Comparison of Terrain Feature representation in CoC Mini-Campaigns

Comparison of Terrain Feature representation in CoC Mini-Campaigns

THROUGH THE FIELDS

A Chain of Command Game

I have been playing quite a few Chain of Command (CoC) games of late and decided that it was time to report on one. I have been using the maps from some of the scenario books up to now but wanted to try a design of my own and this is the result.

TERRAIN: In this scenario the yellow areas are fields giving light cover. The hedges are NOT hedgerows and provide only light cover but troops further back than 2" from the hedgerow cannot be seen nor fired upon. The grey lines are stone walls and give heavy cover as do the buildings. The white line is a fence giving light cover. 

SCENARIO: This will be the Flank Attack scenario from the CoC rule book. The Germans can set 4 Patrol Markers (PMs) within the red dotted line  and the US starts  6 PMs, 3 set up on each of the two blue dotted lines. The Germans will place 3 Jump Off Points (JOPs) based on the result of the PM movement and a 4th JOP somewhere within the town. The US as attacker gets free PM moves, the number determined by a D6 roll. The US will place a total of 4 JOPs.

OBJECTIVE: The US objective is to force the Germans off table, either through the loss of Force Morale or by the German player opting to retire.

The US got 2 free PM moves and moved up one PM from each stating point. The following PM moves are shown above with the Germans opting NOT to move any PMs during move 3 - 8.

The final JOP placement was as shown below along with German placement of their two minefields:

FORCES: The US force was a basic Rifle Platoon with a Force Rating of 0 and 10 Support Points. The German force was also a basic infantry platoon with a Force Rating of 0 and 5 Support Points. Both forces started with a Force Morale of 9. The forces:

THE GAME: The US started by bringing on two Squads, one on each side of the German position.

The first Us unit arrives from the East

The second US unit arrives from the South

The Germans placed a unit in Building 5 (Note the numbers on the buildings and terrain pieces are to identify which model they represent for ease of matching a map to the table top).

German and US forces exchange fire for a phase then the US brought on their third Squad (on the left) and the Germans bring in their second unit in center woods.

 The two German forces in the building and in the wood are able to bring an effective cross fire against the US Squad in the center. The Jr Ldr with them is kept busy trying to keep the shock down and finally the US has to commit a Sr. Ldr to that force. Just in time, it turns out, as the Jr Ldr. is killed dropping the US Force Morale by 2. The US moves the left hand Squad into the building which can now bring fire into the central woods, though its not very effectively.

The Germans brought their third Squad into building 8  and exchanged fire with the US Squad coming in from the East.  That US Squad threw smoke grenades and started a tactical advance across the field. Meanwhile the attrition of the US Squad in the center continued, 2 wounds to the Sr Ldr causing a loss of another 2 points to the US Force Morale. One more loss and they would loose a command die!

The US had to "go for broke" and brought in their tank from the east and their 4th Squad on the west behind building 1. Why not bring in the tank from the southern road, you ask - well the Germans had a CoC die in hand and the US felt that the Germans had a better chance at ambushing the tank if it came in there. In any case the tank was able to bring 75mm fire on to the German unit in the central wood which now had to endure 3 fires! The German commander retreated that unit to the fields behind his initial position.

Now the US was able to move up to the wall in the west in a position to assault the German position in building 5. The Germans  used their CoC die to pull back the JOP in the field and started a general retreat toward building 5. It was then that the Germans (Dick White) decided that they was in a no-win situation and retired from the field.

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The dire straights of the US central Squad, Jr. Ldr dead, Sr. Ldr with 2 wounds,
both teams pinned and only  4 shock each away from routing.

