The HIll : Redux (FiveCore: Company Command)

Saturday night saw my second game using Nordic Weasel's FiveCore: Company Command.

For the scenario, I used The Hill, from 2x2 Small Crossfire Scenarios - but just using the infantry, mortars, and HMG (no engineers, mine fields, etc). US would be the attacker and Germans the defender. This time, I opted to use a 3' x 3' playing area primarily because I was being overrun by a curious cat when I tried to set up on the floor.

Things look a little cramped, but with so few units involved, it didn't feel any great hindrance.


The setup:

That's a pumpkin in the upper left. I really want to put a 'Santa hat' on it, but I can't find mine.

The Germans deployed two squads to hold the hill, with the mortar deployed behind it - as it was out of sight, and couldn't be shot by any attacking unit, I didn't feel that it needed a hiding status - while the HMG deployed on the German right, and a squad on the far left. Heavy weapons units don't do well when assaulted, generally (although last game they did OK), so I thought I'd try holding the hill with two squads instead.

Since the attacker has the initiative, the US, as last time, opted to declare deployment for their first turn and advanced accordingly on the left and right, to the far edge of the woods on the left and right, while I held the mortar and a single squad in the center.

The Germans on their part of the turn popped up - but only 3 of the 5 could because they had to be in combat stance. The MG was forced back to hiding, while the squad on the left got some shots off and forced one of the American squads to panic.

Contact!

On turn 2, the US forced the assault forward and overran the German HMG (hiding and a heavy weapons crew is not a good combination for fighting off a close assault). While on the American right, the German squad was forced to retreat the woods to their rear.

On turn 3, one of the German squads on the hill was forced to retreat in a panic thanks to accurate shooting from the American left.

By turn 4, the US assault was fully underway - the left flank had wrapped on and around the hill (threatening the German mortar, who would give a good accounting of themselves in the assault that followed). The center squad also began moving up, as protecting the American mortar was no longer a priority.

Intense fighting near the hill and in the woods.

 At the end of turn 5, the US had control of the hill, the German mortar had been silenced, and although a few of the American squads had morale issues, so too did the two remaining German squads.

On turn 6, I could only activate one of the remaining German squads so, I decided there was no point in playing out the last turn. American victory.

From the German point of view, you can see the American assault covering the table from left to right, in the middle and backgrounds.

Some thoughts:

• I went with 9" movement to preserve the ratio of  moves to table size (the scenario calls for a 2' x 2' table, and with the 6" RAW move, that's 4 moves x 4 moves.). I think a case could be made for 6" moves for a 3' x 3' playing area, since the rules explicitly state that as a table size the rules were designed for - albeit with 1.5" square bases. As it was, the 9" move seemed to work well enough,  given the 6 turn limit I set.

• The aggressive assault by the US made a lot more sense than my previous effort. The objective is to take the hill after all, not engage in an extended fire fight.

• The defender suffers a bit in combat stance: activating half of their units amounts to  never more than 3, and more often, it was just 2 units. This is a consequence of the very small game, not really a problem of the rules themselves.

• The QRS for Company Command could use some more information on it. A two-page QRS would be ideal (1 sheet, front and back) - at least for me. So I'm making my own with what I need right now. I imagine later, I may be able to get away with one side.

• I messed up a few things - facing and which friendly units could "spot" for the light mortar (a friendly unit within one move is the correct answer). I added both of those to my QRS.

FiveCore: Company Command : Overview and Thoughts

On Monday night, I had the opportunity to finally try out Nordic Weasel's FiveCore: Company Command (CC here on out). These rules are designed for a company + support on the table per side, where one base = one squad/section. If you just want my final opinion, jump to the bottom, but if you want to know a bit about the rules, read on.

For the set up, I used the hill scenario from these small Crossfire scenarios, leaving out anything that wasn't an infantry unit or heavy weapon. The scenarios are intended for a 2'x2' table, which suits CC's own stated design goals of 2'x2' to 3'x3'. However, since my base size is 3" square, and the suggested base size for CC is 1.5", I opted to double the size of the playing area, and all ranges (everything is in range for shooting, so this is mostly for movement and some reactions).

Here is the initial setup.

Two armies lay opposite and ready.

Don't worry about the US squads being out in the open - they are the attacker and have the initiative to start and are within one move of cover. This is important because if you are targeting a unit in the open, you have an increased chance to destroy them.

In CC, if a unit is within contact of the edge of a terrain piece or obstacle, they have to declare if they are in contact or if they are hiding. In contact means they can see and be seen. The mortar and adjacent squad are in contact - because mortar can't move and fire in the same turn, I wanted them to be able to fire as soon as possible.

The defender (Germans) start hidden in this scenario. I took this to mean "hiding" in CC terms (I used small green dice to indicate this) - they can't be seen, but they can't shoot either. Unhiding can draw reaction fire, but that seems right. Once they unhide, they will be in contact- so, again, even in cover, they will be visible to the enemy.

Conveniently, I don't have a single hill big enough for this scenario, but by using two pushed together, I have a natural crest line that troops can use as cover. FYI, hills are not discussed specifically in the rules with respect to crest lines and all that, I've pulled that concept from somewhere else.

I opted to position a squad near each heavy weapon - CC restricts heavy weapons from being targeted if a squad is nearby (4" as written, 8" in my case). This might be gamey but I like it and to me it makes sense that each side would want to protect their weapon. Plus it forces me to keep squads in reserve.

German MG and mortar benefit from the presence of a rifle squad.

CC offers three modes of play - each mode restricts what you can do as a commander in different ways. I opted to start with the basic mode which requires a side to declare whether they are in Combat or Deployment stance. The stances determine how many units can move or fire, and what, if any rules, govern the movement of the troops.

Most of the game was spent in combat stance for both sides, which meant only 1/2 a side's units could move and fire. The rest had to sit, but they could still reaction fire (well, mortars can't).

Shooting is done with a mixture of "shock" dice (morale effects) and "kill" dice (what it sounds like) and different weapons and situations can alter which/how many are rolled. Only 1s and 6s are of any concern and results range from falling back 3" (6" in my case) to complete removal of a unit. Light mortars, interestingly enough, only fire shock dice unless the target is in the open - this makes them useful for forcing the enemy to keep their heads down while your troops advance. Similarly, reaction fire is with shock dice only, unless the target is within 4" - so its main purpose is to get the enemy to rethink any advance.

The final assault!

I opted to play for 6 turns and the GIs failed to take the hill - despite some valiant efforts to do so, and effective use of the mortar for keeping the enemy from using their MG.

It's always hard to be fully immersed the first time I play a set of rules since I'm usually checking them quite often, but I did enjoy the decision making regarding which troops to activate and which to let sit. Sometimes this lead to troops being pinned down, unable to rally (because a failed rally roll uses up the activation, you have to think carefully about what's important to your overall goal) which added some tension.

Even with my constant rules checking, the entire game and setup took less than an hour (admittedly my playing area is pretty simple. More complex tables would obviously add more time). These forces are small by CC standards (or Crossfire's for that matter, which is the intent),  but even with full companies per side, the rules are designed to play in 60 to 90 minutes.

There were just a few spots in the rules where things did not seem particularly clear to me. As this was my first game with them, it's quite possible it's a me thing and repeated plays will work those issues out. The 10 games, 10 times challenge I did a few years ago on my old blog taught me the value of not judging a rule set too quickly. That said, I already like these rules quite a bit.

They can easily handle all of the force options as presented - minefields, smoke, artillery, engineering squads, etc. So, after another game or two, I'll start adding those bits in.