Desert Campaign # 5: The Empire Strikes Back & Grand Finale

With the British Empire counterattack today, our Desert Campaign started mid-January concluded with a failed attempt to take the Axis main HQ position. A long game this morning where continuous blows from both sides to the enemy had the battle unresolved almost until the last minute, when one of the British infantry platoons (Polish) moral level fell to zero, leaving the Allied side with no other option but to concede defeat.

The scenario today was the third rung of the campaign which corresponded with the "Attack to an Objective Scenario 6" of the Chain of Command main rules book. In this case the objective was the main HQ of the Axis armies located at the oasis of Wad-de-Fak and the prize was to capture Rommel himself! Alas it was not possible despite a daring and aggressive attack of the Empire troops.

Desert Campaign Game # 4: Revenge of the Sij

The stunning Axis victory in the third game of the campaign, with the destruction of 2/3rds of the British tank force and the Indian infantry taking significant casualties, made the Axis players to be bolder than anticipated and instead of reinforcing the positions recently won, they launched a counterattack that could be decisive to win the campaign.

With the British now cornered in the first rung of the campaign ladder (see At the Sharp Endcampaign book for more detail) it was expected to be an all-out fight: a defeat in the game today would put an end to the campaign with the Axis emerging as the victors.

Desert Campaign Game # 3: Panzer Battles

The North Africa desert campaign continued today with the third in which the Axis troops after being badly mauled in the previous encounter, were now to conduct a defensive retreat action (scenario 4 of the Chain of Command book).

An what an epic struggle it was: the DAK Panzer section won several iron crosses and other garlands, taking revenge on behalf of the beating received lat week by its brother infantry platoon. The Panzers on its own sent the enemy Indian infantry platoon reeling out of the table, destroying almost two sections and then  almost totally wiped-out the British armour assets.

The Heroes of the Day

Desert Campaign Game # 2: When the DAK melted like ice in the heat

The second game of our Desert Campaign resulted in a total disaster for the Axis player, whose DAK platoon received a severe punishment and lost almost a full section. This time the Indian troops were much more cautious than in the first game and took revenge from the shameful rout suffered.

The Axis players decided to take a defensive stance and not counterattack;  they had one DAK and one Italian infantry platoons, this time supported by an anti-tank section instead of an armoured platoon. The ATG section had one 88mm guns and two Pak 36 guns.

The table was similar to that of the previous game: the Axis deployed on the left of the map below, in a  position at the foothills of a defile in the desert; this side of table edge  is dotted with hills (up to two levels) representing the area just outside the gorge. The Empire troops should move in a relatively flat terrain before reaching the enemy positions.

Desert Campaign Game # 1: Indians and Panzers Do Not Mix Well

The first game of the campaign played this morning resulted in a quick Axis victory... so quick that there not a single shot was fired before the British troops rushed off the table in a stampede!

But before the report let's talk briefly about the background. As posted yesterday, ours was designed as a short 3 scenarios campaign with a maximum of 6 games, following the recommendations included in At the Sharp End, the companion scenarios booklet to Chain of Command.

This was a Big CoC game confronting one Italian infantry platoon, one infantry and one armoured DAK zugs vs two Infantry platoons (Polish and Indian) and one armoured troop. 

New North Africa Desert Campaign for Chain of Command

After a couple of casual games in North Africa in the last weeks, my gaming group and I have decided to embark ourselves in a new short campaign for Chain of Command. Campaigns are truly more fun to play than individual encounters, as decisions taken today on how to use your force and spend your precious assets) can have a dramatic impact in the following games.

I took the lead and have arranged the campaign, acting as umpire or taking an active seat if any of the players fails to attend one game (I will only take tactical decisions, but will not intervene in the selection of supports or the general strategic decisions).

The context will be the rearguard actions of the Axis forces in the winter of ´41, with the British taking the initiative. With six players signed, we'll play a Big Chain of Command campaign, each force comprising 2 infantry platoons and 1 tank troop.... with a tweak that I cannot disclose now (but I promise to release the full details once we finish).

