Rule Scribblings. Literally.

I am on track to finish my Russians in the next 24 or so hours, so I am planning for a game, perhaps as early as Sunday.

I could use any number of rules: the tried and true In Good Company, One Hour Wargames Rifle & Saber rules, or a modified version of G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., to name but three. Instead, I decided to create my own rules which draw from those mentioned, with a dose of Bob Cordery and Joseph Morschauser for good measure.

My handwriting leaves something to be desired.

These were scribbled out initially last night and then re-written /scribbled this morning.

They use a card-based initiative similar to the In Good Company model, although I am debating whether or not to include a STOP card.

I like the variable turn length, and for a solo game it can add a bit of friction in a scenario where turn count matters. On the other hand, I know I found the quick turns in my last One Hour Skirmish Wargames game more annoying than enjoyable. Partly, I can mitigate that by eliminating turns as a game decider and focus on objectives and army strength. 

I am not using the hospital from In Good Company, but, inspired by that idea, I am thinking of using the STOP card as an advantage for the "enemy" - all "not-my-side" units rally and machine guns clear their jams, that sort of thing.

Once I get a game in, I'll see how the rules play and type them up if I think I'll use them again.

More WiP to Keep Me Going

 The Russians are inching closer to done.

I have been sneaking in painting whenever I have a spare 15 minutes. I don't get much done in a single session, but it adds up.

With any luck, and a bit of diligence, I should be able to finish these figures this week and then start on the Austrians in March. 

Skirmish! Part 2 And Some Blathering

For the other games I played this past weekend, I opted to use Disposable Heroes/Coffin For Seven Brothers 1st ed (hereafter DHC7B). The second edition has been out awhile now, and while I'm sure there are improvements to play and to the writing, these have served me well for years now. My copy is battered, the cover has fallen off, and the pages are loose, so while I may replace them with a new copy, but I won't change editions.

I played the scenario twice with these rules, and both were surprisingly enjoyable.

I say surprisingly, because for DHC7B, this is a very small game and I've had issues with this before.

Unlike One Hour Skirmish Wargames (OHSW), which is a 1:1 game with single figure maneuver elements, DHC7B is a 1:1 game with fire team (1/2 squad) maneuver elements. It's also a more "realistic" game: getting a team caught in the open against an MG-42 in LMG mode, which rolls 5 dice to hit and has an anti-personnel score of 8 (meaning 8 or less on a d10 kills for each hit) is bad news for sure.

 I suppose it's the difference between more "realistic" vs more "cinematic". 

Apples and oranges really, and I like both. Last weekend, as it happened, I was more in the mood for apples.

The first game saw the German rifle/security patrol appear on the left and the Brits managed to do some serious damage. In the end though, the LMG - which appeared in the yellow building - and the rallied remnants of the security patrol overwhelmed the British (flanked, to my own surprise, and without cover; the British were fish in a barrel).

In the final game of the weekend, early reveals of blinds showed nothing.

Consequently, the British were able to advance, running from cover to cover.

As one team dashed to reach the yellow building, the German LMG team appeared on the left (this time closer to the grey house), firing in reaction.

 

 

Amazingly, they failed to hit any of the running  paratroopers (free reaction fire), but they were devastating when they fired on the team trying to hold the light woods near the British entry point (their activation fire).

Once the paras gained the yellow building, they were able to get the Vickers set up. As expected, the MG made quick work of the Germans opposite their position.

The German security patrol arrived to the fight a bit late, from back behind the buildings:

And began firing at the yellow building, taking out one paratrooper, but taking fire from two points: the building and from behind the burning StuG.

I just love that StuG model in close ups!

Rifle fire downed the NCO, and the remainder of the German squad retreated, leaving the paratroopers in possession of the farm.

As mentioned, for DHC7B this is a very small game.  

