Tuesday, 21 April 2015

Chain of Command at Gothcon XXXIX

I went to Gothcon during the Easter holiday with my gaming buddies Thomas, Laffe and Koen, playing participation-games of Big Chain of Command (Big CoC, written by Rich Clarke of Too Fat Lardies) and a fun time we had.
The following is a short description of what we did and some pictures. I let them tell the most of the stories.
One of the jump-off points
...and another
We started with coffee at my place on Thursday after lunch and off we went in heavily dented rental car. We arrived rather late in the evening, checked in at the hotel and went to sleep.
A real-life sunset over the North African walled compound
Friday saw us browsing the vendors and gaming halls and setting up the table for our first participation game, starting at 1400 hours and continued into the evening. Four players, each commanding a platoon.
Saturday saw two more Big CoC games and an evening/night game of ordinary CoC with two players commanding a platoon each.
German platoons have a much higher firepower but the British ones have the 2” mortar that showed its power time and time again in the following battles. A shootout between two squads will probably give a German win but the smoke-grenades from the 2” mortar gave crucial cover.
We changed the available cover a bit between games to try to encourage movement and manoeuvres as the games tended to become static with both sides trying to hug the few pieces of cover there were.
Victory seemed to go the side that actually tried to manoeuvre into favourable positions and in the final fight we threw in more AFV:s and anti-tank assets as we really wanted to see Thomas’ on-fire marker in action.
Burn baby, burn!
We were very satisfied when something finally caught fire.
Gott im Himmel. Engländer!
A great ending of the final game.
Sunday saw some frantic last-minute shopping (I bought the board-game Tsuro – great game!) and then a long trip back to Stockholm.
Afri-Cola – the perfect beverage for a game set in North Africa.
In summary: We were satisfied after an exhaustive weekend playing with Rich’s Big CoC…
Welcome new followers:
James Cotgrave - no blog that I could find
Wardy-la who’s got a bunch of blogs, for example Gjallarhorn - Viking/Saxon/Dark Age campaign, A Project too Far – WWII and Chain of Command and “By the orders of the Great White Queen” – colonial and darkest Africa wargaming. Well worth a look.
Pedro Lopez with blogs Pedro Lopes – his comics and drawings, and Warriors from the Danish Wasteland – wargaming in the Dark Ages, Old West and in an post-apocalyptic world – newly started and shows a lot of promise. Niiiiice!
Fellow Swede Hobbyworker with Hobbyworker blog – all about painting and modelling historical miniatures. Great blog!
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14 comments:

  1. WillM7821 April 2015 at 10:57

    Very nice looking forces. I need to give this game more of a run. I think it has more to offer than Bolt Action.

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    1. Joakim Ström21 April 2015 at 11:14

      Yes, I do belive it has.
      It is not for everyone, though. At least one player complained about not being able to do what he wanted to do and of the random length of movement.

      Delete
  2. Samuli21 April 2015 at 12:15

    A very nice looking participation game! CoC seems to have more of a simulation feel compared to Bolt Action. Not being sure of what you are able to do an when adds a nice flavor, but I can understand people not liking it. But the patrol phase and jump-off point system is excellent for ww2 gaming and I'd really like to see something similar in other game systems as well as it really represents the movement and commitment of troops in a fight very nicely

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    1. Joakim Ström21 April 2015 at 12:30

      The Patrol Phase works amazingly good and the last game saw some very thought out monoeuvering. It's a game in the game and gret fun.

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    2. Thomas Nissvik22 April 2015 at 09:00

      I spent quite a lot of time talking to people watching our games. I found out that one group was using the Patrol Phase mechanic from CoC in their BA games because it made the games faster and more fun without actually having to change the BA rules in any way.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous21 April 2015 at 20:22

    Hi Joakim That looks cool ...ha ha seriously looks ace loving those low down shots, what did you use as the playing surface? I have not played that rule set, I don't mind random movement keeps players on their toes, nothing like chancing your arm, play for the awesome and be epic

    Finished my SOBS some picks of the final two heros http://www.dakkadakka.com/core/gallery-search.jsp?dq=skaro you must be done by now?

    Take care, Davros

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    1. Joakim Ström21 April 2015 at 20:30

      Hi Davros!
      I'll have a post up shortly on the terrain and how we made it. Random movement is... interesting. I still remember my first IABSM-match when my courageus Finns rolled awfully and were stranded in the middle between two covers. I didn't plan that for sure...
      Your Brimstone heroes looks great. I still have the winged big monster left. It will see some paint... soon... I hope. Anyway, will play Brimstone at the club in the near future. That will be fun.

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    2. Anonymous21 April 2015 at 20:51

      I am already looking forward to your terrain feature then, and caught between cover is never going to end up well, no matter how courageous. but if I had been your opponent no doubt my troops would suddenly have been unable to hit a barn door 8)

      Take care Davros ( Brian )

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    3. Joakim Ström21 April 2015 at 23:07

      And now I feel pressure to actually produce that post... :-)
      Those Russians was unfortunately fully able to hit several targets quite a bit smaller than barn doors... :-(

      Delete
  4. Hobbyworker22 April 2015 at 04:32

    Looks like you had a fun time a gothcon :)

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    1. Joakim Ström22 April 2015 at 07:28

      We had that all right. Unfortunately didn't have much time to try something else, though.

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  5. Black Powder22 April 2015 at 18:45

    Lovely table - I'm especially drawn to the vehicles, that's some great painting! Now that cola sounds interesting:0)

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    1. Joakim Ström23 April 2015 at 09:08

      The Afri-Cola is indeed interesting and the logo looks like it could have been an inspiration for the DAK-logo.

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    2. Thomas Nissvik23 April 2015 at 09:13

      It does indeed. I can imagine the discussions at the board meeting:
      CEO:They stole our design. We are suing the crap out of them!
      Head of Legal:Sue Rommel? You do that, man, and let me know how his boss reacts to that. I'll be in Canada.

      Delete

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