Project Cold-War Chain of Command

Hello again. Yes, I'm back after surviving the madness that was Salute. No pictures, as so many others already do it and I can't be bothered with doing it as well. I bought very little, a box of Victrix new plastic peltasts, half for my eldest son and half for me, a nice mdf gate from Warbases, a copy of Charlie Don't Surf from the Lardies and, erm, that was it. I know, a poor effort all round, but I was there more to deliver some of Gus' collection than to get things for myself. That's not to say that I couldn't have spent a lot, there was so much there that I could have quite happily bought, but I restrained myself. I doesn't help that I had dropped a big chunk of change on Battlefront Anzacs in their 40% off sale(more on that in a bit).

Anyway, back to the point of this post. Chain of Command, I really like these rules and they have quickly become one of the first games of choice amongst my local gaming buddies. I got to thinking about the old, loved but underused figures I have here, sat idling their time away in drawers and boxes. Now I can be quite mercenary with figures, usually thinking that if I haven't played with them for more than a couple of years I may as well get rid of them. So why do I still have my Cold War 28mm collection then? Because I love 'em, that's why. Some lovely figures from Mongrel Miniatures and Mo-Fo Miniatures, supported by some awesome vehicles from Sloppy Jalopy and the now sadly defunct Chieftain Models.

I have enough to do a platoon of British in either Spartans(RAF Regiment) or Fv432s(Infantry), supported by Scorpions, a Sultan, a Samson, a Ferret and a Chieftain! Almost all are painted, except the Fv432's, whose dastardly tracks were just too annoying to finish off and the Ferret.

They have a Milan, a tripod GPMG and some Carl Gustavs as well

Against them I have enough Russians for a full platoon, with RPGs and the like. They also have vehicular support in the shape of 3 BMPs and 2 recently acquired "toy" T-55s, from the James Bond Collection.

I also have a small force of US Marines, but not enough for a platoon.

So, my plan is to do an easy variation of Chain of Command to allow me to use this collection. Most of the rules don't need changing as the small unit tactics don't seem to have changed all that much. Weapons seem to fire a bit faster and there are better communications now, but the squad/platoon still appears to work in much the same way.

Now, I must admit that I have been a bit cheeky here and ~~stolen,~~ ahem, borrowed some of the following information from another blog, Sapper Joes Wargaming & Toys. He has worked out most of the weapon clarifications already and his thoughts match mine pretty well, so thank you Sapper Joe.

L1A1 self loading rifles / Semi automatic rifle

L42A1 or SVD rifle / Sniper rifle

AK47 and M16A1 rifle / Assault rifle

L2A3 Sterling / SMG

L4 Bren or RPK/D / Magazine feed LMG

L7A2 or PKM GPMG / Belt feed LMG

L7A2 GPMG (in Sustained Fire mode) / Tripod mounted MMG

M79 grenade launder / Rifle grenade with a minimum range of 10” (30m)

M16A1 & M203 grenade launcher / Assault rifle with rifle grenade (Min. range 10”)

L9A1 51mm mortar / Light mortar

L16A1 81mm mortar / Medium mortar

I need to work out stats for vehicles, armour, gun effect etc. Also details for AT weapons, as the infantry have RPGs, LAWs and Carl Gustav rockets. Then there are the ATGWs, as the Britis have a Milan team and the Russians have AT-3 Saggers and AT-5 Spandrel missiles on the BMPs.

The other part of the plan is to also do a "What If" using my new 15mm Anzacs and my old AK-47 figures. I like the Anzacs, with the Centurions and M113 Beast with the Saladin turret, so I got some and plan to do an Australian Intervention force in Africa. Don't know why, but it seemed like a good idea at the time, so I now have 3 platoons of Anzac infantry, 6 M113s with MG turrets, 2 M113 Beasts and 2 Centurions.

More to follow as hopefully I may get a small playtest game in tomorrow with Nathan.....hopefully. Keep rolling those dice.