• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Welcome to Chain of Command, a set of rules for Our thanks go to the army of play‐testers and gaming platoon sized actions on the battlefields proof‐readers in Australia, the United States, of the Second World War with model soldiers and South Africa, Spain, Sweden and the United vehicles. These rules are not designed with any Kingdom. It is sadly impossible to thank you all specific figure scale in mind: we envisage gamers by name but your contributions have been using 28mm, 20mm or 15mm figures; however, immeasurable. Thanks to the Penarth & District 40mm, 54mm and 10mm are all achievable Wargames Club, the South East Scotland depending on your budget and preferences. Wargames Club, the Wyvern Wargamers, Peterborough Wargames Club, Huntingdon Chain of Command are ideal for re‐fighting Wargames Club, Sudbury & District Wargames historical actions based on the heroic accounts of Club, Henry Hyde of Miniature Wargames & those who were there. Equally, we have Battlegames, Neil Shuck and Mike Hobbs of provided a number of generic scenarios which Meeples & Miniatures and the Lard Island may be used again and again to allow gamers on Regulars who all volunteered as guinea pigs a club night to set out their terrain and then roll a during the playtest process. We certainly had dice to see what game they will be playing and some fun, not to mention a few drinks in great what forces they can select from. company! At the heart of the rules is the infantry platoon of Finally, we would like to dedicate these rules to around thirty to forty men. Alongside this force Terry Haney of Atlanta, Georgia. Terry was an we have provided a range of historical support early convert to the ways of Lard, joining the options in the form of lists, which the gamer may great community at our Yahoo Group in 2004. select from according to the scenario he is Sadly Terry died of cancer in December 2012. His playing. Much fun may be had from putting your enthusiasm for his gaming, even during the force together to suit the mission ahead of you. darkest of times, should serve as a message for us all to enjoy to the full the fun and friendship that The rules have been illustrated with 28mm comes with wargaming. figures from our collection and 20mm models from that of Australian play‐tester (and talented Richard Clarke brush‐meister) Ben Fiene. Our thanks go to Ben Lard Island and to Artizan Miniatures, Crusader Miniatures, July 2013 Bolt Action Miniatures, Westwind Productions, AB Miniatures, Shellhole Scenics, Miniature Building Authority, Wargames Foundry, Milicast, Black Tree Design, Corgi and Tamiya for their permission to use their models. If any other figures have crept in we apologise for not mentioning them; our collection has been amassed over many years and the old memory isn’t what it once was. 1 Page Introduction 1 Contents 2 1 Preparing for Battle 4 Hardware, Command Dice, Markers, Chain of Command Points 2 The Ground Rules 6 Ground Scale, Time Scale, Force Organisation, Unit Integrity, Support Weapons & Vehicles, Rounding the Dice, Glossary of Terms, Terrain & Visibility 3 The Patrol Phase 11 Force Morale, Starting the Patrol Phase, Placing Jump‐Off Points 4 Command & Control 14 Turn Sequence, Beginning the Game, Using the Command Dice, Command Dice Results, Deploying onto the Table, Activating Troops on‐table, Leader Initiative 5 Chain of Command Points 22 Generating Chain of Command Points, Using Chain of Command Points 6 Phase Sequence 25 Phase Sequence Rolls, The Turn End, Random Events 7 Infantry Movement 27 Basic Movement, Terrain and Movement, Interpenetration, Restricted Weapon Movement, Unit Facings, Over‐Running Jump‐Off Points 8 Target Acquisition 31 What can be Seen, Who can Fire, Target Defined, 2 9 Infantry Fire 35 Infantry Weapons, The Arsenal Tables, How to Fire, Hand Grenades, Infantry Anti‐Tank Weapons, Light Mortars, Snipers, Flamethrowers, Fire Against Crewed Weapons, Back‐Blast Weapons 10 Support Weapon Fire 45 Support Weapons, Infantry Guns, Anti‐Tank Guns, Off‐Table Mortars 11 Vehicles 49 Vehicle Types, Activating Vehicles, Un‐Commanded Vehicles, Command by Radio, Deploying Vehicles, Vehicle Movement, Visibility from a Vehicles, Vehicle Firing 12 Fire Against Vehicles 54 Firing Procedure, Fire Against Soft‐Skins, Infantry Anti‐Tank Weapons, Schurzen, Flamethrowers Against Vehicles. 