The rules give the impression that a reinforced platoon is the ideal size. That would be 6-12 maneuver elements or so. With just one squad (two fire teams) per side you would think the game would be quick and uninteresting but yet it was ripe with decisions to make - the higher lethality makes for more weighing of risks/rewards - and it wasn't over as quickly as you'd think(I didn't time it, but I'd say 30 minutes or so). 

I think in part it's because units only ever fire with half of their figures and hitting anyone in cover is hard (killing them is fairly easy if they are hit). I also like that every time a unit is fired on, hit or not, it has to take a "guts" check - it just seems believable to me. Pinning and the like is just something I expect at this level of game.

If I recall, close combat in DHC7B is kind of a mess, at the very least OHSW is certainly easier, but thankfully it didn't come to that.

Some random thoughts:

The table was perhaps unnecessarily large (4' x 4') for either rule set. A 3x3 table would have been just as enjoyable. 2x2 could have worked as well, but I think then a 5 figure vs 5 figure game would be more in order. That said, 4' x 4' did allow for more blinds, spread farther apart. 

Speaking of, the blinds system, such as it was, worked well. While DHC7B has a recon system for spotting hidden units, it was easy enough to make OHSW handle it and in both cases I did not expect the Germans to be where they were.

I had figured they'd be in the buildings but I didn't weigh those blinds any more heavily than the rest - is that a flaw or a design feature?

In fact, only once did Germans start in a building. So the games had the feel of two patrols encountering each other, fighting for the objective, rather than the British having to force the Germans out of their positions.

The "system" (it's a little simple to call it that) does not predetermine which blind represents a force and which is nothing, say as in marked chits, rather it uses a percentage chance of a blind being a unit.

For example: 

There are 5 blinds for the LMG team. 

• The first blind has a 20% chance of being the LMG.
• The second blind has a 25% chance (1/4)
• The third blind checked has a 33% chance (1/3).
• The fourth blind has a 50% chance (1/2).

Now you could say:

• first blind 20%
• 2nd blind 40%
• 3rd blind 60%
• 4th blind 80%

Obviously, in either case, the 5th blind revealed will have to be the unit if it gets that far.

I like the first approach, and that's what I use. I'm sure someone who knows statistics could point out that one way is objectively better than the other. I am not that person, so I just use my preference (but if you are said person, I'd love to know which one).

Work in Progress Update to Keep Me Motivated and Some Other Bits and Bobs

Part two of my weekend skirmish game is delayed to share a work in progress shot of my latest batch of Russians. They are slowly inching their way towards completion - although enough remains that I can't predict when they'll be finished. My hope is that they will be done by month's end.

So close, but yet so far.

 

I am eager to move on to my WWI project, so once these are done, despite my current listening to Peter Hopkirk's The Great Game, I will clear the decks for the first handful of Austrian figures. And probably field this unit in a game for giggles.

 

Speaking of WWI, for my birthday, I received this wonderful volume as a gift: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Uniforms of World War I.

I'm not sure what kind of caption this needs.

I also received a few Playmobil gladiators which I had been coveting. The dueling posts on Poundstore Plastic Warriors inspired me. My son has already laid claim to the lion for our non-wargame play.

The lion will not be harmed in any game I play.

Skirmish!

After moving my 1:1 WWII collection into its new storage the other day, I was itching to put them on the table again.

A randomly generated terrain layout, provided by the tables in Platoon Forward!  The scenario was simple, and based loosely on one from Britton Publisher's Solitaire Soldiers: a British paratrooper squad with a Vickers team in support, was to reconnoiter and secure a small. The enemy was believed to have abandoned the area.

Green chits are possible LMG fire team, Marx farm animals are possible security team.

 I wasn't sure  what I was in the mood for rules-wise, so I broke out the tried and true, One Hour Skirmish Wargames. "My" squad would be the British.

The enemy consisted of a handful of German in two groups: an lmg fire team (lmg, assistant, rifleman, and smg armed leader) and  rifle/security group(smg leader, another smg, and 3 rifles).

