Thursday 4 June 2015

Five Core Company Command Rules


I've been really enjoying the latest series of posts over on Just Jack's BlackHawkHet blog, which detail a mini-campaign that he's running based around a semi-fictional Cuban liberation conflict, very much in an 'imagin-nations' style but firmly grounded by a plausible back story. I've particularly enjoyed the post action reports, which give a really good flavour of the rules:


The campaign uses a set of fast play rules for platoon level games called Company Command. These looked really interesting, so I downloaded a copy from Wargames Vault to take a closer look. After a quick flick through it soon became apparent that this was a very straightforward set of rules but with some innovative and interesting twists.

They are designed for small forces of a few squads a side plus support weapons and specialists, with vehicle and AFV's being used only in small numbers, if at all. That's not to detract from the scope of the rules which cover pretty much everything you'd expect from a 'modern' set, including off table fire support, helicopters and irregular forces, for example.

The rules have been written very much for AK47 style games in hot, dusty far away places but would be equally useable for any Cold War conflict, with plenty of scope for 'What if's?' The miminalist approach to unit sizes and the small size of the playing area, also makes it very manageable in terms of effort and cost. This is a big factor for me, with my limited time for painting and gaming.

I'm thinking of having a try out using my AK47 figures but also considering other things I could do with the rules, from 10mm Pendraken Royal Marines in Norway to the steamy jungles of Indochina, where my 10mm French and Viet Minh could find a new home. Then there's also the Indonesian Confrontation, Borneo and Vietnam in 15mm, which have all occupied some of my thinking time in the not so distant past.

Very cool!


4 comments:

  1. Oh, Holy Cow, you've gone too far Sir!

    I'm flattered and blushing, thanks for the mention. I'm a huge fan the 5Core Company Command rules, having used them (so far) for Brits vs Germans in Italy, 1943, Germans vs Poles and French, 1939/1940, NATO vs WarPac, circa 1985, and now Cuba Libre.

    I find the rules very, very flexible, able to move between just a handful of elements per side on a 2' x 2', up to about 20 elements per side on a 4' x 4' board. No reason to think they wouldn't work on other sizes, I just haven't tried them yet ;)

    I'm really looking forward to seeing how you get on with them; if there are any questions, please let me know, and the author is a great guy, very responsive, hangs out on TMP and TWW, as well.

    V/R,
    Jack

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Jack,

    Thank you for the inspiration!

    The rules are exactly what I've been looking for so I'm very pleased.

    I'll keep posting on my ideas and, hopefully, even some try out games using my AK47 15mm stuff.

    In the longer term I'm looking to follow your example and use them with 10mm figures.

    In the meantime, keep on posting the combat reports for Cuba Libre!

    Cheers

    Jim

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jim,

    I am very much looking forward to your efforts with Company Command, and 10mm is pretty alright, I highly recommend it ;)

    I got four more games in this weekend, get them posted ASAP.

    V/R,
    Jack

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glad you are liking it and don't hesitate to ask questions if you are wondering about anything!

