Testing Some Rules Changes

I incorporated some changes into Company Fire that came up in my own games and in discussions in the comments on some previous posts, but with the unexpected recent painting motivation, I hadn't had a chance to try them out until Friday.

The major changes this time were:

• Allowing a unit to ignore a single hit from non-opportunity small arms fire by falling back two spaces.
• Limiting stacking to three units per space: two "regular" bases (including vehicles) and one single mounted figure - this is to make group fire less ridiculous and limit bonuses on close combat.

I played the the farm scenario from the 2x2 Small Crossfire Scenarios. The Germans were the attackers, the Soviets the defenders. Whoever occupies the farm at the end of the game is the winner.

The setup converted to a square grid (This is the botched cloth mentioned several posts back. I haven't had time to redo the grid and I really just like this color better so I decided to use it as is and it worked a treat. The varying sized grid spaces were of little consequence in play. FYI only the vertices are marked so it's near invisible in the pictures):

The green squares are Soviet blinds.About half the blinds are blank.

The German 2nd platoon advance on the right was immediately met with MG fire from the farm:

2nd platoon advances on the right but their flank is exposed to MG fire.

The Germans returned fire and suppressed the MG (which later rallied) which allowed both platoons to advance, although not without revealing another Soviet rifle squad and mortar. German accuracy kept those units from being effective.

So many pinned Soviet units! 

The German Forward Observer moved up and called in an artillery strike on the farm - in a run of terrible luck, he would repeat this effort three times and the fire mission would not arrive even once).

With the Soviet rifle unit pinned, the German 2nd platoon leader coordinated a close assault. The Soviet's gave a good accounting of themselves but they were out numbered and at a disadvantage and forced to fall back.

Close assault!

The Soviet rifle unit falls back - the rules require a unit that loses close combat with a suppression result to fall back. The winner has the option to claim any vacated ground.

Meanwhile on the German left, with the MG suppressed yet again, first platoon's leader coordinated a close assault on that flank as well and stormed the farm.

Close combat again!

The lone MG and the Soviet PL were no match for the Germans. However the Germans opted not to advance - concerned over possible Soviet forces behind the farm waiting to counter-attack.

The German 2nd platoon continued to press the Soviet rifle squad they had beaten back previously via a second close combat(which they could not resist this time), while two other Soviet squads and the mortar attempted to reclaim the farm.

Things are not going well for this Soviet rifle section.

2nd platoon swung around, while squads from the first platoon - who had held up advancing when they defeated the MG - came under fire from the Soviets.

The fight around the farm heats up.

With victory in sight, the steam roller that was the German 2nd platoon moved on to tackle the Soviet mortar position - who, in a small miracle, gave as good as it got and took one of the German squads with it to Hell.

A stunning stand by the mortar team. When the sides tie, they each lose a stand on a 1 for 1 basis.

One of the rifle squads from 2nd platoon had a clear shot at the farm house and suppressed the Soviets within. The Soviets weren't able to rally nor put together any kind of concerted effort, and so when the German first platoon rallied, they stormed and captured the farm:

Yes, another close combat.

The overview of the end of the fight - only the Soviet Forward Observer and a rifle squad hidden in the woods survived:

End of the fight.

As a game it feels more serious than I perhaps intended - maybe a little more simulation (fire and pint/suppress to maneuver then close assault to capture ground) than my original goal but I found it engaging and fun, so I'm not complaining.

The stacking change worked to prevent the dice rolling absurdity of 3 units+PL in a single space close assaulting a lone unit.  Assuming a tweak to the orderly retreat option (allow a unit to fall back one space to  ignore one hit - but only one space - from small arms fire instead of requiring two for one) works during play and updating the QRS and I will probably call these done for now, as they let me fight the 2x2 Small Crossfire scenarios and other platoon to company engagements on a grid.