Chain of Command 2 - a few first thoughts

My pre-order bundle arrived yesterday afternoon.

The cover keeps the spirit of the original alive, while also looking all new and shiny. I chose the Veteran Resupply Bundle, which includes the book, a PDF of the book, two Force morale trackers, nicely printed on card and a set of MDF tokens;

I've already taken the opportunity to laminate the force Morale trackers, to ensure they have a long and useful life and the MDF tokens and markers are a nice update to the original set (of which I have two) and include a few new things. All in all, an excellent set of the important stuff. I've already got patrol markers, CoC dice and jump off points, but if you are a new player, you can get two other bundles that have the extra things you'll need to play.

I've spent a bit of time skimming through the book and, so far, the changes I've seen all appear to be improvements rather than things I don't like. I've played CoC2 a couple of times already and knew how some of the new things work but there is also stuff that I'd not seen, so I expect that there will be a period of adjustment ahead. 

One thing I really do like from an early dip into the book are the changes to Soviet platoons which give them a bit more punch and potentially make them a more flexible attacking force. I'm thinking that I'll be following in the footsteps of Comrade Stalin and reorganising my Soviet infantry quite soon. I may well end up with more Soviet troops than I'll ever be able to get onto the table. Looking at the cost of Supports, I still doubt that I'll ever see my T-34/85, SU-85 or IS-2 on the table.

I'm also looking at the German list and I'm now planning a Volksgrenadier force, which should be an interesting Zug to play with. Assault rifles are less powerful than in CoC1, but still pack a big punch and SMGs are also downgraded but have a longer range. Volksgrenadiers field a lot of firepower, especially at close range, but look like they might be pretty brittle once they start taking casualties and shock.

I really like the changes to the Panzergrenadier Zug too. Now, each squad is all about the two MG42 teams. There are no additional riflemen. Everyone in the team now supports the MG42.

I've not looked as closely at the British lists, but a third crewman for the 2" mortar makes sense. The Airborne platoon no longer has an embedded PIAT team, that is now a support option and the platoon structure has changed.

The new ways you can use CoC dice points is also great. I've had a chance to use it in practice and I like it a lot.

Finally, Elite status is no longer applicable, except in one specific case. I've never liked the idea of Elites. There are better ways of giving certain troop types a bit of extra welly, red dice, for example as introduced in the Blitzkrieg handbook.

So, it is looking good for the future of Chain of Command and now I'm going to have to visit the Peter Pig website and spend some money.

I don't usually do WIP posts but here is one today

I'm working on a fantasy army for Midgard using Wargames Atlantic Conquistadors. 

This chap below will be its general.

He is kitbashed from a Perry War of the Roses horse and horse armour, a Wargames Atlantic Renaissance mounted body and arms and a Warlord Games Landsknecht head. Since taking this picture, I have cleaned up the blemishes from where things were attached to sprues and he's ready for undercoating.

The fantasy army in question will be based upon a Warhammer Empire Averland force, so I think that the inspiration for the general is fairly obvious. In case you aren't familiar with Warhammer Fantasy, the original is this guy below;

He is the Elector Count of Averland, Marius Leitdorf. My figure is going to keep the black armour and red and yellow sleeves and also the metallic blue horse armour, but I'm definitely not painting suns on it.

I'm hoping he will look pretty good once completed. I'll probably undercoat him later today.

I'm still painting up the first few groups of his infantry, but none are near completion yet.

The 2025 Lincombe Barn Wargames Society (a.k.a Bristol Wargames Society) Tabletop sale

 Attention all wargamers in the Bristol area, or even further afield!

The annual LBWS Tabletop Sale is almost upon us.

The TTS will be on Sunday May 18th at Lincombe Barn, the usual venue, address below. Doors are open to the public from 9:30 for Early Birds (entry £5) and 10:00 (£3 adults, £1.50 juniors, under 12s free). The TTS will end at around 12:30.

The address is Lincombe Barn, Overndale Road, Downend, Bristol BS16 2RW.

There is a certain amount of car parking available and public transport runs to the venue, see THIS LINK.

Hot and cold refreshments and snacks will be available.

The sale is already sold out for private traders but that means that there will be lots of goodies on sale to the public. There is always a wide variety of things on sale, from wargames figures, vehicles, books etc to boardgames and sets of rules.

So, if you are looking for that special something, be it a few extra barbarians, Romans, medieval knights, WW2 tanks, fantasy figures or whatever, or maybe even a complete army come along as see what the sellers have on offer.