29, Let's Go! - Chain of Command AAR

Now that we're through the convention games, let's head back to familiar grounds; Ted's game room!

It seems like 2023 is going to be the Year of Chain of Command for me, as Ted offered up playing through the 29, Let's Go! "Pint-Sized" campaign from TooFatLardies with his 20mm collection. 

The campaign covers the American 175th Infantry Regiment's attempts to link their landing zone of Omaha to Utah by capturing the bridge at Isigny.

Steve and I took command of the Americans, while Chip and Ted led the German defenders. 

For the first scenario, "Probe at La Combe", the Americans needed to get a unit off the opposite end of the table, or force the German morale to break. 

The Americans started with an infantry squad deployed along a wooded road, and another cover the far field in front of the farmhouse. 

With no Germans in sight, I sent out a scout team for some reconnaissance. 

Another infantry squad was deployed with no Germans in sight. Behind the building is a light mortar team ready to provide support. 

You can also see one of the two Shermans that the platoon had also deployed along the road. 

And then, Germans!

The scout team was sent fleeing when a squad of entrenched Germans opened fire.

Unfortunately, the first American squad caught a lot of fire from the deployed Germans (who added a machine gun to their defensive line). With plenty of shock and an injured sergeant, I pulled the team back behind the second line of trees to give them some reprieve in heavy cover. 

With some targets finally revealed, Steve deployed and opened fire with the platoon's attached .30 cal machine gun. 

The already rocked squad ends up pinned and broken, forcing them back further. I had the platoon's lieutenant join them to start pulling off shock to keep them from routing if we had a turn end.

Meanwhile, we had a mini-drama play out with the Sherman and the off-table 88 that the Germans could call upon with a full Chain of Command die. The first time the Sherman was fired on, it got extremely lucky and was only forced to retreat backwards with a couple points of shock. 

I then tried to get the Sherman to move flat out to avoid being shot at again. Ted deployed an infantry squad to try and hit the Sherman with panzerfaust, but missed. 

The 88, however, managed to find its range and blew the Sherman up with its second shot.

One of the Germans infantry squads had taken enough fire to break and rout from the table. 

Hoping to redeploy from the village, Chip and Ted pulled their infantry from the hedgerow. This had a downside, though; suddenly the Germans found themselves targetable in light cover from multiple American units, along with a second Sherman. 

Instead of allowing their infantry to keep getting hammered, the Germans elected to instead retreat from the table.

This was a decent first game for the campaign. The Germans took a lot of casualties, but that was largely because the Americans had so much firepower deployed before the first Germans showed up. 

We'll follow this up with the second scenario next week. 

Brandywine About It - Live Free or Die AAR

After grabbing some lunch and meeting up with some old gaming friends from my time in Pennsylvania, I finished up my time at the convention on Saturday afternoon. 

The theme of the convention was the American War of Independence, so I needed to play in at least one game of that war. I spotted a game of Live Free or Die, the fast-play rules from Little Wars TV. For a bonus, it was Brandywine, which I had played back at the Historicon that wasn't Historicon a couple years ago. 

The GM, Tom, had set up a gorgeous looking table with plenty of terrain and a very clever means of outlining hills with flock. 

The (very well painted) Americans formed a solid line on top of the hill, awaiting the approaching (and also very well painted) British. 

Unlike last time, where I commanded the Hessians under von Donop, this time I played with Cornwallis' command which was the only British brigade to start on the table. 

With Tom asking me to "keep things interesting" on this side of the table, I started off with a brisk approach towards the Americans. 

The rebels levelled their muskets and opened fire on the approaching British skirmishers. 

Over on the other side of the table, the reinforcing Meadows', Matthew's, and von Donop's brigades were sorting out a traffic jam before shifting into line and approaching the Americans. 

One of my skirmishing units had failed their morale check after losing a base, causing a number of DMZs as they passed through an infantry regiment and a cavalry regiment. Not a great start!

However, I figured that my higher quality infantry should be able to get stuck in with the Americans and see them off after a spirited bayonet charge. So I asked for most of the Command Points we generated this turn...

And whiffed to disastrous results. 

The 16th Dragoons and 1st Light Infantry regiments rolled so poorly that they were thrown backwards, creating a DMZ cascade. I lost all but one stand from the dragoons, and the 1st Light Infantry were several moves away from getting into the fight. 

Luckily, the 2nd Light Infantry, with Cornwallis attached, did much better. They forced two American regiments to retreat and destroyed a 6-pounder gun. 

As the 2nd Light Infantry held the gap in the line, I was desperately trying to bring up the 1st Light Infantry and the Hessian Jagers. Agnew's Brigade  was coming around the farm to reinforce Cornwallis' attack. 

Over on the other side of the battlefield, the Americans, British, and Hessians were coming to grips.

Unfortunately, I had to leave at a certain time, and was unable to stick around to see the rest of the game play out. As a consolation, I did managed to win the signed copy of Michael Harris' "Brandywine" which I have read, but will happily add to my historical reference collection. 

Boxcars in Crete - Chain of Command AAR

Early Saturday morning, I returned to the Valley Forge Casino for game four of the weekend. 

