Blog Con report 1 - Chain of Command

8.30 Saturday am, I packed the car, and, once Rob had arrived, we headed for Nottingham (in my case for the second time inside a month, in Rob's for the first of about four in almost as many weeks). 

Foundry's offices proved surprisingly easy to find, with handy and cheap nearby parking once we'd unloaded - all in all an easy run. 

I had kind of a potter-y day - very nice not to be in a rush. Rob helped me set up the very hilly table for Chain of Command, and then I went and spent money on a copy of God of Battles, a German WW2 motorbike combination and some NW Frontier native guides I'd promised to pick up for Andy.

 Having done that, celebrated JamesB's birthday (mmm, the chocolate cake) and said hi to Ian from The Blog With No Name, it was time to run the game :D

Sidney Roundwood took the Germans, and Rob's friend Glenn took Walmington-on-Sea's finest, in a scenario which had the Home Guard defending a village on the edge of the South Downs (it seemed a shame to pass up the awesome Foundry table) against an advancing group of Germans. Thanks to a miscommunication on my part, I failed to borrow enough sections of Germans from Gary, so the end forces were:

Home Guard: (middle era list)

3 sections of 7, one with a Lewis gun, + Junior leader (Cpl Jones, Cpl Ridley, one other)
1 Vickers team
Cpt Mainwairing, Sgt Wilson, Private Godfrey (medic)
Cpl Jones' van.

Germans: (1940 list)

3 sections, MG34 team of 3, rifle team of 6, NCO
2 x Senior leaders
SdKFz 222 armoured car

The Home Guard are quite heavily penalised by only having 4 command dice, and I'm still unsure if their force value of -2 isn't still a bit high, so I wasn't too fussed about the Jerries being short a section (or a mortar) given they had 3 MG34's, and an armoured car with 20mm cannon and MG.

The Patrol phase was interesting, being over a 7' long table - things settled much as I expected, though, with the British having jump off points along the hedges on the edge of the village and by the brewery, and the Germans on and around the bridge and the pub's orchard.

The armoured car put in an early appearance, racing down the road to the village as Corporal Jones' section (in his van) headed the other way and unloaded by the pond.

The Germans in the orchard took several potshots with the '34. Meanwhile, the Vickers in the upstairs window of one of the houses had an excellent view across the wheatfields. which both denied the Germans a safe advance (once Wilson had put them on overwatch) and allowed them to pick at the section in the orchard.

 This they did to considerable effect, wounding two of the German big men and reducing German force morale to 6. 

Meanwhile, Wilson ran (well, strolled in the annoyingly casual way he has) to Jones' section to order them to grenade the 222... one grenade landed in the turret, but it was clearly a dud as it did no hits, merely causing the armoured car to stop and engage the section, of which the major casualty was (sniff) Corporal Jones. 

The 222 raced round the long curve into the village, but was going too fast to take the sharp corner at the T-junction, so had to slam the brakes on. Corporal Ridley, being with No. 2 section by the phone box, decided this was a cue for action, activated, used one command initiative to run up to the armoured car and the second to lob another grenade in the hatch. 

Boom.

Three hits. 

Armoured car explodes, doing D4 hits to everyone within range. Ridley coolly saves them. Score one to the Home Guard, and -1 Force Morale to the Germans, leaving them on 5.

From here on, Glenn's plan with the British was to fall back into the village (taking some damage along the way) and make the Germans do the hard work across the fields. Wisely, perhaps, Sid decided to go the longer way round via the pond, using Jones' abandoned van and the lack of windows looking over that way as cover.

Captain Mainwairing had other ideas, ordering the Vickers team to blow a loophole in the wall of the house with a bunch of grenades... once everyone's ears had stopped ringing, the Vickers was hauled downstairs to cover the hole, just in time for a German section to attempt to close assault...

The result was very very bloody. Both sides were pretty much wiped out, and while the Germans technically won, the section was reduced to double shock over figures left, and broke... -2 MORE on the German's Force Morale, sending it to 3, and the Home Guard's down to 6, at which point the Germans reasonably conceded they weren't going to take the village that day...

Thanks to Sid and Glenn for playing, Rob for some amusing comments. And my apologies to Ray and Fran for not managing to fit in another game, or remind them I wasn't around on the Sunday! Next time, guys, or come up to Peterborough sometime!