{"id":11389,"date":"2018-12-26T12:00:42","date_gmt":"2018-12-26T12:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/?p=11389"},"modified":"2021-10-29T02:59:09","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T01:59:09","slug":"the-battle-for-farm-412-or-cocing-around-in-the-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2018\/12\/26\/the-battle-for-farm-412-or-cocing-around-in-the-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Battle for Farm 412” or “Coc’ing around in the Desert”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As you might guess from someone who plays a lot of Skirmish Sangin, I don’t play wargames as a competitive exercise. Winning is nice, but at the end of the day, I’d much rather tell a good story, immerse the players in the setting and scenario. I’d rather make the players concentrate on making the decisions the real commanders would have to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chain of Command from Too Fat Lardies is a game all about giving you the feel of being a platoon commander in the 1940’s. It’s about giving you the tricky choices while removing some of the more formulaic elements, beating into you the problems and issues your historical counterparts would have to deal with. I love the Too Fat Lardies motto – “Playing the Period and not the rules”. These are not a ruleset for competitive play. These are ruleset designed to evoke the feel without it turning into a horrible grind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After having played it a few times at the club when I first started going, I’ve been desperate to play it again. Luckily, my usual York-based wargaming buddy Peebs Gaming Nonsense<\/a> is a recovering Bolt Action fan with a platoon of both 8th Army and DAK. So what better way to start off my Christmas break than getting a game of it in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Somewhere on the road to Tobruk. 1941<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The desert sun glared down on Sergeant Kerridge as he stood on the roof of the farm, his beady eyes glaring out over the landscape around him. This part of Libya was greener than he expected, good enough to grow crops, the surrounding land covered in palm trees and shurbs. If it wasn’t for Jerry, and the questionable antics of the Lieutenant, it would be a perfect place to be posted.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suddenly, with a cry from the sentries, his morning was interrupted by the arrival of a pair of <\/em>Cheverlot<\/em><\/g> trucks, each laden down with equipment and kicking up a plume of dust. One rolled straight past but the other rolled to a halt at the entrance to the compound, three troopers jumping off the back with ammo cans in hand while another two started to quickly work at dismounting the Vickers MG from the pintle position. To a man, the entire team seemed scruffy and out of regs, wearing the local headgear. They pushed past him, heading towards a position on the roof of the main building.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerridge was having none of this. He strode across the square, heading towards the commander’s seat, almost shaking with annoyance.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What the hell is the meaning of this? Which unit are you part of? Don’t any of you know protocol about coming through lines.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man standing in the passenger seat turned to face him, the scraggly beard still covered in dust from the road. The sight of his rank slides caused Kerridge to click to attention, his boot heels slamming together. The Captain just smiled, throwing a casual salute before leaning down to him.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Ah, there is a man in charge. Look here old chum, we were just returning from a patrol when we got into a bit of a scrap with some <\/em>bosche<\/em><\/g> just a mile or two back down the road. Looks like part of a probe and they heading straight this way. Now, we’re going to leave Williams and the old Queen here with you chaps to help give them what’s for while the Boy and I head back to somewhere with a radio to get the news out”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Captain returned to full height, eyes scanning the horizon.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Looks like you’re in for an interesting morning”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

We decided to go for the second scenario Probe, with a DAK platoon of moving up to look for a way through British lines close to central farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Support wise, seeing as I was on the defence and just about had enough points, I went for a Vickers MMG team – hopefully it would help me to strike back at the masses of MG34s I was about to go up against. On the Germans side, my opponent went for an adjutant (to make up for the single Senior Leader the DAK platoons get) and a satchel charge (which went unused for the entire game).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After the dance of the patrol phase (a feature I particularity love), we had the above setup for the jumping off points. My positions let me setup up in several good pieces of cover, anchoring my defences around the main defensive position. The Germans had started their probe from my right flank, spreading their kicking off locations to a reasonable spread of locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once the game kicked off, Jerry deployed two squads. One moved into the palm grove at the board edge, the other began to advance to the closest edge of the compound. In response, I deployed one section up to the low wall (both to protect the JOP and to prevent a flanking move) while the other appeared from the table edge and began advancing on<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sadly the second British Section made the fatal mistake of being caught in the open by two MG-34s which managed to rip them to shreds, dropping the NCO before pilling on the shock. This squad was eventually reduced down to one solider<\/g> in each team, pinned down in the wadi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of machine guns, the Vickers deployed in the position on the roof and started brassing up the Germans in the trees. The light cover of the undergrowth helped to reduce the casualties (although the NCO did take a hit) but they were covered in shock and unable to advance. They could, however, keep throwing potshots a the MMG that was pinning them down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The next major deployment of troops was the Germans bringing their senior leader and the third squad to assist the advancing teams. The officer managed to get things moving en-mass. To fight back, I deployed my final section into position on top of the main compound building, able to put rifle and Bren fire down on that flank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At this stage<\/g> I made a critical error. Rather than keep my squad on the left in cover or trying to flank left, I decided to get more troops in the centre to engage more of the German offsensive<\/g>. To do this I had to cross the open road which despite being done at the double, ended up with<\/g> most of a squad stuck in the open. Two LMGs later and the NCO was done for, as well as several riflemen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A phase later and I managed to get the 2inch mortar up to pop smoke and cover the crossing. Alas too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We ran out of time and had to call it there but where does that leave us? Well, I think it’s safe to say the Brits are in trouble. They managed to stop the probe and prevent it from breaking through the line, but they were now in serious trouble after my error. The Germans were taking shots but could possible had advanced down the right flank (using the other squads to put fire on the Tommies).