The final positions

    

20 mm FENCES FOR CHAIN OF COMMAND (CoC)

My grandson asked if I could build up some 20mm picket fences for his CoC gaming. Always willing to encourage his interest in the hobby, I undertook the project as follows:

I used a scrap piece of MDF as a manufacturing base and applied a couple of strips of 2-sided scotch tape to hold the fence while under construction. Two "Coffee Stirrer" sticks cut to 6" length form the support for the fence and an identical length of "popsical stick" cut square on the ends for a base. NOTE: Bob Beattie e-mailed me to suggest that those using very smooth "Stirrer Sticks" should use steel wool to ruough them up before using them to impart a better texture to the fence. See Below:

"MANUFACTURING BASE" WITH "COFFEE STIRRER" STICKS IN PLACE

I then cut various lengths of the cocktail stick corresponding to shoulder to head height of a 20mm figure.

SHORT LENGTHS OF STIRRER STICK CUT TO VARYING LENGTHS

Using the base  to insure a straight line on the bottom to align the bottom of the fence strakes, I glue(White Glue) the strakes individually with random lengths and at small difference in angle. (If one wants a moer "formal" fence, one could align strakes of equal length more carefully).

Using the base to align the strakes I weight them down until the glue is completely dry.

Next, using one of  the same cocktail sticks, I glue it to the base at a distance from one edge such that there is just enough room for the fence to fit between it and the edge of the base.

Using some kind of support I now glue the completed fence to its base against the supporting cocktail stick.

One should make a few of these wher the fence is longer than the base on one or bothe ends by the length of the base width. This enables the fences to be abutted at right angles without a gap  for enclosures.

Finally I  spray paint the whole piece black, then dry brush in grey ( one could use white, tan, etc whatever fits your terrain). I finish with terraining the base.

THE FINISHED FENCE IN A CHAIN OF COMMAND GAME

TERRAIN PIECE FOR PITS

TERRAIN PIECE FOR PITS
(Patrole In The Sudan by Peter Pig)

In preparing a scenario for introducing PITS at Fall In 2014, I realized that I did not like my first attempt at making a DEPRESSION piece for the table top. My first attempt was carving out a peice of foam and painting it:

ORIGINAL DEPRESSION

Having read several gamer's descriptions of using cork as a means to build terrain, I thought I might try it with, what I think, a reasonable result.

STANDARD CORK SQUARE AVAILABLE FROM CRAFT SHOPS

Using the standard PITTS terrain size of 6" x 12", I made a base of 1/8" MDF and added pieces of Cork simply broken off the cork square with my thumbnail, managing the shape to fit the base size.

6" x 12" BASE PIECE

ADD CORK EDGE PIECES

I then "terrained" the piece using pre-mixed adhesive and grout, my latest go-to material for terraining bases and terrain peices.

ADDING TERRAINING COMPOUND

I then painted the terrain with diluted white glue and spread Woodland Sceanics Medium Ballast over the surface.

SPREAD MEDIUM BALLAST OVER THE SURFACE 

And painted it all in Burnt Umber.

And finally dry brushed with a Craft paint sand color. I'll make two more like it as 3 such pieces are supposed to be available to the Mahdists to choose.

THE FINAL PIECE

Where is everybody - OOPs Where am I?

I have been perusing my favorite blogs and complaining that no one seems to have been posting much of late - where the hell were they all? Too lazy to post? Then it hit me, I have not posted in too  long a time either, was I too lazy to post. The reasons are many and mostly inconsequential so I hope to change my ways and to start I will list what I have been doing durning this lapse: Painting and organizing figures for new periods. At 79, I need another period? But thats what keeps me young.

So I started writing only to find that the pending loss of support to the XP operating system by Microsoft had impacted my ability to post here! After a long transition to Windows 7, I am ready to try again.

I have been painting up planes to play all the scenarios in the CY6 booklet Gualdalcanal, so far I have the Japanese Zeros and Bettys as well as the US F4Fs. We have even tried a few basic games to learn the rules. More on those later.



PLANES FOR CY6

Back in 2012, at Historicon, I was introduced to Peter Pigg's PITTS game (Patrols in the Sudan) and have avidly been painting figures and making terrain ever since. Even played a few games. It plays on a 3' x 5' table and the whole game can be carried in an 18" x 30"' plastic tote bin.

