For those of you who have been following the blog, you’ll know I recently completed a German platoon not only for Adepticon 2023, but also primarily for future games of Chain of Command. If you weren’t aware and wish to follow that build you can find part one here. Naturally I need a force to oppose those Germans especially if I’m going to do any demoing of Chain of Command. While at Adepticon I picked up a few units from Crusader Miniatures via the Badger Games booth in order to commit myself.

I’m finding the first step for me with the Chain of Command focused builds is sourcing the main chunk of bodies, then looking for a few support items that pique my interest. For my initial bodies from Adepticon I had four command models plus eight riflemen. After a little research I opted to go with the box of Great War French infantry from Wargames Atlantic, as it includes parts to make the 35 miniatures suitable to the Second World War. I just took delivery of this box a few days ago. This should be enough for me to get all the plain bodies of the Platoon built. If it isn’t I’ll supplement with some more Crusader miniatures.

For the Platoon I have the following organization chart for the core platoon. This totals 37 bodies, and I have 48 miniatures worth of supplies so I should be able to make it work just fine.

Also included in the order that brought me my WGA box were two support options I had picked for the French Platoon. I particularly wanted an AT gun for the Platoon as my German force has two vehicles in it so I figured the AT gun would make for some nice demo game counterplay. For this I ordered the Warlord Games 25mm L72 AT gun. Chain of Command dictates I need five crew and a Junior Leader, the kit comes with three crew so I will have to supplement some bodies. For my second support item I ordered the Warlord Games French MMG team to add a Hotchkiss M1914 to the force. Once again CoC demands five crew and the kit contains three. In sum I need an additional five bodies for my support options, luckily I think I can manage those from my other supplies just fine.

Finally, I have yet to acquire the last piece of the Platoon, which will be a Renault FT-17/31 tank. The STL is coming as part of a stretch goal from Studio Historia’s Sons of Yamato Kickstarter at some point. When that delivers the FT-17 (or two) will likely be among the first items I print.

For now that’s where the project stands. I need to sit down and build it, a process I will cover in the next installment.

-Evan