Chain Of Command - Fifth Game - Probe Somewhere in Normandy

An explanation of how I got into Chain of Command 2 (COC2) is provided here. On 13Nov25, we had our fifth game of COC2; it was held at the South Somerset Wargames Group (SSWG), where games are played on 5' x 5' tables.

Introduction to the Start of a COC2 Game

The game was a Probe Scenario somewhere in Normandy in the latter half of 1944. Clearly, the location of the action, Normandy in this case, and when the action occurred (1944) determined the terrain and forces permitted to be deployed. A Probe Scenario is an attempt by the attacker to impair the ability of the defender to defend and to find a route through outer defences, to get closer to a significant objective.

The core to a force in COC2 is a platoon of infantry. The platoon may be augmented by a variety of support resources intended to compensate the inequalities between different platoons and the roles played; ie, an attacker can be expected to be sent into action with a more capable force than the defender because generally, defence is easier all else being equal.

An interesting feature of COC2 is that games commence with the Patrol Phase, which is generally played with Patrol Markers that represent small reconnaissance teams - 2 or 3 men. Friendly teams must operate in a chain and remain within 12" (40 yards with a ground scale of 1:120) of adjacent teams as they advance toward enemy patrol teams. When opposing patrol teams are 40 yards apart, they become 'locked' and advance no further. 

A the end of the Patrol Phase, the relationship between enemy patrol markers and terrain that offers cover,  determine where a limited quantity of Jump Off Points (JOP) are located on the table. Each JOP represent the centre of a circle of 20 yard radius within which units may 'start' the game, having reached a deployment position without the enemy being aware of their presence. This is a clever means to introduce some Fog Of War into actions.

COC2 is played in what are generally single player phases. In my head, each phase represents something from 6 to 12 (or more) seconds of real time. A variable quantity of phases make up a turn. The end of a turn can often be considered to represent a short lull in the fighting - a chance for the chaps to catch their breath.

COC2 contains 6 types of scenario, one of which is Probe.

The Table and Objectives

The table had 2 areas of crops, part of an orchard, road, farm tracks, a farm with a garden, some hedges, gates and walls. The picture below shows 5 of the 6 JOPs - an out-of-shot German JOP was behind the hedge in the middle of the left edge. The whole table represented an area of 200 yards by 200 yards.

Germans were probing British outer defences so had the objective to capture one British JOP and get a section of infantry to exit the table at the top of this picture. British had to delay the probe until reinforcements arrived to repel the attackers.

Alex and I played German; British were played by Andrew and Michael.

The Game

A platoon of German infantry probed ground defended by British infantry. The Germans got off to an unexpectedly quick start (double phase); one of their 3 sections quickly occupied a British JOP in the orchard but it wouldn't be considered captured unless it was in German control at the end of a turn - see picture above.

The presence of a British section with an attached senior leader (Junior Officer/ Sergeant) became apparent.

A second German section passed through the hedge into the orchard and headed toward the objective table edge. Both German sections were tactical so had improved cover if fired upon.

The first British section crossed the road, sheltered behind the hedge and fired at the first German section. The presence of a second British section and light mortar became apparent. The first German section took a couple of casualties and were unnerved/ shocked.

By this point of the game, the first German section had received many casualties from sustained attack from mortar, hand grenade, Bren gun and rifles so had routed from the table, which shocked the second German section. The first British section had re-taken control of the JOP, from which a third British section had appeared and threatened the German second section. In anticipation of a flank attack by the Germans, the second British section moved to the 'z bend' in the road.

The second German section turned to face the threat and were joined in the orchard by the third German section. Casualties and shock had been suffered by the third British section.

As we approached kicking-out time from the community centre where SSWG meet, the Germans were in a bad way so conceded.

Lessons

I'm still getting to grips with the rules for COC2 and the characteristics of the German forces so feel I have much more to learn. Some fundamental errors I made were:

• To choose vehicles (Sdkfz 222 armoured car and Sdkfz 250/1 half-track) as support, which were not deployed - the terrain was infantry country with limited visibility (into the orchard) and plenty of cover from which to fire Projectile Infantry Anti Tank (PIAT). Also, most road/ track was bound by hedges so movement of these vehicles was always going to be constrained. I should have chosen infantry and a mortar in lieu of light armour; infantry to be able to move over the terrain and mortar to provide HE capability.
• I tend to be too optimistic, which means I ignore well established tactics; hence, let sections operate individually, which leaves them exposed - the teams within a section are intended to support each other so one team should provide suppressive fire while the other advances a short distance then to provide suppressive fire whilst the first team advances, etc. Sections should work in a similar way to support each other.

We'll see what happens next time 😀.

In Search of Rules for WW2

Introduction

In here, I explained why in 2025, I got back into WW2 war-games. 

