Undersized Squads: A Tale of Two Games

This week was stressful and hectic in a myriad of ways and I had virtually no time or energy for much of anything most days, but I did play around with the idea of fielding undersized squads for 1:1 platoon-sized WWII games - particularly so I could begin learning Bolt Action.

In 54mm, I find 5-7 figures gives the impression of a squad, has a 'playing with toy soldiers' appearance to my eye, takes up less space than a true full strength squad does, and works with my existing figure collection so I don't have to wait to play while I paint up the figures in the queue.

Two US squads (BAR team of 2 figures, and rifle team of 3, with NCO) and Platoon HQ. Wall prototypes in background.

Friday night, I gave it a try with an old and arguably familiar set of rules, Disposable Heroes / Coffin for Seven Brothers (1st ed.) using Scenario J from Platoon Forward, 'Patrol'.

US squads arrived on the table on turn 5. By that point the blinds for the German patrol had nearly crossed the entire table. 

BAR team peeks around corner. Rifle team in the background would enter the building. And be pinned there until eliminated eventually by ...

The German MG., once set up it didn't move - it just pelted the US team in the farmhouse repeatedly. 

Mechanically the undersized squads worked pretty well. Unfortunately, two-figure BAR fireteams go to man alone rather quickly. I think if I do this again, I'd use 7 figures (which my current painted collection supports, at least for two squads), split into 4 and 3 . It could have been the late hour (I started playing at midnight!), my table setup (randomly generated from Platoon Forward), my rusty-ness with the rules, or maybe the scenario, but I was more drained than enthused by the end of the game.

Frankly though, I think it was because I was in the mood for something more beer & pretzels and less serious.

Enter my first attempt at Bolt Action.

I acquired these rules for the sake of playing with others at a (relatively) nearby game store. That my 28mm French starter force has been delayed two months now with no sign of being shipped any time soon has put a damper on that, but I had time Saturday afternoon unexpectedly and I thought I'd give the rules a go.

The scenario is Meeting Engagement. Terrain by Platoon Forward. Putting the squads in line, combined with my peculiar wargame table aesthetic looks something like an 18th C battle at this point.

Squad 'Matchbox' runs from building to building. They would be intractable

Squad 'Airfix' makes life hell for the US squad in the woods opposite.

US squad 'Winter' sweeps behind a hill to try to take out the HMG, but the Germans move to stop them. In a contrived test of close combat, the US squad was destroyed.

The US mortar went to work to rout the Germans from the farm house, but it was not to be. Instead, the opposite happened: they were taken down by squad 'Matchbox' at the end of turn 6. A die roll decreed the game over, but the US had little left anyway.

This had a much more game-like, beer & pretzels feel to it and I rather enjoyed it. The rules are mostly well laid out and drawing order dice is fun (not as fun as turning over a card but more fun than rolling a die).

Admittedly, the inability to split your squad into fire teams felt odd. I'm not a snob about historical tactics, but I like the idea of being able to duplicate the things I've seen in manuals and Ospreys - like  have my LMG laying down suppressing fire while my rifle team advances to lob in some grenades and destroy the target. However, keeping the entire squad together prevents the problem of the BAR fireteam being decimated in a single exchange when using these undersized units.

As for the learning the rules, I spent a lot of time flipping virtual pages (I have the PDF), and I got quite a few things wrong I'm sure, not the least of which was how terrain works with LOS, and not having enough terrain, but it was definitely closer to what I want when I'm not feeling like a 'serious' game. And, rather conveniently, Bolt Action builds squads from just 4 infantry and an NCO so I don't feel the need to rush painting the necessary additional figures to fill out my squads - 6 figures worked fine.

That said, I'm not really sure how I feel about games of this scale (platoon-ish + support).

Even though I have played platoon-sized games and enjoyed them, I very much prefer games like Company Command and Morschauser  w/figures on stands and fielding a company or fielding a squad in a cinematic fashion, a la One Hour Skirmish Wargames. This middle ground often doesn't feel quite right to me but I'll be damned if I can figure out why.

On the other hand, I like a challenge and I think I might be able to come up with something that takes what I like from Bolt Action and DHC7B and adds greatly simplified artillery and armor rules - maybe using a heavily modified G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. as a starting point (in G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., you activate by squad, but figures can do different things).

Meanwhile, I'll probably stick with Bolt Action so I can learn the rules in case my French force ever arrives.