20. The Army Lists

20.1 Using the Army Lists

The Platoon HQ is straightforward, with just one Senior Leader. If the Platoon had any weapons that were held at HQ these would be listed here.

There are three Sections in this platoon, all identical. Each one is led by an Obergefreiter, a Junior Leader. Each Section has one Panzerfaust. We don't need to track which figure has that, but once it's been used, it has gone.

Most importantly, the Section has two Teams; an LMG Team and a Rifle Team. The LMG Team shows the principal weapon, the MG42. It has four crew figures manning that, one of whom actually fires the weapon. The other three figures do nothing other than act as crew for the gun. It's a busy job, linking belts of ammunition, opening fresh ammo boxes and generally providing enough rounds to keep the MG42 firing. The crew members only ever fire the LMG. They never fire their own weapons. However, they may throw grenades or fire an infantry anti-tank weapon when ordered to do so by a Leader.

The Rifle Team is made up of five figures armed with rifles. They can all fire when activated as well as throwing grenades or firing infantry anti-tank weapons when ordered to do so by a Leader.

Some Teams may be made up of a mix of a weapons, for example, the US Browning Automatic Rifle Team, shown here:

Here the BAR is crewed by just one figure whilst the two figures armed with the M1 Garand Rifle are not listed as crew and may fire their own weapons when the Team is activated.

20.1.1 Force Morale Tracker

Each Platoon list will show a Force Morale Tracker which will vary depending on the training quality of the troops. The Regular Platoon in the example on the previous page retains all five Command Dice until their Force Morale falls to 4; the Green platoon loses their first Command Dice when their Force Morale is at 5.

Where a box is shaded red, this indicates that the platoon may have a Red Dice. The Red Dice reflects a unit with high quality leadership. Where the platoon has the note "5 with Red Dice option", this platoon may select a Red Dice as a support choice. Where the text says "5 with automatic Red Dice", the Red Dice is added to the Command Dice hand automatically, with no cost in Support Points.

The shaded Red box indicates the Force Morale level where the Red Dice is removed from the player's Command Dice hand.

20.1.2 The J Rating

Where Force Morale falls to the point where the letter J is noted on the Tracker, the player must immediately move one Section or Team to make contact with the friendly Jump-Off Point closest to them. This happens immediately with no rolls for movement. It is not an activation.

The unit moving must trace a clear line to the Jump-Off Point which does not come within 4" of an enemy Unit. If unable to do this, the Unit may not be selected to withdraw. If no Unit is able to withdraw, one Unit of the enemy's choice will surrender. The nearest enemy Unit must provide one guard for every four prisoners. Both the prisoners and the guards are immediately removed from the table. No Force Morale roll is made for this retreat or any resulting surrender.

To introduce the J Rating to your games, the following guide can be used.

Backs to the Wall: These troops either will not retire due to esprit de corps, or literally cannot retire as they have nowhere to go.

Confident: A fairly normal state of doing a professional job but recognising imminent collapse at the appropriate moment and withdrawing for reasons of self preservation.

Concerned: These troops have concerns. Possibly they do not trust the security of their flanks; they are worried by the number of new recruits; they do not trust their leaders.

Unsettled: These troops go into action with a poor mindset. Possibly they believe they are being asked to do the unachievable; maybe the unit is not homogenous, with a very high number of untrained men just drafted in. It could be that the unit has been badly defeated in its last action.

20.2 Support Lists

Selecting support options is done once the players have decided which Mission they are playing. The number of Support Points available to each player is determined by rolling the dice shown in the Mission. This is then adjusted to take into account the relative Platoon Strength Ratings of the two forces

20.2.1 Force Imbalance

The type of support available will be determined by the Mission.

20.2.2 Delayed Armour Support

Tracked AFV support choices are two points cheaper when selected as delayed supports.

20.3 Universal Support Options

Explosive Charge for Engineers

How the charge works is detailed in Section 16.5, Anti -Tank Grenades and Charges and 18.1 for Enhanced Wire Clearing and Roadblocks. A maximum of two Explosive Charges can be selected by any force.

Medic

Medics deploy to a Jump Off Point and activate on any Command Dice roll of 1 to 4. They move as infantry but ignore Shock. Medics can never shoot, fight in Close Combat, capture objectives or block Jump Off Points.

If a Medic spends one activated Phase with a Stunned Leader, that Leader may activate as normal from the next Phase.

If a Medic spends one activated Phase with a wounded Leader, they restore the ability to issue the Order that was lost due to the wound. The Leader may not activate in the Phase in which the Medic treats them.

A Medic may only treat any individual Leader once during a game.

