CoC2 - Attack and Defend in 1940 France

 Another busy gaming weekend!  After the big Jhamjar game on Friday, Craig came by today for a second try at Chain of Command second edition.  This time we played the Attack and Defend scenario, which allows for much more support.  Craig's French chose to be the attackers with 12 points of support, and my Germans downgraded to a second wave platoon, which meant that I was allowed 8 points of support (base of 6 which is half of Craig's 12, plus 2 more for the difference in force rating).  We rolled for table orientation and again found ourselves playing lengthwise, adding to the challenge for the attacker, giving him further to go on a narrower front.

Here is the table Arthur set up for us.  The French attackers enter from the top of the photo.  Designated objectives for the attackers are the ruined building on the left and the lone tree on the right, both circled in red.

The patrol phase ended up with patrol markers locked down on either side of the cemetery. The French had 4 markers (the red ones with the maple leaves - originally intended for the 1st Canadian Division in Sicily but we made do with what we have!) but Craig ended up stacking them in pairs to shut down the maneuvering, to prevent the rightmost white marker (Hermann Goering Division, also for Sicily) from swinging further right.

Jump off points are a bit boring today!  We used the brown hex markers circled in red.  I have fancier JOPs but I was a bit too disorganised to pull them out.  Note that the French markers as on the wrong side of the stream, which was rated as a minor obstacle and broken ground, a nuisance for the French but not too much!

I purchased two sections of barbed wire (6" each), and Craig generously pointed out that in V2, there is a three for two deal, so I ended up with a total of 18" of barbed wire :)  I used it to block the left side of the German defences. 

Early deployments with French and German sections on either side of the cemetery.  French are already taking shock as shown by the white counters on the 'tree' beside them.

The Germans deployed a 'shabby Nazi trick' in the form of a collaborator, who redirected French troops away from the last jump off point.

More troops deployed on the board, including the French heavy tank, a Char B2 bis.

In response to the French tank, the German infantry gun (7.5 cm le.IG) deployed.

Cemetery firefight continues.  French manage to kill the German feldwebel.  It's a Bad Thing to lose a senior leader and German force morale takes a hit!

Then the Char crossed the wall and dispersed the German squad.  The rifle team hid in the small building, but the MG team was broken and fled the table.

The German section by the wall was getting shredded so they fell back to the ruins across the road, with the MG team moving to the upper floor to put fire onto the attackers.

Iggy the infantry gun is feeling a bit outnumbered.

And then the gun crew are driven off!

But then the Germans bring another section.  They cannot crew the gun, but they can lay down fire on the French!

German officer moves up to direct the fire of the MG.  His guidance allows the use of the German special trait, maschinengewehr which adds firepower dice as well as the storm of steel effect, where each '6' rolled adds another firepower die to be added, with the potential to increase firepower indefinitely as long as the firer keeps rolling 6's.

French char attempts another overrun of German infantry.

This time, however, the Germans had no shock on them and were easily able to avoid the tank, allowing them to move against the French infantry following behind the Char.

French and Germans passed tactical status back and forth.

Here is a result of a maschinengewehr roll - 10 dice initially turn into a total of 14 hits!

Germans are successful in pushing back the French past the cemetery wall.  

And the French Char struggles to turn to face the German infantry in its rear.

French officer struggles to rally his forces.  This photo is a bit deceptive, as only the French infantry on the left side of the creek are still in the game, the others are the casualties' pile! But still, there is a lot of shock that the officer needs to rally.  This was when we called the game as a stalemate. Unusually, the French were still at their initial force morale level of 10, in part due to Craig's use of Chain of Command dice to avoid FM checks, but also due to many units getting hurt, and combat effectiveness reduced, but not actually breaking.

German force morale at this point was 6, and the remaining troops were barely holding on, and they had a heavy tank in their rear.  Although the Germans had no way to hurt the tank, the tank was not able to capture the objective.  The Germans stopped the French advance by beating all the infantry and working around the tank.  If we would have played on, it's likely the French would finally have forced the German force morale to break but would not have a combat effective force left to take advantage of the result.

The game allowed us to explore more aspects of the V2 changes. Mostly we are pleased but there are a couple of things we want to look at more closely.  Storm of Steel is a nice bonus, and we remembered to use it this time.  We talked about introducing a house rule to limit the bonus to a single extra roll for each initial 6, but to not allow indefinite stacking as we had a few cascading results that seemed excessive.  We'll look at this more as we play on with these rules.  

The Red Die is very powerful.  I used it last week, and Craig had it this week.  It really gives a great benefit.  We aren't sure if we should limit it, in a similar way to how we limited Green and Elite troops in V1, or possibly to rate it to be more expensive than a 2 point cost.  Perhaps we'll come up with a house rule to limit the use of the red die.  The 1940 sourcebook requirement that you need a minimum of three support units before you can pick a red die is a good start point; we may want to clarify that further - for example, maybe require that the three supports should be a minimum of 2 points each, so that a medic or wire cutting team don't count, only supports that can take offensive action.  Another thing for us to discuss further! 

A thing that has irked me for a while, not new to V2, is that roadblocks, minefields and barbed wire have the same value, even though minefields are more difficult to deal with as they take up a bigger piece of ground and are harder and more dangerous to clear.  On the other hand, I have less experience in dealing with either, so I should play more games where they are involved before taking too strong of a stance.  Barbed wire worked to my advantage in this game since it pushed Craig to concentrate on the other side of the table.

An Inciting Incident in Jhamjar!