    ReplyDelete

Labels

Bag The Hun (747) AK47 (488) Books (481) Ironclads (476) Wings at War (392) Back of Beyond (235) Pre-Dreadnoughts (229) Coastal Warfare (226) Britain's Small Wars (199) Bolt Action (175) What a Tanker (170) Target Locked On (162) Victory at Sea (155) MiG Alley (150) Knights of the Sky (149) Napoleonic Naval (146) Old West (146) Chain of Command (145) Find Fix and Strike (137) Sandbox Skirmish (119) Naval Command (118) Bag The MiG (117) Naval Thunder (117) Pirates (116) Indo China / Vietnam (114) Air War Over Khalkhin Gol (108) Fistful of Lead (108) 15mm Sci-Fi / Near Future (95) Darkest Africa (91) VBCW (89) Strength and Honour (84) Shows (79) Ancients (78) ACW (77) The Football War (75) France's Small Wars (67) Boardgames (66) Corsairs and Cavaliers (66) Shipwreck! (66) BKC (65) Rapid Fire (63) Saurian Safari (62) Cruel Seas (60) Saga (60) Air War C21 (58) Journals (57) The Men Who Would Be Kings (57) Nimitz (55) Flashpoint Alto Cenepa (53) IABSM (53) Flashpoint Taiwan (50) Finest Hour (49) Gladiators (48) International Naval Wargaming Day (47) Red Actions! (47) Scramble for Britain (44) Flashpoint Baltic (42) Fortifications (41) Cold War (39) Duel of Aces (36) SCW (36) Thud Ridge (36) Desert Spitfires (34) Flames above the Falklands (34) RCW (34) War of the Pacific (34) Death in the Dark Continent (32) Atlantic Wall (31) Post Apocalypse (31) Iron Cow (30) Lion Rampant (30) Bag the Springbok (29) English Civil War / Anglo Dutch War Naval (29) Algernon Pulls It Off (28) Mexican Revolution (28) Normandy Firefight (28) Full Thrust (27) It Rolls For Ivan (26) Bulldogs Away! (24) One Hour Wargames (24) Samurai (24) Jet Knights of the Sky (23) 28mm English Civil War (22) Imaginations (22) Achtung Kommando! (21) Flashpoint PVO (21) PITS (20) Galactic Heroes (19) Steamer Wars (19) Strontium Dog (19) Ancient Naval (18) Iron Cross (18) Winter War (16) Aeronef (15) Aircraft (15) Imperial Commander (15) Rate of Fire (15) 2mm English Civil War (14) Aliens (14) Dragon Rampant (14) Mad for War (14) Arctic Eagles (13) Black Ops (13) CY6 Jet Age (13) Congo (13) Impetus (12) Wars of Insurgency (12) Zulus! (12) Flashpoint Fleet Air Arm (11) Gaslands (11) 633 Squadron (10) Franco Thai Air War (10) Jungle Green (10) Sharp Practice (10) 28mm Future Wars (9) Bohica (9) Dux Britanniarum (9) Merry Xmas Mr Sankara (9) Adventures in Jimland (8) Cry Havoc (8) Dreadnoughts (8) French Indian Wars (8) HYW (8) Renaissance Naval (8) Star Wars Legion (8) Sword and Spear (8) Through The Mud and Blood (8) Frostgrave (7) Target for Tonight (7) Five Parsecs From Home (6) French Resistance (6) A Mighty Fortress (5) Air War Angola (5) AirWar:1918 (5) Bombers over Germany (5) Check Your Six! (5) Five Men at Kursk (5) Fivecore Skirmish (5) Maurice (5) Seven Days to the River Rhine (5) Three Musketeers (5) Arab Revolt (4) Continuation War (4) Corvette Command (4) In Her Majesty's Name (4) Infamy Infamy (4) Medieval Naval (4) Never Mind The Billhooks (4) What a Cowboy (4) Battletech (3) Gangsters (3) HOTT (3) Hind Commander (3) Lord of the Sea (3) Luft 46 (3) Mourir Pour l'Indochine (3) Sturmovik Commander (3) Wings Over Suez (3) Blood Red Skies (2) Chincha Islands War (2) Crom (2) Disposable Heroes (2) Fire and Steel (2) Fivecore Company Command (2) Iron Stars (2) Judge Dredd (2) Lethal Skies (2) NUTS! (2) No Go Zone (2) Pulp! (2) Starfighters! (2) War in El Dorado (2) Whispering Death (2) A Billion Suns (1) Air War 1940 (1) Battlegroup (1) Black Powder (1) Dropzone Commander (1) Falklands War (1) Harpoon (1) Load and Return (1) Missile Threat (1) Missiles at Sea (1) Naval Wargames Society (1) Norway 1940 (1) Spanish American War (1) Sunray is Down (1) Ultracombat Normandy (1) Xenos Rampant (1)