Chain of Command v2
Too Fat Lardies’ Chain of Command has been one of the cornerstones of platoon-level World War II gaming since it first appeared back in 2010, and 2025 finally brought us a second edition. Rather than tearing the original up and starting again, this is very much the same game given a thorough polish — the rough edges sanded down, fifteen years of forum errata and handbook ideas folded back into the core book. I’ve now spent enough time with it, both reading and on the table, to put down some honest impressions.
The Book
The first thing you notice is that it’s a genuinely nice object. The 114-page softcover is good quality, well bound and pleasant to handle, and it doesn’t feel like a stopgap printing.
The tone is the real charm, though. It’s written conversationally, with the same warm, slightly wry voice that runs through Rick Priestley’s books — the sense of a knowledgeable enthusiast talking you through the game rather than a legal document being read at you. That makes the rules a pleasure to read, which is not something you can say about every rulebook on the shelf.
It’s also genuinely easy to navigate. The layout is simple and clear, and the numbered sections mean that when you need to find something mid-game you can actually find it. After the first edition’s reputation for being a bit of a maze, this is a real and welcome improvement.
My one significant gripe: there’s no quick reference sheet. For a game with this much going on — command dice, the various pip expenditures, firing and morale — that’s a notable omission. You will find yourself flipping back to the book more than you’d like, especially while you’re still learning, and a single double-sided summary would have saved a lot of that.
On the Table
Movement feels swingy
This is the thing that’s stuck with me most. A lot of the game — movement above all — can feel oddly swingy and unpredictable. You can find yourself shuffling a section a total of nine inches across an open field over three separate activations, all on 2D6, and it just feels strange: too little for a dash across open ground, and at the mercy of the dice in a way that doesn’t always sit right.
It’s worth saying this is a deliberate design choice — the “friction” of getting men to do what you want is core to the Lardy philosophy — and I suspect a lot of the oddness comes from a mismatch between the figure scale and the ground scale. I think playing at a smaller scale, where the ground scale lines up more closely with the distances involved, would take a good deal of the strangeness out of it. It’s something I’d like to try.
Properly simulationist
Where the game really won me over is in how much more simulationist it feels than most of the alternatives I’ve played. Real-world infantry tactics actually work here. Suppressive fire isn’t a footnote — pin the enemy down, manoeuvre on them, and you are rewarded for it. The game wants you to fight the way the period actually fought, and it makes that the path to victory rather than just flavour text. If you enjoy the idea of fire-and-movement being the heart of the game rather than a buzzword, this delivers.
Plenty of support options
There’s a large array of support options for augmenting the basic platoon lists, which gives every game a different shape before a shot is fired. Choosing your supports is a meaningful decision in itself, and it keeps force selection from going stale across repeated games.
Vehicles are frightening
Vehicles feel genuinely threatening, exactly as they should. An armoured fighting vehicle that arrives on the table is a real problem, and you need the right specialised kit to have any realistic chance of neutralising one — you can’t just wish it away with massed rifle fire. That weight and menace adds a lot to the tension, and it makes anti-tank assets feel precious rather than routine.
Verdict
Chain of Command 2 is an evolution rather than a revolution, and a confident one. The book is a pleasure to read and easy to use, the combat model rewards genuine tactics, and the support options and dangerous armour keep every game tense and varied. The swingy movement won’t be for everyone — it’s baked into the design philosophy, and you have to buy into a degree of friction and unpredictability to enjoy it — and the lack of a quick reference is a real, if fixable, frustration.
But if you want a WWII platoon game that asks you to actually think like a platoon commander, this is an easy one to recommend. I’m looking forward to getting it onto a smaller table and seeing how much of that movement oddness smooths out.