Chain of Command - bandits vs city state soldiers

This is the third game i have played while i'm at my parents, and the first when the camera actually worker! In the first game the batteries died on me and the second i forgot! For all the games i used Toofatlardies' Chain of Command platoon level WWII rules, my favorite rules at the moment.

In all three games i have used the first forces i made for Normedra, one being a platoon of bandits from the tundra and the other being a small but well armed platoon of soldiers from a city state. The first game was a flank attack with the city state troops attacking and, helped by a tank, drove off the bandits. In the next game the bandits were counter attackig,  probing the city states' lines to try and force them back but despite a fire beginning in the middle of the battlefield and a brave assault by a section of bandit elite the attack was thrown back.

The third game in a patrol, with two platoons meeting each other and seeking to force the other back. Below is the lay of the land, the bandit jump off points are at the bottom of the photo, the city state JOPs are at the top.

As i have no 15mm terrain, the ruin is just a quick knock up from card. Various objects make hills and folds in the ground, perfect cover in the treeless tundra, and the 'wheat fields' are patches of shrubs.

The bandits for once start with higher morale so go first. I tweaked their list, allowing them a LMG and lowered their level, allowing them to take more units than the city soldiers. So in this game the city soldiers only had a 50mm mortar for support while the bandits had a light 'universal carrier' with a LMG and an armoured half track. No wonder their morale was higher!

Below a squad of riflemen move into the ruins to deny them to the city soldiers, and the carrier comes under fire from a squad that deployed in the shrubs at the top of the picture.

A squad of city soldiers with the platoon sergeant deploys, looking to move against the other flank.

To counter them, the bandits deploy their 'elites' (armed with assault rifles, a grenade launcher and wearing captured uniforms) and the half track and the third squad advances, machine gun blazing.

City soldiers in the shrubs with the 50mm mortar at the bottom right providing some help from behind a fold in the ground. Due to a lack of 1's the mortar only fired twice!

The half track pushes up, firing all the way and helped by the elites. The city soldiers are well armed but their sections are small so losses hurt!

The third city state section deploys to help their comrades in the shrubs.

The rifle team dismounts, leaving the machine gun team in the half track, and prepares to assault.

Pinned and with losses, the city state section is thrown back, only the wounded platoon sergeant and NCO get away.

The carrier pushes up in the middle. The city soldiers deploy their anti-tank team and fire at the carrier, but only damage the engine so the platoon commander calls his men to withdraw.

The bandits have managed to throw back the over confident city soldiers, mainly thanks to some vehicle support!

I used the CoC rules with no major changes, just reduced assault rifles to only firing one shot like normal rifles, but roll 2 extra dice in assaults as normal. With most men being armed with one i guessed things would get very messy at close range, and ammunition would be scare (it is post apocalyptic after all!).

Just realized... 2 years of blogging!

It's only just struck me, but i've been blogging (more or less!) for 2 years now!

I'm in the process of adding some background fluff for this strange place called Normedra, i have an AAR to post up too so the end of December and beginning of January will see some more posts, more than in the past few months perhaps!

Anyhow, thanks to all who read this blog, and bring on 2014!

The appeal of the apocalypse - Some solid fluff I

No one is sure why humans first landed on Normedra. It happened centuries ago, there exists very few documents from that time and the ones that have survived Normedra's tormented history sit in the libraries of rich and high up philosophers and politicians in Normedra Yski. Most other people have better things to worry about...

Before Man came to Normedra, the planet was an icy wasteland, nothing but snow drifts and pack ice. It stayed that way for generations after the first colonists arrived, and it was these who built Normedra's first settlement, Normedra Yski, centered around the immense structure of the landed colony ship. Yski was the light of humanity in the white wastes, until scientists began releasing terraforming gases into the atmosphere in an attempt to warm up the planet.

It worked well, for a time at least. The weather warmed up and thousands left the confines of Yski to discover Normedra's riches, but within a hundred years the climate savagely lashed back and threw down the order of the Yski state as the world plummeted into a new ice age.

The fruit of hundreds of years work and expansion were in vain; Normedra would not be conquered so easily. Many spoke of the world's ancient gods reclaiming their world and punishing Man for his sins, leading to the birth of several cults and religious groups centered around their worship. Whereas before all of Normedra fell under the power of Yski and were ruled by the Kralka, the council of Yski, now there are hundreds of smaller city states as well as many smaller settlements in the forests and tundra that surround the towns.