I apparently got into a rather popular GM's game, run by Joseph McGrath. This game was featured in the 2022 issue of Lard Magazine, so it's got some pedigree!

This gorgeous table was setup for the German airborne invasion of Crete. The downed glider in the center of the table contained the dead HQ of the Fallschirmjagers and valuable intelligence. An Australian platoon, patrolling in the area, stumbled across the glider as well as an opposing Fallschirmjager platoon set on securing their general's corpse and the intel.

The Australians could search the glider by being on the model's base and spending an action during a phase (or in one phase of a multi-phase activation). They would roll a D6 and add it to the starting value of 3. The intel would be successfully secured once they reached 20. The Germans could decrease this number by 5 by spending a full CoC die. 

The Australians started with 8 points of morale, and the Germans with 10 points. 

As the attackers, the Fallschirmjager started off with all three of their platoons on the table; one in the vineyard, another through the orange grove, and the third occupying the villa. 

The Aussies (I was one of the two players on this side) started off with a much smaller force, only able to deploy the light mortar and MMG team. 

As the Fallschirmjagers advanced, the Australians brought the MMG up to the stone walls of the wheat field and began firing on the closest German squad, with support from the light mortar. 

The Australians also brought on their two squads; one to reinforce the MMG team, and another to start searching the glider. 

In what I'm guessing will be a once-in-a-lifetime event, my fellow Australian player and I kept rolling double or even triple 6s, phase after phase. For those of you who don't play Chain of Command, rolling double 6s give you a double-phase, allowing you to potentially move your units twice (at the cost of two potential moves if those 6's and been 1s through 4s. Triple 6s give a double phase and end the turn, removing ongoing statuses such as overwatch, tactical movement, or smoke). I think we have something like 5 double 6s and 2 triples 6s. It was absolutely wild. 

While the Australians only had two squads to the Fallschirmjagers' three, we did have three small partisan teams that appeared in random spots on the table and activated randomly. 

One group of partisans suddenly emerged into the villas, in the rear of one of the Fallschirmjager rifle teams. 

After some lucky combat, the partisans ended up breaking the German team and sent them running. 

That would, unfortunately, largely be the extent to which the partisans affected the game.

While the Australians had a decent line of defense, the weight of fire from the German LMGs began to show. The MMG team was the first to go, which was a big loss both in firepower and morale. 

Unfortunately, a loud drone in the air announced the arrival of German support; an ME-109!

You can also just barely spot the Vickers MkVI tank along the road on the left side of the image. Honestly, I made an error when deploying the tank. I thought that the infantry in the field would last longer, so brought the tank on further away from the Germans to try and hit the Fallschirmjagers in the villa. Unfortunately, the range and cover was enough that I wasn't able to do much. It probably would have been better used deploying on the road at the top of the images. A lesson learned for next time!

The Messerschmitt ended up buzzing the full-strength squad of Australian infantry holding down the left side of the defenses, wiping out most of them. 

With Australian numbers dwindling, the infantry searching the glider came under fire next. The sergeant leading the squad took a hit and was wounded. Despite this, the rifle team was close to securing the intel. 

The Australian lieutenant was trying his best to direct what was left of his platoon, but the Germans had rallied and 

The last remnants of one of the Fallschirmjager squads managed to reach the glider, dragging their wounded sergeant with them. This prevented the Australians from continuing their search. 

Another round of LMG fire sent the Australian rifle team running, leaving the Germans in control of the glider. They also had finally accrued a full CoC die, so even if the Australians had the means to retake the glider, the German players could have reduced the amount and kept the game going. 

All of these losses for the Australians resulted in multiple rolls on the Setback table, reducing our morale score and reducing our command dice. In the last couple turns we only had two command dice left, leaving the Germans mostly unopposed. 

With the rifle team running, this was enough to reduce the Australian's force morale to 0, ending the game.

While we had gotten very close to reaching the 20 on the search die, and had a mind-boggling amount of double phases in the first half of the game, we hadn't been able to reduce the Germans' force morale below 6. Meanwhile, it seemed like most of the casualties that the Australians took ended up with rolls on the Setback table, whittling away at the platoon's morale. 

Still, this was an incredible game (probably my favorite of the convention). It was a well-designed scenario on an incredibly well presented table, with a great GM and wonderful players. 

On Thin Ice - Wars of Ozz AAR

My second game of the convention was Wars of Ozz, another set of rules by Buck Surdu with Chris Palmer.

This was the opening scenario in a trio of campaign games from the "The War to save Yule" supplement, which added Christmas-themed armies. The Anti-Yule forces of the Ice Queen have Krampuses, Ice Trolls, Snow Men, Dark Elves, and other nasties, while the forces of the Lands of Yule have Elves and animated Toy Soldiers and Teddy Bears.  

Four Anti-Yule brigades lead the vanguard of the Ice Queen's armies into the Lands of Yule, surprising two Yule brigades by freezing the river that guards Yule's border. 

The Anti-Yule brigades scored a point for every unit (of any size) that escaped off the opposite table edge, while the Yule brigades scored two points for every Anti-Yule unit they entirely wiped out. Whoever had the most points by the end of the battle won and would help their side in the next game. 