To keep the location of the enemy hidden from myself, I used blinds. I would only check a blind if either the British successfully made an attack against a marker - treated as a spotting attempt(OHSW does not have spotting rules for hidden units) - or if the marker had LOS to the British it might want to take advantage of.

Scouts move up. To their right, some movement in the woods turned out to be nothing.

To their left, however, was a German LMG.

Spotting it didn't prevent prevent disaster.

Members of the British squad move to engage the LMG in a firefight, trying to suppress it. Others hustled to reach a better firing position in the yellow building - using the burning StuG for cover.

The LMG is quieted. At a cost.

More Germans arrive.

The yellow building would change hands a few times.

The British leader(3) screamed for the Vickers team to hurry up and was killed shortly after.

The Vickers team moves up and sets up at the corner of the StuG. This gave them a field of fire including both buildings.

All kinds of insanity happening now - the Germans strongly contested control of the yellow building and still clung to their position in the woods.

Popping around the corner, a private fires a shot at the burly German officer.

The officer kills three paratroopers in revenge.

With the rest of his squad eliminated, the German officer fell back, while the Brits, down to a Vickers and a rifleman, awaited reinforcement from their platoon and prepared for a counter attack.

After a slow start reacquainting myself with the rules, the game turned into a fun little encounter. I admit it did feel a little silly at the end - the German leader kept drawing higher than the German casualties, as did the Brits, despite losing both their Leader(3) and Leader(1), so neither side, despite massive casualties, broke. I decided to call the game rather than come down to two figures slugging it out.

I left the table set up, reset and played it again later.  No pictures as it wasn't worth it.

The unfortunate British never got much past their starting positions - despite winning almost every initiative, they had a run of Aces, twos and threes for the activation points, while the Germans had high cards and could do as they pleased. Both sides were hitting but neither side was knocking figures out of the fight, so after 12 turns, which was far more than it merited, I called that game and reset yet again but I'll save that for the next post.

Recent Arrivals

The same seller who sold me the previously acquired Dulcop arditi, put up a larger lot consisting of Dulcop and Waterloo 1815 WW1 Italians. So, I snagged it.

New arditi to join their fellows.

A unit of alpini.

I didn't take any pictures of the Waterloo figures. There are maybe 16 or 20 of them and most of them are flaking badly. Amusingly, for some reason, the feathers in the bersaglieri helmets are painted green. Eventually, I'll strip all of these figures down to bare plastic, but in the meantime, the alpini and arditi can take the table once I paint up some Austrians.

Less exciting, unless you're me, is that I acquired some Games Plus pluck-foam storage for my metal WW2 54s. Sadly, it's many years too late for them and many have chipped paint - one has a broken bayonet. Still, better late than never.

The collection is a mix of Britain, Conte, and a few King & Country:

Britain's Big Red One US Infantry

British paras and Waffen SS from a mix of makers.

This collection is dedicated to 1:1 squad or less per side gaming. The US were used on bases before, but I decided to save that for the plastic figures. I find these figures inspiring, so I expect a game with them is coming in the near future.

Panzer Kids! Eastern Front Edition

First game of February!

In an effort to get in some mid-week gaming, Tuesday night, I bamboozled my son into playing Panzer Kids again. Honestly, it didn't take any arm twisting once I got the tanks out.

The scenario is based loosely on my own lose interpretation of Berezovka Heights in July 1943. I decided on two victory conditions for the Germans to win - they had to clear and claim at least one hill, and get one vehicle off the board via the road. They had 7 turns to do it and they couldn't leave the table until turn 3 or after (I wanted to prevent a race down the road). Otherwise, the Soviets would win.

Vehicles in three scales on the table together - but that didn't lessen the fun.

Below the young commander (he plays both sides, I adjudicate and provide advice) studies the situation in turn 2 (I think):

He's kneeling on the floor. He's 9 and is getting closer to 5' tall every day.