Normedra Yski, or just Yski, is a huge city. It is by far the largest settlement in the world and will always stay that way. It was first built around the body of a landed colony ship, and even today it's enormous steel and titanium ribs protrude from the ground, reaching into the sky and towering over the ruins around it. It was once the heart of the city, but during the time of the Reclaim the area became dangerous due to radiation and chemicals leaking from the ship, so now it sits slowly rotting, surrounded by abandoned buildings and is considered a holy place for the inhabitants of Yski.
Like many other cities of Normedra Yski is a city state, albeit much bigger. The city and the surrounding land and smaller villages and towns all fall under control of the Kralka, Yski's council. The council sit in the Kralka building, from where it took it's name from, a huge cathedral looking building, a huge menacing building to show all that the dwindling power of Yski is still strong and always will be. It is here that several groups struggle for power and discuss how Yski should be ruled and problems sorted. There are dozens of these political groups, and old ones are dissolved and new ones formed constantly.

Quick, before 2013 is over!

Christmas loot!

It seems as if i've gone full circle. The first historical figures i got for Christmas were Flames of War Germans some years ago. Since then i've been on and off several different things, but now i'm back to the beginnings with a box of Volksgrenadiers, though not for World War II.

These figures will be used as a band of mercenaries or bandit raiders for Normedra.

I also went to a figure shop in Agen yesterday, and they must of known i was coming for all the Flames of War stuff was at 25% off. I also had a 10% off for a loyalty card, so i treated myself to some T-34's, 3 half-tracks and some universal carriers.

I think i have enough to get a few forces done for my sci-fi post-apocalyptic world (yes, that's the genre i'm calling it!).

I also managed to get a couple of Chain of Command games in while here at my parents, but i took no photos. I'm hoping to get in another one however and there will be pictures!

Mostly done - platoon for Normedra

Yeah, decent pictures!

First of all i wish a Merry Christmas to the readers of this sporadically updated blog, i hope you all have wargaming goodies of some sort.

I returned to my parents for the next two weeks, and of course i can't survive without some of my little men with me so i brought along my latest works to have a game of Chain of Command (hopefully!) with these men against those from the other post with the warlord, now a band of survivors for my setting.

Note i've lost my touch with the camera and some are out of focus.

Painted stuff so far. I had planned to get about a platoon finished before i came come, but time ran away.

The senior leaders, the platoon lieutenant on the left with a 2nd in command (or platoon sergeant) on the right. The lieutenant is a Vietnam American, and the platoon sergeant in a Soviet scout with a head swap.

NCOs, the middle man is straight from the blister, the left hand man has his arm bent down and head turned, and the right hand man is a body swap. I also moved his head slightly. Yes, i manage to convert even my 15mm figures! Not as easy as plastics, but milliput helps cover any mistakes!

An LMG team and 'bazooka' team.

Some men armed with grenade launchers, all converted in some way. You get a ton of these with Vietnam Americans so i had to change them somehow as you only get two different figures.

Some riflemen.

More riflemen.

The rest of the unpainted stuff to finish off my platoon, two LMG teams and some riflemen. Most of these have some conversion work, i can't stand to many duplicates!

These guys appeared in the last post, but they deserve a better photo.

And finally a MMG team, nothing special but i had it with me!

I also discovered some 6mm WWII stuff while looking through my lead pile here, but that's for another post!

Simplify

 Oooh! A post!

Yes, for once i actually feel like posting, but i have no decent photos! I am still camera-less for the moment and have been forced to use my computer webcam to take pics of my latest work. I'm almost ashamed by the quality! But hey, it's something!

Firstly, however, i have decided to stop my other blog, and instead stick everything here. It might not please everyone, but i find when i get very 'into' one project or period and i never leave it for a while. So if i have another blog i will completely neglect this one, and i'm rather keen on the 'ol Scyld and Seax.

So Normedra will probably be deleted and all posting will be only here from now on!

Now time for the horrid pictures...

So, as some readers may know i'm doing this Normedra sort-of-sci-fi idea, perhaps more of a 20th century game in a different world though than true sci-fi. So alternate 20th century then (like Runissia is my alternate medieval!).

