Operation Epsom - the (bloodless) prequel

Prior to Xmas Craig and I decided to start a themed campaign in the New Year, based around Operation Epsom. We would be using Chain of Command for small scale engagements at the Platoon level, with Blitzkreig Commander II for larger scale ones at Company level and up. We both had plenty of reference material and after a flurry of e-mails we decided to kick things off with a game based upon a small British attack in the area around Fontenay-le-Pesnel.

For the Chain of Command games, we would be using Craig's FoW Brits and Germans as my 10mm forces are still in their respective jiffy bags. He also has a lovely range of scenery (pics to follow when he posts them on his Blog) as well as a host of 4Ground painted mdf buildings that are perfect for skirmish games such as CoC. As a result of this, Craig set about coming up with the scenario and forces involved, so all I had to do was turn up on the day.

For the first game he chose Scenario 2: The Probe (no jokes please, we're British) as this seemed perfect to represent a British platoon probing forward looking for weak points or gaps in the German defences. Or so we thought...

Let me set the scene for you:

• The game is to be played on a 6'x4' table (we used a 5'x3' but adjusted things to suit).
• The Germans (defenders) set up 4 markers in a line in their deployment zone, up to 12" in, with each marker to be no more than 12" from another. 
• This means that the German markers cover an area 3' long. 
• The table is 6' long.
• With an 'area of control' of 12" around each marker that causes enemy markers (and their own) to become 'locked down' when entering this zone, they have an effective area of control of 5'. 
• The table is 6' long.
• The more astute of you will have already spotted that this leaves an uncontrolled area of 12".
• The British (attackers) deploy their 4 control markers at any one point along their table line. They then dice off to see how many free moves, between 2 and 4, they get before the Germans can activate their own.
• Due to all markers having to remain within a contiguous line of each, even when locked down, it is glaringly obvious that the attacker deploys on one flank as this will give him a massive advantage in the game (see below).

 

So how did it play out I hear you ask? Well it went as follows:

• As the attacker I rolled a 6 and got 4 free moves. 
• I was able to move 3 of my 4 markers onto the table and lock one of the German markers down on the left flank before the Germans could react. This meant that there was a large gap on my right flank that I could exploit without any realistic chance of the Germans stopping me.
• Remember the bit about the contiguous line above? Well the first German move had to be from their right flank (my left) which had no effect upon my 'movement'. The same was true of their second move.
• By the time the Germans had moved into the centre of the table to 'threaten' my left flank, I had already moved a marker pretty much to the German table edge on my right flank. 
• By the time the last marker was locked down I was gauranteed a jump off point from where I could get a Team off the table just by deploying them!!!

 

Well, this was the quickest and most bloodless victory (if you can call it that) in my entire wargaming 'career'. Both Craig and I looked at each other, somewhat dumbfounded by the way things had panned out. "Had we missed something?" we asked each other. Afterall we are both pretty experienced wargamers and are old enough and ugly enough to know that mistakes happen. So we checked and checked again and as far as we could see we had made no mistakes. We worked out various possibilities if the attacker has 2 or 3 'free moves' rather than the 4 I had rolled; what if the defender deployed more to one flank than another; what if the defender got to be the active player in the first phase etc?

Our conclusion was that the scenario was a very hard one for the defender to win given all of the above. To be sure we re-played the scenario (well we hadn't really played it first time round) and I chose to deploy more centrally this time, but again it proved to be quite an easy victory for the attacker, even with us deciding to limit the attacker to only two free moves at the start.

So a frankly bizarre start to our campaign, but none-the-less another enjoyable game of CoC with Craig, even when taking into account the vagaries of the scenario as outlined above. In terms of the campaign, we decided that the British had found a weak point in the German defences and were to do a 'reconnaissance in force' through the gap, with a scenario from BKCII (yet to be decided) as the basis for the next game.

Operation Market Larden

Saturday dawned bright and beautiful and once again it was an early start to set of to a wargames show. This time for once we headed North to the Wyvern Wargames Club situated outside of Evesham, who were holding a day devoted to the Too Fat Lardies rules sets. Craig and I were both keen to try out the forthcoming Chain of Command rules, which from the demo videos on Youtube looked extremely good.