 In Spring 1919, tensions are rising in the Princely State of Jhamjar. In the market town of Marm-el-Mahdi, a protest is planned in the plaza in front of the residency of the British Resident (aka the senior official of the British Raj in Jhamjar).  Unknown to the British, however, there are some serious troublemakers working to ensure that this protest does not remain peaceful!

This was played out as a multi-player game using Fistful of Lead.  Arthur took the role of Lt F.Ocker, the angry Australian in charge of the British forces at the Residency, and Legion played his assistant Sgt A.Shoal.  Each of the British teams had 4 privates in addition to the leader.  Colin took the protesters - the protest leader Marmiti Ghundi and five mobs of 4 protesters.  Kevin played the rebel Noor Chutneya and her guerillas:  her big bodyguard and three snipers with obsolete firearms.  And Jim was Jemadar Amay Singh of the Jhamjar Rifles - not quite involved with the protesters, but not part of the British forces either.

A view of Marm-el-Mahdi.  The Residency is the white building with the green trim.

Market day goes on regardless of the protest!

Lt Ocker was given a special rule, 'Read the Riot Act' which allowed him to put 1 shock on each of 1d4 bases of protesters if he passed a regular (5+) skill test.  In addition, soldiers were allowed to use rifle butts as clubs with -1 on the wound roll but any wound would add one bonus shock.  Any protester mob with more shock than members automatically disperses.  To counter the Riot Act, Marmati Ghundi had the trait Encouraging: For one action, may remove all shock from a single mob within 12”

In my naïve ambition, I thought there would be some back and forth as the British tried to impose shock on the protesters to disperse them.  Naturally, things unfolded differently :)   

All the military groups had the special rule, 'Wait for it...'  The intent was to allow soldiers to all act together - for example, to advance/move as a unit - but it turned out not to be a popular rule.

Wait for It: leader can command all team members to act together on same card.  The team still receives all cards as normal but the entire team acts on the same card. All team members must take the same action. For special cards (Queen, Jack, 7, 2) only one model gets the benefit. Exception is 6 – all models can reload if appropriate.

The game started with Frank Ocker gamely trying to read the riot act.  A reasonable start, but the mob immediately attacked the British soldiers, and any chance for a peaceful solution was gone!

Note the British Resident standing on the balcony.  He was an NPC, and was going to duck for cover as soon as things kicked off.  This didn't work out either, in the very first shot of the game, a rebel sniper hit him at long range and in cover, and the wound roll was a kill!  (10 followed by a 10, although the sniper rule which allows a reroll for a missed shot helped).

There was some brutal fighting at the entrance to the Residency.  The mobs battled against the outnumbered British soldiers, who desperately held their ground.  Arnie Shoal's team meanwhile were unable to help as the doorway was blocked.

A rebel sniper looks for a target.

A group of protesters climbs the Residency wall and starts to throw rocks at the soldiers inside.  Rocks were 6"/12", -1 on wound roll.

Hearing gunfire and other noise from the riot, Jemadar Amay Singh and his Jhamjar Rifles move toward the Residency to investigate.

Ocker's men continue to resist the protesters.  Rated as grunts, a single wound is enough to knock one out of the fight.  However Marmati Ghundi made good use of his encouraging trait to remove shock and keep the remaining protesters in action.

Meanwhile more of the protesters have scaled the walls of the Residency, chasing the soldiers inside the main building.  I'd just like to point out the flag carried by the protester in the foreground, which is inspired by the Calcutta flag first unfurled by Indian nationalists in 1906.

Inside the main building:

Meanwhile, at the gate, Jim demonstrated uncharacteristic restraint.  Uncharacteristic for Jim, that is, but now a defining feature for Amay Singh!  His Jhamjar Rifles moved between the protesters and the wounded soldiers, rescuing them and moving them to safety.

A better view of the Calcutta flag as the protesters try to enter through the windows.

The defending British soldiers are wounded and shocked (helmets on rifles each indicate a shock marker).  Lt Ocker blazes away with his revolver at Ghundi, killing him, and with that the remaining protesters lose heart and disperse.

Her task achieved, Noor Chutneya and her accomplice sneak away through the market.

And Jemadar Amay Singh transported the rescued soldiers to safety.

What will happen next?  This day's actions are going to have significant repercussions.  What will be the British response, what next actions will the rebels take, and what side will the Djelli of Jhamjar end up on?  

Basmachi Horsemen

 Finally finished these horsemen from Siberia Miniatures.  I've had them for a while but have been daunted by the challenge of painting them!

The Basmachi are interesting.  They are not from a particular people but are a bit of a mashup of Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turkmen and others, with a bit of distortion from Soviet cinema, where they sometimes took the role of the stereotypical opponents in Soviet 'Easterns' (an analogue of Western movies, but set in Central Asia).  These ones in particular seem to be based on the antagonists of the hero of the famous movie White Sun of the Desert.  See my previous posts about Abdullah, Sayid, Sukhov and Petrushka for more info.

For these models, I didn't follow images from the movie as closely.  Instead I looked up photos of Turkmen, Uzbeks and other Central Asians, and did my own interpretation, including some fanciful ideas of my own.  No offense is intended toward any of the proud peoples of Central Asia!  I just did the best I could to get some colourful models ready to be mercenaries in my upcoming Jhamjar rebellion.

Three riders with rifles.  Not much chance that they could hit anything firing those rifles at a full gallop but they look great!

Riders with swords.

This flag is based on the flag of the Basmachi Movement, which unsuccessfully opposed the efforts of the Bolsheviks to establish Soviet control over what are now the Central Asian republics (aka the 'Stans).

And here they are in all their glory!