I am looking to run the 1940 Pint-Sized Campaign "Many Rivers to Cross" from the Lardy Magazine 2018 and wanted to pull together my thoughts on how this would now be run in the brave new world of CoC².
This is as much a reference for me on how I plan to run this PSC as anything, thoughts and decisions are my own and seem to make sense to me, feel free to disagree in the Comment below.
For those not familiar with the campaign, the basic premise is the German's are advancing across six (well, sort of five if you read the campaign) tables with the time pressure to secure the bridge on the final table before their opponent destroys it. Their opponent can be any nation from the 1940 Blitzkrieg Book, in my case I am going for my newly painted BEF who may also call upon any French support options I have too.
What to consider when porting this 2018 PSC over to CoC²?
Setting and Campaign Narrative
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Belgian soldiers taken prisoner march pass their German captors in May 1940
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I want to tailor this to real world BEF unit falling back towards Dunkirk and so after a little research I discovered the 5th Glosters fighting against Infanterie-Regiment 82. This allowed me to pin the PSC tables to specific historic locations as the Glosters fell back. In my take on this PSC, there were not any meaningful French or Belgian forces in the area to for the British to call on for support, so the British are on their own.
Full details of this are in the Many Rivers to Cross player briefings as well as Platoon Rosters available from the Files section here.
Chain of Command 2 Rule Changes & Updates
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Compiling rule updates can cause serious headaches!
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As a fundamental rule, all of CoC² rules are adopted unless noted otherwise where the 1940 Blitzkrieg Book has primacy.
There are a bunch of CoC² rule changes/updates that I will simply include, such as;
Adopting the values from the Master Arsenal on page 48, these will trump any of the individual Blitzkrieg nations Master Arsenals (e.g. 2" mortar does 3 HE not 2 previously, SMGs increased damage, etc).
Mortars and similar have 3 rounds of HE and smoke (where applicable)
National characteristics are as per CoC² for the British Five Rounds Rapid, Concentrated Fire, Smoke Screen and from the 1940 Blitzkrieg Book Keep. For the Germans as per CoC² with Maschinengewehr, Handgranaten and Panzerknacker, I have omitted Pakfront! as this wasn't doctrine early war (and there were only a handful of SPG in 1940 anyway!).
AFV ability to deploy smoke is as per my previous post on early war AFV smoke deployment. As a result, not all vehicles have this capability and often in a different way to later war CoC² description.
1940 Blitzkrieg Book Rules
Blitzkrieg AFV/APC have 3 morale as per relevant nations, 4 morale can be achieved by fielding a Senior Leader in armoured platoons as mentioned for each relevant nation. I think this reflects the less trained nature of the early war period and the flimsy nature of some of the vehicles.
The Red Dice is treated differently in the 1940 Blitzkrieg Book (p.15) as opposed to CoC² (See 7.7). I propose sticking with the 1940 version requiring the German player to take three non-static support choices (this would include any off-table support choices as being static too).
Force Lists
These remain unchanged from the 1940 Blitzkrieg Book with following exceptions:
Mortars have 3 crew and limited ammunition.
Engineers are adapted to CoC² rules. This means the previous Engineers Mine Clearance Team, Engineers Wire-Cutting Team and Engineers Demolition Team are replaced with a single Engineer Team, 3 figures and the addition of Explosive Charge for Engineers (Max: 2) as Support choices.
It will now cost 2 Support Points to make the equivalent of the 1940 Engineers Demolition Team (if this is deemed egregious then permit one Engineer Team with a free Explosive Charge available for 1 point).
In the 1940 Blitzkrieg Book there is also the Engineer Section with Junior Leader, this would now be defined as two Engineer Teams led by a Junior Leader. Addition of Explosive Charges is extra (although see my previous comment and you may chose to permit a one of the Engineer Teams to have a free Explosive Charge).
