Chain of Command - The Devil is in the Detail

As an 'Historical Wargamer', I have always been a fan of the Too Fat Lardies and their ethos of 'playing the period, not the rules' which very much ties into my own way of thinking about wargaming and the history I am attempting to get a little closer to understanding, whilst having some fun in the process.

In addition Rich Clarke and Nick Skinner have produced rule sets that very much chime with historical themes I am very interested in, most notably World War II and the Late European Campaigns in France, The Low Countries and Germany in particular.

My wargaming habits tend to operate on themes, as I very much enjoy immersing myself thoroughly for a few years in a given period to gain that understanding I mentioned and hence I have not tended to be the fashionable 'butterfly' type of wargamer constantly flitting between projects and forever distracted by the latest 'new thing' to hit the wargames press.

Thus prior to starting this blog way back in 2012 I had spent a good few years playing a lot of WWII in 15mm using mainly Battlefront 'Flames of War' figures and models but of course using the Lardies, 'I Aint Been Shot Mum' for which my rather large collection of Normandy companies, British, German and American are built around, not to mention quite a bit of terrain.

The blog's start date coincided with a shift of themes as I yearned to return to another 'true love' Peninsular War Napoleonics and the result of that recent reacquaintance is documented here on JJ's. That and the most recent theme shift, where I have not only moved my focus to the Roman Principate, but also into a totally different scale, 28mm, with all the terrain building implications that has required.

Unfortunately, during this theme shifting, a very significant, award winning, set of WWII rules was published by the Lardies looking at Platoon level combat, 'Chain of Command' that clashed horribly with my focused work on gaining a clear understanding of modelling British Reverse Slope tactics.

Thus although I purchased the rules and all the 'gubbins' that went with them on day one, and have played them, sort of, since, I have not really had the focus to sit down and explore what was immediately obvious to me; that Chain of Command are a very clever well thought though set of rules that reward a closer study to really appreciate the detail and insights they can offer when looking at this level of WWII combat.

The D-Day Landing Beaches with Omaha indicated and where the campaign game is focused after the US landings

Fortunately I was not alone in having this glaring gap in my wargaming education and other regular wargame friends with a similar interest also felt the need to get better acquainted with this set of rules; not to mention having the offer from another of our regular circuit, Jason, who was closely involved in their development and who knows them from cover to cover, offering to run one of the campaigns at his place to enable that closer look at how they play, one on one and with the context of thinking about the next game and the consequences of the choices made in the one being played.

The '29 Lets Go' Game Campaign Map detailing the various tables our actions would take place on

Game Two Bloody US Victory
So with Steve M and I taking the US command and Ian taking command of the Germans we arranged to meet over at Jason's on a Tuesday night for the next few weeks to play through the Chain of Command Campaign supplement '29 Lets Go' that recreates the 29th US Division fight to clear the coast road from Omaha beach to Isigny and eventually Carentan thus linking the two bridgeheads and US forces operating from Utah beach.

We played the first game last week which, as I suspected, was a steep learning curve for all of us as we grappled with the mechanics and consequences of the decisions we made, that certainly changed our approach to this the second game in the campaign ladder; after the US forces successfully broke through at Cambe and progressed to Arthenay where we were tasked with tackling a German delaying force hastily assembled to prevent any further US advance.

The map below gives a view of the US plan to establish three mutually supporting Jump Off Points (JOP's) and this pre-game set up and planning phase is for me and I think a lot of other regular CoC players a fascinating part of the whole game and can really make or break a successful outcome in how you stake out the ground before the bullets start to fly.

US JOP plan for Game 2

Following the first game we were all a little more cagey in our deployment on to table, perhaps too much so from a US perspective, and both sides were looking to try out new support options, an aspect it seems that every regular CoC player has a strong opinion about as to what they always look to take.

US Recce team advances tactically 

In addition to support their are the force specific tactical options to consider and so in this second game the US squads were throwing forward their recce teams to do the 'Find' bit of  'Find, Fix, Flank and Finish'.

Sherman tanks on overwatch

With all the extra thinking going on in this second game, we didn't complete the action in one night and with 'yours truly' not able to make the second part of this scenario it was left to Steve to grab what turned out to be a very bloody US win with both US tanks knocked out and over half the platoon dead or wounded, but as they say a win is a win and a bloody win is better than a bloody loss.

