End of another C&C Ancients Vassal game with Mike and this time his Carthaginians were victorious at the Trebbia braking my winning streak when the outflanking force under Mago appeared inflicted telling losses.
But boy was it close as the previous Roman turn I was a mere 1 hit from destroying enough Cartho units for an auto-victory !!
A slick playing and fun light system that works well on Vassal
Only had couple of hours spare today so set up a solo game of Combat Commander using a scenario based around action at Goch Germany in 1945 with British in Recon mode against defending German 2nd line troops.
Fast and furious it proved to be as Germans just about held on for the win after multiple Sudden Death rolls (fairly whizzed through decks) with a lucky increase to Surrender level saving them from auto defeat so allowing a VP victory.
These are marketed as a fast play set with units as Regiments.
Scenario was based on a Guns of Gettysburg version of 'The Wheatfield' using Stephens excellent 15mm kit and troops (mostly Peter Pig).
Used standard sized units (5 bases) for ease although rules allow varied sized Regiments (4-12 bases) but no matter number of stands used units are rated for 3 Attrition Levels ie 6 for Veterans, 5 Experienced or 4 Raw.
System has interesting sequence of play (followed alternately by players) with Officers moving first then Charges, Skirmishers and other Moves followed by shooting by Artillery, then Skirmishing, then Musketry and a Melee phase.
I really liked how Skirmishers are handled being able to be deploy or recall at will but only taking 1 hit to get rid of them or forcing them back by advancing on them and their shooting is not too powerful.
Oddly they cannot be ignored by artillery (no shooting through to parent unit) but this is fine in practice and overall Skirmisher just worked.
Movement is a set distance with variable move of 1-2 D6 with usual deductions for terrain and is done per unit (no group moves).
Shooting and Melee are conducted by causing a Morale Check on enemy which use a percentage dice system for passing or failing with units suffering Attrition hits and possibly falling back and maybe not being able to fire at next opportunity.
Advancing troops seem slightly less vulnerable to being fired at than stationary chaps but with caveat that if you move over half you don't fire.
Officers give Morale bonuses to units in Command when shot at or when attached to a unit in Melee and can recover Attrition hits on units by using their own pool of Attrition (4-5) but are mostly invulnerable (only lost if attached to a unit destroyed by melee).
Rules are bit vague in several areas (and not much in way of support that we could find) but these issues were pretty easy to rule upon in practice.
All in all a fun set that should be quicker to play than our favoured Regt Fire and Fury (really its only downside is game length imho).
Germans in this come with a PzIVH so I used 6 of the 15 British support points to bring along a Sherman to see how that match up worked.
I classed this as game 3 of campaign as otherwise the British can suffer confusion (ie having problems deploying) due to misty conditions.
British Jump Off points in this one not great positions as very open terrain but they did manage to get into a building early on drawing the attention of a MG42 (in MMG mode) but despite 2 killed they managed along with Sherman to dispatch this 5 man team very quickly (really good dice rolls).
This forced Germans to bring out a Section which kept the building under almost constant suppressive fire.
When the PzIVH appeared it was promptly hit by Sherman on Overwatch, took 1 shock and retired off table, but thankfully it was able to come back again despite being now classed as Hesitant.
It fired on Sherman but only managed to put 1 shock on and the Sherman then hit the Panzer again causing further shock and damaging the engine (not fast movement or fire and move allowed)
Again this played pretty well (solo issues aside) and interesting to see tank on tank action.
My 15mm kit not being based singly is possible issue with some of new arc of fire rules but easy to fudge.
Must give new mortar rules an outing to see if these weapons are less dominant than in COC1 (reading rules they seem less so with combo of ammo and increased COC dice)
Village outskirts occupied by the Hun
Game was concluded on 4th Propaganda card with a very narrow victory for Taliban beating Coalition by a mere 1VP with Warlords close by in third (-3 VP) and poor old Government well of pace in 4th (-12VP).
I generally struggle with Government faction and maybe need to use Bot for them in future (do find Bots bit ponderous to use) but still a fun game overall.
I do so enjoy the decisions and actions of COIN system combined with nice historical flavour even in sad sack solo mode.
Must confess I was not a great fan of first edition as any game I was involved in always seemed to end up as 'I am in my bit of cover you are in yours and we just have a dice fest until somebody breaks', very little movement of units once deployed from Jump Off Points and Mortar Barrages just seemed to kill a game.
Rules always read well but game seemed lacking (we much preferred IABSM) although doubtless we were not using to full potential and my grasp them is therefore limited.
Having followed the TFL blurb re new edition it did seem to be addressing these very issues (obviously not just us) with numerous other add-ons that sounded fine.
