Combat Commander - couple of scenarios played

Couple of scenarios from Combat Commander: Mediterranean played with my Dad.

First set on Eastern Front in 1941 pitting Romanians against Russians the second a 1940 bash with Germans versus French.

As always two great games (both Allied wins). 

Vassal - more merry Sunday evening mayhem with Combat Commander

Another session with Dad on Vassal with Combat Commander.

We are now into the Mediterranean expansion completing the action at Meleme with a NZ victory over Dads Fallschirmjager and played an action on Poland 1939 with a very narrow win for my Poles.

Set up another for next week with my Soviets about to be assaulted by Romanian force.

Combat Commander

Played the last three scenarios from the Mediterranean playbook with my father and three very different scenarios they were indeed !! 

First saw British in Holland in 1945 near Goch attacking at dusk (increasing hinderance factor) against Conscript Germans. 

Next two featured Italians against Commonwealth forces in Africa.

First was a patrol type action into no mans land between two trench lines in the sand.

Final game had Indian troops dug in on a hill being attacked by the Italians.

All the usual chaotic but throughly entetaining affairs.

Not much time for Blogging......................

Been rather busy this festive season (well more the run up to it) so been bit slow on Blog posts.
I did manage a couple of gaming sessions.

Had a quick playtest of Die Fighting 2 with my Napoleonics but sadly had to cut it short.
Hope to have a fuller play through and proper look rules but suffice to say they appear to be a more streamlined version than DF1 and come in novel format ie a DVD that has video tutorials of rules in action along with printable PDFs for charts and suchlike.
Prefer 'old school' book myself but this is certainly a different approach and most definitely less expensive to purchase from USA.

Also had Combat Commander session with my Dad playing 3 scenarios but I only managed photos from one of them as got so engrossed in this addictive game.

My Seven Years War Prussian army arrived from Stonewall Figures on 23rd so in process of trying to base these in between family visits etc

More Imperial Eagle (and a little bit of Combat Commander)

Played several more turns using Imperial Eagle rules.
I like the rules as a fast play set.
Things move along briskly with fairly large moves rates. Infantry in Attack Column move 4 base width (ie 16cm) and Cavalry in Attack Column/Waves a whopping 8BW making them a dangerous proposition.
Firing is simple with a number of D6 per base firing (usually 1 per eligible base with 2 for Artillery Canister/Grapeshot).
Hits are on a 4+ (skirmisher hit and are hit on 5+) subject to a few modifiers for terrain and suchlike.
Every 2 hits generates a casualty (base loss) with odd 'left overs' being rolled for with a 1 causing an additional casualty.
Losses can be marked or bases removed as suits the gamer.
Melees are similar with base dice being 2 D6 per base (only 1 for artillery caught in melee) but with more modifiers to cover Infantry vs Cavalry and vice versa.
Squares half attacking Cavalry base dice for instance.
Heavy Cavalry gain 2D6 extra.
Bonus dice are for things like Guard troops or having a higher Elan rating (Heroic-Valiant-Reliable-Unreliable-Irregular I think) than opponent.
So my Young Guard have a basic 6 dice (4 basic +1 Guard +1 Valiant) versus Prussian line with 4 dice (4 basic and Reliable). 
Skirmishers are well handled with 1-2 'mini' bases out ahead of base unit.
These fire at other skirmishers initially and can soak up hits in lieu of these being inflicted on parent unit but will accordingly disappear eventually.
They 'run' to rear of parent unit when within 2BW of Infantry (6BW of Cavalry) or if unit charged and do not count in melee.
Melee outcomes see loser retreat a half move then test Discipline and if 1 rolled it converts to a Rout with a further half move away and Discipline tests on friends within a danger zone. A quirk is that Infantry routs only affect other Infantry and Cavalry only other Cavalry. Artillery does not rout but is destroyed in place.
The sequence of play is interesting with a Bombardment phase for both sides artillery to....er...bombard followed by an Initiative phase wherein the active player can fire Muskets or Charge, enemy can only fire as reaction to firing or charging units.
Then comes a Movement phase for active player during which units...um...move and can again conduct charges.
Units within enemy Zone of Control (4-6 BW) wanting to change formation must test Discipline.
One rule I do like is the Interpenetration/Passage of Lines with the static unit having to pass a Discipline test to allow friends to pass through directly from front or rear only.
Artillery are no obstacle to pass-throughs.
Then its a Musketry Phase with...you guessed it.....musket firing.
Then Melee is fought.
After this another interesting phase termed Tactical Movement with Brigades possibly activating to move their units outside enemy ZOC.
The Brigades activate on a 2D6 roll under their Brigadiers Command level (7-10) with a maximum of two Tactical Moves (Marching might be better description) allowed.
No firing or charging is allowed in this phase.
Then it is a Rally phase when Commanders can try to restore unit losses (as casualties are Morale/KIA combo) at rate of 1 per Commander for any units outside enemy ZOC.
Another aspect I like in rules is that Cavalry involved in Melee are Blown afterward but can recover in this phase either automatically if outside ZOC or by dice roll.
Turn ends with a Victory Determination phase then its enemy turn to go through these phases.