This will be a 3 rungs campaign as described in At the Sharp End with a maximum of 6 games allowed, covering an attack on the main defence line of the Axis (scenario type "Attack Defend"), a pursuit (a scenario type “Delaying Action") and the objective ("Attack on an Objective" scenario).

The first game will take place on Sunday* so stay tuned next week to read the first battle report here.

*The Spanish weather office  has activated a cold weather alert today and ofr the rest of the weekend... just a thought came to me this afternoon: wouldn't it be ironic if we have to cancel the desert game because of a snow storm?

2015 Gaming Season Jump-Start: Alamo in the Desert

My 2015 gaming season opened today with a Big Chain of Command Game in North Africa. The game confronted an Italian infantry platoon (green) and one Italian (M/13) and one German DAK (Pz III and IV) armoured squadrons vs. two Empire’s infantry (regular) and armoured squadron respectively. 

The scenario chosen was an Attack & Defend from the Chain of Command main book, winning the game the attacker if forcing the defender out of the table due to casualties or drop in the Force Moral to zero, while maintaining a Force Moral of at least level 3 himself.

When Bravura is not Enough - A Big Coc Battle Report

Source: The Imperial War Museum

Today marked my return to the battlefields after a long spell since mid-August. My gaming mates had been intensively testing Big Chain of Command mixing infantry and armoured units over the past weeks and it was time for me to catch up.

 Our initial intention was to play a Normandy battle, but the late-minute absence (due to a family incident, thank God not serious) of the Fallschimjager platoon commander forced us to change on the spot to a North African scenario, as we had most of our stock of models in the club.

In this game, an Italian infantry platoon and a troop of tanks (3 x M13) were  ordered to retake an oasis recently conquered by forces of the 4^th Indian Division; the Empire forces also received the support of a tank troop of Matildas. We used the “Attack & Defend” scenario 3 conditions of the Chain of Command book for this game.

The Fall of Tobruk - A Chain of Command AAR

Last weekend the first Afrika CoC campaign concluded with the last game, in this case with the attack on the central objective of the campaign: the inner perimeter of Tobruk. As I commented in a previous post, for different reasons I've been less active than wished in the campaign and have only played a couple of games including this final chapter.

With eight players interested, we structured the campaign around two different fronts with 2 opponents per side each, using the "ladder" system described in At The Sharp End, the CoC campaigns companion publication. We allocated 2 infantry platoons and a tank troop to each front, with no further reinforcements.

Bit of an Update

Usual readers may have noticed that this blog has been somewhat neglected recently, but my life is gone thorugh an hectic period recently and my gaming activity has been low since late April: additionally I have found few interesting topics worth making you waste your time. 

Real life interfered, in some case for good, in other for bad. As for the latter, my wife’s beloved father died in early May, a very sad loss and a relief at the same time as he’d been fighting for 3 years against a very aggressive cancer; personally it’s been hard  for the loss itself, but also because it brought me memories of my own father’s  passing away now 15 years ago (June 1999) after a similar and cruel fight against the same son of a bitch (sorry for the words).  Now all our attention and love is being focused in my mother in law, still recovering from the loss of his partner for over 60 years

The good news (but of little consolation in these circumstances) was that after a year unemployed I was offered as finance director in a newly created energy company. Just when I thought there was little future of a 50 years-old professional, I happen to meet coincidentally with an old boss of mine, who was searching from someone for this vacant post and offered me the position… a rare alignment of planets?  

Birthday Present Finally Arrived

A photo of the book I gave to myself for my (recently passed) birthday, that arrived yesterday sent by Amazon. Lee Hadley of Big Lee's Miniature Adventires blog fame brought my attention into it in a recent post commenting several WW II books. 

This a large-size and 600 page-thick tome featuring the trip of the author, Jean Paul Pollard to the North African battlefields in 2011 (from Tunisa to Egypt). Armed with a camera, he spent several months taking photos of the same locations of the contemporary war-era photos. Really interesting and a real must for anyone interested in this was theater.

