Chain of Command 29 Lets Go Campaign

For the last few weeks/moths I have been running the "29 Let's Go" Chain of Command pint sized campaign for some of the Devon Wargames players. Primarily this was to show them the way the game is played at its best, one platoon against one platoon.

Picture stolen from JJ's blog

As I have said previously, the best place to see the battle details is JJ's blog. He has taken many pictures and put up a few reports already. I am now putting up the final result and the details of casualties etc.

In the campaign the Germans get a single platoon for the majority of the actions while the Americans get a new platoon for each game. This gives a big advantage to the American player as they get three squads of twelve men for every game while the German has to husband his resources and try to minimise losses while still stopping the advancing enemy.

The campaign is fought on 5 maps in a ladder sequence. It is possible for the Americans to win in 5 games, put unlikely if the German player is sneaky careful. As it was, this run of the campaign took 9 games as Ian managed to pull a few sneaky wins and one completely flukey one.

Above is the map of the battlefields as they appear on the ground. Maps 1, 2 and 5 are defended by a single platoon of Germans. Luckily maps 2 and 3 are off the advance route and are held by other platoons, so they just serve to delay the advance. 

In the campaign the games went well for the Americans initially. They won game 1 and 2 on maps 1 and 2, then lost game 3 on map 3 and had to refight it in turn 4. Turn 5 on map 4 saw a major back step for the Allies when, despite getting 6 phases on the trot before any Germans were even on the table, they failed to get a chain of command dice and the concentrated German firepower broke their force morale very quickly. The battle was lost for want of a single 5 in 7 phases of play.

That set them back to map 2 on the main road. The original German platoon was well rested by now and called up reinforcements, giving them a full platoon again. They went on to win and consolidated their position. This also caused the American Colonel to waver, requiring a visit for General "Dutch" Cotter to get him moving again. Game 8 and the Germans inflicted a few casualties and then pulled back to maintain their strength. Game 9 was the final round and would decide if it was a major German victory or if the allied advance would continue. As it went on, this final battle was a very cagey affair and it went right down to the wire. Both sides lost many men and force morale fell, reducing chain of command dice until, finally, the Germans broke and the American advance could continue. However, all the Germans except for the defending platoon had escaped and the ongoing fight would be harder for it.

Below is a table detailing the losses after each game. Losses are not all dead, 50% are dead or badly wounded enough that they are counted as dead, 25% are wounded and miss the next game while the final 25% are lightly wounded and are available for the next game.

The different coulours on the German column show the losses for the other platoons. In total German losses were 86 infantry, 2 NCOs and 9 support weapon crew. That works out as 43 dead and 43 wounded. American losses were 103 infantry, 1 Senior NCO, 3 NCOs and 6 Shermans, giving 52 dead GIs with 51 wounded.  All told the losses were fairly equal, except for the 6 Shermans!

It was fun to run the campaign for the lads, especially as  I got to see their tactics and planning change each time they played. I can recommend the pint sized campaigns to any one who like Chain of Command, it makes for a very different game to the usual game as you have to be more careful with your losses. 

That's it for now, I am off on the yearly pilgrimage to Partizan tomorrow so expect news of that next week. Catch you all later.

Wargames Foundry and Partizan 2018

As has become a regular occurrence, a bunch of Devon's least wanted headed north for a weekend of wargames in(or near) Newark. Nine of us went up, four from South Devon and the others from the other, less cultured areas.

An early start resulted in the now common sighting of the lesser haired Pingu in its natural state, asleep.

A quick stop at the hobbit hole(Gloucester Motorway Services) for a breakfast and a meet up with the others broke the journey before we headed on  to Wargames Foundry.

There we were amply fed and watered for a small fee, with tea, coffee, cold drinks, pastries, rolls, crisps and snacks all day while we used their table to play a multi-player Dark Ages fight using Dux Bellorum.

 Several hundred figures had travelled North in the two cars and went to battle to decide who was the one true king, Pingu or Steve.

Sadly it proved to be not Pingu as he fell in a blood sodden heap under the swinging blades of Steve and Toms masses.

 Here are the enemy and they are f-ugly! From left to right we have JJ, Tom(son of JJ), Steve the First, Chas the Knowledgeable and Vince the Demon Dice Roller. I didn't bother picturing the opposition 'cos we is even more f-ugly than they are.