Game Three - Bloody Draw
Yesterday we played game three that sees US forces forced to divert attention to German forces harassing their left flank advance along the Carentan road from a village just off it, St Germain du Pert.

The map above was the US planned JOPs which sees the US able to flank attack this German held hamlet securely ensconced in thick stoned Norman buildings.

The game didn't really go to either sides plan with both of us rolling poorly on the 'Force Morale' table and thus giving ourselves little breathing space to absorb casualties and other force upsetting issues.

Guess whose keeping an eye on things!

Both sides employed armour and an early US flanking attack was repulsed with heavy losses but leaving the Germans badly depleted from the bombardment delivered by the US tanks supporting the infantry attack.

US recce team approaches the first set of buildings, feeling out the German defence

The Germans tried to break the US force by taking out a tank with Panzerschreck fire from the church, but at long range the Sherman survived the fire and quickly drove off the team, killing one member and delivering a couple of shock to boot.

Now that was a nasty surprise

With both forces teetering on breaking with just one morale point left the US force tried to force the initiative by charging the churchyard wall to finish off a battered and pinned German section that had been brassed up by the US tanks only to see the German section dispatched but loosing a US squad leader that tipped them into a force morale break at the same time.

The US flanking attack takes heavy casualties from the Marders and the farmhouse to their front

So a bloody draw that sees us replaying this scenario next week hoping to learn the lessons learnt from this game.

The firefight left both sides battered but with the US getting the worst of it

I have to say that CoC is living up to all our expectations and as a group we are all enjoying progressing up the learning curve and with aspects of this rule set making it very obvious why they have become the go-to set for a lot of WWII wargamers.

The other aspect that really adds to the games we are playing is that we can finish them in a reasonable amount of time and with all the continuity that a linked campaign like this has to offer.

Needless to say I now have some plastic WWII figures on order so I can build some CoC specific platoons in 15mm on single bases rather than use my IABSM ones.

The good news is that I already have the tanks and heavy weapons not to mention a lot of NW Europe terrain and am planning to add this great game to my regular repertoire.

Romano-Dacian Battle Casualties

If the number of games I look at in the hobby is anything to go by, the depiction of battle casualties is not a high priority with most gamers when constructing their collections, and this would probably be borne out by the sales of sculpts from the various manufacturers.

The fighting has moved on and all that is left is the human debris of battle

I think this is a shame because as we play our games and happily remove figures from the table or, more commonly these days, turn the casualty/disorder die to total up the loss inflicted on a particular unit we miss an opportunity to have our table tell the story of the drama that is unfolding.

Battle casualties are a simple but effective way to enliven any tabletop game

Of course we live in a fast moving twenty-four-seven world where it seems that not many have time for such niceties and I suppose our hobby reflects that fast moving life-style trend with the growth of fast play 'snappy' rule sets that get the game over and done with in a couple of hours or less and give us time to get back to more important things!

I try to have each cameo suggest a story of the battle that has happened

In such a world where gamers are encouraged to just get the toys out on the table as quickly and as cheaply as possible and with collections reduced to the size of a skirmish trying to look like a battle, there is certainly no time for wasting on painting up the unfortunate souls in a force who have fallen in the fight.

Once the figures are positioned, weapons and shields placed carefully among them can add extra effect

Well as you can probably guess I take a completely opposite view point and have always felt something missing in those games in which I have played where a major clash has occurred and the only hint of that on the table is one or two units perhaps routing away from the area of combat and with all the units involved either looking slightly smaller than they did or with a little, or not so little, casualty die in tow, or heaven forbid a curtain ring or two draped around a few figures!

WWII gamers, a group I include myself in, have always seen the need to plonk some flames and smoke on a tank that takes a catastrophic hit causing it to smoke and burn, but even then the human debris of battle is often, in my opinion, sadly lacking.

I like my games to tell the story of the battle they portray in the pictures I create and there is something really pleasing to the eye when a combat situation can be described with all the drama implied with words and pictures that seemingly captures the images we can read about and sometimes see in historical accounts of the real life battles.

The book publishers understand the importance of this aspect of our hobby and Osprey are a classic example of this way of appealing to our senses through the medium of print and the hobby can imitate that through the medium of three dimensional art, namely tabletop wargaming.

