CoC in the Desert...

For my second game of Chain of Command at the Lenton club, I played Mike in a one off Desert Battle, ostensibly set somewhere in Libya during the arrival of the Afrika Corps and pitting Mikes Germans against my resiliant British forces.

We decided to roll for the mission and the support once the table was set up, and I'd settled on an openish table with a couple of rocky outcrops to represent the kind of terrain the protaganists would have been fighting over.



I'd covered pretty much most of the supports vailable for the brits, and when we rolled for a 'flanking attack' mission and worked out I would be the defender, we played the patrol phase.




The Germans (with the benefit of the attacking edges) get two sets of three patrol markers working independently, the brits start all their 3 patrol markers in their quarter.  This is tough, I knew I'd have to get out early to keep Jerry as far away as possible, but I had to either sacrifice an edge to get out early or stay in the middle and hope for the best.  Three patrol markers can't cover two directions, but I held in the middle and hoped Mike would roll low for free moves.  He didn't!

Before we'd even started I had 4 Jerry Patrol markers within 24" of my position.  this was going to be tough.

we rolled for support - 10 points for the germans and 8 points for the british (half the attackers and then +3).  The germans would enter on two edges and I'd be stuck in a single corner.

I knew I'd be facing 6 LMG's and probably a Panzer III, but the mission required a stout defence so I'd decided to just try and hold up the germans until they ran out of time. However, if I could stall them enough I could hope for a draw.

Mike popped up 3 JOPS on my left flank and one in front, and I had two of my JOPS around the rocky outcrop on the right, one slightly forward  to hold off the right side and one nearly in the left corner.  That one was close to two of Mikes JOPS, but I wanted to try and capture them both quickly  and I figured that was where the fight was going to come from.

Although it's only my second game of CoC, I've watched a few others and there seems to be a very quick 'close to contact' effect which usually ends up with a couple of sections battling away in a small area of the board, and this happened again in between these two rocky outcrops.

I'd selected as my support a Matilda II (because I'd just painted it and wanted to get it on the table), an extra 2" mortar and a set of entrenchments.  Mike had (unbeknown to me) selected an extra Senior Leader, a Panzer III and a SdKfz 221, but I think he was mostly hoping for a brief period of firepower superiority with his 6 LMG teams.

As a defensive battle unfolded, I struggled to get my teams on and use smoke to blind the Axis LMG's, and this resulted in an isolated section getting heavily shocked, taking casualties and eventually being pinned.

One section I'd placed in hard cover were ignored, and their fire was relatively ineffective as well.

I ended up deploying a senior leader to try and deal with the shocked section, and he ended up getting killed, and although at this point I'd managed to blind a couple of LMGs with smoke and keep Mikes Panzer III busy with my Matilda, eventually he used his CoC dice to end the turn, take two JOPs, rout one section and force the 2" mortar to surrender.  This, inevitably, lead to a total collapse of morale and a withdrawal by the British.

An interesting game and one full of lessons.  A 3" mortar observer would have been a better choice as would a Vickers MMG, but that would have meant no Matilda.  I would have been able to use the 2" mortar to smoke the axis LMG's, use overwatch on the sections and MMG to protect the lines of advance and then the 3" mortar to pound the enemy JOPs. Also I didn't need the 4th JOP really, however I felt I needed a forward JOP to threaten Mikes JOPs, otherwise it would have just been a case of sitting back and taking it on the chin.

Hopefully there will be more CoC, in the Desert or in the Fields of Normandy soon!

Kingforce - 28mm Desert Churchill Mk IIIs

I've had a Churchill Tank Troop box sitting on the shelf since March last year, ostensibly for some Normandy Tank War fun, however I've dragged out my 8th Army chaps for their first game and thought they could do with a Churchill for some (Heavy) moral support.

When I started looking into the history of the Churchill in North Africa, I remembered the story of Kingforce, 6 Churchill Mk IIIs that took part in the 2nd Battle of El Alamein wearing a rather snazzy two tone camo look.

Following their good showing at El Alamein,  more Churchills took part in battles in Tunisia and performed very well under the circumstances - much more so then they had on the beaches of Dieppe.

The Warlord/Italeri Churchills are very simple to put together, and look excellent.  The body/tracks are consistent across the marks, and it comes with two turrets and a selection of guns.  A slight bit of drilling is required to make a Mk III, and I'll add a couple of little bits on to reference the Desert nature.

Pictures of Kingforce are hard to come across -there is this one that pops up - 

And these two

There is some debate about the actual colours used on the Kingforce tanks., whether it was black over stone grey, or dark chocolate over light brown.

This photograph has been coloured but might well be more representative of an accurate colour scheme.

At El Alamein, Churchill crews suffered due to the large fan positioned beneath the drivers compartment sucking in dust and sand, so some Kingforce tanks have a front skirt of rubber to try and alleviate this problem.  A more permanent solution was found when the Churchills fought in Tunisia.

Embed from Getty Images

Bolt Action AAR - Clash in the Desert!

At the Lenton club, I was fortunate enough to be able to play the main man James' Italians in a game of Bolt Action.

I took 1000 points of Desert Rats based around 1941, with 15 order dice, three small sections, an MMG, a mortar,, a sniper, a 25 pounder, three Bren Carriers and a Crusader Mk 1 tank.  

James had 1000 points of Italians, a couple or three big sections, a mortar, an MMG, and anti tank gun and a M11/39 light tank.

We only played a Meeting Engagement as I was a bit rusty with the rules, and although we made a couple of mistakes (there are no rolls to hit in Hand to Hand for example) it was a good game, a pretty close thing with us both losing around 4 or 5 units.  A nice terrain, great venue and a nice bunch of chaps that I am hoping to play more games with in the future!

More 8th Army Stuff

More 8th Army Stuff!

I think there is about 1200 points here, depending on how you play the Hurricane IIc.

Not the greatest picture I'm afraid but you get the idea.

•  M7 Priest
• 3 x Bren Carriers - 1 for the ATR, one as a Recce Carrier and one for someone else to use.
• 3 sections of 8 men with an SMG, 6 rifles and a bren gun
• a 3" mortar team with a spotter

• Officer + Sergeant.

There is also a Crusader tank knocking around somewhere, and an MMG team.

8th Army Stuff

8th Army stuff.

I'm not really sure how I started out collecting these, it was probably an impulse purchase of Perrys 8th Army and another throw back to those Airfix days of yore.

25 Pounder

Rifle Section

Bren Carrier with Boys ATR

M7 Priest for 8th Army

Here is my Desert 8th Army M7 Priest.  It's a Solido 1/50 diecast metal piece, so it's a little larger than an equivalent Warlord 1/56 one, but I think it looks imposing.

It's supposed to be rough and ready, as most of my WWII painting stuff is.  Stowage is from...Legend?  dunno, had it ages, I just wanted to hide some of the diecast detail as it's pretty plain.  Oh, I added in some side skirts with plasticard as well.

not had chance to field this in a game yet though.