A Medic attached to a Unit that suffers casualties will be treated as a Leader at Risk. If a Leader is hit, the Medic may be hit instead of a Leader with the Unit. See Section 13.2.7. If a Medic is hit they are removed from the game. No force Morale roll is made by the owning player.

An unattached Medic can be targeted, any kill resulting in their removal from the game. A Medic ignores Shock results. A force which kills an unattached enemy Medic must take a Force Morale Test as though they themselves have lost a Junior Leader.

The Adjutant

Barbed Wire

Minefields

Minefields are placed on the table after the Jump-Off Points have been deployed and before the game begins. They can be placed anywhere on the table further than 12" from the enemy's friendly table edge. Only two minefields can be selected.

Roadblock

Entrenchments

Troops in Entrenchments count as being in Hard Cover. Entrenchments cannot be placed in buildings, on solid roads or in marshy ground.

Entrenchments are large enough to hold one Team, be that an infantry or support weapon Team. Two entrenchments will be needed for a whole Section, even if that Section is not comprised of multiple Teams or has more than two Teams. A player can select a maximum of four entrenchments.

Medium and Heavy Machine guns selected as supports deploy onto the table in entrenchments. If they leave these, they may be re-occupied or may be occupied by another Infantry Team.

Upgrade AFV Commander to Senior Leader

Replen Point

Additional Phase of Mortar Fire

Car, Jeep or Lorry

These Transport vehicles require one figure allocated as driver. If an LMG team is present, the weapon can be mounted and fired.

Red Dice

Engineer Teams

Sniper Teams

Pre-Game Bombardment

During the first Turn of any game, Units and Leaders affected by a pre-game bombardment must roll to deploy onto the table as though Hesitant. See Section 9.4, Hesitant Deployment. This lasts for the first Turn of the game only.

SOS Fire Mission

Smoke Barrage

Flamethrower Teams

Mortar Bombardment

20.4 The Army Lists

In addition to the Army lists, here you will find the National Arsenals, with all of the data and stats required for your force. Here also are the the National Characteristics that are based on the way that the troops of each nation were trained, which will add colour and narrative to your games.

Germany

The material advantage of the industrialised western Allies and the Soviet Union combined to present Germany with no strategic options that could bring victory. Yet the German military fought on in the hope of snatching a political victory from the jaws of seemingly inevitable military defeat.

In Chain of Command, the late war German forces are well trained and well equipped, but the best of their men and leaders are in cold graves in Russia. The challenge now is to use their firepower to dominate the battlefield and spread what command resources they possess thinly enough to go round.

Teller Mine

Mines in Verges

Roll a D6. Mines are encountered on a roll of 6. Roll 3D6 with a penetrating hit occurring on a 5 or 6. If the vehicle is a Transport, any hit will destroy the vehicle with 1D6 hits on any passengers. If the vehicle is an APC or AFV, each hit causes one point of Shock on the vehicle. Roll for additional damage with a 1 to 3 being no effect and 4 to 6 being counted as a roll of 4 on the appropriate damage table in Section 16.2, Effect of Damage.

Panzerfausts

5cm Mortar Team

Senior Leader with SMG

Entrenched MG 42 Team

This entrenchment does not count towards the maximum number of entrenchments available to a force.

SdKfz 250 with Reconnaissance Team

SdKfz 251/10, Driver and Gun crew

Pak 36 Anti-Tank gun with Stielgranate

Volkssturm Green Section

The MG08/15 is a Great War LMG. It has five Firepower Dice.

Great Britain

Supported by the Dominions and Empire, British forces were supplemented by Canadian, New Zealand and Indian forces in Europe and these are all represented by these lists.

British and Dominion forces are well equipped and well led. Their emphasis on fire and movement and a good grasp of combined arms tactics serves them well against an enemy now over-reliant on static defences.

The following Platoons are available: Regular Infantry, Motor Infantry and Parachute Infantry.

Hawkins Grenades

Gammon Bombs

White Phosphorous Grenades

A WP grenade rolls three Firepower Dice when thrown at a target in the Open but doubles this to six Firepower Dice when exploding in a confined space. The Storm of Steel Bonus is applied.

The WP grenade creates a 3" ball of smoke which acts as a smoke grenade.

Any Section in the platoon can use these when required. They do not need to be allocated to a specific Unit until they are used.

2" Mortar Team

Airborne Marksman

Airborne Bren Team

Vickers MMG Team

M5 Halftrack

Universal Carrier with Recce Team

RAM Kangaroo

Churchill AVRE

The AVRE petard mortar uses the Heavy Gun rules to reload.