Another Amazon Giveaway: Decision in the Ukraine

Another free ebook provided by Amazon, This time Decision in the Ukraine, dealing with the German armoured operations in the summer of 1943. Whether it is a good or a bad book, difficult to assess: It has only 3 reviews with an average of 3.7 stars, but distributed at extreme ranges ( 2 x 5-star and 1 x 1-star reviews). I catched news on this in the TooFatLardies Yahoo Group,  and at least one member suggests that there's plenty of material to play with I Ain't Been Shot Mum.

Whatever the case, good or bad, you have nothing to lose (except some of your precious time) and it is a "very economic way of feeding my reading stack", as another Yahoo Group member rightly points out.

Chain of Command: A Diary # 1

As I had the opportunity to comment a couple of weeks ago, we've been invited by Richard Clarke of TooFatLardies to participate in the test phase of its new II WW skirmish-level rules Chain of Command (referred as “CoC” from now on), expected to be published in the final form by the summer.

After playing a few games in our club with the draft rules versions, I'd like today to start now a series of occasional posts commenting our impressions and assessment, as well as illustrating some of the mechanics and the philosophy behind  the game.

Topic of today: when "skirmish" is truly skirmish  

I cannot emphasizes more that CoC is a truly skirmish-skirmish game, where 1 mini on the table represents 1 man, and 1 model a vehicle of some sort (soft skin or AFV).

At this level of play, you are expected to command a force the size of an infantry platoon with the appropriate support to that scale: an MMG/HMG, a specialist team of engineers with a flamethrower or a tank killer team, (very) light mortars and some limited armour support (one tank, half-track or Bren carrier).  

Tigers in Normandy

This is just to call you attention about a book called "Tigers in Normandy". For some reason that I don't know, at least today is FREE for Kindle. If you want yopur copy, just click here. It got some very good reviews by readers, with a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on average. I´ve already downloaded my copy!!

Chain of Command: New II WW Skirmish Rules

TooFatLardies is planning to launch a major new set of rules covering skirmish actions (up to platoon level) in the IIWW, probably to be released this summer. As in any other TFL product, "friction in the battlefield" and "historical accuracy" are the key core aspects of the rules, but this new set introduces some important changes to the two most traditional features of their rules sets: the card-deck engine and the blinds system.

The card deck  dissapears altogether, being replaced by a number of dice results. Each side will have between 4 and 6 command action dice (depending on the force quality level)  and the dice rolls will allow the player different options to activate their forces: from activating a fire team (part of a squad) to activate the senior leader (platoon commander) who can then order the units under command range.

The blinds system, another well-entrenched tradition of TFL, is replaced now by a new pre-game mechanism, in which the players move alternatively some "patrol markers" until they are close to enough to the enemy. Once fixed, they become "jump-off points" from where the force commander will be able to commit the units under his control. This system offers two advantages: speeding up the game, cutting short the period in which the units are maneuvering to get into contact; increases the optionality of the player to commit the forces according to the tactical situation at each moment.   

Club Dragón has been kindly invited by TooFatLardies to participate in the rules testing process, and this morning we have played our first game. I'll be updating our impressions and progress with the testing in more detail but overall we are very favourably impressed with the system. Initially we spend sometime in grabbing the core mechanisms, but after a short time the attention of the players was mostly focused in the tactical options and decisions of an almost real battlefield.     
 
Richard Clarke has produced some very good videos in YouTube to explain the key features of Chain of Command, the last three dedicated to develop a full game. I encourage you to watch these videos and follow closely the development of Chain of Command

Part One: Introduction
Part Two: Command & Control
Part Three: Fire & Movement
Parts Four, Five and Six: Game Example
(ADDED AUGUST 2013) Part Seven: Selecting your forces

There's also an excellent podcast by Meeples & Miniatures about Chain of Command, including an interview with Richaed Clarke and Nick Skinner, the brains behind TFL

Vietnam Battle Report: Rawhide

US Army 1st Lt Comps woke early that morning with a bad feeling... the briefing last night left him unease. He had to help an ARVN company to reach the hamlet of Mi Sac, reportedly to be a major centre of recruitment for Charlie, to interrogate the population and gather intelligence about the enemy forces operating in the valley.

"This is not looking good, definitely..." he told to himself while boarding his M 113 ACAV and leading his armoured platoon out of the safety of the American base.

Mi Sac was at the end of route 19 in theory under control of the Free World Forces but the last track was located between two dense masses of jungle, and dominated by a steep hill looking into the road... "Charlie's favourite terrain to play cat and mouse... even if  we are mouses clad in steel" Comps found himself thinking.

The road to Mi Sac village

The trip was incident-free when the armoured and lorry column reached the dreaded area. An air recon mission early in the morning indicated no sign of enemies and the only visible activity that of the peaceful villagers tending the rice fields to the east of the village.

Natives attending their own business

An Infantry Platoon Leader in Patton's Army

Still recovering my computer files from an OS crash*, I found this fogotten link among my old bookmarks, a series of short real war stories by a US infantry 1st Lt Bryan Bell, platoon commander in G Company, 313th Infantry, 79th Division in WWII. As he tells "my 136 days as a 1^st Lt. Platoon Leader were the longest any officer lasted..." makes it even more interersting and not to miss the photos section, all taken by him.

Now that Chain of Command, the future skirmish IIWW rules by the TooFatLardies, testing is gaining momentum, there's some scenario inspirational materials here as well.

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(*) A very timely post here by fellow blogger and Lardie fan Mike Whitaker encouraging everyone to invest some time in backing up your computer files and BLOGS. Fortunately, I had an external hard disk drive and make monthly updates of my files; this has saved me a lot of anger and tears after the OS crash episode.      

Vietnam: New Photo Trove

Unshamelessly stolen from one of my favourite bloggers, Big Lee, I can't resist brigning this to the attention of those interested in the Vietnam War. An army conscript soldier turned to photographer called Charlie Haughey took over 2000 photos during his stay in country.

After 45 years stored away, now they are being unearthed despite the emotional impact caused to the author. The first batch of 46 photos can be found here are really worth taking a look both for their quality and content. A MUST for anyone interested in the period.  

Charlie Haugheyh

Charlie Haughey

Charlie HaugheyCharlie

Charlie Haughey

Charlie Haughey