The first task was to decide the rule set Alex and I wanted to play - see here for a recommended process to approach an historical period. To this end, I conducted much research in t'interwebrary about popular rule-sets. 

Observations

What follows is my interpretation of the articles and YouTube videos available in July and August 2025.

They are offered here in case others might benefit from the research.

Observations are presented by organisational level and rule-set; each rule-set is identified together with its author(s) and year of initial release.

Please let me know if there are glaring errors in any this work.

Now I'm more familiar with Chain Of Command 2, improvements to the detail of some of what was observed in Jul25 became apparent (in Nov25) but the general gist of the observations was the same so no time was consumed to polish them.

Platoon Level

Chain Of Command

TooFatLardies – 2013

• Patrol phase – determines where infantry units may start the game; a good feature.
• Roll typically 5 x d6 Command Dice (CD) to determine which type of units may activate.
• Chain Of Command Dice (COCD) used to record COC Points (COCP) gained from CD; COCP enable additional interventions/ actions.
• Each turn is played in phases; throws on CD determine end of turn, which results in ‘administrative’ actions.
• There are random events tables.
• Units are represented by bases with individual figures so more play-time spent moving units than with rules that have bases that represents groups of troops; however, platoon level means there aren’t a large quantity of bases on the table.
• Actions for combat units may be move or fire.
• Movement distance for all units determined by di(c)e roll(s) with adjustment for terrain and crossing obstacles. Tactical, normal and ‘at the double’ use different quantity of dice and each has different benefits and constraints.
• Commanders can order overwatch and covering fire, mitigate shock and order fire from ‘specialist’ weapons.
• Distant Combat: quantity of d6 varies by weapons shooting; roll to hit depends on range and quality of target. Hit effect table considers cover. Target may be shocked or killed.
• Close Assault: quantity of d6 to roll = quantity of figures; 1/3 probability of shock/ kill; looser may be forced to withdraw.
• National characteristics can tweak rules.

Company Level

Crossfire

Arty Conliffe - 1996

• Player with the initiative keeps playing until initiative lost by: sustaining damage from combat; failing an attempt to inflict damage on the enemy; or failing an attempt to rally. Effectively, both players are active throughout the game.
• Actions may be move, combat or rally.
• No measurement for movement or firing.
• Movement between terrain features so lots of features required.
• Enemy can opportunity fire if active player moves into field of view.
• Distant Combat: Rifle squad throws 3 die to shoot (MG = 4 die); 5&6 to hit; quantity of hits determines pin, suppress or eliminate.
• Close Combat: die roll with modifiers to eliminate enemy units.
• Roll to rally
• No national features; eg, all MG are the same.

Fireball Forward

Mark Fastoso and Jonathan Miller - 2012

• Units (typically platoon) made up of elements (typically squads).
• Units often in concealment and placed on table only when they fire or are ‘spotted’ so initially, lots of documented hidden movement. Once spotted, all elements bar sniper, remain on-table for the rest of the game.
• Side and quantity of units to be activated determined by draws from deck of playing cards. Payer selects unit(s) and sequence for activation. Some scenarios employ ‘initiative chips’ that allow additional activations.
• For each unit, player chooses first element, which may move, spot, fire and/ or rally (depending on whether the element is individual, Recon, infantry or vehicle) in sequence selected by the player. This is repeated for all elements in the first unit. The player then repeats process for subsequent units in the previously decided sequence.
• The opposing player repeats the process, which is repeated until all elements have been activated once in the current turn.
• Movement is across any distance within a radius from the current position; constrained by the quantity of ‘terrain crossings’. Enemy may initiate Opportunity Fire (OF) if movement within LOS but may conduct OF only once per target unit per turn. At end of move, element can nominate one terrain feature within 3” and LOS; enemy must reveal any units concealed by that feature.
• Distant Combat: 
• Fire against nearest element within LOS. 
• Against infantry, 3 different dice - the quantity of each depends upon unit firing – white hit d6, coloured hit d6, and 20-sided range die. White dice with DRMs for terrain and potentially range of target; coloured dice hit on natural 6; and range die increases the standard effective range of the element so can prevent all hits if target beyond range.
• Morale check required for each hit: one failure and element is ‘broken’ so may make a route movement; >1 and element eliminated. Target suppressed if passes morale check when it was fired at during enemy’s activation (not from OF); consequently, target unable to initiate OF until next activated.
• When hit armour, check penetration and roll to block penetration. Morale checks may be required.
• Artillery is off-board.
• Close combat: single d6 per side with DRMs; only loser receives hits.
• Rally is the only permitted action for a ‘broken’ element but other actions may be conducted if element does rally. Six on D6 required unless in base contact with leader, in which case compare against leader moral.
• Spot action: 5 or 6 on d6 enables nomination of one terrain feature in LOS and any elements there are placed on the table.
• Generally, units are generic rather than different features for different nations (may be different ranges – don’t know). One exception is Russian activation. Also specific rules for Japanese.