The Germans managed to clear both hills and claimed one as theirs, but victory celebrations were called off when on the last roll of the last turn, the Soviets destroyed the Panzer heading for the road:

An over view of the carnage.

The last shot.

I really like this game a lot. It scratches the itch to play a game, doesn't take more than a quick skim to refresh my memory, and let's me get out my vehicles that really don't get used that much ordinarily. It's also the perfect level of complexity for my son, who isn't big on games in the physical realm. 

It holds his interest which is a minor miracle.

An aside, if you're familiar with the game then you know Panzer Kids treats hills as impassable for tanks (I suspect because it simplifies things for the intended audience) - and yet the Stug is on the hill. For this scenario I decided I would allow them to do so, because I wanted my son to have to consider who he would relegate that duty to and to realize he couldn't sacrifice his entire force just to get someone off the table.

This time we used two advanced rules: ATGs and the flanking fire rules.

I was excited by the former because I just like seeing them on the table. The latter really made things interesting from my point of view, as several times I was able to pull the commander aside and show him how different moves might expose a tank to more or less fire against weaker side and rear armor. And how he could maneuver tanks to use cover and to construct fire groups to gang up on a single target. Trying to give him a little instruction in thinking ahead and such.

Still, I was careful to let him have the final say and merely offered comparisons of possible outcomes that he could choose between.

Despite the fact that he clearly wanted the Soviets to win (he's studying Russian and Russian history), he made good decisions for the Germans and got excited to score a hit regardless of which side it was for.

It was a great time and he was super excited by the whole thing. I'm hoping to get him to play again this weekend, although I know it's probably pressing my luck!

War of the Rats

Last Friday night I claimed a small portion of the kitchen table to setup scenario #2: War of the Rats, from Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #1. That way, I could dive into the game first thing Saturday morning. 

What can I say? I enjoy my days off in strange ways.

Over the course of the week prior, I listened to a past episode of The 2 Half-Squads podcast, where they played through this scenario - both for inspiration and to refresh my memory on the use of squad weapons.

You haven't lived until you've listened to someone play a board game. Not watched, listened to.

(This works far better for RPGs because it is theatrical in a way that moving counters and checking the Infantry Fire table is not)

Giving credit where it's due, I'll note that after listening to podcast - I opted to place my leaders by themselves behind the action, to act as rally points for their squads. This was very effective for both sides and something I had not considered doing before.

Saying there's a lot to learn about playing this game beyond the rules is an understatement.

(by way of example, I just found this link  to an analysis of the scenario while looking up the podcast link and which I'll be visiting later)

For the Soviets, I went with an unimaginative setup - spreading their forces to block most of the routes to the three German objectives (F8, L6, and O6) One LMG and the MMG were positioned to protect against a German advance to capture O8 (center right, with a single 8-0 leader).  The 2nd LMG was deployed on their left flank for the defense of F8 (the 8-1 leader).

I planned for the German main body to drive a wedge between the Soviet center and left position, attacking both from the flanks, while smaller but well armed force (with the MMG) would focus on capturing the outlier objective of O6 before closing in on O8, joining the main force in the assault.

It sounded great on paper.

In the end it was a tale of German woe. 

A combination of too much caution and many terrible dice rolls - critical rolls I needed for placing smoke and for prep fire to make crossing the roads more likely to succeed than fail - meant the German advance wasn't.  

Turn 1

I forget how many points of firepower were involved here firing on a the Soviet MMG position (everything left of the road was a single fire group) but the result was a pin - that's it!

Artsy shot. Without my glasses I can't read the tiniest font on the counters

Turn 2

Soviet Reinforcements arrived from the south to reinforce their center.
(Soviets can roll for reinforcements starting in turn 2, rolling less than or equal to the current turn number on a d6. They rolled a 2. One more example of things not going for the Germans.)

Turn 3

It looks a lot like turn 1.
MGs for both sides broke down several times during the game, only 1 was permanently destroyed - a Soviet LMG.

