First crack at Chain of Command

Italians advance through the scrub

Last Thursday James, Mark and myself had our first go at Chain of Command from Too Fat Lardies. James was delayed getting over from Nottingham so we had rather a late start and only had two and a half hours to play.

We pitted an Indian Rifle Platoon (Regulars moral 8):

• Captain
• Platoon Sergeant
• Boys anti-tank rifle
• 2" mortar

Indians amass pin markers on a rocky outcrop

Three sections of Corporal plus 9 men including a Bren

• Against an Italian Platoons (Green moral 7):
• Captain
• Platoon Sergent
• Four sections of Corporal plus 9 men including a Breda

We played the patrol mission from the book.

The patrol phase saw us jockeying for position among the scrubs and rocky outcrops of East Africa.

Things started poorly for the Indians, I only seem to be able to roll 4's and 5's, indeed after my first two phases I had already amassed eight 5's and had my first Chain of Command dice. The Italians got a much better spread of dice rolls and were soon deployed on table and were pushing hard against the Indians. My sole section was soon up against it and were hiding in a rocky outcrop awaiting reinforcements.

More Indians up against it!

I was able to pull in reinforcements, but was already up against it. My poor dice rolls continued through the game and I was fighting a rearguard action.

By two and a half hours we were still on the first turn and it was time to pack away, in the scheme of things the Italians were the victors in this one, I had only lost one LMG team and one Rifle team, but had caused no teams to be lost on the Italian side.

On another table Quint and Colin were also playing Chain of Command, they too were still on the first turn after 3 hours, but had a clear result in their game as the Germans had reached 0 moral!

It's an enjoyable game and I'd like to give it another go with hopefully a better spread of dice next time!