Excellent and highly recommendable, just enjoying it tonight sitting in my favourite reading sofa and drinking a truly cold beer (summer already arrived to madrid today!)   

Assault on Tobruk!! - Introduction to our Afrika CoC Campaign

STOP PRESS: The Afrika CoC campaign is finally in motion!

The final arrangements were agreed during the week and finally last Sunday the opening game took place. The post today wants to be an introduction to the campaign framework and will be followed by more detailed battle reports of the different games as we did with our Stalingrad campaign.

The campaign will be conducted using the excellent supplement published by TooFatLardies called At the Sharp End that was already reviewed here on February. As a remainder, the campaign system works around a “ladder” of different scenarios starting in the “no-man’s land” and moving up and down in steps (outposts, main line of defence...) depending who wins each game, until reaching a central objective.  

Our campaign setup is Tobruk and the year is 1941. The Empire troops are garrisoning the city and Rommel’s German panzer elements will have to breach the fortress defences and ultimately conquest the city.

Due to the large number of players involved (eight) we have decided to play in two different areas of the battlefield, with 2 Axis and 2 Empire players in each area respectively. In principle, each side in each area will command 1 infantry platoon (with the supports available in the CoC Armies lists for each type of scenario) and 1 armoured elements troop.

Each side will also have a reserve of men and tanks (1 platoon and 1 tank troop) that will be distributed between the players depending on their individual performance over the games. Wounded and replacements are handled as per the campaign book.

Two final house rules to govern the campaign:

·         In the first two games it is supposed that both sides are undertaking mainly recon efforts, so no heavy armour will be allowed to be chosen as support   

·         The difference in terms of “ladder steps” between two areas in the same side will not be larger than 2 steps; if higher, the troops in the most advanced position will have to yield at least one step to avoid being flanked and surrounded

The first game of the campign was played last Sunday resulting in one Empire victory and one Axis victory. A battle report will follow soon, so stay tunned.

More Africa Action in Easter

Some of my club mates returning from the Easter break on Sunday organised a late afternoon Chain of Command game to start the working week tomorrow in good spirits. Due to the late minute call, we decided not to plan too much and to use the available forces (British and Italians) at hand.

From the CoC book we chose the “Flank Attack” scenario, with the Italians forces (an infantry platoon) defending an oasis from the attacking British. In order to make life harder to the attackers a small armoured German kampfgruppe (2 Sdkfz 222 and a Pz II) were also used.

 The battle was truly short with the British achieving a clean and straight victory when the Italian moral crumbled (fall to 2) after the destruction of the small armoured unit by the British Honeys. 

Book Review: Desert Generals

I have just finished reading The Desert Generals by Corelli Barnett. Forgive my ignorance but I’ve just discovered this  to be a classic work about the Desert Campaign in the IIWW, a fact I was not aware of; therefore many of you are probably acquainted with it and can avoid reading this post.

It was suggested as a good reading for my Afrika CoC project in the Too Fat LardiesYahoo Group … and I admit that was right on target. I have enjoyed a lot reading this book and also learned a few facts about the campaign completely unknown to me.

Particularly, I was truly surprised by the sharp and incisive critics on Field Marshall Montgomery, a total unimaginative and inept commander if we attend the arguments of the author and the strong vindications of other highly discredited commanders, like O’Connor and above all Auchinleck.

Auchinleck (as well as his predecessor Alexander) were actually victims of the political ambitions of Churchill; he strongly interfered in the strategic planning and operations of the Desert front, forcing the launch of offensive attacks on Rommel and the Axis armies without a proper preparation and/or sufficiently trained forces for pure domestic political reasons.

Project Afrika Coc Update # 3

We played a new and likely final test-game, before formally launching the Afrika CoC campaign, our first major club collective project put in motion last December using the Too Fat Lardies Chain of Command rules.

