Let’s Play: Chain of Command – Action On The Orne
November 9, 2017 by dignity
Hopefully, you have seen Richard from Too Fat Lardies introducing the WWII skirmish system Chain of Command in our previous video. The time for talking is over, now it is time to get down to business!
Justin and Richard will be playing a Dunkirk scenario with the British defending the Orne canal line whilst the Germans are attempting to get their tanks over the canal to the beaches.
This is a great introduction for anyone who has yet to play the game with Richard explaining the rules and mechanics as they play.
Has this enticed you to give Chain of Command a go?
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Excellent
Interesting that is has subtitles
More TFL coverage! CoC is FANTASTIC!
Only halfway through the video and sadly got to leave it for now but loving the lardies being on here.
Really want to get my fallschirmjager platoon ready now.
Lovely let’s play….
What’s up next? Bag the Hun? that would be nice
What’s pleasing to see is how interesting the decision making is with “just” normal units on the table. Watching two or three squads exchanging fire in most games is fairly tedious, but not here.
And watching a commander join a unit to get them up and moving again feels very realistic.
Just one thing, why call a Dunkirk perimeter “action on the Orne”?
That’s nearly 400km out of the way…
Great to see some Lardies stuff on here. Chain of Command is one of the best wargames I’ve played. They clearly enjoyed playing the game but forgot quite a few bits too 🙂
I also noticed that Richard said the patrol markers must move the full 12″. That’s not what it says in the rulebook and not how we’ve always played it
Funnily enough we have always played that a patrol marker can move up to 12″. Came as quite a surprise when Richard said they have to move 12″.
As Richard has said elsewhere “He just wrote the rules, he didn’t memorise them!”
You can move a patrol marker up to 12″ and it can be advantageous to keep them closer than 12″ to each other.
Great game lads. A lot to like in this system.
A lot to like in the early war, too. That 2-pounder was the MOTM early on. Puny tanks on both sides make for great battles.
I loved this game. I also think Richard is excellent the way he makes the game enjoyable, but is teaching at the same time. I do have one concern with the game. It seems like it needs more tokens to keep track of leaders who are wounded or have dropped levels. That seems to be a very hard thing to remember. I would have a command card or a marker which attaches to the leader to help. What are your guys feelings on this?
We have a little card or piece of paper per leader and just keep track of it that way
Never really been an issue in all the games I’ve played or run. A small marker next to the Leader is sufficient of a reminder given that a Junior Leader only has 2 Command Initiatives so if he takes another wound which causes him to lose a second CI he is dead. A Senior Leader can take three wounds, but since there are usually no more than a couple in the game you will usually remember how they are doing. Certainly your opponent will in my experience.
Great game – just like the SP one
Great game. We love Chain of Command
Been a Chain of Command player since it’s release. Simply the best game for being able to use historical tactics. Brilliant video and well done to the British for allowing more chaps off the Dunkirk beaches 😉
Great Let’s play. It finally convinced me, so I just ordered the chain of command rulebook.
Excellent let’s play video and looks like a great game mechanic. Richard certainly is entertaining as well
Excellent Lets Play! Good to see the Two Fat Lardies getting some coverage.
I thoroughly enjoyed that let’s play. Great game and swung back and forth throughout.
After watching Ken Burn’s documentary “The Vietnam War” I’ve been on the look out for a Vietnam era skirmish game. Noticed TFL have a game called “Charlie Don’t Surf!”. Outstanding title
There is also a Vietnam addon called ‘Chain of Command-DMZ’ for free download.
I really like the game mechanics in this. Great game! I would love to see more of this.
Excellent, entertaining video.
Excellent lets-play and tutorial, well presented and clear rules instructions. Even had the compulsory Justin foo-pah in thinking 2×3=4 🙂
That was entertaining. And it really showed the strength of the system. Even though we witnessed an exchange of fire for most of the time things always were tense. Where to direct your command options? Which target to deal with first? Stand and shoot or going to move? Clever and tactical. Really enjoyed this Let’s play and would like to see one or two more with different scenario backgrounds.
The one thing that got me about the game was Justin’s tactic of swarming 4 infantry sections next to the ATG (forcing all shots at the ATG to be spread across 5 different targets), it was effective…but a VERY unhistorical formation/tactic. But there’s didn’t seem to be any penalty for forming such a “mob”. I know Richard mentioned mortars, but even small arms fire should have been on a bonus to hit on such a target rich environment (then again seen a few Napoleonic columns marching down the table edges in BA games). Shouldn’t the rules make historical formations/tactic viable,… Read more »
Actually the first time Justin encounters a mortar barrage in Chain of Command he will find out why such tactics are unsustainable. Also depending on the scenario, he could lose the game by giving his opponent more freedom to manoeuvre while tying down his own platoon to protect a single asset.
It’s very dangerous. If one unit breaks and goes through another then it gives them a bunch of shock, They can’t shoot without Line of Sight and combat can be very deadly. Add in losing your deployment points because you over dedicated yourself and immobilising your force and giving all the initiative in the Game to your opponent.
Finally good to see an actually CoC game on BoW I have been on about this for at least 2 years now:-) It is by far the best set of Skirmish level WW2 rules I have ever played, it really gives you that feeling of being immersed in the period. more of this please less BA…lol
Richard is great on camera! Great bat rep!