So having bought new edition (as if it was ever in doubt) I set up a scenario from one of the excellent Normandy Pint-Sized Campaigns, 'Attack On Mouen' with British defending (with 6 support points) an SS attack (with 15 support points).
There a several differences in the OOBs and Support options between PSC and old/new Rules with LMGs now mainly having their accompanying soldiers as 'pure' crew rather than additional riflemen and costs/types of some support options differ, but I just fudged things and avoided taking mortars to keep things simpler (there are several changes to how mortars work and their duration on table).
Of course WWII not very solo friendly generally and COC is especially awkward with the Patrol Phase and Jump Off Point systems but again fudged through to generate the situation (this is one of COCs strengths giving a plausible set up).
Have so far played through several phases and indeed game does seem improved especially with the new uses of COC Dice Pips, several times I used the 'Hit The Dirt' option (3 pips) to reduce hits on advancing Germans.
Germans have a PzIVG (6 pts in rules but 7 in PSC list) and these now can use rolls of 1 to activate a crew position (ie driver or gunner) in addition to usual roll of 3 to activate Tank Commander and whole crew, there also seems to be new (?) rules regarding speed of turret traverse giving Shermans a possible advantage over say a Tiger.
Issuing of orders via Command Dice, Movement and Shooting all mostly same (a few changes to use of Command Dice and how COC Pips are accumulated) and indeed when it comes to Shooting it is same dice heavy system so for example a PzGr section comprises 2 MG42 teams with 3-4 crew and fire 16 dice as a section but with no 'spare' riflemen so bit reduced from previously (think it was +3 rifles so 19 dice ?) generating hits that can cause Shock (this TFL system appears unchanged) or Kills.
MMGs such as Vickers or MG42 on tripod (10 dice and 5 crew) are deployed in Entrenchments which I think is a change ?
Suppressing Fire (previously Covering Fire ?) was bit awkward as it only last 2 phases so I kept forgetting if/when to remove it but is good for hampering deployments from Jump Off points (it covers a zone 4.5"-9" wide by 4.5" deep) or reducing enemy firing.
One interesting new addition is the new 'Time Clock' system wherein if attacker (in the Attack/ Defend scn) captures an objective either side can initiate a 'Count Down' to game end (number of remaining phases equalling enemy Force Morale), this should force enemy to attack to recapture objective rather than relying purely on shooting to break the enemy.
Alongside playing solo the biggest 'issue' by far is distinct lack of a QRS (in pipeline I believe ?) as this means lots of flicking through book to check or re-check just about everything.
Of course only dipped toe into rules and doubtless several other changes I have not used/encountered (including National 'Traits') as yet but so far so good.
PzIV moves up to support PzGr sections
Game was played by 3 of our many Daves, with Dave M taking Germans (as he arrived first and had time to plot hidden units) against Dave T and Dave B as attacking British.
After brief outline of core rules we got straight to it and a super game it turned out to be and managed to play full 14 turns of scenario as it went right to the wire.
Highlights saw Germans having a run initiative in early turns and 2 Shermans brewed.
One was taken out by Pak40 the other was flanked by a PzShreck team (a combo of moves, exploit movement and the won initiative), the remaining Sherman was later damaged and then retreated off table
British seemed incapable of activating much in first turns or if they did their shooting was abysmal (something which Dave B in particular suffered from all game).
However Germans were forced to move (and reveal) a Platoon deployed in 'lesser' farm as Brits not deployed anywhere nearby, and whilst this cost Shermans (as PzShreck included) it did mean this Platoon was far from later action at St Nicolas Farm itself.
British Artillery had accurate but marginally effective first stonk on this advancing Hun Platoon.
However second stonk on orchard at St Nicolas Farm devasted a Platoon of defenders (2 Dispersed and other Disengaged).
This opened up things on this flank for British who advanced into orchard (an exploit move and initiative wins helped here) and then assaulted into the farm itself, initially losing but ejecting the defenders (an MMG and single Section) at second attempt.
Brits were firmly in control of farm with no Germans in numbers nearby to re-take (and reduced to firing PzShrecks at buildings), however the British losses were such that Huns could win by breaking British force.
Indeed both sides were rolling Force Morale Tests for 25% casualties and indeed on last turn the British were a single loss from defeat however they managed to Rally 3 Suppressed units which was just as well as Dave T rolled a mere 3 on their last Force Morale check which would have seen these units Rout and would have given game to Germans.
However by skin of their teeth the British won by controlling the farm at game end.
Table at start (Germans all hidden)
First British assault on farm has been repulsed but second wave ready to try again
Also at club today:
A Chain Of Command 2 (that didn't take long !) in 28mm by Jeremy D and Dave S, with Jeremy N and Chris involved.
British won this one and feedback on new version seemed positive