Our hobby is, I would argue,  if nothing else, all about aesthetics, because if not, we might just as well focus on board gaming and Kriegsspiel.

Reflecting the drama that is battle is what our games do, combining rules to govern the activities of our tabletop warriors with the aesthetics of a visual portrayal of them and the terrain they would operate in, and the debris of battle, human or otherwise is part of that portrayal.

In fact, creating little dioramas like these could be looked as as just another bit of terrain that is added to the table as and when required.

Needless to say the carnage reported by the ancient authors and the nature of the combat involving sharp pointy weapons used at close range, particularly with the Roman tactics of stabbing to the midriff of their opponents would suggest that the wake of these combats would have been littered with the dead and those about to die, in an age of primitive casualty recovery methods

These bases take the same time to produce as painting a large warband with a similar number of figures and by combining them with those left over weapons and shields you can easily produce really simple but evocative pieces to be placed on the table during those moments of drama in battle.

The next time you see these chaps, they will mixed in with a few of my units to create yet more visual appeal

The figures are a mixture of Wargames Foundry and Black Tree and at the moment just include infantry types, but I will add in a few dead horses, just acquired on Ebay, to litter my cavalry combats and I have held back a few of the infantry sculpts for inclusion among one or two of my units as well.

Lots of stuff happening this month to cover with trips to South Wales looking at more medieval and Roman history, a visit to London to hear Ian Knight talking about the Zulu War, and a visit to see the casts of Trajan's Column in the Victoria & Albert Museum and thoughts about my coaching lessons in getting to grips with Chain of Command plus more work to do on the Romano-Dacians.

Shameless Plug for Parkinson's UK and Will's Three Peak Challenge

Finally, a shameless plug for my youngest son Will, who is doing an amazing expedition, this May, in support of Parkinson's UK, a charity for support and research into Parkinson's Disease by planning to climb the three highest mountains in the UK, Ben Nevis in Scotland, Mount Snowdon in Wales and Scafell Pike in England, in twenty-four hours.

Will is three years into his Medical School training with a first class degree under his belt and as well as developing a keen interest in expeditionary medicine is also into a bit of wargaming when time permits.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/will-jones24

If you would be interested in supporting him in this project with a contribution to his fund raising page that would be very much appreciated and you would be supporting research into this terrible disease and care and support for those currently suffering from it.

Thank you in anticipation
JJ

Looking for Uthred’s Angels

Not being a millionaire nor a millennial I don’t have seventeen separate TV subscriptions so when season three of ‘The Last Kingdom ‘ switched from the BBC across to Netflix that meant I wouldn’t be watching their version of books five and six. Never mind, I do however have all the books and in number six, ‘Death of Kings’ there was a section which piqued my interest. Obviously I have no idea if this sequence got included in the latest series or if it was, then how they portrayed it, perhaps someone can let me know.

Uthred goes looking for an appropriate ancient burial mound so that he can manipulate his enemies through a deception which involves getting three whores and dressing them up as angels, then he has them make suitably contrived prophecies from within the mound in line with his scheme.

From page 238

“The Mound we discovered was on a high ridge with views stretching all around…I thought this ancient mound would suit us.

The place was called Natangrafum and it belonged to a Mercian Thegn….”

“ A circular mound lay in the centre and athwart it and beneath it was a long mound some ten feet high and over sixty paces long. Much of that long mound was just that, a mound of earth and chalk but at its eastern end were man-made caves that were entered through a boulder-clad doorway facing towards the rising sun. “

According to the list of place names in the front of the book , Natangrafum is now known as Notgrove in Gloucestershire.

A day out was therefore in order, with lunch of course.

Notgrove barrow sits quietly along the roadside about 11 miles east of Cheltenham, it has its own brown prehistoric site signpost and there is a lay-by close to it. Overall it is a little uninteresting, the site has suffered over the years and bears little resemblance I suspect to what it used to be like.

It appears that it was dug into and robbed and left open for many years possibly from as long ago as Roman times until it was backfilled by the local council in 1976 who didn’t do a very good job. I read one comment on the Megalithic Portal that likened it to a grassed over gravel heap which is a bit harsh.

I have linked the detailed site description from Historic England below:

Notgrove Long Barrow

Along with my pictures I have included one from the Megalthic Portal, an excellent site for all things mound-y and stone-y.

