Chain of Command - Para Support!

Continuing the theme of the Para list from Chain of Commands 'Pint Sized Campaign' Kampfgruppe Von Luck, the support options for the British Paras defending the town are quite limited, but I can cover them with most of the figures from my BA British Para list.

In the campaign, the Brits are very short of numbers and support and subsequently would probably struggle to play a battle with many of these options present at the same time, so there may be a crossover of figures within the support lists.

Medic.  Medics work quite differently in CoC, and are only there to protect your Senior Leaders from getting wounds and/or dying.  There is also the option to have another PIAT team if required or a 2" mortar team.

You can also select an extra section as two seperate teams, a Bren team and a rifle team.  If you select both teams, they come as a full section with a Junior Leader with a Sten gun.  This section is not part of your platoon, and are considered to have been picked up.  I like to think of these chaps as having battled through the enemy positions after a bad drop, and picking up a few injuries and souvenirs along the way.

 More expensive support options are available, in the form of a 3 man Flamethrower team.  

 a Forward observer for a 3" Mortar Battery - (the wounded para is there to represent the Senior Leader if he is wounded in a game, he carries the wound for the entire campaign)

and finally the 6 pounder ATG.  The Germans in this campaign have access to a 15cm Self Propelled Howitzer, the Lorraine Schlepper.  This Airborne 6 pounder only comes with 3 crew, so I've borrowed some others from the 75mm Pack Howitzer teams I use for Bolt Action.

Chain of Command - Paras!

So I've been interested in trying out Chain of Command for a while, it seems the Bolt Action scene isn't everyones cup of tea, and people who think perhaps the dumbing down of BA is detrimental often suggest CoC as an alternative.

Gone are tournament style DIY lists of Volksgrendadiers with STG44s and MG42s coming out of their noses, gone are the Banzai Ghurka SMG spam lists and in with what seems to be, on cursorary inspection, a fast flowing and well thought out ruleset for WWII Skirmishing.

Those of us who have BA armies will of course wonder how those lists gravitate over to this new game, and in the main the answer is very well.  As an example, I've picked my 1500 odd point para list  for BA to see what I can squeeze into the scenario based Para lists.  The 4 army lists in the rules book only cover Late War (Normandy and onwards) German, US, British and Soviet equipment, but individual campaign booklets often have their own lists for players to choose from.

The Leadership aspect of the game is such that, you cannot make a list of troops to play a battle with but must rely on a basic platoon plus any support you can muster either based on the strength of your opponent, or on an individual and accurate ToE for that battle and a bit of luck!

Talking of Luck, one of the campaign booklets deals with Kampfgruppe Von Luck's attack on the British Paras at La Bas de Ranville not longer after D-Day, where scattered and battered platoons of the 6th Airborne Division attempt to hold back the 21st Panzer division from the bridges over the Orne.  I'd like to play through this campaign, so wanted to make sure I could cover the basic forces presented here, with an eye to playing it through at some point.

The basic list is a Senior Leader, representing our Platoon commander, and another Senior Leader representing our Platoon Sergeant.

With these in the HQ group come a 2" mortar, a PIAT team and a Sniper.

 Sections are treated a little differently in CoC, as seperate 'Teams' operating as a 3 man Bren Team and a 6 man team with 5 rifles and a Sten gun, all ably lead by a Sergeant (with a Sten Gun)


First Section

Second Section

 

The third section in the Platoon contains the other Bren gun, and is made up of two sections of 4 men with a Bren gun and a Sten, lead by a Sergeant with another Sten.

 This is the basice set up of the Para Platoons in this scenario, all happily covered by my Bolt Action British Para Platoon.

Next up, Support Options!

 

Arnhem Paras

Arnhem Paras.  Last time I counted these, I had about 1750 points worth.  I was asked to take some moody shots by someone at Warlord when I submitted my idea for an Operation Chariot (St Nazaire Raid) scenario, so I knocked these up.