Flames of War

 

Battlefront Miniatures - 2002

• Arguably, slightly bigger than company level – aircraft and artillery may support. Appears to be primarily an armour game. Ground scale is significantly different to the figure scale.
• Measure for movement and combat.
• Command Radius (CR); penalty for shooting if outside CR.
• Distant Combat: 
• Check range, check Line Of Sight (LOS), check concealment. Quantity of dice to roll is a function of weapon to fire and the amount of movement undertaken. 
• Roll to hit is a function of target with DRMs.
• Hits are assigned to other targets in the unit (within 6” of hit target), even if they weren’t shot at.
• Roll to save based on offensive capability of weapon and armour of target; then roll Firepower Test to establish level of any damage. (Lots of dice rolls).
• Infantry can become pinned.
• Artillery is on-table; template used for fall of shot. Aircraft bomb in similar way to artillery fire.
• Close Combat (Assault): ? - prior to completion of this summary, I’d decided I’d not enjoy FOW so ceased research.

Poor Bloody Infantry (PBI)

Peter Pig – 2000; latest version was 2025.

• Grid based.
• Each ‘square’ of the grid rolls for quantity of Action Points (AP) with potential for re-rolls based on distance from Company Commander. Every element within the square may consume the same quantity of AP.
• Actions may be move, combat or rally.
• Movement costs AP – quantity of AP varies by terrain being vacated and entered.
• Distant combat (DC) costs 1 AP with a max of 3 DC per turn – 6 to hit on d6; quantity of d6 determined by type of weapon and modification factors. Saving throw – modified by terrain. Enemy survivors may return fire. 
• Eliminated unit replaced by ‘body’ marker. Two such markers for a platoon represents 1 ‘problem’ (loss of officer also 1 problem). When there are 2 problems, moral check required that can result in removal of a base. Cost 2 AP to remove a body marker.
• Close Combat (Assault) costs 4 AP – 3 die per unit with modifications.

Battalion Level

O Group – (might be company level)

Reisswitz Press (sister of TooFatLardies) – 2020

• Looks like something to evolve into once platoon and company level have been mastered. 
• Storm of Steel has some useful introductory videos:
• Review of Rules.
• Company Areas, Reserve Companies, Phase Lines and Consolidation.
• The Company in the Attack.
• Combat Patrols.

Rapid Fire

Colin Rumford and Richard Marsh – early 21^st century

• Abstraction of unit size so something platoon size represents a company; not appealing.
• “Play using the standard Rapid Fire 1:15 figure and 1:5 vehicle ratios for brigade-level engagements, or use for 1:1 skirmishes or even 1:45/1:15 divisional level battles…”.

BattleGroup

The Plastic Soldier Company – 2012?

• Has keen followers.
• Claims to handle from platoon level to at least Battalion level.
• Unsure that Reserve Move is realistic; a reserve move marker can be placed, then played at any time; in the enemies bound, a unit can reserve move after all enemy have fired, then it can move again on its own turn; this doesn’t appear realistic.

Conclusions

We decided that we'd start with relatively small organisations so specifically sought a platoon level game, with the intention to scale up force sizes and choose different rules as our confidence grew and we 'were promoted'. We opted for Chain of Command and awaited release of version 2 in the Autumn of 2025.

 Return to World War II

Introduction

In 2025, I consumed much time on a return to wargames set in World War II (WW2).

This post is intended as an introduction to a series of posts on these activities.

In the Beginning …

Like most wargamers of my vintage (born in the early 1960’s), I was steeped in a culture for which WW2 was a benchmark; as a young child, Mum had been an evacuee from London; we regularly met her older cousin who had served with the Royal Engineers; films that centred on WW2 were frequently broadcast on the television (TV) - there was no streaming then; there were only 3 channels on the TV. One of our teachers had spent some of the war as a prisoner of the Japanese; and there was a plethora of WW2 models from Airfix and other manufacturers.

Models were traded in the school playground; books, rules and magazines abound (there was no internet). The product of authors such as Donald Featherstone and Bruce Quarrie (to name only 2) adorned the shelves of many a teenager. 

At various times, WW2 wargames were played in the loft or on a large piece of plywood board above my bed, hinged from the wall.

… Circa Fifty Years Later

Through one of our daughters, I met Alex during the Covid19 pandemic. Alex was (and still is) a very keen board-gamer with an impressive collection and sharp brain. More recently, he acquired and enjoyed WW2 board-games such as Undaunted and Memoir ’44. Knowing that I had an interest in historical tabletop wargames, Alex advised that he’d like to wargame WW2; oh dear …