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All I can say is that the cavalry better get there soon or else there might not be much to rescue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I will admit, I can get why people don’t like Chain of Command and prefer other WW2 set games. If the dice hit you the wrong way, if Field Marshall Friction decides to make your troopers club footed fools, then yeah, it can throw your plans entirely out of wack. But nothing has quite matched the feel you get when reading histories of WW2 or even the modern day – where things can go incredibly wrong. In other words, I will be coming back to Chain of Command soon. Maybe even sooner than I expected when I started writing this post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, I am very interested to try out the new WW2 rules from Radio DishDash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you might guess from someone who plays a lot of Skirmish Sangin, I don’t play wargames as a competitive exercise. Winning is nice, but at the end of the day, I’d much rather tell a good story, immerse the players in the setting and scenario. I’d rather make the players concentrate on making the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[934,1074,1093,903,1063],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-battle-reports","category-chain-of-command","category-features","category-wargaming","category-ww2"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Michael Charge","author_link":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/author\/chargedog\/"},"featured_img":null,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Battle Reports<\/a>","Chain of Command<\/a>","Features<\/a>","Wargaming<\/a>","WW2<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Battle Reports<\/span>","Chain of Command<\/span>","Features<\/span>","Wargaming<\/span>","WW2<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 7 years ago","modified":"Updated 4 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 26\/12\/2018","modified":"Updated on 29\/10\/2021"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 26\/12\/2018 12:00 pm","modified":"Updated on 29\/10\/2021 2:59 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pvEn5-2XH","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10472,"url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2018\/06\/25\/wargaming-week-25-06-2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":11389,"position":0},"title":"Wargaming Week 25\/06\/2018","author":"Michael Charge","date":"25\/06\/2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Let\u2019s start this Wargaming Week, covering the 18th through to the 24th of June. BLOG STUFF This week was another Building A Force article, looking this time at the Irregular Forces. It's been 5 months since the last part so I'm planning to speed up the rate of these posts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wargaming"","block_context":{"text":"Wargaming","link":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/category\/wargaming\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_20180622_005811-e1529626621575-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_20180622_005811-e1529626621575-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_20180622_005811-e1529626621575-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_20180622_005811-e1529626621575-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_20180622_005811-e1529626621575-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_20180622_005811-e1529626621575-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4736,"url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/05\/07\/for-the-kaiser\/","url_meta":{"origin":11389,"position":1},"title":"For the Kaiser!","author":"Michael Charge","date":"07\/05\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"(Sadly no pictures as I was too busy pushing models and throwing dice. Photos coming once the facebook page is updated) Wargames require two things that a lot of people can struggle to have - lots of terrain and another person to play. In addition, because of how long they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Features"","block_context":{"text":"Features","link":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/category\/features\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11745,"url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2019\/04\/10\/salute-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":11389,"position":2},"title":"Salute 2019","author":"Michael Charge","date":"10\/04\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Last weekend was Salute 2019, the biggest wargames show of the UK calendar. And as is tradition, I got myself down to London for a weekend of tourism and looking at the usual impressive selection of wargames goods that appear at the show. And, as you can see in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Features"","block_context":{"text":"Features","link":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/category\/features\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_20190406_113622-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_20190406_113622-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_20190406_113622-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_20190406_113622-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_20190406_113622-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":26153,"url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2022\/12\/03\/an-afternoon-of-lard-chain-of-command\/","url_meta":{"origin":11389,"position":3},"title":"An Afternoon of Lard – Chain of Command","author":"Michael Charge","date":"03\/12\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"One advantage of returning to Leeds is that I'm actually close to several of my friends who also happen to be wargamers (or wargamers who are my friends depending on who you ask). Since we finished lockdowns, we have tried to get together a reasonable amount to play some larger\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Features"","block_context":{"text":"Features","link":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/category\/features\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/image-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/image-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/image-3.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/image-3.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":28095,"url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/02\/08\/aar-the-great-swan-a-what-a-tanker-game\/","url_meta":{"origin":11389,"position":4},"title":"AAR: The Great Swan! A What A Tanker Game","author":"Michael Charge","date":"08\/02\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Last weekend was Vapnartak in York and, as much as I enjoy the show, I mainly use it as an excuse to gather my Regular Opponents together so we can disappear off to the nearby scout hut and take part in one of our game days. 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And so, as is tradition, I messaged my Dastardly Regular opponent to request a scuffle\/setup a game. After a misunderstanding of days and me declining to run an Ultramoderns game (the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Battle Reports"","block_context":{"text":"Battle Reports","link":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/category\/wargaming\/battle-reports\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/PXL_20220416_125023700.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/PXL_20220416_125023700.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/PXL_20220416_125023700.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/PXL_20220416_125023700.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/PXL_20220416_125023700.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/PXL_20220416_125023700.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}