British Sherman for Chain of Command

I’m having quite an enjoyable wargaming weekend. Started yesterday (Friday) playing the inaugural game of Sickle Cut (GMT’s strategic France 40 wargame designed by the my most revered Simonitch).

And today Saturday I had the opportunity to conclude my latest model, a British-crewed Sherman useful either for either Chain of Command or What a Tanker. This is part of the tail of models that I could not finish before the Painting Challenged ended a month ago.

1815 The Hundred Days - Scenarios for General d'Armee

Reissswitz Press, TooFatlardies’ sister publishing company has just released a new publication called “1815, The Hundred Days”, a supplement for General d’Armee and covering the period of Napoleon´s return from Elbe Island to Waterloo.

This 45 pages-long booklet is divided in two parts:

• The historical background of the campaign leading to Napoleon’s defeat on 18th June 1815, intersected with comments from the Dave Brown expressing his views of some the key moments of the campaign (the “blue boxes” in the book).

•  Six scenarios covering some of the key actions in this period: the crossing of the Sambre at Charleroi (Battle at Gilly), Quatre Bras, Ligny (the Battle at St Amand), Waterloo’s Battle for Mount St Jean, Plancenoit and finally the iconic attack of the Old Guard. 

Therefore this is NOT a campaign book á la Pint-Sized format used in Chain of Command, but six independent scenarios that can be played individually.

Each scenario is very well detailed, with precise roster of troops involved, nicely drawn maps and clear special scenario rules. The battles can be played in standard or large formats, and specific instructions are also provided. The scenarios also include suggestions on terms of table sizes to be played in 15mm (I suppose also valid for 20mm – 1/72scale) as well as 28mm.

The publications maintains the a very high quality standards of other Reisswitz Press releases, contents are well structured, the edition is outstanding and include some very nice photos and illustrations.

Generally speaking, all what I could have expected for a supplement for GdA is in the book.

This is the first supplement for General d’Armee since the publication of the rules early last year, but it seems from comments in the Lard Island blog that more are in the pipeline. The book scenarios are also useful as templates to build your own scenarios in other campaigns or standalone battles.

!815 The Hundred Days is sold for 9.68 Pounds only in electronic pdf format, no plans to be released in hard copy. It can be acquired at the TooFatLardies website here.

Martlet Campaign - Games 1 & 2

Over the past two weekends we started and re-started again playing the Martlet campaign:  no surprise, my gaming pals and I seem to be a little bit rusty in relation to the Chain of Command book and additionally forgot to read the special scenario rules, which basically invalidated the result of the first two games.

The first replayed game (Scenario 1-Probe into Fontenay) represents an attack of the German outposts located in the outskirts of the village of Fontenay. The British win if at least one team exits the table through the German baseline. 

Chain of Command Martlet Campaign - Introduction

I can’t believe it’s been now two years since we played our latest Chain of Command game. Despite having used the rules intensively since the release (and even before, as we were part of the testing group), for different reasons my gaming group oriented their games towards other periods and rules, falling almost into oblivion… until this weekend.

One of my club members and I were having a coffee a few weeks back on a Sunday and I casually mentioned Chain of Command. Very quickly we both close a date and today we have started a (hopefully) new cycle of games.

As we prefer campaigns to casual games, we agree to play the Martlet pint-sized campaign, likely to be followed by the Scottish Corridor supplement in due time. Martlet is a pre-Epson Normandy June 44 operation. The goal was to capture the Raury Spur by the 49^th West Riding Division to protect the flank of the 51^st Scottish Division during Epsom.

Source: Too Fat Lardies - Martlet Campaing Book

This is a 6-rung campaign in which the British fight not only against the Germans but also the time, to complete the breakthrough in 1 day before the opening of Epsom.

 

Source: Too Fat Lardies - Martlet Campaing Book

Thrilled to resume my love affaire with Chain of Command, I’ll keep an updated diary of the campaign over the next weeks. I’ll be leading a panzergrenadier platoon of the 12^th SS HJ although on the table I’ll be featuring my German Fallschirmjager models instead (I don’t own any SS models and is very unlikely that I’ve ever will paint  some).

More news coming soon.

Th Painting Challenge - Final Report

Incredibly how fast time flies when you are enjoying an activity. Unexpectedly, March 21^st arrived and the IX Challenge was suddenly called off. I couldn’t achieved my target points (750) but having obtained 637 points left me happy enough (my highest score in a Challenge so far).

This is a group photo showing all the models painted included in the customary wrap up post in the Challenge blog.

And now let’s look at the different entries since my latest post here