The games do not need a lot of figures, less than 100/side, so I set about painting a British and Mahdist army in 15mm. I have played this enough and like it so much that I have registered to run two games at FALL IN

MAHDIST  ARMY

BRITISH ARMY

I also have made up all the necessary terrain pieces

TERRAIN PIECES

THE OASIS

A MAHDIST VILLAGE
Using an on-line translator, I wrote the Arabic words on the buildings for: "Painted by Dick Bryant" and
 " May  all your infidel dice rolls be abysmal"

MAHDIST HUTS

COUNTER ATTACK AT QUAK POT

COUNTER ATTACK AT QUAK POT

(Based on Sadzot, a scenario in Hit The Dirt©)

I only have one company of Germans based for CF but a lot of North Koreans and Chinese, so, as usual, when I am not designing an actual Korean War Scenario See: http://www.mgluteus.blogspot.com/ , I recast a Hit The Dirt scenario as a Korean War game.

NORTH KOREANS

The North Korean have taken the town of Quak Pot and it must be held at any cost.

1 Btn ALL VETERAN
1-BC (+1)
1-Commissar (+1)

Machinegun Company
3-HMGs

Anti-Tank Platoon
2-57mm ATG with Truck

301st-Infantry Company, (55/37/44pts) with:
     1CC(+1)
     1-SMG Sqd.
   Company Heavy Weapons
       1 HMG
   3-Rifle Platoons; each with:
       1-PC(+1)
       2-Rifle Squads
       1-SMG Squad

451st-Infantry Company, (55/37/44pts) with:
     1CC(+1)
     1-SMG Sqd.
   Company Heavy Weapons
     1 HMG

3-Rifle Platoons; each with:
      1-PC(+1)
      2-Rifle Squads
      1-SMG Squad

216th-Infantry Company, (55/37/44pts) with:
      1CC(+1)
      1 SMG Sqd (N/A)
  Company Heavy Weapons
      1 HMG
  3-Rifle Platoons; each with:
      1-PC(+1)
      2-Rifle Squads
      1-SMG Squad
Deploy first. Two squads must be placed in ea. building within Quak Pot or in the vehicle park, hidden. The balance of the NKPA force deploys hidden south of the line A-A.
Objective: Hold Quak Pot

Special Rules:

a. The vehicle park and the tank park block LOS and provides cover to their occupants from all fire.
b. Special Rules, Crests, from Hit The Dirt© is in use.
c. Fields and Orchards are out of season and do not block LOS. Fields provide cover against direct fire only and the orchards count as rough terrain.
d. The mortar pits function as entrenchments.

NOTE: due to the rapid advance and the lousy terrain, the NKPA had no indirect fire capability and communication problems hindered their even asking for reinforcements.

Victory Conditions: The American player must occupy at least 4 buildings in Quak Pot at the end of an American initiative and suffer less than 20 casualty points. Otherwise the NKPA player wins. Sqds, HMG, CC, BC is one casualty point, AFV are 2 casualty points.

AMERICANS

The North Koreans have taken the town of Quak Pot and it must be regained at any cost.
1 Battalion, U. S. Marines VETERANS
  1 BC(+1)
  1 SMG Sqd

   A Company with:
    1 CC(+1)
    1 SMG Sqd
    60mm OT w/ FO 12 FM
    1 HMG
    1 Rifle Platoon, ea. with:
      1 PC(+1)
      2 Rifle Sqds
   2 Rifle Platoons, ea. with:
      1 PC(+1)
      3 Rifle Sqds

  B Company with:
   1 CC(+1)
   1 SMG Sqd
   60mm OT w/ FO 12 FM
   1 HMG
   2 Rifle Platoon, ea. with:
     1 PC(+1)
     2 Rifle Sqds
   1 Rifle Platoons, ea. with:
     1 PC(+1)
     3 Rifle Sqds

1 attached Tank destroyer platoons(regular) ea. with:
  3 M-10 Tank destroyers

1 Squad of Pershing tanks
  1 Pershing Tank

Deploy second north of the line B-B



Victory Conditions: The American player must occupy at least 4 buildings in Quak Pot at the end of an American initiative and suffer less than 20 casualty points. Otherwise the NKPA player wins. Sqds, HMG, CC, BC is one casualty point, AFV are 2 casualty points.


