A Bridge Over Troubled Waters

Table Top Teaser #1 is one of my favorite scenarios. So I thought it'd be a good test of my Frankenstein's monster of a grid-based rule set for WW2 for 1 base = 1 company. Friday night, I broke out the card table and setup.

With a 6x6 grid, the table gets very crowded very fast despite the attacker's piecemeal arrival (the attacker has quite a few units for so few grid spaces). In my first game, several German units suffered losses very quickly due to an inability to fall back(I use the hit result table from The Portable Wargame) without colliding with another unit. But, because they have staying power, the situation didn't improve for the remaining units.

I chose to ignore the exhaustion point because had I not, the game would have been over by turn 5 or so.

Turn 6 or so - the last arrivals, er, arrive.

I reset the table and tried again using the two-hit variant for strength points originally proposed by Ross Mac and incorporated into Developing the Portable Wargame. This was a much more exciting game. The Germans still suffered some losses early but as they were eliminated whole cloth, it left breathing room for the remaining elements to maneuver. 

This isn't really an issue with the rules so much as recognizing that a large (for me) scenario in a small space, where stacking is not allowed, requires adjustments.

The Soviet defenders had lost two complete units by this point.

But on turn 10, they managed to blow the bridge . Admittedly, stranding their HMG company and a tank company on the other side of the river. Sacrifices for the integrity of the Motherland.

It occurred to me after the game, that in essence, my rules are really just a modified version of The Portable Wargame. 

I use a different firing mechanism (Similar to Memoir of Modern Battle (Cordery) and Hold the Line! units roll 3 dice to hit at 1 space, 2 at 2 spaces, and 1 at three or more spaces - the limit being dependent on the unit type), all hits count, hits are 4 or 6 in the open, 6 in cover, MGs hit on 2/4/6 or 4/6 against targets in cover (these are Morschauser's "to hit" numbers). Close combat is more violent than in The Portable Wargame, with infantry rolling 4 dice, and others rolling two or three, with the same hit numbers given. The number of dice doesn't change regardless of the hit points remaining. This makes close combat potentially decisive and possibly swingy even with mismatched units - closer to Morschauser (who, if it's not clear, I am a big fan of) than The Portable Wargame. There are some other rules changes that I like (units have to fire before moving, a unit can't initiate close combat unless they start adjacent to the enemy unit, and a few more).

All that said, as much as I *like* my modifications, I think I really ought to give The Portable Wargame a try again as written, but this time with the two-hit variant to see if that difference makes the rules-as-written close combat more acceptable to me.