The Anti-Yule brigade commanders that the best way past the Yule forces was through them. As the hordes of monsters marched across the ice, the thin line of Yule began to hurriedly deploy to stem the tide. 

Both sides began taking losses early on (over on our side of the table, at least...), with the Yule Elves and artillery scattering, but sending a unit of Krampuses running away in fear of the cannon as well. 

The unit of Teddy Bears were real troopers, fending off waves of Dark Elves and Dire Wolves with blasts of musket fire. 

As for my brigade, it wasn't doing so well. I thought that the burly Ice Trolls and the Christmas tree-hewing Mechanical Axemen would slaughter some measly Toy Soldiers and Elves. But the defenders of Yule sent both regiments fleeing, then eyed the Krampuses waiting on the far flank. 

And the Krampuses were soon routing as well! Sure, the Yule cavalry had taken a beating, but most of my brigade was on its way back across the river. 

Both sides were seriously depleted towards the end of the game. Instead of charging into the teddy bears again, I instead decided to sprint the Dire Wolves to the table edge, to help score some point. 

A glance over at the other side of the table showed some very fresh looking troops, eliciting some disbelief from the Yule commander whose troops were mostly exhausted from fighting off the anti-Yule brigades on his side of the village. 

Overall, the Anti-Yule attackers managed to get seven units off the table, while the Yule defenders destroyed three units. A 7-6 score meant that the Anti-Yule forces just barely managed to win!

This was a fun game, full of chaos thanks to how Wars of Ozz handles unit reactions. It's great to watch as your carefully planned attack falters as you lose control of your troops.

Unfortunately Old Glory wasn't able to attend this year, so I couldn't pick up the rulebook or another Munchkin regiment. Another online order, I suppose!

Herzöge von Hazzard - Combat Patrol AAR

This past weekend was HMGS' Cold Wars, held once again in the Valley Forge Casino's byzantine halls and rooms. 

I signed up for four games over two days, and volunteered to run one (which was Chaeronea using Strength & Honour, which I've posted about a few times now) as events list was a little thin on the eve of publication. 

Overall I enjoyed the convention, and I think that the players in my game enjoyed themselves. 

I'll be posting AARs of of the four games I played over the next few weeks, so here's the first!

Early Friday morning, after a couple hours drive from Cape May, I settled down for a game of Combat Patrol, run by Gregory with the ever-present HAWKS group. 

Combat Patrol, written by Buck Surdu, is a set of skirmish WWII rules that runs entirely on a deck of cards. The cards are used for movement, shooting, dicing off; anything that might crop up during the game is squeezed into a single card. Shooting, for example, is handled by multiple card flips. You flip to see if you hit, then who you hit, and then where they're hit and if it's deadly. Unit activations are also simultaneous, unless they might be interacting with enemy units, which can help speed up the early turns of a game.

It's a fun system that takes a little getting used to, but plays quickly once you become familiar. I had played a Napoleonic version way back at Barrage, and was looking forward to trying the original WW2 rules.

Greg's game was a fight between a British platoon and German platoon in 1940. The British had three infantry squads, an HMG, an anti-tank rifle, and two Matilda II tanks. The Germans didn't have any attached infantry support, but they had a bunch of tanks! Two Panzer IIs, a Panzer I, and a StuG. 

I was commanding an infantry squad and a Matilda II to start out, opposite a German squad. 

Thanks to a random activation system (that might restart without a chance for units to activate!) this was the position my troops were stuck in for a couple turns. 

Luckily the Matilda's armor was thick enough that the StuG was unable to outright destroy my tank, but the crew was stunned over and over. I did manage to get a fireteam into the ruins, but that left them at the mercy of the rapidly increasing number of German infantry. 

My Matilda, regrettably, was the first tank to brew up, leaving the British infantry uncomfortably exposed to the German armor.

Not that the situation was much better on the other side of the table, with two Panzer IIs blitzing through the town square!

With the indomitable 40k-esque spirit, one Panzer commander ordered his tank forward into the British infantry, scattering the Tommies like a flock of geese. 

My infantry were hunkered down in the ruins, hammered by German machine-gun fire. 

I did get the chance to bring on the HMG (I just forgot to take a picture), which did discourage the Germans from assaulting the Brits in the green ruins. 

The Germans were pressing the British back, having forced my fireteam out of the center ruins. 

In a daring maneuver, the Panzer II continued its rampage through the British infantry, further scattering and stunning the soldiers as it drove past. Two Brits desperately clung to the tank, trying to get their rifles or grenades into a open port. 

After a couple more turns, we decided to end the game with a decisive German victory. The British had lost their armor, taken multiple casualties, and had a German tank doing donuts through their flanks. The only thing to do was find the quickest route to Dunkirk!

 I had fun playing the game and, had it been available to purchase by any vendor at the convention, would have picked up a copy. Alas, no one had a copy, so I'll have to grab one online. I could see this being a fun game for the club, and it's another candidate for my idea of playing the Horus Heresy without GW's rules.