Special Rules:

a. The vehicle park and the tank park block LOS and provides cover to their occupants from all fire.
b. Special Rules, Crests, from Hit The Dirt© is in use.
c. Fields and Orchards are out of season and do not block LOS. Fields provide cover against direct fire    only and the orchards count as rough terrain.
d. The mortar pits function as entrenchments.

The M-10s and the Pershing were only armed with armor piercing rounds Their main guns suffer a -1 die conducting direct fire against buildings and a -2 die fire penalty against other targets to a minimum of 2 dice.

THE GAME

The Americans did not take advantage of the ability to put on all their troops in the terrain between the road (dotted line B-B) and the North end of the board (see underlined phrase just before the American victory Conditions above), electing to come on the table edge piecemeal and paid the price.



The map does not show all the defensive positions of the NKPA (commanded by Dick White)as they were never tested during the game. The Americans (commanded by Jack Breen) started with initiative and moved A Company to the Western Ridge almost to a line of hedges along its edge. A platoon of B Company moved on just to the west of the river. Then an M10 was moved down the road with an observer on foot, on the road, behind the M10. A NKPA platoon on the Eastern side of the river was able to get some fire on the B company platoon, pinning and suppressing some of its stands. An anti-tank gun lurking in a wood near the road junction picked off the M10, and the U.S. made no attempt at getting the observer into cover.

Maximum advance of A Company. Note observer stand on road behind tree at top left. M10 on road is about to "bite it".

The NKPA pltoon under the command of Rick Bryant made an end around sweep of the U.S. left and took out the remainder of the B Company platoon under the command of Cory Oconnor.

Rick's NKPA reinforced platoon about to make its end run

Rick’s next move was a classic – he moved into the building in the rear of the American positions with a couple of squads and a HMG. Where he lost the initiative. However, the Americans were so enthralled by this small nuisance in their rear that they spent several initiatives in trying to eliminate the force- to no avail. Their FO was picked off in the open and, though they exchanged fire with the NKPA in the town and pinned a few, they were never able to maintain initiative long enough to mount an attack. Cory did manage to flank the enemy held town on the right but it was too little, too late. The Americans had too many losses, and were unable to get all their forces on the table before time was up – a DECISIVE NKPA victory.

MAKING ROADS

This week as many members were away, Dick Messier and I met to build roads. We use the technique discussed by Nikolas Lloyd http://www.lloydianaspects.co.uk/models/scenery/roads.html. However we use  brown Naugahide (available in many fabric shops) - another Nauga died for the wargaming hobby!

We used 1.5" roads and made about 210" of road plus some radius turns of varying degree, Cross and "T" junctions.



View of ACW game shows what the roads look like when finished.

 We also took photos of all our mountains so as to scale them for use on battle maps. I take a photo of a hill with 2 12" rulers as in the photo. Using Photoshop I then trim the photo so that the  picture is to scale:

Finally, using the "crop" tool, I scale it to 1" as my maps are scaled to 1in. =1 ft. In Quark Express ( a desktop publishing program - There are a lot of desktop  publishing and drawing programs that allow one to draw over photograps and they vould od the same thing.) I draw the contour line which is now to scaled for my maps.



I then color the outline and color the outline in its final color.

Finally I remove the photo and add a number to ID the hill from those in our collection

Every hill we use is so deliniated so that I can "drag" the hill onto a map. Thus a map can be created and we know what exact hill fits in place without having to make up odd size hills. You can see this use in all the scenearios described in this blog.  If you find other publishing programs of drawing progams that will allow this type of manipulation, please let me know and I will list them here.