300th Post! My Portable Wargame House Rules (and bonus painting preview)

According to Blogger, this is my 300th published post. I must emphasize published. There are as of late 25 unpublished! (it used to be more)

To celebrate, I thought I'd share some of my house rules/house clarifications for Bob Cordery's The Portable Wargame (the Early and Mid-Twentieth Century in particular) that I have been using in my Fictional Citadel campaign. 

Nothing here is ground breaking but perhaps you'll get some use from them or find some clarification in your own thoughts about The Portable Wargame from these ideas.

My Turn Sequence

I wanted to preserve the two player IGO-UGO turn sequence with the simultaneous artillery fire, but make use of the suggested solo method in some way.

To do this, I keep each side's cards separate, so I can still use a die for initiative, and the cards determine the number of units that the side can activate on their half of the turn.

My sequence also means you have to choose whether or not to fire before you know how many total actions you'll be allowed in the turn. It makes for some interesting choices at times.

Preparation

1. Each side counts the number of units they have.
2. Using a deck of cards, one side is assigned Red and the other  Black. 
3. Each side takes out the cards (of both suits of their color) equal to 50% of their unit count (rounded up), one less than that number, and one more than that number.
4. Each side shuffles their cards separately - so the result is one Red deck and one Black deck.

 The turn:

1. Artillery fire if simultaneous
2. The sides dice for initiative, high roll wins.
3. The winner draws a card from * their * initiative deck.
4. The number shown is how many units they may activate. Subtract 1 if they fired artillery this turn.
5. The remainder of the turn sequence is the same as the rules as written with the following exception:
1. A unit may not fire and then move. The sequence is always move first, fire second. It just makes it easier for me to remember to apply the did-not-move bonus when shooting. It also prevents any move-fire-move shenanigans. (As I play solo, I know my opponent wouldn't try that, but for the rest of you there you go)
6. The side which lost the initiative then draws from their own deck and repeats steps 4 and 5. 
7. Check for exhaustion.
8. If both sides are not exhausted, new turn.
   

Machine Guns -

To me,  rolling multiple dice and counting each hit makes them too powerful - scout cars in particular can mow down a lot of infantry. 

So, I Nerfed them - I still roll multiple dice to hit, but they can only ever inflict a loss of one Strength Point (SP) per attack.

Transports 

In the Rules as Written, I think I finally grasp the intent (the transports can be destroyed while the infantry unit carried by them could continue on foot) but I opted from the start not to count their Strength Points at all. 

The impetus for this is me not being sure if the transport is its own unit or not. It doesn't seem like it would be, but then it's stated that the transport and the unit to be loaded have to be in the same space. To me that implies, they can move independently and that implies, tenuously perhaps, the transport gets its own activation. I wanted to do away with all that.

In retrospect, it seems like I should have added their SPs to the unit total - so the units would have longer staying power. Presumably some of the hits damage vehicles then but not the troops or guns transported.

None the less, as played, in my games, the transport and the transported are the same unit - activation applies to the unit as a whole.  They do not add any SP to the totals. You do not need to keep the transport together with the transported unit, but then it's one or the other for the sake of activation.

This will be a drain on your activation as the vehicles do not count for the purpose of the unit total and thus the median Strength Points which determine the values of the cards in the deck.

Troops in Half-tracks - 

While troops may not have made a habit of fighting from the back of the half track, they tended to have machine guns. . Rather than worry about machine guns or rifle fire and such, instead, embarked troops may shoot or engage in close combat at all times. 

That is, they do not need to disembark to shoot or engage in close combat. This is the advantage of the half track.

Troops in Trucks -

• Units in trucks may not shoot.
• Troops embarking or disembarking counts as the entire movement allowance
  
• They may not embark and disembark in the same turn.
• They may not embark and move the transport in the same turn.
•  Only disembarked troops may initiate close combat.
•  Units on trucks may be attacked in close combat. They can defend but suffer -1 on their roll to score a hit against the enemy. This is the risk of driving trucks of troops into the combat zone.
  