Support Choices
CoC² introduces for the first time restrictions on support choices for various scenarios, for example limiting mortars to certain scenarios. This is likely to mean that the 1940 Blitzkrieg Book scenarios would also have had limitations on them. With CoC² mortars are generally only available when the Attacker is attacking a prepared defensive/static line in the "Attack & Defend" (Attacker only) and "Attack on a Objective", fluid battlefield scenarios therefore do not have mortars available to them, I will try and reflect this.
Smoke Barrages: In my research I didn't find much evidence of British artillery smoke barrages routinely being used at this early stage of the war and so I haven't included them as a support choice for the British. Other nations may be different but since I am using BEF that has been the focus of my research. German doctrine had more integrated developed use of smoke barrages (H.Dv. 200/5 – Die Truppenführung (1933/34, still governing doctrine in 1940) and so is a support choice for them in this PSC.
Bren gun LMGs added to Bren Carriers explicitly where appropriate where it wasn't clear or consistent in the 1940 Blitzkrieg Book.
Added in Replen Points, cars, lorries, etc.
The German player has support limitations as per page 24 of the PSC depending on the Campaign Turn.
Stuka availability limited as per page 25.
French players may still take "Additional V-B ammunition for one man" for 1 support, this allows endless ammunition for one man.
My complied list of support choices for Many Rivers to Cross is available for British and German forces on the Files section here.
Scenario Design
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Oddly sailors were involved with updating the scenarios?
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Map One: The Mill Crossing
The original Attack & Defend scenario is different from the v1 rules so a few tweaks needed to bring it to bring it up to date with CoC² Attack & Defend mission on page 82.
Objective: The singular Objective is the bridge so this scenario will not have the defending player removing any second objective on the Turn end. Just one rather large, obvious Objective for this table.
Patrol Phase: Attacker does not get any bonus moves before the Patrol Phase.
Support: Constraints for the Defender as per CoC² Attack & Defend mission. Additionally the Defender may not take a Pregame Bombardment.
Wining the Battle: Capturing the bridge by the Attacker triggers either side being able to start the Final Countdown mechanic.
Other Changes: Attacker starts with 1D3 CoC points. If the campaign has got to this stage then the German's campaign has gone serious wrong, Regardless of campaign turn, I would permit anti-tank guns and light infantry guns as a minimum for the Germans to chose from to make the fight memorable.
Map Two: The Village
This is a "Hasty Defence" scenario from 1940 Blitzkrieg Book with a couple of tweaks, there is no direct CoC² equivalent although A Delaying Action" is similar in nature.
Support: Neither side can select Mortars. No Flamethrowers may be selected (see CoC² 20.3).
Map Three: Farm & Forest
This is a "Swift to Support" scenario and again will limit mortar choices.
Support: Neither side can select Mortars. No Flamethrowers may be selected (see CoC² 20.3).
Map Four: Farm and Road
This is "Going with a Bang" scenario and again will limit mortar choices.
Support: Neither side can select Mortars. No Flamethrowers may be selected (see CoC² 20.3).
Map Five: The Open Road
This "Blitzkrieg" scenario (see my notes on this type of scenario here) is unique to the 1940 Blitzkrieg Book and is the very essence of the nature of the early war period.
Support: Neither side can select Mortars. No Flamethrowers may be selected (see CoC² 20.3).
Map Six: The River Bridge
The finale of the PSC and akin to CoC² "Attack on an Objective".
Objective: The objective itself should be 12" in from the table edge, this I think is a minor issue as winning the town will lead to its capture eventually.
Patrol Phase: The Defender places their four starting Patrol Markers in the town square in difference to the scenario text. As noted in the scenario notes, a fourth Jump Off Point is placed on the bridge. I would replace this with the Objective marker but also allow the Defender to use it as a Jump Off Point (with no penalty of a captured JoP if captured though).
Support: The Defender may select Delayed Armour support.
Wining the Battle: Capturing the bridge by the Attacker triggers either side being able to start the Final Countdown mechanic.