Rules include several Orders of Battle taken from actual OOBs such as Leipzig, Ligny, Waterloo and several more earlier OOBs.
These are based around a core Divisional with several options of Support Brigades.
Author says he will release more OOBs.
There is also a Competition style scenario generators for encounters (although I found the terrain in these less than inspiring) to be set up or an attack vs defence type game.
Test game I tried had a good deal more units than the generator would.....er..um..generate.

Overall I like the rules as a nice alternative to something like Lasalle, Napoleon at War or Shako.
Game seems (only tried solo of course) to tick along nicely with good decisive outcomes to firing and combat.

But on the downside the rules (especially for a set touted as a competition set) do lack a lot of definition of key terms and full explanation of several concepts.
Nothing that one cannot sort in a friendly style game but I fear a competition setting might cause problems.
As an example nowhere (that I can find) is it described how a Square fights in terms of how many dice it uses to fire or melee ?.
Similarly no firm definition of size of built up areas or capacity (although one can glean this from examples).
Also whilst implied (and indeed intuitive and in one example) the rules do not actually declare how many ranks can fire for different formations (author does explain some stuff on the TMP site but such basic stuff really should have been in the rules text IMHO).
A simple glossary of terms would fix this readily and no doubt a FAQ will appear in due course as per just about every other set out there.

Also played 3 scenarios of Combat Commander Mediterranean at my Dads (with 3 wins !!) which was it usual excellent way to spend an evening. 

The French/Minor Allied deck is a frustrating deck to play with but very satisfying when a win ecked out despite it. 

First scenario was French Moroccans defending a sunken road then it was Canadians at Ortona and finally Yugoslavs defending a river crossing.

Great stuff

Bit of a catch up.........................

Been bit mad with work and suchlike here over past few days so a few things missed being blogged.
Here are few pics of games both board and miniatures (just no time for Vassal/PC stuff).

Currently up on table is another Napoleonic outing this time trying Rank & File rules.
A quick play no frills type game that is certainly easy to pick up and play.
Main gripe is lack of any real Command and Control as Commanders do not have anything like Command or Influence ranges or restrictions.
Mainly Commanders just boost Morale rolls or aid melee if directly attached to a unit.
Therefore units can in theory run off and operate independently
Maybe if/as I play more I will see more value to the Commanders.

Managed a couple of Combat Commander games with my Dad as they are fairly quick playing.
And as usual very entertaining stuff.

Also (some rather ropey) pics from a recent Field Of Glory Renaissance game at Stephens, Later TYW German versus Later TYW French.
This one was over very quickly when my three Cuirassier units were shot to bits by some potent French salvoes (read excellent dice rolling by Stephen) and all three routed !!