A few support options for CoC

I actually finished these off a while ago, just after New Year, in fact, but forgot to put a post on here. These are all Peter Pig 15mm figures, of which I am very fond. The tiny sculpts have lots of animation and whatever passes for personality inside a small metal soldier.

There is a mixed bag here, both British and German support options. First off a British rifle section, consisting of a three man Bren team, a sis man rifle team and a Junior Leader.

Next the equivalent for the Germans, a standard Heer section, with the same kind of structure.

Next, a couple of PIAT teams with a Senior Leader. Not sure now much use these will be, or if I'll ever need two of them at the same time, but the figures were, ahem, just lying around, so here they are.

Next, a tripod-mounted MG42 team and a Senior Leader for the Germans. I've already painted up one of these teams, but I had a second one, so here it is. The SL will be a useful cheap support option for the Germans, whose basic platoons lack leaders.

And finally, to quote newsreaders everywhere, here are two Vickers teams for the British, providing some much-needed additional firepower.

There are still quite a few other support options that I might need at some point, so this will rumble on in the background for some time, I think.

Trouble in the bocage - a Chain of Command AAR

This was a recent game of Chain of Command at the club. I commanded the Germans, and Brian was in charge of the Americans. The scenario was Attack and Defend, with a Zug of Heer regulars defending a hamlet against a US Armoured Rifle platoon. The Amis had 6 points of support, which was spent on a pre-game barrage and a FOO with a battery of 81mm mortars. I had seven points of support, which I used to get a tripod-mounted MG42, two lengths of barbed wire and a minefield. I did contemplate blowing the lot on a StuG IIIG but I was worried that it might get taken out by US bazookas. As things turned out, there weren't any.

Here are two views of the table before we deployed. I saw this as being somewhere in the more rolling bocage country south of the Cotentin peninsula, between Saint-Lô and Mortain.

The Americans would mainly arrive from a JoP towards the top left in the second photo and a second JoP in the woods in the centre, while the German JoPs were all concentrated around the houses and cornfields.

I have to say that I was rather worried about the massive firepower (a squad of two tripod-mounted MGs) available to the Americans, as well as the sheer number of senior and junior leaders they had.

The pre-game barrage didn't disrupt my deployment too much and soon one of my squads was tactically deployed in a coppice on a low hill, firing and causing casualties and shock on one of the US rifle sections trying to work its way around my right flank.

Effectively, early on I'd neutralised this threat, which included pinning them and wounding an attached SL.

However, elsewhere, the Americans swiftly moved to occupy the lane lined on one side with bocage.

I deployed a section in a cornfield on the outskirts of the hamlet and placed them on overwatch. I also deployed my tripod MG42 team upstairs in the larger house.

The Americans began to reinforce their central position and got their MG squad into action quickly. These pesky MGs made short work of my third section, causing so many casualties and shock that before long the survivors broke and ran off. Oops. 

The section that cut and ran was the one on the left of the above photo. However, the section in the coppice continued to rain fire down on the pinned US rifles, slowly whittling the squad down. Despite my losses, I was hopeful of holding my position.

My MG42 in the house began to hit the US MG squad. slowly causing casualties and shock.

Below you can see the big gap caused by the demise of my central rifle section. Only the minefield, and the threat of my tripod MG42 was keeping the Americans behind the line of bocage.

At this point, the US FOO called in a mortar barrage. This was off-target but he managed to correct this and the German SL and MG team in the house made a rapid exit and headed away from the zone of the mortar barrage.

The US MG squad suffered a major setback when my lefthand section emerged from the cornfield and its MG42 team opened fire, before long blowing the Amis away, including a JL. The rifle squad also came under fire and made a hasty withdrawal. Without any MG support and no BARs available to the Armoured Rifle platoon, the position became untenable. US morale was now plummeting and Brian was rolling fewer command dice. At this point he was down to two or three.

Once the bocage-lined lane was free from Americans, my Germans were able to start targeting the US HQ squad and the attached FOO. Things had really turned around for me. US morale was hovering precariously at One.

I turned my attention back to my right flank now that my centre was safe and finally caused the US squad there to rout, following the elimination of the attached SL. At this point US morale hit a big fat Zero.

So, a decent win for the Heer. It was touch-and-go for a while, but as long as I could keep the Americans stuck behind the bocage in the lane, I felt confident that I'd be able to keep on inflicting casualties. Eliminating the MG squad was always my main aim and luckily, it worked out for me. Also, the firepower of the section MG42s was crucial, especially when it was being directed by the JL. It really shows the importance of the MG42 team in each German rifle section. It is a real killer weapon and it pays to keep the JL with the MG team.

Getting back to my Chain of Command project

Last year, I began a 15mm Chain of Command project using Peter Pig figures. I got as far as completing a British Rifle platoon, a British Airborne platoon and a German Infantry Zug, plus a few Germans with Panzerfausts and a Panzerknacker team. Then, when I got distracted by other things, I had a Panzergrenadier Zug undercoated, but that was as far as I'd got.

Anyway, I have got a game of CoC in the pipeline, so I thought that I should get back to this and  start finishing off what I'd had planned last year. Therefore I ordered a few odds and ends from Peter Pig and got round to assembling five PSC Universal Carriers that were still on their sprues.

My immediate concern was to complete the following;

• A Carrier Recce section of two vehicles, each with a three man Bren team plus a Junior Leader
• A German tripod-mounted MG42 with a five man team

However, while I was working on these, I also decided to finish off the Panzergrenadiers and the three spare carriers, which I made up as one Wasp carrier with a flamethrower, one basic carrier and one with a 2" mortar team. These extra carriers will  also be useful as CoC support options.

I've got enough spare Peter Pig figures to make up a complete British Rifle section and their German equivalent, which are both also support options, plus a few other options, such as a German Pioneer section, comprising a Demolition team, a Flamethrower team and a Junior Leader. Both of those teams can also be taken as separate support options.

The pictures for all of these are below. First the Recce Section;

The other carriers;

The Panzergrenadier Zug;

The fearsome tripod-mounted MG42 and its team;

I've also been thinking about putting a Volkssturm Zug together, which would be classed as Green Troops, allowing them a lot of potential support options. The Peter Pig range has some Volkssturm, which I reckon would blend in nicely with some Peter Pig DAK riflemen (they are in caps and long trousers) and a few other infantry thrown in to create an ad hoc look. I quite like the idea of greatcoat troops for the MG42 teams, because these might not necessarily be Feldgrau uniform greatcoats. The thing I am wondering about is whether they should have a Panzerschreck team, as in the German Army List in the rulebook or whether perhaps a couple of guys with Panzerfausts might be more appropriate instead? I mean, we are looking at desperate straits here, not a nice neat by-the-book regulation Zug. I'll have to think about this a bit.