Cold War Chain of Command Playtest

 

Cold War Coc

My good friend Jason aka Welsh Wargamer in Devon has been adjusting the fantastic Chain of Command rules for his fantastic collection of Cold War figures, see his blog for the 3 part section on his CoC conversion.

 

So on Friday he dusted off the figures and armour, and I went over and we had a small game of CoWaCoC(stupid name).  By small I mean a small table, only 4' square, and a basic platoon with an under armoured vehicle each.

 

Platoon wise, the British are fairly straightforward, under my command.
Command Section 
LT - Senior Leader with SLR
Platoon Sergeant - Senior Leader with SMG
Signaller - SMG and Radio
One Soldier - SLR and 51mm mortar
Three Sections
Sergeant - Junior Leader with SLR or SMG
Six Soldiers- SLRs, some may have M72 LAWs as well
One Soldier - GPMG

One Scorpion in Support

The Russians under Leytenant Ralliski were fairly straighforward too.
Command Section
Leytenant - Senior Leader with Ak47
Serzhánt - Junior Leader with Ak47
One Soldier - Ak47 and Radio
Three Soldiers - Ak47, some may have RPG-18(M72 copy)
One Soldier - PKM belt fed MG
One Soldier - RPG-7 and Ak47
Two Sections
Serzhánt - Junior Leader with Ak47
Five Soldiers - Ak47, some may have RPG-18(M72 copy)
One Soldier - RPK magazine LMG
One Soldier - RPG-7 and Ak47

One BMP-1 in Support

 The table was fairly congested with scenery, no buildings to hide in though and not much hard cover. 

The Russians came on from where the arm of doom is in the photo, with the British from the other side.

 

The Russians went first as they had rolled a higher force moral, and promptly got 3 phases in a row.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They managed to bring on 2 squads, one on each side of the table, and the left flank was supported by a BMP-1.

The right flank squad deployed forwards to try and consolidate on the central field

Then the British arrived, taking up position in the tree line and going onto over watch ready for the Russians sneaking through the woods. 

Then there were more, with all the British infantry coming on, evenly spread across the table.  I kept the speedy little Scorpion off table though.

J moved the BMP out of hiding and fired at my British lining the hedge row shooting up the Russian squad in the wood. 

I had opened up as the squad moved forward, on overwatch, I forgot all about the bloody BMP behind the wood, his shot managed to kill a man, but left himself open to a shot from a Carl Gustav rocket launcher lining him up... 

Fortunately occasionally I am a jammy git with the dice and I rolled 11 to hit, then 6 hits out of 8 dice!  Can you say KABOOM!  BMP? I can.

Things on my left flank went a tad worse.  

J's tactic had been to close range and rely on the superior rate of fire to win. The right squad, supported by the command squad and CO, opened fire on my squad that had advanced to the edge of the field.  Six Ak47s and an RPK LMG make a lot of dice and my squad received 4 dead, and the Corporal was wounded and down, receiving 8 shock they legged it.  Well, half of them did, leaving behind their corporal. 

There they go... Were not sure about the fire rate for Assault Rifles, 3 dice seems a lot when the majority of the platoon has them.  

J fired with 24 dice, admittedly he needed 2 goes due to crappy dice to drive off the squad but he lost no men doing it. 

Then I brought on the Platoon Sergeant and rallied the remaining members of the troops, he pointed out that their armoured support had arrived and "they should pull themselves together".

 The Brits then got a double move too and I sent the Scorpion racing ahead at breakneck speed, hoping to clear the open road and get past the Russians and take the vulnerable jump off point in the centre. 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly they didn't quite make it.  An RPG-7 blasted out of the field and slammed into the side of the Scorpion.  Amazingly it survived, although the commander was injured and shocked.

 

 Another RPG came out and proved to be too much for the Scorpion, which exploded spectacularly. 

By now the Russians had been gradually whittled down by the sustained fire of the 2 British squads in the centre field firing on the left flank.  They managed to all but wipe out the command squad, leaving just the CO and sergeant, who decided that discretion was the better part of valour.  Of course, the report they filed included Chieftain tanks and a full company of British paras, but that's another story.

 

 

 

 All in all it played well.  We both enjoyed it and it did it's job as a first playtest by showing that J needed to change a few things.  The armour ratings of vehicles have gone up a bit, which means that light armour is still very fragile, but it might survive if hit.  Also, J's going to try making assault rifles 2 dice instead of 3 within 18".  I still gives the russians a firepower advantage at close range, but not 3 to 1.  J's also playing about with a support list, so that should be up soon on his Blog.  All in all it was a succesful game and we will do another one soon.

 

 

Thanks to J for the game and the original report which yet again I have plagiarised and claimed as my own...