Turn 4

The Germans finally managed to get some squads across to the Soviet occupied buildings. There they found themselves exposed to heavy fire in the Soviet phase.

Turn 5

The Germans established toe-hold. However, such a small gain combined with no appreciable Soviet losses sounded the death knell for the effort.

Turn 6

I called the game during the German Movement Phase. Even assuming they were to survive defensive fire and win all of their close combats, they wouldn't be able to capture the three objectives.

War of the Rats is well suited for solo play - the Soviets really don't have to do much except shoot at Germans (at least, that's how I played it and it seemed to work). For them, movement is mostly optional - indeed the only time I moved Soviets was to rout and then return to their positions after rallying.

My initial deployment for the Germans could definitely use work and I have some ideas about that. However, I want to play the rest of the scenarios in the #1 box just to give them at try before I start replaying.

In the meantime, these recent ASLSK games have me rethinking my own grid-based squad-per-base rules (Company Fire and G Company) with some ideas of combining the two versions of that game together, and dropping some bits entirely while adding others.

Ra-tat-tat-tat! Air War Over Italy Commences

Somewhere high above the Austrian coast of the Gulf of Venice, 1918, an Austrian UFAG C.I and an Italian M.5 seaplane on a recon flight catch sight of each other.

The Austrian pilot, arguably in a less nimble* plane, still manages to bring the Italian broadside into his front sites.

He opens up with his front-mounted Schwarzlose machine-gun, perforating the flying boat.

The Italian pilot attempts evasive action, with hopes of turning the tables ...

 

but the Austrian swings around behind him.

RA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! The Schwarzloze spits again, biting into canvas and wood.

Knowing it's better to live to fight another day, the M.5 breaks off from the fight and begins the journey back across the Gulf of Venice.

 The Austrian cursed his luck - the Italian got away. Perhaps next time.

* My judgement about handling is based strictly on the Wings of War maneuver deck included with the plane, comparing it to the M.5's maneuver deck.

The rules for this little engagement were the WWI Aerial Combat Rules from Junior General (no optional rules used) combined with the Wings of Glory Duel Pack rules (free download) (the basic rules section) and maneuver cards. The former appears to be based on or at least is very similar to the latter given the presence of a deck of maneuver cards in both. Saturday night, I wanted something quick to get the planes on the table (bed actually) and not spend my time nose buried in a rule book and these suited the bill.

The Junior General rules use a hex grid, and Wings of Glory uses some kind of proprietary ruler. So, I marked a short rod with 2" range bands corresponding to the Junior General hex ranges. 2" was based on a gut feeling. 3" or even 4" might make more sense. In any case, it worked for me.

Honestly, I was expecting to only be mildly amused by such a small encounter with no altitude rules, nary a cloud, no ground cloth, etc. but it was so much fun. I didn't track turns or how much time I played - but it was more turns than you'd think, even with 3 cards played per plane per turn. The rules were quick to pick up and honestly the lack of altitude rules didn't seem to impact my enjoyment.

Top down view of the recently received Austrian UGAF C.I. I love the camo pattern.

My poor judgement of how much distance the Wings of Glory cards move a plane led to the break off of the fight by the M.5 - it literally moved off the bed to my surprise. No special solo rules used - but it was easy to make the best decisions for each without bias or pretending I didn't have knowledge of both sides, because I couldn't remotely anticipate how the maneuvers might work out in play. That might change as I develop familiarity with them.

It may be too soon, but I'm already looking to expand my air forces.

In the meantime, with these two planes, I'll play more dog fights, add trench strafing missions (using some recolored Junior General top downs - or maybe someday, 1/300 infantry) and some ship strafing missions (perhaps with 1/2400 ships) as well.

Oh and try some other rules. Maybe. 

If I have learned anything from my figure-based wargames, simple suits me better - which is why I return to Morschuaser and his mechanisms and leave the complexity for my boardgaming.