Friday 23 August 2013

Blitzkrieg And Cold War Commander

After a few games of Future War Commander, our club has got a bit of a thing for the other games in the stable, Blitzkrieg Commander and Cold War Commander. Tanks are being ordered, and basing ideas discussed, and there could be some grand tank battles on the way in the next few months.

Last night Ralph set up a couple of small games, one of BKC and one of FWC so that people could try out the systems. Everyone would have a chance to play each game at least once, and possibly swap sides and do it again.

The WWII game was a small action set in NW Europe in 1944, with a British company supported by some tanks advancing on an objective just beyond a village. The Germans had a platoon of infantry supported by some mortars and an MG.

Here's the table.


Note that each base is a small diorama; Ralph likes his figures presented in a grand manner.

The German mortars were mounted in half-tracks.


Oh, and the British had air-support, although it was rarely on target.


Here's the British on their start line and showing off the basing. Those are 15mm figures. With the large base sizes we double all distances in the game.


I don't know if any British player captured the objective in the six turns they had. I came close, with my tanks stopping about 5cm short then failing to activate again. And at one stage Caesar had his reconnaissance unit on the objective, but it was driven off. The Germans has a fairly tough time defending, though, with most player's greatest opponent being their own command and control.

On the other table we had an Arab/Israeli setup in 6mm. Geoff umpired it. A force of Arab T62s stormed a hill-line defended by a bunch of Israeli Centurion tanks. With no cover this was a very one-sided scenario.


The Arabs.


And the great expanse they had to cross, out-ranged and out-gunned.


The inevitable burning tanks ...


In three games the Arabs managed to knock out one base of Israeli tanks. Like I say ... one-sided. But a useful exercise in how the firing mechanisms work if nothing else.

So we have all had a taster of these two games (I'd played some BKC a while back, but not for ages, and I've not read the rules before). I think we're fired up to try a bigger, 'proper' game now.

Thanks to Ralph and Geoff for setup and umpiring.

7 comments:

  1. Thanks Alan, great post. We really will have to work on some sand dunes...

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    1. Sand dunes would make for an interesting exercise for the Arabs, as they dodge from cover to cover, managing the risk on their command rolls. Give them a time limit as well (not too tight, but enough to force a couple of risky moves) and it could be an interesting scenario.

      They still need a few more tanks though :)

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  2. I've played Future War Commander and Blitzkrieg Commander. They're both fun games, although it can be frustrating when you blow your command roll.

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  3. Yes theres been a lot of chatter about command rolls on TMP recently. One good idea is to allow everyone to pass their first command automatically - but still roll so you get the blunder or double move option...

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    1. I don'r believe that missed command rolls are the problem; it's successfully passing multiple rolls, especially when you're in a good firing position.

      To my mind allowing an automatic pass on the first roll defeats the object of having a random command system in the first place. Units close to the enemy have initiative actions as it is; those a longer distance away will sometimes get a command freeze. Frustrating, but there it is.

      But I play a lot of HOTT where you can get PIP rolls of 1 and effectively do next to nothing on a turn :)

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  4. I like the missed command roll. Basically, I have read too many accounts of combat where units inexplicably stall or do the wrong thing, to assume all my little tin men will obey orders. I do like BKCII and CWC as well as FWC, in fact, scheduled to play a Tunisia game next week. Love it.. http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/tunisia-1943-germans-6mm-bkcii.html

    If you are down in Canberra, we game every Thursday at the Deakin Bridge Club.

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  5. Lots of BKC II on my blog, here's the Tunisian scrap, and I have been furiously painting Brits for North West Europe. (11th Armoured Division) - next up I will finish my hundreds of 1944 German Heer AFV.

    http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/tunisian-scrap.html

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