Close combat:

When a unit enters a space that puts it adjacent to more than one enemy simultaneously: the unit may choose which enemy to face, and then the other enemy units will gain a flank bonus in close combat. The moving resolves the combats in the order their controlling player chooses.

Artillery:

There are no spotting rules and while I'm OK with this, it just seems a bit much to allow artillery to fire at targets no other unit can see, let alone fire at. 

Since the maximum range for direct fire weapons are 4 spaces, that's the spotting distance. Artillery can only fire at targets they themselves can spot or that a friendly unit can spot.

The rules state that attacking the same target gains a bonus. If what is meant by "target" is a unit, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Not that it's not accurate but that it's not how I conceive of artillery.

I believe it makes more sense to look at the grid space itself as being the target. That might be obvious and maybe that's what was intended by "target" but that wasn't clear to me.

******

These modifications have served me well over the course of my Fictional Citadel campaign and I feel pretty confident they don't break the game. I make no guarantees of course.

And since a blog post without a picture is like peanut butter without jelly (delicious but missing a little something), here's a completely unrelated blurry picture of a concept for one of my Venusian forces:

I'm not done with this one - the whole front of the figure, the beard ,hair, etc. needs black lining - but it is just a proof of concept. The hope is that I'm invoking Greek red-figure pottery (I know, I know, it'd be better if he was a Greek, but they are in the Hoplite tradition according to one article I dug up online). I think en masse it will be a nice effect even with my wonky little painted elephants on the shields. 

Now how to explain it in the fiction? I don't know. It's Venus, things are just weird there.

Painting Table Update

While gaming and game related activity took precedence this weekend, I also finished a few figures.

First up, I've finished the firing poses for the Bersaglieri and am now moving onto the advancing troops. These three together will form a bombing squad in Trench Hammer.

 Next up, the last of Reaper Bones lizard warriors for the games to be set on Venus. I could have sworn I had three archers as well, but that seems to not be the case.  I have only six total which is not enough for a unit - but they can function as dino handlers, howdah crew, etc. in the meantime.

And here's the current state of the paint table.

The elephant is not in the queue yet - I just have to find someplace to put it while it waits. The HaT Carthaginians will serve as some kind of Venusian - these two are for testing some painting ideas I have. Also pictured, Armies in Plastic French Foreign Legion and Austrians. 

Hoping to get a chance to work on the French soon as they finish up quickly once the white is painted in.

Fictional Citadel : July 8, 1943, Part 2

In the predawn hours of July 8, 1943, the 4th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, Phantom Division (under the command of General Feuerbach), took up positions north east of Tomarovka. Their objective was to capture a bridge and the hills overlooking the main road to Yakarlevo,

As the sun rose, the Soviets advanced southward from their position west of Yarkalevo, carried forward by the momentum of their success against Phantom Division on July 7th. Communication difficulties due in part to physical exhaustion of the troops invovled, resulted in the 3rd Artillery Battery and 3rd Antitank Battalion arriving in positions far from their objectives. 

The Germans suffered similar command and control issues. More than once the entire division was forced to hold its position while orders were sorted out.

German engineers led off with a double move special event But the German Division would receive a No Units May Move special event twice!

The 9th Soviet Guard Rifle Regiment advanced through the woods north of the German position behind the river, which brought the German artillery under fire,  before the German crews had a chance to unlimber their guns. It would be some time before the German artillery could relocate and deploy.

"Are ze communists close or is it mein binoculars?"

At the hills, the 7th Soviet Guard Rifle Regiment engaged in a furious battle with the 4th Panzer Grenadiers, before abandoning the position for the protection of the village. The fighting continued and the 7th SGRR was soon no longer a fighting force. 

Meanwhile, the 8th Soviet Guard Rifle Regiment arrived from the north east - it's objective being the hills east of the road. A traffic jam of Soviet units presented difficulties in meeting the timetables set for their assault.