13 Close Combat 59 Who Fights, Resolving Close Combat, Tank Over‐Runs, Ramming Tanks 14 Shock 62 Application of Shock, Leaders and Shock, Shock & Movement, Shock & Firing, Pinned Units, Broken Units, Rallying Shock, Shock on Armoured Vehicles, Carriers and Transport, Diehards 15 Force Morale 65 Tracking Force Morale, Vehicles & Crews 16 The Specialists 67 Engineering Works, “Funnies”, Raiders 17 Advanced Rules 70 The Advanced Rules for the discerning gamer. Appendix A Playing Chain of Command 71 Assembling your Forces, Setting up your Table, Choosing Your Scenario, The Chain of Command Scenarios Appendix B The National Army Lists 80 Selecting your Support, Support Options, National Army Lists Index 103 3 “Prepare for Battle!” This order should be given before the action begins; a convenient time is during the commander’s reconnaissance and orders.” Infantry Training. The War Office. March 1944 To get started playing Chain of Command the forward edge of battle, will tend to be left “off first things you’ll need are these rules and a table” and represented by Forward Observation couple of opposing forces. As mentioned, the Teams on the tabletop. rules have not been designed with any one specific range or scale of figures in mind; you can The force you field will most often be of platoon use anything from 6mm up to 54mm, but for strength, so around thirty figures with an officer smaller scales, such as 6mm and 10mm, we and NCOs, and perhaps some light support suggest that all distances shown in inches are weapons. In Appendix B, National Army Lists, converted to centimetres. you will find plenty of examples of forces and how they are organised along with lists of How you base your figures is a matter of personal support units which you may use to select your choice. The game uses individual figure removal, force for the forthcoming action. so if you are starting out with your WWII collection you will probably find individually The Second World War covered such large areas based figures offer the most flexibility, but as of the globe and so many nations that to provide long as you can track losses, multiple figure bases a truly universal guide would take many hundreds (or figures based for other game systems) should of pages. As a result, we have focussed on not present a major problem. covering the four major protagonists in Europe – Germany, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the For the visual effect we enjoy, we use individually United States of America – from 1943 onwards. based 28mm figures on Lard Island, with Leaders Details for other theatres will be provided in ‐ Officers and NCOs ‐ on slightly larger bases so future Handbooks. we can identify them easily on the table top. However, the ground scale used in the rules ‐ 12” Once you have your armies sorted out, you will equals 40 yards ‐ means that 15mm figures give need a table top or board upon which to play the closest approximation of “real” scale, each your game. We recommend a 6’ by 4’ table if you 15mm man being 6 foot tall. are playing in inches. With smaller 6mm or 10mm figures, you can reduce that to an area or The rules are “What you see is what you get”, around 70cm by 50cm and play in centimetres. with one figure being one soldier and one vehicle An attractive gaming table, with well painted a single vehicle. The game’s focus is on the model buildings surrounded by attractively actions of your infantry along with some support modelled scenery, will always enhance your units. These are units which operated in the experience. There are a huge number of front line, so weapons such as artillery (or even companies who can supply you with terrain made medium mortars), which as a matter of course for the scale of models you are gaming in, or why are deployed significant distances behind the 4 not try your hand at making some yourself? Sometimes your Units will assume a particular Details such as telegraph poles or gates can be stance, either operating Tactically or going on made very quickly and cheaply and will give your Overwatch. These stances may extend over table a unique look. numerous Phases of play and need to be shown on the table. Similarly, Units which have become Pinned or have Broken, as a result of contact with HARDWARE the enemy, need to be marked. To play Chain of Command you will also need a tape measure showing inches to measure We have produced a set of game tokens which distances moved and weapon ranges. allow these to be tracked easily and clearly during the game and which are available from our web To play Chain of Command you will need a site. number of six‐sided dice. All the dice used in the rules are six‐sided, marked 1 to 6 on each side with numbers or pips. We refer to these CHAIN OF COMMAND POINTS generally as D6 in the rules. During the game you will need to keep track of the number of Chain of Command Points your Ordinarily, these are used to generate a random side generates. Some gamers prefer to keep the number between 1 and 6. Sometimes you will tally using chits or tokens such as tiddly‐winks. roll multiple dice, as indicated by a preceding We do produce larger size Chain of Command number, such as 2D6 or 3D6.

Load more

  105

Copy Link