Chain of Command 2 - Game Report 1

Delaying Action - 1944

With the release of Chain of Command 2 (CoC) we all felt that we needed to explore what it offered over Bolt Action (BA) for WW2 gaming. It wasn’t that we were not in favour of BA, far from it, but we certainly wanted to explore something different. Kevin and I kicked of the exploration with the patrol scenario using 15mm figures on a sized down table, to get to grips with the mechanics and an awful lot of page turning though the rules. Because of the amount of page turning and learning the mechanics we didn’t take any photos. So, we agreed we need to upscale and try it again in 28mm.

In the scenario I commanded the Soviets with a Rifle Platoon supported by a Commissar, MMG and 50mm Teams with a Scout Section. I was attacking and after the patrol phase I had some very useful jump-off points located behind cover. Our first mistake was to class all the obstacles as “medium” which both hindered observation, fire and movement significantly. Lesson 1 was to be careful about how one defines the terrain.

A Russian Rifle Section advances covered by an MMG team, and a Rifle Section and sniper. One of the challenges for the Soviets is that the two teams of the section must always be less than 4” from each other. Lesson 2 was therefore for the Russians to consider moving the Section forward in small bounds, which would have been useful across the medium obstacles. Lesson 3 was that we forgot the 4” rule for “bunched targets”, such as the three teams in the angle of the two hedges in this picture.

The Germans occupied the building and despite the cover suffered some significant shock and casualties, what you cannot see is the MG team that decided to advance to the fence line to the left but were all cut down before they reach it. Supporting them was a Sniper Team which eventually re positioned itself to the rear after failing to inflict any casualties. Lesson 4 was that you cannot see Snipers until they fire and that snipers are best placed in overwatch to be capable of reacting to what your opponent does.

The Scout Section has deployed, hidden in the woods. Here they would stay for a couple of moves as the Soviets lacked the leadership and leaders to move them. Lesson 5 was the importance of making sure you had the leaders in the right place at the right time.

The rifle section safely reached the first fence line only to be slowed down as we had classed it as a medium obstacle!

Eventually the rifle section crossed the fence line to advance to the next tactical bound – the second fence line – only to be pinned down by some accurate sniper fire. Eventually the sniper started to roll some hits. The prospect of trying to advance around the building to secure the objective seemed too much for the single rifle section!

Finally, the LMG section arrived and advanced to support the Scout Section which was able to start moving thanks to the Commissar who moved up to give directions to them.

While the LMG section were able to navigate around the gap in the hedge, the Scout section were severely impeded crossing the hedge. Fortunately, there were no Germans able to fire on either of the sections!

The MMG team continue to provide fire support to allow the last infantry section to start moving forward. At this stage we were onto the “Ticking Clock” stage of the mission. Time was running out for the Soviets to achieve their objective.

The infantry section has closed up to the fence line despite the fire coming from the building to their left.

And we were into “Sudden Death” which saw the Scout Section position themselves outside the building ready to assault it. Lesson 6 was that the Scout Section could have assaulted the building as they were within 4” f the building. Also their chances of winning were high given that there was only one man on the ground floor! On the other side of the building the LMG section have manoeuvred to outflank the building.

Only for me to roll, as the Soviet player, 2 sixes and end the game at the point. Leaving the Germans victorious.

Conclusions

The rules deliver an exciting game, and certainly merit further attempts to bring all the Lessons we learned together in one game.

These lessons learnt were not the only ones. We also learnt, after the fact, that the phases are not alternating between the players. There were several occasions when we rolled enough sixes to have consecutive phases.

We managed to clarify a number of rule points with the wider CoC community after the game. The game certainly ha a widespread user base who seem to have worked out the implied rules within the game!

My only criticism is that the rules as written and structured leave significant ambiguities for the players to work out or make guesses upon. Which is why I believe there are implied rules that one needs to tease out from talking to the community.