Monday, November 18, 2024

Big CoC BatRep: Probe towards Gela

Our monthly CoC game happened on last Saturday, again a Big CoC with 4 players.

Two Italian platoons (one of Fucileri played by me and one of Bersaglieri played by Max) were ordered to probe (Scenario "The Probe") forward to test the defences manned by a mixture of US Paras (commanded by Dodo) and supported by US Armored (commanded by Bernhard).

The patrols of both sides fought to get the best positions with the Italians trying to avoid the orchards on their left flank because of the increased effect the US 60mm mortars would have there and instead attack with force on the right flank while securing the village located on the dominating hill as a strongpoint.

The US boys ended up holding both flanks with the idea of creating a killing zone in the center but overlooked the problem of only being able to support each other with great difficulty as the killing zone would apply to the as well in this case as soon as the Italians occpied the village.
The Italians instead hat the advantage of the "Inner Line" as Napoleon would have called it 😎


In the foreground both Para platoons deployed in the orchards going on Overwatch in case the Italians should want to push down from the hill while the Fucileri had moved as quick as possible to enter the village with one platoon while protecting the left flank with the other platoon supported by an 20mm Oerlikon.

Closer look at the postions of the Paras in the orchards.

On the other flank both the Bersaglieri and the Armored Infantry push forward into the citrus plantation, the latter one supported by an 3,7cm gun.

But the Bersaglieri have support too - a cannone da 65/17.

One platoon of Fucileri entered the houses ready to provide fire support to either the Bersaglieri or their comrades in the vineyard.

All the while the Paras don´t move at all - maybe they are enjoying the apples to much?

So the Fucileri have time to prepare their position to fight off upcoming attacks of them.

In the meantime on the other flank the Bersaglieri pushed forward supported by the fire of the LMGs of the Fucileri - the mortar in the background was wiped out as a result and shortly after the LMG squad of the Armored was nearly pinned. As a consequnce the Commander of the Armored had to use his dice to restore order instead of fielding more of his badly needed squads still waiting for their deployment.

The LMG squad got badly mauled even more while the Bersaglieri are able to concentrate their fire on the isolated squad in front of them with foreseeable consequences.

The US Paras have finally decided to attack the positions of the Fucileri to release some pressure from the Armored Infantry.

However, the attack comes to a standstill in the defensive fire of the Fucileri and the Paras have to retreat with heavy losses.


Even though it looked like a clear victory for the Italians in the end, it was a hard-fought game that could easily have gone in the Allies' favour with only a few different dice results - typical CoC, you should never be too sure that you have victory in the bag.

Monday, October 7, 2024

15mm Painting: US Engineers to support my Armoured and Airborne troops

The gaps in the missing figures for my US Boys are getting smaller and smaller, but what I was definitely still missing were the various Engineer Troops.

I had already printed these last year (STLs are from 3D Breed), but they always had to take a back seat to other projects.
After the TaToCon, however, there were no more excuses and after all the terrain building I really felt like painting again 💪



The complete squad of Engineers including a NCO (Junior Leader for CoC).


Flame Thrower Team:
Who called for a barbecue? 🔥



Wire Cutting Team:
Just wire, we'll have that in a moment



Demolition Team:
If you can´t fix it, blow it up!



Mine Sweeping Team:
The gold must be buried around here somewhere!


Thursday, October 3, 2024

Chain of Command: Jump Off Points for my US Boys

As I wanted some thematically appropriate Jump Off Points for my US Boys, I used some leftover miniatures from my AD- and Airborne projects and some drop containers and parachutes (self-printed ones) to build 4 of them.

Of course these markers could be used as Objective Markers for Battlegroup too.


My new 4 Jummp Off Points at a glance:

Along this way!





A short rest.




Re-supply found!




All stowed away now.




Monday, September 30, 2024

TaToCon 11 in Puchheim, near Munich

The last few days and weeks have been dominated by the final preparations for our Chain of Command Participation Game at TaToCon 11 in Puchheim, organised by Roll-the-dice, which took place last Saturday.

There were many beautiful and lovingly designed tables to marvel at and, as always, you didn't get to test any of the games on offer as you could hardly get away from your own table - there was hardly any time for more than a chat with your fellow players.

We were able to offer some games of CoC to take part and received nothing but positive feedback and our gaming group will include a few more players in the future - an extremely positive result!
There was even no opportunity to play CoC for myself, as I was busy running and umpiring our games all the time, but I had a lot of fun anyway as all the players were relaxed throughout the day.


And here are a few pictures of TaToCon 11, without any claim to completeness and starting with our own table for Chaim of Command:




One of our CoC games in full progress.

Muskets & Tomahawks

Hail Caesar putting Persians vs. Macedonians

Vietnam using Bolt Action

Impressive Pyramid, completely scratchbuild from styrofoam!

Rules used were Mythic Americas (Warlords of Erehwon)

Cinematic skirmish rules - Ghostbusters included!

Samurai skirmish with functional waterfall

Carnevale

SciFi on the Moon

Frostgrave

Another SciFi board

Last but not least Barons War presented by Bernhard!


A wonderful day with great tables and nice people that was over far too quickly - Max and I will definitely be back at TaToCon12 next year!