the Russians had brought on a 2nd and 3rd squad onto the board and we had managed to bring on 2 more squads an a platoon command as well.

 The two tanks started to fire at each other but with only minimal effect. they both suffered some suppression hits so were a little groggy an if either had mad a good (not even very good) dice roll it would have tipped the balance.

 The centre squad was taking a beating and the right flank almost open and flapping in the cold bitter wind. All the Russians had to do to win was exit one unit (Squad tank or Mortar) off the Finnish table edge and they would win. Dave and me had to stop them! The Russians stop firing at our tank and decide to machinegun my centre squad. Which exhausted and now down to just 2 men (My LMG team as it happens) are forced to withdraw leaving the centre wide open!

Meanwhile on the right Ian pushes his squad forward and tries to take the village hall.  Dave uses our command dice and I get a free opportunity shot at them in the open. This does enough and they don't make it into the village hall but are left in the open outside.

 Dave then shakes off enough of the suppression to move and fire our T26 and out of 5 dice rolls a single 4 with the rest as 5s or 6s. The Russian tank explodes. But I still have nothing in the centre and the right wing under attack. So Kev moves up in the centre, and Ian tries to push forward on the right but the dice are not good and he cannot move the squad outside the village hall as there NCO is wounded (sniper previously) and just cant get them to enter the building so a fire fight ensues with them in the open and my squad in the woods.

 As it in now "Squeaky bum time" I have to bring on my last reserves into the centre wooded area. So Kev being a good Russian commander charges and shows them some cold steal. Luckily this squad gets some opportunity fire just before contact and they break and run back to their own woods.

 Leaving half a suppressed squad of Finns looking bemused and confused and feeling very relieved. On the right with a wounded NCO the Russians were never going to win the fire fight standing in the open and trying to shoot my squad in the trees. So they also broke and fled back to the starting trees. As they poured through another Russian Squad it was also affected by their morale and became supressed.

 So the Attack on the right wing was stalled and the Centre was pushed back. But the left still had 2 Russian squads in it. But we Had a tank! (Ok and a sniper and a squad there as well. ) But the machineguns on the Tank did the business and they declaimed it a Finnish Victory. As they could not move across the open with a tank parked nearby and neither of those two Russian squads had any antitank capability!

 

Ok it is nice to get a win I can admit that. And this is the scale of WW2 games* that I like. It is small enough to seem personal and yet large enough that one lucky shot will not win the game. (Despite what I have said about or tank!) The rules worked very well and I WANT to play them again. Using dice to activate certain things means that you cannot activate everything in one go which means you have to prioritise what you want to do. The result is that in the game the Russian mortar only fired once and with no effect and I suspect in retrospect they would have chosen a different asset, but we are all learning and it did give them some indirect fire to which we could not answer.

 

Overall I did like the rules and I will be using them for a couple of projects. As well as WW2 I will want to use these rules for some "Back of Beyond" wargames shenanigans as at this stage I cannot find an acceptable Back of Beyond set of rules. So adapting these makes perfect sense to me.

 

Thanks For looking today I should (I hope) have something painted by Wednesday so hopefully some more news then. So until then, take care have fun and paint a figure or two if you can.

Cheers Clint

 

* The Winter war was just before WW2 but is close enough to count in my mind!