This weekend I kicked off a map based campaign for The Portable Wargame which for lack of a better one I'm calling Fictional Citadel. The first battles have been fought, but before I post those, I thought I'd share a little of the campaign game itself.
The map is based on the one provided by Flames of War on their Axis of Attack : Kursk page, I created a simple campaign grid map by drawing on top of their map, using Google Draw. Mine is stylized, has some extra towns without names, and dispenses with the movement tracks as it's not a ladder campaign:
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Much of the map detail isn't used for its specifics, but rather, with Bob Cordery's terrain generator v2 to produce the tabletop battlefield map. I assume generally hilly terrain for the most part.
The Germans have three divisions: PanGermania (based on Grossdeutschland Division), Phantom (based on the 11th Panzer "Ghost" Division), and 1st Panzer Grenadier (any resemblance to an actual unit by that name is purely coincidental). The names of the subunits probably don't make sense - that's OK.
1st Panzer Grenadier Division - General Schopenhauer@6SP, DivHQ@2SP,
2nd PzGren Regiment@4SP, 3rd PzGren Regiment@4SP, 2nd Pioneer Battalion@2SP, 2nd PanzerJaeger Battalion@2SP, 2nd Artillery Battalion@2SP: total 22SP
Phantom Division - General Feuerbach@6SP, DivHQ@2SP, 2nd Panzer Regiment@3SP, 4th PzGren Regiment@4SP, 5th PzGren Regiment@4SP, 1st Panzer Engineer Battalion@2SP, 1st Panzer Recon Battalion@2SP, 3rd PanzerJaeger Battalion@2SP, 1st Panzer Artillery Battery@2SP: total 27SP
The Soviets have four divisions: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Soviet Guard Rifle Regiments (SGRD) and 1st Tank Corps (these are copied wholesale from posts by Bob Cordery).
2nd Soviet Guard Rifle Division - General Blavatsky@6SP, 4th Rifle Regiment@4SP, 5thRifle Regiment@4SP, 6th Rifle Regiment@4SP, 2nd Antitank Battalion@2SP, 2nd Artillery Regiment@2SP, 2nd Sapper Battalion@2SP, 2nd Recon Company@1SP: total 25SP
3rd Soviet Guard Rifle Division - General Gurdjieff@6SP, 7th Rifle Regiment@4SP, 8th Rifle Regiment@4SP, 9th Rifle Regiment@4SP, 3rd Antitank Battalion@2SP, 3rd Artillery Regiment@2SP, 3rd Sapper Battalion@2SP, 3rd Recon Company@1SP: total 25SP
1st Tank Corps - Division Commander Ouspensky@6SP, 1st ARmored Car Regiment@2SP, 1st Tank Brigade@3SP, 2nd Tank Brigade@3SP, 3rd Tank Brigade@3SP, 10th Motor Rifle Regiment@4SP : total 21 SP
The Soviets start with four divisions because I fully expect 1st SGRD to take a severe beating as they have to split their force between two German units.
The campaign begins on July 5, 1943, The Germans start in positions dictated by the Flames of War map to make the first conflicts occur in the same places. The Soviets 1st and 2nd SGRD were placed to in the same fashion. 3rd SGRD and 1st Tank were randomly placed by the roll of dice.
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| The grass seems to have gotten greener on this map! |
Units in spaces that share a side engage in at tabletop battle. For 1st SGRD that meant splitting its forces between two different German divisions.
The Campaign Turn rules are simple but allow me to have losses matter going forward in the campaign.
I present it here in a summary form for those who might find it useful. It is however, a work in progress even as I use it. The rules make use of "the hospital" concept, whereby some casualties may end up in a hospital where their exact fate is undetermined until diced for at a later time.
The campaign turn in this campaign represents one day.
Resupply Phase - Units may attempt to recover lost strength points from "the hospital". Some units may be eligible for additional SP recovery. Each unit has its own hospital - they are not shared.
Units on their baseline receive 1 additional SP.
Soviet Units in a space with a rail line, and no German unit on the same line between the Soviet unit and the Soviet baseline, receive 1 additional SP and a +1 to the hospital die rolls that turn.
Soviet Units in a space with a road that can trace their way to their baseline with a path that does not enter a space occupied by a German unit receives +1 to the hospital die rolls that turn. This cannot be combined with the bonus for rail lines.
No subunit may ever increase its SP beyond what it started the campaign with.
Movement Phase - Sides dice for initiative, then alternate moving units, winner moves first. Units move 1 space through the sides of the square. Units may move diagonally between spaces connected by a road. A unit that has reached its exhaustion point or below may only move in a way that does not decrease its distance to the nearest enemy and may not advance towards the enemy baseline.
Battle Phase - any enemy units in spaces sharing a side may engage in a tabletop battle. Units facing more than one enemy divide their force. No battle may feature more than 6 units per side.
Post-Battle Withdrawal Phase - When a unit loses a battle it must retreat two spaces. The winner may advance into the space vacated by the loser.
Post-Battle Recovery Phase - SP lost during a battle are possibly recovered: 1/3 automatically recovered, 1/3 diced for (1-2 lost, 3-4 goes to hospital, 5-6 returns to unit.), 1/3 are lost. Recovered SP can only be distributed to sub-units that have less SP than they started the campaign with.
Second Movement Phase - Any unit that did not engage in a battle may move again as per the Movement Phase.
This looks a promising operation!
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to tell after one campaign turn, but I think it's working as I hoped. At the very least it's nice to have context for my battles!
DeleteIt seems very detailed, I'm glad that it's working for you!
ReplyDeleteThey are a touch more detail than I normally go into, but I really wanted a campaign where losses carried over but resupply and such were a possibility. The campaign turn has already proved more thought provoking (in a good way) in use than I had anticipated.
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