We had our first proper game of Chain of Command recently. We are doing a short campaign set in the 'Very British Civil War' alternative timeline using 15mm miniatures. I have also used Platoon Forward to develop the key personalities of the Blackshorts 14 Platoon, who I will be commanding through the campaign.
I didn't get many photos of the battle, but here is what I have.
The Campaign
The first battle of the campaign is a Patrol mission. This small scenario will help us get the hang of the basics, with a minimal number of figures painted and few special rules to know. After the Patrol will be a Probe, then a number of linked battles representing the late February 1938 offensive launched by the Manchester Commune, with support from the Sheffield Workers Republic, against the Royalist forces and their BUF allies along the Mersey Corridor - a very narrow and vulnerable point along the line of the Mersey River and where Royalist-held territories are the narrowest.
The purpose of this offensive is:
- firstly, to link the Socialist Communes and Workers Republics of the cities in England's industrial heartland with the (neutral but left-leaning) Free City of Liverpool in order to gain access to safer seaports through which they can trade their industrial goods for food and facilitate further external support (i.e. tanks, guns and planes from the Comintern and international volunteers).
- secondly, to cut off the Royalist north (Lancashire) from the rest of their territories and breaking their linkage with both the Home Fleet at Fair Isle and the remaining British holdout in Ireland at Carrickfergus.
The Game
A BUF Blackshorts reconnaissance detachment, 14 Platoon from the 5th Company of the Blackshorts Legion and a light platoon from the Sheffield Workers Militia (SWoM) engaged in a short firefight upon running into each other in the fading light of 27 February as they patrolled the contested areas around Barton Moss Aerodrome and nearby Salteye Brook at the western edge of Manchester.
The SWoM with a number of Lewis light machine guns moved up as far as the edge of the wooded area along Salteye Brook but were unable to advance further as they encountered fire from a Blackshorts Bren team from 1 Section which had set up behind an embankment to their left.
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| A section of 19 Sheffield Militia emerge from the treeline and advance toward the aerodrome (Peter Pig miniatures, Spanish Civil War, Mexican Civil War, WW1 and WW2 ranges). |
Accurate rifle fire from the Sheffield Militiamen took down two of the Blackshorts' Bren team (Lance Corporal Franklyn and Rifleman Hale, both with serious but non-fatal wounds), but the Bren's automatic fire was kept up, with two more men being transferred from the section's rifle team to help load the weapon.
This Rifle team, which had advanced along the embankment to the edge of Salteye Brook, itself engaged in a brief exchange of fire with a Sheffield Militia rifle section across the brook, after which both sides withdrew.
The Sheffield Militia corporal and possibly one or two other men were seen to fall, but Rifleman Nowel was also hit and killed.
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| 1 Section moves along the embankment to the Brook while their Bren team exchanges fire with the Sheffield Militia (Peter Pig British 8th Army). |
At this point, the Blackshorts Platoon Commander 1LT Lockie Heath deployed a 2" Mortar Team to fire upon the Sheffield militia but after only a few seconds firing it was found that the Mortarmen did not bring all the rounds they had been allotted, only having brought six with them. The Platoon Commander shook his head at their amateurish mistake and turned away. (Later, it turned out that the amateurish mistake was mine: I had misinterpreted the light mortar ammo exhaustion rule to my own detriment).
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| Blackshorts 2" Mortar team in action. They were out of ammunition in seconds. |
To the 1LT Heath's left, 2 Section waited at the edge of an orchard, their Corporal, Jeff Abbey, apparently frozen in indecision. 1LT Heath ran over, yelling and waving the section forward. They got up and running to the tall grass near the Liverpool Road.
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| Blackshorts 2 Section line up at the edge of the orchard waiting for their Corporal's command. |
2 Section then spotted about 20 Sheffield militiamen advancing in the open and began an intense firefight with them. In the ensuring battle three Blackshorts Riflemen were hit (with Rifleman Austin Keys slightly wounded, Masterson severely wounded and Paddon killed outright). The fire of the Blackshorts was inaccurate however, killing only one or two enemy and wounding their section leader. They did manage to pile on the shock though, in concert with 1 Section's Bren gunner.
While this fire pinned the enemy section, 1 Section Corporal Blain, fuming and brandishing his Thompson SMG, seized the opportunity to run along the treeline on his side of Salteye Brook to try and take the enemy in the flank in a close assault.
The Sheffield Militia section was in a lot of trouble. With their Corporal hit and the other section and the medic across the brook and unable to help, the charge of Corporal Blain's men, with their bayonets fixed, was too much for the battered Sheffield Militiamen and they fled the field.
As the sun went down on 27 February, the Blackshorts had driven the Socialists away from Barton Moss Aerodrome up to the northwest edge of Salteye Brook and as far as Peel Cemetery, at the cost of six casualties including two badly wounded and one killed.
Not wanting to be exposed too far forward, and with a Socialist offensive apparently developing, Blackshorts 14 Platoon pulled back to the buildings at Foxhill and set up pickets for the night.
Thoughts on the Chain of Command rules.
I enjoyed the game, and I hope my opponent did too. We had to check a few rules and spent time talking, but overall the game didn't take too long (probably three hours).
It is important to get your Patrol markers and therefore Jumping-Off Points reasonably far up the table and into useful spots. It is also important to make effective use of terrain, and it seems to be a good idea to have your units mutually supporting and try to catch enemy in a crossfire. Furthermore, in Patrol missions where you don't have many Support Points and can't have fixed field defences, a medic is particularly useful: a combination of a wounded section leader and rolling no '1s' on Command Dice can really get your units into trouble, and a medic can get you out of it.
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| Sheffield Militiamen scout across Salteye Brook (Peter Pig Mexican Civil War government troops). |
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| Blackshorts riflemen (Peter Pig British 8th Army, including many with headswaps). |
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| Sheffield Militia rifle team at the edge of a wheat field (Peter Pig Assault Guards). |
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| Manchester Commune-aligned Local Defense Volunteers (Peter Pig Spanish Civil War range and WW2 range Home Guard NCO). |
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| The Corporal of a Sheffield Militia section runs over to direct his troops (Peter Pig Home Guard NCO, WW1 British Lewis gunner and Czech Legion miniatures). |
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| Blackshorts riflemen run along a hedge line (Peter Pig 8th Army with headswaps to sidecaps). |
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