 The Soviet drive for the bridge coalesced around the advance of 3rd Recon Battalion, in support of 9th SGRR. 

Stopped first by the 1st Panzer Engineers and then Feuerbach's division HQ (the General himself was commanding from the front with the 4th Panzer Grenadier regiment), eventually it met destruction at the hands of 4th Panzer Grenadier Regiment.

The final showdown of the engagement occurred when 2nd Panzer engaged in a close range duel with the Soviet AT battalion that saw both sides break from the field.

Sensing the momentum draining from both sides, 3rd PanzerJaeger was able to secure the bridge while 4th Panzer Grenadier held the hill - tenuous though their grasp was. 

Gurdjieff was forced to concede and ordered the withdrawal of the 3rd Soviet Guard Rifle Division north, to an area just east of Systevo. Phantom Division still reeling from the effects of the previous days of fighting, found itself unable to pursue the retreating Soviets.

****** Campaign Notes *****

You will notice I forgot to take a picture of the end of the game. I was too caught up in it to remember and then I ran to take care of the bookkeeping.

This was as small battle. Not just in terms of number of units but in strength points involved.  Both sides had been pretty well beaten up previously and were not near full strength. 

Consequently it was also short. There were six  complete turns - so 3-6 hours of fighting (i figure a turn is 30  - 60 minutes).

The Germans went second on turn 6 and knowing they would be at exhaustion at the end of the turn, and having rolled a No Units May Fire special event, I charged into close combat where I could to push the Soviets to break as well. Was that gamey? Yes. Does that bother me? No. I view it as Feuerbach seeing the Soviets on the ropes and hoping to deliver the knock out blow with the last of his strength.

At the end both had reached their exhaustion points for movement on the campaign map.  As it stands, Phantom Division will need two turns on their baseline to be able to advance.

While the Germans got back 3 of their lost strength points, the Soviets had two points go into the hospital, so it's possible that 3rd SGRD will be ready to advance as early as next turn.

What remains is PanGermania vs the 1st Tank Corps. It is the 2nd time the two have met - it will be a rematch of two armored units. 

Even if PanGermania wins their July 8th battle. am not sure about the campaign going forward. At this point it's almost a guarantee that the Germans won't be able to advance much farther. Is the loss of men and machines worth it?

Thunder! Thunder! Thunderlizards, ho!

For the Venusian campaign, it seemed impossible that there would not be dinosaurs other giant fauna (not to mention flora). However, unless you've shopped for some recently, you'd be surprised how hard it is to find inexpensive hard plastic dinosaur toys of any appreciable size. In the name of safety, although I suspect it's mostly marketing, dinosaur toys are more often now made of "soft and safe" plastic which squishes or at least flexes and bends with ease. 

Great if you have a destructive toddler bent on destroying your flat screen with flying objects. Not so great for my purposes.

My local DollarTree, bastion of inexpensive toys from China, had no dinosaurs of note save a few that would best be described as "gummy".

However, I finally found a set of larger hard plastic dinos on Amazon with a 30% off coupon that put the price around $2 USD + change (also USD) each.

Well they are mostly hard plastic. Frankly at this point, I'll take what I can get.

Three will most definitely be pressed into service. The others will probably see life as background / set dressing or be pilfered by my son when we're playing with toys together.

Wagon train. Well, one wagon so far. Another stegosaurus though and I'm calling it a train.

Spinosaurus was either not known or was prejudiced against when I was a kid and excluded from the books I had available - loaded with illustrations of boring green and gray dinosaurs dragging their tails on the ground (amazingly we still though dinosaurs were awesome). I only learned of it when my son was born and Dinosaur Train became a staple for a time. It is, second to stegosaurus, my favorite dinosaur. I intended for it to be led on ropes by handlers into battle, where at that point it's a free for all.

Triceratops with a howdah / platform. Well, it will eventually have one, this is just to give an idea of future plans.