After the day at Foundry we split up, the victors heading off to Lincoln to enjoy a victory curry will we headed off to our digs, via a shop for dinner and breakfast supplies. We usually stay at Lincoln Premier Inn when we go up but the price this year was a tad high at near £90 a room, so we had a look around and found a nice little place on Airbnb for just over £80 which could fit us all in. Turned out to be a lovely little cottage on a riding school with all the amenities you would ever need and very comfortable too. Best nights sleep I have had away from home for a long time. It had been a long day and we are all older than we like to admit, so we crashed pretty early and were up pretty early(except Nathan) for bacon and egg rolls and several cups of tea and/or coffee while watching the horses.

Sunday was spent at Partizan and a cracking day it was too. I caught up with some old friends, some who I have not seen for several years, saw some beautiful games and spent a bit of cash. I won't bother putting up a show report as JJ has done one far better and with much nicer pictures than I could, so I will just point you to his report of the show here. As usual though it is IMHO the best show in the country and I shall endeavour to make it up again next time.

Then we headed home in the sun. The sleeping Pingu made a reappearance, but too be fair I also had a snooze on the way back. Luckily Nathan didn't, as he was driving. A quick stop for fuel early on was turned into a quick stop for a refill of our bellies, so after a munch on KFC or a baguette we got back underway.



We had picked up a surprise present for our driver as a thank you for his services and a subtle comment on his demeanor at times 😉. A tasty snack which may be one of his 5-a-day, although I doubt it. Well, it does have peanuts in it!

Anyway, all told it was a cracking weekend, a nice trip away with decent company and a fun couple of days away. Bring on next year.

Death in the Dark Continent/Congo figures

I am back again with more plans and schemes that will remain my focus for about 10 minutes, before something else grabs my attention.

I recently bought the re-released Death in the Dark Continent rules from Northstar.  I went in for it because........well, it looked good and I had no figures for it and I have no will power, at all.  The rules came and caught my interest immediately, so all I needed was some figures.  On our recent trip to Partizan I spent a bit of cash and ended up with a selection of figures from Wargames Foundry, Copplestone Castings and Northstars African Range.  All told I had a mixed bag of over 80 figures by the time I had finished.  I figured that would be plenty, stupid of me I know. I decided to base them on pennies (UK 1 pence coins) as they are magnetic and would also allow me to use the figures for Congo games.  So sabot bases were needed for DitDC, which were easily arranged by emailing Supreme Littleness Designs and asking if he could knock something together for me.  In less than 24 hours he had done so and I had ordered them.  Top service from a nice chap who does exactly what it says on the website.

So, I started slapping paint about in a random manner and eventually ended up with a load of painted(sort of) figures.  So here they are in their glory, sort of.  Well, at least they are painted and none of them have been in my possession for more than a few months!

 Here are 20 warriors, all with wicker shields and spears.

20 more warriors, some with fancy headdresses.

 10 more warriors, 5 musket armed types and some porters.  This lot include the freebie figures that came with the pre-order of the rules book.

 24 Pygmies, because who doesn't like a pygmy!  They are right sneaky little blighters in the rules, very hard to hit if they are in cover.

Finally for now are some disorder bases.  Disorder is the normal unit killer in the rules, it takes a very lucky shot to actually kill a base so they tend to run away rather than get wiped out.

So there they all are.  The planned force is a Cannibal Tribe list coming in at a nice 298 points made up of the following units.
One unit of 4 Elite Warrior bases including the Chief
Two units of 4 Warrior bases
Three units of 4 skirmisher bases armed with spears
Two units of 6 pygmy bases with bows
The Surprise stratagem, so they can all set up in ambush
Some pitfalls to force the enemy into the rough and slow them down

 Here are the figures on the sabot bases.  First up is 2 units of 4 bases of warriors.  I need another 12 warriors including a chief to complete the fighting arm of the force. Also shown here is the baggage base, 3 bearers.

 These are the 3 units of 4 bases of skirmishers.  Only 2 figures per base, so easy to tell apart from the fighting types.

Finally (for now), these are the sneaky pygmies.  These are all the pygmy figures that Wargames Foundry make, so that's all there will be I think.

As I said, I need to get a Chief type and some more warriors, so Northstar will get an order as soon as my finances have recovered. In the future I plan a Naval Landing Party force using the Perry Miniatures Sudan figures.  They can have a gatling gun......

So that's it for Africa for the time being, although I have also painted up some other things for another plan, more on that tomorrow.

Adios for now.

I went to Partizan.......

