Chain of Command and other stuff

I have noticed my labelling of blog posts is not very inspiring hey hoy…..

The last two games have both been with George, starting a new Chain of Command campaign. But I do have more games in the dungeon over the next week or so. Anyway with George having completed his BEF force he was keen to give them a run out.

A pint sized campaign which I think is a bit of a misnomer as it is 6 or 7 Battles. George has covered much of the details of the campaign and our first battle on his blog. So just a couple of photos of our first two battles and some thoughts from me as the Germans. Of course George’s lovely early WW2 collection stands out 👍 given the nature of the campaign the British appear to be attacking most of the time, always tough.

In the first battle for HedgeHog wood the Germans have a fairly restricted deployment but as the defender it is pretty easy to get cover setup and wait for the British to attack. Above in the first battle my infantry supported by a 75mm and a MMG. The British immediately start to lay down smoke. But the ground is very open for the attack and they pay the price.

A secondary objective is to capture the scout car, but the Germans are more interested in throwing back the attack

Not surprisingly the Germans have jump off points in the wood itself and quickly move to the edge and setup a very strong defensive line

The British really like their smoke !

But ultimately the open ground (and some below average dice for the British) means the British are thrown back, a win for the Germans hoorah !

On to game 2 which we played yesterday.

The Germans are dug in, in the village with some off table support from 88Flak guns, I took the photo here but actually the off table support wasn’t coming from the village

If anything this was an even tougher table for the British the German deployment is contained in the village, internal lines of communication and support, especially with 2 German senior leaders available. The German jump off points are in three of the buildings. The hedges block line of sight which is a challenge for both sides but inevitably gives more of an advantage to the defender.

The off table 88 is called in and immediately makes short work of the small French Hochkiss tank, seen burning in the distance. The British objective is to drive the Germans away from the village but this is a really tough ask given the lines of sight.

The Germans get stuck in but when they come under heavy fire they are able to pull back out of harms way, no point dying if you don’t have to.

After about 4 hours of hard fighting it became clear that even though the Germans morale had dropped to 2 and they had lost nearly all their Junior leaders, stunned, wounded or dead the British just don’t have enough fire power left to finish them off. A second ‘minor’ win for the Germans by default as they are still holding the village.

Some thoughts so far on the campaign, the maps in the campaign are very open with the Germans almost always dug into cover, giving a big advantage to the Germans, the British (George) has so far rolled pretty below average at one point two British MMG fired 20 or more shots at some German infantry on the right of the village who were for a short time in the open they failed to score even a single shock ! In these first two battles both sides effectively had ‘free’ platoons from now on we may need to be more careful. With two really tough and slightly frustrating battles for the British we are considering whether to continue this campaign or swop to something new, time will tell.

Next up some completed painting.

Some more British Napoleonic command stands, above two brigade commanders from Perry, the extra figures are foundry I think from some random secondhand stuff I had and a couple of random horses

Also some Battalion command stands, these are to use when I split 24 man battalions down into smaller units. Perry Colonels with again some random standard bearers from who knows where ?

The weekend was family time with both children at home for the Mother’s Day weekend, but we managed to visit a small Gladiator exhibition up in Carlisle which was fun.

The weather has been kind for a couple of days so I headed for the hills, a significant lack of fitness was showing but the  day was beautiful perfect walking weather.

And when I got home !

A recent Peter pig order had arrived, these effectively allow me to fill out a more rounded Scottish Montrose Army, which is waiting in the wings. This may be my last ECW purchase for a while as I have more than enough now to paint and pretty much play any battle within reason. Marston Moor was never my intention.

That’s it for now folks, more games to come and I am cracking on with more painting 👍

Thanks as always

Matt ❤️