First Game of Chain of Command

Hi everyone!

A nice little crossroads for a fight in the snow.

 This past Thursday I went to the club and joined in on a game Chain of Command.  Jesper and Ulf had planned to play the game so I asked if I could join in so I can learn the rules. All the miniatures you see here were painted by Jesper and Ulf.  They are 15mm figures. They are very well painted and hopefully my 15mm figures will look as good as there miniatures.

Two units of Soviets take to the woods near a jump off site.

The year was 1941 and we were fighting in Finland.  A crossroads was the goal of the game and the scenario was just a meeting engagement, not a historical scenario. The two sides were the Soviets against the Finnish.

The first Soviet T-28E enters the board.

I got a quick introduction to the rules and then we divided up the troops, I asked to play the Finnish and the command the tanks, which I did.  I had a platoon of tanks, two T-28E's and two BT-5's.

The two squads of Soviets deployed in the woods.

The rules were pretty straight forward with the focus being on the command structure and the importance of protecting the commander of the units.  Each platoon has a senior Leader and each squad of Infantry has a junior leader.  The tank Platoon had a command tank with a Senior commander and the rest of the tanks had junior leaders in charge.

The Finnish deploy along behind some trees for cover

One of the unique and fun aspects of Chain of Command is the setup phase, where the players move markers to determinate where units will arrive from, they are called jump off locations.  Once these locations have been moved and locked down troops are deployed on the table based on a command dice roll which determines what can be deployed.

More Finnish Infantry deploy on the table as well as a Senior leader

I was very lucky with my command roll and I was able to deploy all my tanks at once, the Soviet player had 3 T-28's and he deployed one tank first and then two more. The Finnish tanks were captured Soviet T-28's. 

My command tank is the rear so it will be able to "command" the tanks,
and hopefully survive

After both sides had our forces deployed on the table we maneuvered into line of sight and started to fire on each other.  The game flowed very well and the infantry definitely needs cover for protection. 

Finnish tanks deploy on to the battlefield

The infantry sets up behind cover to try to shoot up the Soviets in the woods

I move up a tank to provide some support and to get a shot on
the advancing Soviet tanks

My two T-28's take a lot of hits from the three Soviet T-28's

The rules are fun and provide a lot of ebb and flow to the game. at one point of the game the Finnish Infantry was taking a beating and I was sure the game was going to end soon but I was wrong and things turned around for the Finnish forces.

The Infantry behind the fence did not do so well and soon had lost troops
and also started to receive shock.

The Soviets and Finnish get close and exchange fire in the woods.

Top down view of the fight

The Soviet position was strong but the combined infantry and tank fire from
the Finnish side forces breaks the first Soviet unit.

The game ended up being a infantry fight and a tank battle. My tanks were deployed on the right side of the infantry.  I was able to give some support to the infantry from time to time when the Soviet Infantry came into view.

The T-28's were equal and damage was minor neither side lost a tank

I got brave and deployed one of my light tanks to hit
the Soviet Infantry,
which only drew a Soviet T-28 to fire at it.

The Soviet Infantry did not like the main gun fire from the BT-5

Things were starting to go our way and to help try and finish off the Soviets I shift three of my four tanks to the far left flank of the battle field. This helped to finally break the Soviet infantry and one of my main gun hits killed the Senior Infantry commander, which left the Soviet armor with no support.

My tanks are able to shift to the far side of the fight and
provide needed support

My command tank stays and fights the Soviet armor.

The game was enjoyable and I look forward to more games. I have selected the Chain of Command Rules to start playing more WWII Skirmish games. I am currently working on finishing up my force to do Poland 1939.  I have the Skirmish Campaign book on the Black Brigade (the only Polish Armored Unit in 1939).  My miniatures are 20mm from FAA figures.  I am also working on some 15mm tanks for mid to late war Soviets vs. Germans

Thank you Jesper and Ulf for setting up and running the game!