Chain of Command: The Decision Has Been Made!

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a happily married man in possession of the wargaming hobby must be in need of multiple armies for the same period...!

I think it's no secret that I love the rules produced by Too Fat Lardies.  I've been fascinated by the Second World War since my childhood, and I can't lay the blame at the feet of Commando! comics alone!  I spent school holidays glueing my fingers to airfix kits. And I always got 1/72 toy soldiers as presents.

I began wargaming the period a number of years ago in the years BB (Before Blog).  I was finally tempted not by Flames of War, but by Two Hour Wargames' NUTS! This is a set of rules I really love.  It's like Band of Brothers on the wargames table.  Absolutely brilliant.  A the time there were no plastic kits available in 28mm.  And as someone who has always had a distinct shortage of cash, this meant many projects were simply not an option.  Thankfully though NUTS! is a squad level game, and we were able to purchase some 1/35 scale infantry to make it possible to play the game.

But I've always wanted to do something bigger.  No, I don't mean upscaling to 1/12.  I wanted to play platoon level gaming.  So when a friend suggested Bolt Action, I went for it in a big way as you can see in the next photo.  This is one of my shelves of rules, which clearly also slows the sheer variety of wargaming I hope to enjoy.
I went ahead and purchased two boxes of Warlord's Commandos.  I felt they were the best of the bunch.  But I have to be honest.  They were a bit too chunky for me.  However, I had made the purchase, so I needed to begin assembling them.  And then I hit a wall.  A very big wall.  The army lists.  All too soon it felt like 40K.  Beardy gaming at the expense of history.  So the project stalled.  And stopped.

So when Too Fat Lardies released Chain of Command I was incredibly excited.  It's my kind of thing.  Completely.  Of course, by this time Perry had released DAK and British 8th.  It was a no-brainer.  I purchased a box of each.

Which led to another problem.  I don't have a desert wargames board.  This, you'll appreciate, is not a problem combined to this period.  I need a desert board for wargaming the Sudan (yes, I have a box of Perry's British for this already!) I need one for Force on Force.  There's probably more, but these are the ones that spring to mind just now.

This led to another halt in the proceedings.  No Commando lists for Chain of Command, and no desert boards to game with the 8th and DAK.

In the time that has elapsed since then, my mind kept returning to this conundrum.  I began conversations on the Chain of Command Facebook Group.  It was there I learned that many people were playing Chain of Command in 15mm. Some argued the ground scale was better when playing in 15mm, others said 1/72 scale was best.

A number of years ago I purchased the Open Fire! starter set for Flames of War.  This was the original one.  I love the amount of stuff you get for your cash at this scale.  But my heart has always been in 28mm.  I read the rules.  A lot of times.  I thought it was okay, but my enthusiasm waned with each read through.  Clever mechanics to speed up a large scale game, but compared to the detail of NUTS! it was far too abstract.  It looked like it played a lot like a certain 40K...

...so my 15mm plastic men never got used.  Which is kinda stupid.  I really like the basing system for Flames of War.  I didn't feel comfortable with basing the miniature individually.  It's the collector in me.

NUTS! to bolt Action to Flames of War and finally to Chain of Command.  I've played the first on that list and I'm desperate to play the last.  Along the way I've some Commandos I'm not too fond of and am unable to field in the latter.  I've DAK and 8th I really want to use but need to invest a lot of time, energy, cash and loft space in to make some boards.  (It'll happen, but not just yet).  I'd like to use my modular terrain boards, but that means a change of theatre, and I'd need to buy two armies, plus their supports and make a load of terrain.
Or I could save myself a fortune and use my Open Fire! 15mm miniatures. After all, they'll have all the support options I'll probably ever need.

So I have decided to give this new scale a go! It's smaller than anything I've done before.   I'll need to figure out how to paint these diminutive men.  I'll have to rethink sizes for the buildings.  One thing's for certain, my trees will feel an awful lot bigger!

So I went back to the Scribd app a short while ago where I had a copy of the Chain of Command rulebook.  I planned to buy a copy anyway, but it was handy to have this option just now to sort out my forces.

And lo and behold, it's no longer in my library. The file is clearly no longer available.

Looks like I'll have to buy the book sooner rather than later!

In the meantime though, I'm away to try and not go blind while I start work on these tiny miniatures!


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