After a nice journey up the M5, we arrived just after 9.00am to find a packed village hall where the show was being held. Due to a clerical cock-up the Wyvern chaps hadn't put us down for the demo games, depsite the relevant e-mails and payment being sent to them. However this was soon sorted out but huge demand for a go at the CoC rules meant that it did not look like we would get to have a go. Only time would tell. 

However a couple of the chaps at the club had put on a Russo-Japanese War game using slightly modified 'Through the Mud and Blood' rules which looked interesting, so we sat down to give this a go. Stu of Dust, Tears and Dice Blog fame (a great Blog that is well worth checking out) and Mark  hosted the game and were great chaps who patiently took us through the rules so that we were able to pick up the game mechanics very quickly. The game ebbed to and fro over a couple of hours, but in the end as the Japanese players we had pretty much run out of troops to take the objective so conceded the game. I took a few pics as we went which can be found below.

The Japanese attempt to flank the Russian trenches.

The Japanese play hide-and-seek in the corn.

The Russians wait with Slavic stoicism.

Chinses troops add support, or at least that was the plan.

Looking towards the seemingly impenetrable Russian trenches.

A lovely suprise in the form of wonderful cakes from the TFL boys, with a great message! If only all gamers followed this saying...

The Japanese in position to attack the Russian trenches, but in the end to no avail.

The Chinese seem to sense that the day will not be theirs and lag behind.

So after a brief lunch break we checked out a few other games and then headed over to the CoC table that had been so popular in the morning. A game was in progress so we sat down to watch and were able to chat with Rich from TFL as the game went along. Initially we thought we would miss out on a chance to give the game a go, but luckily for us the game quickly finished. Rich had only planned on running three games but very kindly put on a fourth for us despite being in demand from the very start of the day.

In short the game was everything that we had hoped it would be. We picked up the basic game mechanics very quickly and so they moved along at a nice pace. Rich intervened where necessary to explain or elaborate on points as and when it was necessary. The game again ebbed and flowed with the Germans in a slightly better position by close of play.

The British on the right side of the road, the Germans on the left with the village as the objective.

A firefight develops on the British right flank.

So the trip was definitely worth it as we got to play a couple of great games, but crucially try out Chain of Command which was our aim. These are definitely rules that we will both be buying as not only are they fun to play, but they are suitable for solo play and emminently 'tweakable' for other periods such as the AVBCW and SCW. The rules are due for release sometime in August, so we will just have to be patient!

Chain of Command

I've always had a soft spot for skirmish wargaming, whether fantasy or WWII, as this was how I first started wargaming way back in the early 1970's. So my interest was certainly piqued when my friend and regular gaming partner Craig, put a post on his Blog about some new WWII skirmish rules, Chain of Command from the Two Fat Lardies. Now I hadn't heard of these rules, but the very positive comments made by Craig on his Blog made me want to check them out. After all we share very similar interests in wargaming and in what makes a good rule set. 

We used to play a lot of Rules of Engagement a few years ago, but in the end spent more time playing Blitzkreig Commander. Since then I think we have both been looking for a skirmish ruleset that has a good approach to Command and Control. I looked at I Ain't Been Shot Mum, again by the TFLs, but it just didn't grab me.

So I duly sat down at work and watched the very informative Youtube videos produced by the Two Fat Lardies (Now this is a great idea of promoting your games and for us the punters to see if it is the sort of game that would interest us, so this approach from the TFLs gets a big thumbs up from me). I must say that I was very impressed with what I saw and with the game mechanics and the way that the game handled command and control. I thought that this is a game that I want to play, and so plan to buy the rules when they come out some time this summer.

For those of you that may be interested in checking these rules out, below are links to the various Youtube videos, a Meeples and Miniatures podcast and an AAR on the TFLs Blog:

Video 1 

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4: Turn 1

Video 5: Turn 2

Video 6: End of game

M&M podcast 

After Action Report

So a big thank you to Craig for giving me the 'heads up' on this, but I'm not sure if SWMBO would necessarily agree with my sentiments!