1st Section

 

The Game Changes...

The Kitchen Table

Chain of Command v2 are "rules for WWII combat at platoon level" which is very much the level at which I enjoy gaming - one figure represents on man. The rules are designed to be scale agnostic, but 28mm, 20mm or 15mm seem to be scales at which the majority of games are played with a table 6' x 4' or larger recommended. 

But what if your table is not that big?

Following a kitchen refurb in 2024 we ended up with the old kitchen table being spare, and much to my delight, my wife suggested it go into a spare bedroom in case it came in handy. At that moment it was no longer a spare kitchen table - it was a wargaming table, it was battlefield. 

Only issue was it measured 5' x 3' and so a little smaller than the recommended (and de facto wargaming standard) 4' x 6'. Still I was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Thinking through the options the obvious solution to having a slightly smaller table than ideal on which to play CoC was to reduce the figure size.  

If you could play with 28mm figures on a 6'x4' table then surely 15mm figures on a 5'x3' would work. There was the added bonus that the Chain of Command rules mention that the rules use a ground scale of 12" = 40 yards being 1:120 scale. Close enough to the 1:100 that 15mm is often also classified as. 

Peter Pig

Having not previously thought about 15mm figures I did not really know what my options were. A quick Google search threw up the Battlefront Flames of War range, the Forged in Battle range and company called Peter Pig. The first two sell platoon and company sized forces, but have limited, and in some cases unusual poses. Peter Pig on the other hand offer a wide range of figures in packs of eight figures which allows you to build bespoke platoons matching CoC's platoon lists.

The FDM Printer

At the same time as I was purchasing my first Peter Pig figures, I started to read about a 3D filament printer that even an idiot could use (I'm paraphrasing here). I had been considering getting a resin printer for a while, but had discarded the idea due to the cost, complexity of use and the toxic nature of the chemicals required for printing and cleaning. A FDM printer, which uses a spool of filament and requires no aftercare or cleaning once printed seemed a good way to get into printing and an easy way to print terrain elements and buildings. It also looked cost effective. I purchased a Bambu A1 mini for £160 and within minutes of receipt it was printing armoured vehicles. While there was a bit of a learning curve I was able to print vehicles to a more than acceptable standard using STL files that are available for free on the net. So not only was I going to be able to print buildings as planned but also vehicles and AFV's.