After a LOT of thought on what i actually wanted from this project, i decided to go winter on this one. I wanted to give a winter themed army a go, i don't see many of them, and one force might eventually do as a German WWII force (perhaps not all the figures, but some at least i think). I then thought on places, conflicts..., and decided that i would centre my attention on a town in the north of one of Normedra's continents.

The town is ruined and plunged into near arctic conditions, but in the surrounding lands there is oil and minerals that the southern industrial towns and ports need to survive. So merchants send bands of armed men to protect these assets and the all important rail lines against local warlords and bandits who want to control the traffic south.

The first platoon i am doing is one of the merchant's 'armed bands'. While not numerous, they are well armed with assault rifles, machine guns and support weapons. Below is a squad, 8 men, and a bazooka/rocket launcher team.

The figures are Battlefront Americans for Vietnam, converted and miliputted.

I changed the NCO's hand to make him pointing instead of waving.

Riflemen and a grenade launcher. I added camo smocks on some, or white 'cloaks' to cover more typical summer camouflage.

LMG team.

I plan to winter this beast up. In the north, the merchants supply their bands with tanks and other vehicles, often old designs, and in Normedra this will be one. I will add plenty of stowage, extra armour (such as side skirts) and then paint it white and weather it up.

Finally, some conversions, either to go with the warlord's men shown in the last post, or the beginnings of some bandits for the above men to fight against. They are Battlefront Soviets.

Photos!

Not medieval, but photos never the less!

This blog has been a bit lacking in photos lately, so this weekend when i visited my parents i brought with me  my latest figures, some 15mm for my Normedra world.

More descriptions for this force can be found over on my other blog, same pictures but more 'fluff'.

The platoon all together.

The leader and second in command.

Experimental Wars of the Roses lists for Dux Bellorum

After a discussion over on the Lead Adventure forum about troops in the Wars of the Roses, i decided to find this file that i penned down in the summer. I have used other people's adaptions of Dux Bellorum for the Wars, but i wrote this up anyway as a test.

They're only a draft (like many things on this blog!) so i haven't included all the options, just thought i'd lob this on the web for people to think about :-)

Type	Move	Bravery	Aggression	Missiles	Protection	Cohesion	Notes	Pts
Foot companions	2	10	6	-	6	6		5
Mounted companions ^	4	10	5	-	6	5		5
Household infantry	2	9	5	-	6	6		5
Retainer infantry	2	7	4	-	5	5		3
Militia infantry	2	7*	3	-	5	4		2
Household archers	2	9	3	3	5	4	Bows 4 BW	5
Retainer archers	2	7	2	3	4	3	Bows 4 BW	3
Militia archers	2	7*	2	3	4	2	Bows 4 BW	2
Mounted household ^	4	9	5	-	5	5		5
Mounted retainers ^	4	7	4	-	5	4		3
Field artillery	1	6	1	3	4	2	Unlimited range	5
Skirmishers	3	8*	1	2	4	2	4 BW range	1

(Skirmishers included for handgunners, not sure what else they would represent) 

^ These troops must follow up in combat

* Brittle: For morale tests, these units have a morale of 6

Companions: This unit represents the leader on the battlefield, accompanied by his best fighters. They are armoured in full harnesses and can ride to battle mounted.

Household troops: Represents a body of men of a high quality. Perhaps they are made up of a large number of experienced men-at-arms, or come from the retinue of a lord or noble. They might also be veterans of the French wars of skirmishes with the Scots. They all have decent armour, at least a jack and sallet, and most will have more (especially for infantry and cavalry). They have the choice of fighting mounted.

Retainer troops: Made up of some household troops, a noble’s retainers (i.e. non-permanent fighters) and perhaps backed up by a few poorer troops in the rear ranks and stiffened by some men-at-arms at the front. They also have the option of fighting mounted. Most will be armoured with at least a jack and sallet, with the leaders and men-at-arms having more and some poorer men having less.

Militia troops: Made up of troops lacking decent equipment, training or motivation. They are mostly unarmoured or wearing a jack and/or sallet at most and will be armed with a mix of weaponry. Some men-at-arms might be in the front ranks as commanders and to stiffen the line.