Wednesday 3 June 2020

Rebasing WW2 US Infantry for CoC

Many of us employ the phrase "a wargames butterfly" when describing our gaming interests. I'm realising that also applies to me, now more than ever, as I have recently purchased Chain of Command by the Too Fat Lardies. This isn't the first TfL games I have used - the other being What a Tanker - and indeed the first in some ways influenced the choice of the second. I have an abiding interest in the Normandy campaign and I have a lot of 15mm terrain for this Theatre, so it made sense to utilise it for two rulesets rather than just one. I am also a growing fan of the Lardies rules so when choosing a suitable infantry ruleset for the period I started by giving serious consideration (and eventually picking) of Chain of Command. 

Now I have a bit of a head start in the project aided by the fact that I used to play Flames of War for the same period and theatre of war. I sort of fell out of love with that ruleset, and I sold much of my figure collection (something I regret bitterly) but I still had some figures in storage. I dug them out recently and was inspired to re-use the models for a different game. The result has been a week of intense rebasing from teams to individual basing suitable for CoC. I've completed my US troops and later this week I will be starting on some Panzergrenadiers. Hopefully, I will be able to start playtesting the rules to learn them within just a few weeks of buying the rulebook.


Some of the US Infantry based for Flames of War. These and others were earmarked for rebasing. I had more than enough figures to make a Platoon for CoC but decided to rebase them all. 

First I needed to remove them from their bases. The plaster I had used broke away fairly easily and it was then easy to get the metal figures off the plastic base.

Once I had cleaned up the metal base of the figure I had to decide how to rebase them. In the end, I decided on individual infantry on 10mm round bases. Leaders on 15mm bases and weapons teams (or at least part of them) on 20mm bases. 

Here's the 60mm Mortar team with five crew. Two crew are based with the mortar on a 20mm base and the rest of the team are based individually. 

With the figures glued onto the MDF bases, the long process of adding new plaster began. I have run out of the dark wood filler I normally use (more is now on the way, so I used a medium brown version. This wood filler is pre-mixed, is easy to work with a wet brush and dries quickly. 

All the exposed 'earth' was painted dark brown (the colour my normal plaster comes in!). 

The final stage, application of static grass, tufts, flowers and stones. 

The finished Platoon

The HQ and HQ Squad with a Bazooka Team

One of two infantry squads

One of two MG Teams

The whole platoon -  There are a lot of spare figures not in this shot, enough to make an additional squad for support if necessary. 

Next on the table for rebasing are some Panzergrenadiers. Once I have these done I can start some playtesting to help me learn the rules. I'm hoping that by the time the German figures are rebased I will have received delivery of some new figures from Peter Pig (some support options for the US troops) but more on that in a later post.

10 comments:

  1. They look great Lee. I tried CoC but it never really clicked with me, which is a shame as it's a great game.

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    1. I like the idea of being able to use my terrain fro two systems and 'recycling' some old figures to get me started with the rules.

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  2. They look great. CoC is a great system

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    1. I watched TfL's series of introductory videos which convinced me this was the ruleset for me.

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    1. Thanks Ray. The Panzergrenadiers are nearly finished so I'll have some pictures of them on here in a few days.

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  4. Very nice work! With only needing to rebase, you have an "instant" army. CoC is a great game.

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    1. I'm chuffed I have been able to reuse them, especially as it means I can start playing a lot quicker than I would if I had to start from scratch.

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  5. I've played a bit of CoC, a really interesting rule set :) The figures are looking good :)

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    1. Thanks. I'm hoping to start play-testing to learn the rules pretty soon. I also suspect that the somewhat random nature of activation will make this quite easy to play solo.

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