Following a somewhat disappointing game a few weeks ago were we perhaps overstretched the rules introducing three infantry platoons, this time we wanted to test what happens when playing with two infantry platoons and one armoured troop... and it went really well!

Project Afrika CoC Update # 2

This is the second update of our Afrika Coc campaign report. We are somewhat delayed vs. our initial calendar, as we expected to start in early February, but finally today we have exchanged the first shots (hurrah!) in the North African Desert table.

Today it has been more a test than a full real game and out of a campaign context. The gathering was useful to put together what each of us has already painted over the last two months and also to play with our new desert Warmat from BarrageMiniatures.

The Battlefield

A suggestion was made to try playing with 3 platoons per side and the game was useful to test how Chain of Command can be overstretched, considering that the design is mainly for 1 or 2 platoons maximum. Personally I think it worked just OK but not great, although in general I’m quite reluctant to play games that fundamentally breaks what the designer has tried to achieve.

Australian operated M 13

Deutsche Afrika Korps List for Chain of Command

On the heels of the British Army list, TooFatLardies has just released the German Afrika Korps list, also for the initial phase of the North African campaign (1941). Information and lists available at the official blog Lard Island.

Note that the base force in the infantry platoon in the Panzer Divisions, comprising three squads with 2 LMGs each, so a tough nut to crack on the table. Also note that according to General Toppe, motorbikes as well as Pz I & IIs were largely replaced by Kubels and the Mark III model respectively after the summer of 1941. On another note, the famous tropical helmet saw little life, quickly discarded by the troops and replaced by the cap (or the steel helmet in combat). 

The TFL Yahoo Group will concentrate this week in discussing the lists for the Barbarossa campaign, so expect some new list releases as early as next week.

Summarising, in addition to the lists published in the Chain of Command book and CoC España materials, we have now the following armies available from TooFatLardies:

• Poland 1939  http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1778
• Germany 1939  http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1791
• Red Army 1939-1940  http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1801
• Finland for the Winter War http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1813
• France 1940 http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1823
• Germany 1940 http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1832
• BEF 1940 http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1840
• Belgium 1940 http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1890
• Italy 1940-1941  http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=2025
• British Early North Africa (1941)  http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=2524

Early War British 8th Army for Chain of Command

After a long spell, Toofatlardies has just released a new army list for Chain of Command, time now for the Early War British Army in the North African desert. Information and lists available at the official blog Lard Island.

Following a discussion this past week in the TFL Yahoo Group we expect the DAK lists to follow very-very soon. Perfect timing also for the launch of our Afrika CoC Project (slightly delayed due to personal issues with some of the project participants).

Project Afrika CoC - Update # 1

Just a month ago now, I announced the launching of our first 2014 wargaming initiative at the club  called the "Afrika CoC Project" intended to play the North African 1941-42 campaign with Chain of Command. You may wonder if once the initial excitement was off and we cooled down, the project was basically filed.

Well, not at all!...  And on the contrary, we have as a group made substantial progress, to the extent that we expect to start the first games of a (still to work in detail) campaign by early February:

Group achievements so far:

• Ordered a large desert-terrain (200 x 250 cm) warmat to Barrage Miniatures, delivery expected by early February
• Ordered (and already arrived) some AFVs from Perry Miniatures
• Created a group Dropbox file and collected different useful materials, including painting guides, agreeing on the use of the same colour references for minis and bases

My personal progress on the project is not bad considering the short time span since the launch date. After researching some reading materials on the campaign, in addition to some Ospreys I have been reading the desert chapters of the Life of Field Marshall Rommel by Brendan Fraser and The Rommel Papers edited by Liddle-Hart. And in my reading pile I have right now Robert Crisp's Brazen Chariots and have recently ordered to Amazon Crucible War by Barrie Pit

Christmas Prezzies Arrived!

Anibal Invictus was a good boy and last night Santa rewarded him with some nice additions to his lead pile: Italians and British Perrys to start our Afrika CoC project!!