The Megalithic Portal

My next stop was seven miles to the NW where I wanted to look at the much more impressive Belas Knap, a site Jon visited last year (see link below). I don’t have much to add to his acceptable post, I can confirm the magnificent views of the valley below and Sudeley castle stands out along with quite a number of other impressive country mansions, one of which you pass on the way to the long barrow. From the road there is a short steep climb through woods until you get to a steeper field, several stops may be required in the process, I know as I took quite a few. After a while it levels out and there is a dedicated path leading to the site, it was a bit more of walk than I had expected after looking at Google Earth prior to my trip and the site itself appears a little bit squashed in due to the
surrounding fenced off fields. It’s a shame that they couldn’t agree with the local farmer for a bit more space as you lose the sense of how big this barrow actually is.

Belas Knapp aerial view

Belas Knap Long Barrow - Cotswolds 2018

This Barrow is much more impressive and if I had three whores dressed as angels then ….
Then I suspect I would probably never ever leave my house again however in my opinion Belas Knap is a much more likely spot for Uthreds scheming but who am I to argue with Bernard Cornwell.

Time for Lunch and I had picked out a likely prospect which was conveniently in-between the two sites, The Craven Arms at Brockhampton, 16th C and built in typical Cotswold stone with a pleasant beer garden at the back, it looked very appealing. Unfortunately they don’t do Steak Pie so I had to settle for Ham, Egg and Chips; proper ham, proper eggs, proper chips, proper job. Washed down with a very decent pint. Excellent.

Thoroughly recommended.

On the way out I got talking to a delivery driver from Otter Brewery which is a local East Devon supplier of excellent beer and one of my favourites, apparently I was in the same class at school with his wife and he also originally came from Cardiff near to were I currently live; this isn’t the first time this sort of coincidence has happened recently, I am starting to get very suspicious.

Gloucestershire Pubs - Craven Arms

This has been a day out with Mr Steve

Carthago Nova/Cartagena - Punic & Roman Cartagena Part Two

Following on from my first post looking at Roman and Punic Cartagena and specifically the ForumRomana Molinete first century AD complex of buildings our visit shifted to a much earlier part of the city and its establishment as a Carthaginian one rather than Roman.

CarthagoNova/Cartagena - Punic & Roman Cartagena Part One

"It is  by far the strongest of all cities of this region. It has a privileged position, a well built wall and it is provided of ports, a lagoon and silver mines. Here and in the surroundings there are many factories making salted products. It's the main trading centre of these goods from the interior. They have been changed for the others coming by sea and these for those coming from the interior."

(Estrabon, Geografia, III, 4, 6) end 1st century BC

After their defeat in the First Punic War and faced with the challenge of meeting Rome's punitive post war conditions for peace, the Carthaginians focused on an ambitious plan to rebuild their reduced empire by an expansion into Iberia, following a long tradition of Phoenician trade on the south coast with towns such as Gades and Malaka; that predicted an interior rich in precious metals, particularly silver and other important trade items such as lead, salted fish and esparto (a fibrous grass common in southern Europe used for basket weaving, cords and ropes, particularly useful for rigging out ships).

The map below outlines the three phases of this, at first, political invasion led by the Barca family, and Amilca Barca in particular using their network of connections to facilitate control of key towns along the coast by alliances with tribal groups seeing their control leapfrog along the coast via the valley of the River Guadalaquivir and the gradual establishment of Punic armies in the wake of this advance, a process that ended somewhere around 220 BC.

The second phase, led by Asdrubal, sees the alliances established, formally developed into diplomatic relationships with the Punic takeover of the tribal capital of Mastia, renamed Quart-Hadast, gaining control of a large territory providing trade items in sufficient quantity to enable the raising and maintenance of his mercenary army. The new city assumes the role of Punic capital in the Iberian Peninsula similar to its North African equivalent, Carthage.

This second expansion inevitably raised tensions with Rome and her Greek allies in the region which were managed with treaties agreed to limit Punic expansion up to the River Ebro.

