GamesReport: 11-Jan-13 Combat Commander Europe

My Combat Commander Stuff

Inspired into action by recent posts on Sgt Steiner's fine blog, I've finally managed to get Combat Commander to the table.

Back in July '12 I picked up a copy of Combat Commander Pacific to scratch a Pacific Theatre itch and it was quickly followed by purchases of the New Guinea battle pack and then the Combat Commander Europe base set from eBay. Buying is too easy sometimes and despite my good intentions these games fell behind an ASLSK renaissance. 

Sometimes the biggest barrier to playing a new game is learning a new game, so kudos to JohnK for offering to teach this one to me.

A CC:Europe card

Anyway onto the game itself...

The Combat Commander series is a card-driven system that focuses on the tactical infantry combat of World War II across it's many theatres. There are no dice as such, the cards are used to determine in-game effects... dice outcomes, random hexes, events etc.  

Learning Combat Commander
I didn't want to leave it all to JohnK, so I walked through *most* of the rules this week just to familiarise myself with the terms and the basic phases of play. Even so we struggled through the set-up and the first few turns, but I gradually got use to the simplicity of the card-play if not some of the more detailed rules... they will have to wait until I re-read the rules having experienced a full scenario...

The Scenario
Playing as the US vs. John's Germans we played Scenario #4 "Closed For Renovation".

Humaine, Belgium, December 27, 1944 - After three days of fierce combat and heavy bombardment, the town of Humaine was surrounded by forces of the US 2nd Armoured Division. Most of the German defenders surrendered after some hard fighting. Remnants of 9th Panzer Division occupying a château on the north end of town refused to give up, however, and it fell to CCR to root out these stubborn troops.

Initial Set-Up

Reinforcements At The Wall

Taking The Objective

I elected to push Elite units up the eastern side of the château and took out his 75mm IG 18 Gun and the troops stationed in the building there. I hoped that this intense pressure would draw some Germans away from the main objective to give my main attack (from the western wall) a better chance.

It worked pretty well, but the eastern assault weakened my troops there and I had now choice but to begin the second attack against the heavily fortified Germans. Time was running out!

Just one round before a sudden death finish was called, I took the 15VP objective and had eliminated enough German units to give me a 4VP win. I'd almost left it too late though. 

First Impressions
I'm very familiar with games that have fire and movement as a certainty in your turn. If you want to move, you can move and if you want to fire, hey you can fire! However, the card system in CC:E only allows you to fire and/or move if you have the cards to do so. If you don't, you have options to discard and re-draw or to play other orders instead. 

This was an early barrier to me as I planned my assault on the building objective in our scenario. The cards certainly add a chaotic feel to the game, so if I can embrace that, there will be a place for the series at my game-table in the future. Right now the jury is still out...

It's nice to get back to some wargaming!

What's next for our wargaming table?

On The Lookout

In recent weeks and months we've learned a few new systems and reached the point where they could be quite quickly picked-up and played with minimal effort required. (FAB: Sicily and Twilight Struggle)

I now want to look ahead at the next few months and get a feel for games that might be on our gaming table soon...

First up is Combat Commander: Pacific from GMT Games. It is a card-driven wargame covering tactical infantry combat in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. It's been a while since I played a squad level wargame and the Pacific really appeals to me.

You can find our first look at Combat Commander: Pacific in a July blog post.

Sticking with WW2 a second option would be Shifting Sands this time from MMP Games, the company who currently release ASL material. It uses point-to-point movement and is based on the World War II African campaigns of 1940-1943. Shifting Sands is MMP's first card driven game. 

Lastly I want to consider Wilderness War, again from GMT Games. Having recently played a lot of A Few Acres of Snow online again we would be covering the French & Indian War, 1755-1760, as France and Britain battled for control of North America. 

Any thoughts on the games above? Perhaps you have a suggestion for us?

A First Look At Combat Commander: Pacific

Combat Commander: Pacific

I'm spoiling myself a little this month having bought my second new game, Combat Commander: Pacific, a GMT release.

World War II is one of my favourite periods in history to wargame and the Pacific is one theatre that I have yet to play in in any boardgame beyond Memoir '44.

I'd expected to get there with ASL, but didn't get past Starter Kit scenarios, which don't currently cover PTO. With Combat Commander: Pacific I hope to have struck a balance between rules accessibility (which full ASL for PTO doesn't have in my opinion) and an engaging PTO experience.

CC:P is a standalone product and the third volume in the series behind CC:Europe and CC:Mediterranean. It has been published with a refined and updated rule-set and on the whole received positive community reviews (gaming gang / bgg).

CC:P Big Box

The box is a big one when compared to my other GMT titles, probably to hold the three decks of cards included. The full contents list is as follows:

Six thick paper double-sided maps. (17" x 22")

352 large counters. (5/8")

280 small counters. (1/2")

220 cards - One U.S. fate deck, one Japanese fate deck and one Commonwealth fate deck.

CC:P Counters

A 32-page rule book.

A 32-page play book.

A display track.

3 double sided nationality cards.

2 player aid cards.

CC:P Box Contents

Commonwealth, Japanese and U.S. fate decks

Fate cards represent the heart and soul of CC:P as a card-driven wargame which uses no actual dice.

A Sample U.S. fate card

Actions/Orders can only be played via in-hand fate cards, whereas other required "events", "random hexes", "sighting marker movements" or "dice rolls" are covered by drawing a fate card from the required deck and taking the result directly from that card.

e.g. Here a dice roll request would be a 1:6 and the event would be Medic.

I'm looking forward to giving combat Commander: Pacific a run out, although for now it's probably behind FAB Sicily in terms of play order.

Battle Pack #4 - New Guinea

As with previous volumes in the Combat Commander series, CC:P has had an expansion released, Battle Pack #4 - New Guinea. I've ordered a copy from Boardgame Guru.

> Further scenarios for CC:P also appear in the latest C3i magazine.
> The GMT listing for CC:P, including living rules and the VASSAL module, can be found here.

> A full list of Combat Commander scenarios can be found here.


As always too many good games and not enough time to play them! Until next time good gaming!

Update 01/08/12

A quick update as the Battle Pack #4 - New Guinea arrived today. It includes six new maps and fourteen new scenarios themed on the contrasting coastal and highland fighting in New Guinea between January '42 and July'44.

New Guinea: Battle Pack #4

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