"FiveCore Brigade Commander" Topic

After reading the brilliant 'Team Whiskey' AARs here by Just Jack, my offsider and I decided to try out Brigade Commander the other day, pitting my c.1980 Americans against his Czechs.

If interested, my report is here: link

And Luke's is here: link

We probably made loads of mistakes but it was a most enjoyable day and we reckon we'll get a lot more mileage out of the FiveCore system. Hope you enjoy!

Cheers,
Aaron

Dual AAR, very nice.

Glad you guys had a good time!

Displacement is only supposed to apply in meeting engagements, not prepared positions, it's explained really poorly in the rules unfortunately.

Ah thanks Weasel – that makes much more sense.

TAL,

Awesome! Kansai, eh? I did three years in Iwakuni (an hour southwest of Hiroshima), was a really great experience. Anyway, back to business.

First off, I love the terrain (looks like the interlocking styrofoam kids' mats?), it looks fantastic, and I'm really loving the MERDC on the M-60s and M-901s. I do love HR, wish I'd known about them before shelling out so much for GHQ. GHQ is fantastic quality no doubt, but to me it's not noticeable on the table. Using multiple bases per company looks really great; I kind of wish I'd done that instead of my multiple vehicle basing (three per stand), but too late now…

Regarding the game, wow! It looks like you had a real barn-burner! That left-hand tank company commander needs to be decorated! I agree (of course) with the assessment that the American won the fight, though Ivan won't like it ;)

Regarding the rules, obviously I'm a fan, so any commentary I make is tainted. So I won't go overboard, but I'll throw this out: I'm glad you enjoyed it and I hope you stick with it.

Regarding moving forward and being pushed back, my opinion is that this is very realistic. You always read combat accounts of '1st platoon being pushed off the hill, counterattacking, then being pushed back down the hill, re-forming, counterattacking, then beating back the enemy's counterattack to hold the hill. Prior to 5Core (skirmish/company/brigade level), my experience with wargames was 1. enemy attacks hill, 2. enemy takes hill or fails to take hill, with enemy or friendlies destroyed. There was no 'pushed back, reformed/rallied, then counterattacked,' and I very much enjoy that aspect of the game.

When you say there's a lot of luck involved, are you referring to the activation rolls, or (and?) something else? The reason I like the activation system is 1) it's quick and easy, 2) it introduces friction so that I never lets me do everything I want, but 3) the friction is not so bad that I feel like I'm simply a spectator, or my move is pre-ordained.

Personally, I've never found a scurry limiting. There have been many times when I've curse a firefight, as I really needed to get someone moving (but in my head I can always justify why unit 'x' wasn't able to get moving, but I understand we all have our own ideas that we can or can't live with), but for me scurries are always good news. I need to check the rules: I don't know if I'm breaking the rules or not in Company/Brigade Commander (I know I'm breaking the rules with 5 Men in Normandy), but I let units on scurry move into close combat (though they must suffer Snap Fire, whereas units doing 'regular' moves in a scurry don't suffer Guard Fire).

It's pretty cool seeing two batreps, too, one from each side, I appreciate you and Luke posting them. I think Luke has the outlook: the 5Core activation, combat, and movement systems are simple and quick, so you can add/subtract chrome to taste. And you can absolutely use 'real-world' OOBs as opposed to using the random generator for forces.

And I can tell you that, like every set of rules, the games will get even faster as you get more familiar with them; but with 5Core they can get really fast: I'd have played that in an hour and fifteen minutes! ;) And to me, that's a big plus; I'd really love to see you and Luke play a campaign ;)

Thanks again for posting.

V/R,
Jack

One simple option is to use a D10 for the turn sequence. That changes special turns from 33% to 20%, which seems like a nice even number.

Thanks again guys!

Jack, your comments are much appreciated. I'm certainly going to stick with the rules. I really enjoyed the game, and no doubt my first impressions will alter with time.

Regarding moving forward and being pushed back, a lot of it was happening with vehicles, and it's more yo-yo-ish than I'm used to in Spearhead, which is why I wanted to do some more reading around it. Not to say it's the wrong way to do it, just something I want to look at further, for my own knowledge as much as anything.

Regarding luck, it played a big part in our game, hence the comment. Not a complaint, that's just how it was :)

I'm not sure if we missed something with the scurries or not, but there were two in a row at the end (Luke's turn then my turn) which enabled Luke's remaining commands to rush past me and exit off table without a shot being fired. As far as I could tell I wasn't allowed to do reaction fire, and I couldn't shoot on my own scurry turn, so all we could do was watch it happen.

Again, not complaining, just observing & reminding myself to check again in the rules and, if we were doing it right, either get used to it or use a house rule or two :)

Thanks again for your comments – I hope to get some solo games underway soon!

Cheers,
Aaron

Sorry to be late to the party, but thank you for posting this! You have inspired me to pull out my T-55's and do Czech's, they have never seen the table since being painted.

Did you use any of the special rules? You can mitigate some of the randomness a bit and give advantages to each side.

You definitely get a bit of a yoyo effect.

Essentially, it's taking the ebb and flow of a large engagement and condensing it down a little bit, into one game.

The "War movie" approach to a multi-hour engagement, if you will. :)

Aaron,

No worries, I'm just a big fan of the rules and like seeing others get into them as well, sort of a I fraternity I suppose ;) And I was not at all a fan of the game after my first go, it took awhile for it to grow on me. The big issue for me was all these units not being able to do anything on a 'normal' activation, i.e., 3 of 9 units doing something. Ultimately we all have our own ideas of what tabletop war should look like, and we keep going until we find it, so good luck! ;)

"I'm not sure if we missed something with the scurries or not, but there were two in a row at the end (Luke's turn then my turn) which enabled Luke's remaining commands to rush past me and exit off table without a shot being fired. As far as I could tell I wasn't allowed to do reaction fire, and I couldn't shoot on my own scurry turn, so all we could do was watch it happen."
If I may, here's my understanding: if he rolled a scurry then all your units that saw one of his units move get to move. Now it's your turn, and you roll a scurry: if you move a unit and any of his units can see it, they get to move. So, options are to 1) move only units out of LOS to the bad guys you don't want to move, or 2) take an 'operational' pause and don't do anything (in that same situation, I will often times not move anyone, just have them roll to rally off pins and hunkers).

Thanks again for posting, and I look forward to more.

V/R,
Jack

Thanks again gents (and especially you, Jack). Am hoping to put the advice to good use over the holiday break!

Cheers again,
Aaron

Aaron:
Lovely terrain and models. Two very engaging reports. Thank you for posting this. I am looking forward to reading more.
Cheers and good gaming.
Rod Robertson.