Following this foothold being established, the Barca family, finally lead by Hannibal, would lead expeditions further into the heart of the interior and eventually spearhead the war against Rome in the Second Punic War that would see Hanibal's invasion of Italy via Sagunto and the Italian Alps, followed by a Roman counter-invasion of Punic holdings in Iberia and the eventual fall of Quart-Hadast (Carthago-Nova) itself in 209 BC.

As with other major cities of the ancient world from this period, Carthago-Nova was encompassed by a city wall and Punic city walls seem to demonstrate some common design characteristics that have been revealed with the uncovering of a section of the original Punic wall around Cartagena.

The galleried walls of Thapsus in Sicily a design incorporated into the walls of Carthage and Carthago-Nova

The walls are thought to date from 225 to 220 BC and the illustration below shows the construction process with the foundations established for the parallel walls and the positioning of the dressed stone blocks supporting a double floor galleried wall to a height of ten metres, about thirty-three feet in real money, crowned by a patrol platform and crenellated wall.

The gallery design of this style of wall is clearly shown by the top down view of the revealed section in the purpose built hall protecting the revealed wall.

The building that surrounds the revealed wall is a marvellous design in that it allows a descent from the modern day ground level to the Punic wall through a series of stairs that mimic the layout of the original wall interior and in addition the visitor can ascend to the roof of the building that mimics the height of the original wall and gives a view out over the modern day city of Cartagena.

As you can see the wall itself can be viewed close up and a real impression of its construction gained from seeing the different stonework and building techniques used on the exterior and interior parts.

It is quite something to remember when walking around this stonework that this is the remains of the section of wall that Scipio's Roman assault infantry clambered over in their surprise attack that led to the downfall of this Punic stronghold.

Dressed stone blocks seen here front the outer wall 

An interesting though completely separate part of the gallery is the preserved remains (quite literally) of the funeral crypt of the San Jose Hermitage standing adjacent to the Punic wall and whose precise date of construction is uncertain but is known to have been in use in the middle of the sixteenth century with the crypt being the last resting place of the brothers and priests living there.

Built over and almost into the remains of the Punic Wall, the Hermitage fell into disuse and abandonment in the nineteenth century following its damage in an earthquake in 1829 and the below ground crypt was unearthed alongside the excavations of the ancient wall.

As mentioned in the first post, Carthago-Nova went through a transformation in its urban layout following the Roman occupation of the city and its raising to the status of Colonia in 54 BC most clearly demonstrated by the new roads and streets created around the two central main roads that crossed the city.

The two sections of this road network seen in the pictures below show a secondary Kardo (north-south street) over-built by the modern-day Bolulevard Jose Nieto dated to the time of Augustus which crossed the main road into the city or Decumano Via Augustus running east-west across it.

The layout of the city was and is very much dominated by the circumference of its position on the Mediterranean Sea and the five hills that surround it and saw the principle period of construction take place between 27 BC to 14 AD with the Decumano Maximo or Via Augustus very much at its centre.

The majesty of the great central road into the city, the Via Augusta, is emphasised by the never ending Roman road leading to all parts within the wider empire in the picture below, placed at the end of the revealed section pointing in the direction of the east gate.

The roads passage through the city can be gauged from the map below showing its eventual departure from the city via the west gate above the Molinete Hill (top left) and over the causeway between the harbour and the lagoon to the north of the city.

The Via Augustus is marked on this map travelling east west across the city with the lagoon to the top of the map (north) and the harbour to the bottom (south). Other major buildings in black are indicted withing the city limits such as the theatre, bottom left and amphitheatre, bottom right. Note also the five hills within the city limits.

One-hundred and ninety feet of road have been revealed and the width of it varies between fourteen to twenty feet.

It is paved with large grey slabs of limestone laid on a bed of rammed earth, under which a channel has been laid in the centre to capture rain and waste water from the houses that would have stood along it on either side, with the channel leading into the main city sewer.

On each side there are large stone slabs laid delineating the pavement for pedestrians and clearly marking the limit of the roadway.

The eastern side of the city was gradually abandoned through the second century AD later to be reoccupied in the late Roman-Byzantine era with the establishment of a necropolis outside of, as tradition dictated, the populated area of the city.

Below is the smaller Kardo that runs across the Via Augusta at this point and reveals a similar if narrower layout to the main road.

I hope you have found these two posts looking at the Romano-Punic history of Cartagena interesting and I hope to cover off some more interesting historical parts of the city in future posts.