And a cracking show it was too.  The new venue might lack a bit of the soul of Kelham Hall but it is much more convenient and user friendly.  The show seemed much busier and was certainly easier to get around.  A good number of traders covering everything you could want and some excellent games made it a good day.  It was topped off for me with the chance to catch up with a lot of friends, many of whom I hadn't seen for a long time.

Nap time.  Poor old fella

We travelled up on the Saturday morning, myself, Andy, Sleepy Paul(aka Pingu) and Nathan, and visited Wargames Foundry before heading to the Premier Inn in Lincoln.  I spent more than I planned too at Foundry, but could have spent a lot more than I did.  Pingu found it a bit tiring in the back doing nothing so he had a nap.  After visiting Foundry and getting to the hotel we went to the adjacent Mill Lodge for dinner.  I would love to recommend it, but can't.  The "manager" had an attitude that could have curdled milk and made small children cry.  He acted like he didn't want us there.  My stew was tasty enough but the dumpling looked like it had been runover and had the texture of a stale rock cake.  Still, mine was better than Nathans, whose sirloin steak looked, and according to him tasted, more like a cheap ass rump that was 20% gristle.  The hotel itself was good though and the staff were excellent, very friendly and incredibly helpful.

After a pretty good night, I even got to sleep before 3am, we went over to have breakfast at Mill Lodge.  Expectations were not high, but we were pleasantly surprised.  The staff were pleasant and the food was good.  If you can manage a large breakfast, which I can't, then it is well worth it.  So at 9.15am we went off to Newark showground, glad to see the last of Licoln for the day...........Which was a bit premature as it turned out.

The show had some cracking games and, like the idiot I am, I didn't take photos of any of them.  So I have nicked a couple off of various other sites, so thanks to all those who did take some pictures.

A very nice Winter of '79 game was put on, with nice atmospheric bits added.  My favourite was Del-Boy and Rodney of "Trotters Independant Traders" leaving the scene at low speed as the forces of law and order moved in to quiet the rioters.

Steve Jones AWI game was a beauty, as usual from him.  He's a cracking painter and does a decent bit of scenery too.  I hates him I does. ;)




There were other very nice games, but those two caught my eye, so that's why they have appeared here.


 I bought a few bits and pieces, some wagons and an armoured car from Warbases and a couple of scenic bases from somebody else.  Not a vast amount, but the day was more about seeing friends.  It was good to catch up with Ade "Big Nose" Deacon, Gary "Manc Gaz" Amos, Lau and Tricks the Partizan organisers, Big Rich Clarke and various others.  I was surprised to bump into Steve from the Devon Wargames Group there, seems he arranged a Family visit" to cover his trip to the show.  As the day moved along I was suddenly confronted by an agitated Pingu who had lost his wedding ring somewhere.  Despite the condolence and support he received from us, with comments along the lines of "You twat" and "Where did you last have it you numpty?", he couldn't recall when he had last noticed it.  So, a quick call to Premier Inn and a very helpful receptionist told him that they had found it..........back in Lincoln...........which was 15 miles the wrong way.  Then he realised that he had also lost his new, bright green trainers.  No, the hotel didn't have them which worried Pingu.  To make him feel better he rang his long suffering wife to tell her about losing his trainers.  She was quite surprised that he had lost them, as they were in the hallway at home! Anyway, we left Partizan and heading back to Lincoln, full of thankful comments about how lucky Pingu was to have found his ring.  Comments like "I have this feeling of deja vu" and "Oh look, there's that shop again".  Finally we got to the Premier Inn and Pingu went in to collect the one ring. 

My Precious

As GollumPingu left the reception area I took this picture of him.

Nap time again

So, off we heading to sunny Devon.  Along the way several comments were made about the trip, such as "We would have been at Bristol by now, if we hadn't had to go back to Lincoln".  The excitement proved to be too much for Pingu, so he had another nap.  We stopped at the services for a "comfort" break and bumped into Steve Childs, an old friend from Teignmouth.  It's amazing who you bump into when your 200 miles away from home, he lives about 6 miles away from me!



In the end we all got home safely, despite the best efforts of some of the retards on the motorway.  Thanks to the lads for a cracking weekend and thanks to everybody, organisers, crew, traders and gamers, who made Partizan such a success.  We will be back again and I recommend it to anyone who can make the trip.

It has done the trick of raising my spirits, so it was worth it all.  Take care folks, catch you next time