Size-wise these aren't far from 1/35 - well the stegosaurus isn't far from it at least. I haven't checked the others. Obviously, scale accuracy wasn't really my goal but I did want them to convey a certain mass and I think these do the trick.

Some Figures and a Trench Idea

I don't usually post so quickly but it was a busy weekend!

Early days on my Venusian forces yet. However, there are now three completed Armies in Plastic French Foreign Legionnaires ready for basing and a game.

 

Yes that's a pumpkin.

 

 

The more I paint Armies in Plastic figures the more I like them. They paint quickly - the hardest part is mold line removal. No matter how often I tell myself I'll just leave them, I end up removing most of them (I don't mind a little here and there but long lines running across a helmet drive me crazy). A heated pin, clamped in an X-acto handle has made this task far easier and a great deal more consistent.  

 

I only plan to paint up a 10-figure GASLIGHT unit, with an additional 4 figures to man a Gatling (provided by the British as I don't feel like painting another just yet), so I'm actually pretty far along on this force!

Next up are three 28mm lizard warriors from the Reaper Bones line.

Still a pumpkin in the background.

Despite my attempts to make the orange different on each figure, my "random" markings ended up remarkably similar. I chalk it up to my human eye being unable to discern the distinctions that seem so natural to the lizard folk themselves.

Finally, the trench idea.

While I love the Atherton Scenics trenches as well as some other vacuum formed offerings, for a larger game where I want to put say, two or three trench lines on the table, they are somewhat large (given my small table space) and expensive for that. More importantly, they also are very "realistic" looking and if there is one thing I am not known for, it's realistic looking terrain.

And so, let us consider trench tiles:

Hand painted MDF coaster and craft paints.

This idea was borne of some of the fine Portable Wargame playing areas on the facebook group for those rules as well as the inclusion of some top-down trench section cutouts in Wargames Illustrated #235. The latter provided the inspiration for exactly how I approached the illusion of depth . 

This is a roughly 4" square MDF coaster available on Amazon. I use them for my WW2 AT guns and for bases for my One Hour Wargames medieval armies.  

I'm not an artist but it certainly is functional, cheap (relatively, depending on the brand. A 9x9 table is still 81 squares after all but I've seen other brands for as little as $20 for 100), has the right "look" for my tables and is easy to produce.

I'm not sure about the bare MDF -I may paint the space at the bottom by the sandbags the same color as my figure bases or perhaps a basic green. Inside the trench is another story - brown? grey? just MDF? the jury is still out.

For a 1:1 trench raid involving a handful of figures, or for Trench Hammer, I think I'd prefer something 3-D (which i can fake using books and foam under my ground cloth), for a battalion attack on the first and second trench lines, this would work for me..

It probably helps that I have long been a fan of dungeon tiles, which these remind me of.

This also makes me think you could make a fun "dungeon crawl" type game for Vietnam tunnel rats. Which means I'll probably have to buy some figures for that now, too!

Fictional Citadel : July 8, 1943 Part 1

General Blavatsky, 2nd Soviet Guard Rifle Division (SGRD), fresh off his victory over Phantom Division, advanced his force to meet the German 1st Panzer Grenadier Division in hopes of forcing them out of the fight and gaining the flank on Phantom Division.  The Germans, led by General Schopenhauer, had been held back since July 5th, after suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of Blavatsky's 2nd SGRD.

Both generals were intent on capturing the majority of the settlements in the area and due to their locations, it really left only Chernit (pictured as the black building below) to be contested. The Soviet 5th Rifle Regiment was tasked with the objective and made a quick advance, supported by the 2nd Sapper Battalion to their rear, and the 4th Rifle Regiment to their right. The Soviet artillery rapidly advanced to a hill within range of Chernit.

The German advance was haphazard with the 2nd Pioneer Battalion racing for the woods west of Chernit. The 2nd Anti-tank Battalion outpaced the grenadiers and were forced to halt their advance while Schopenhauer addressed the situation. Meanwhile the division's artillery deployed west of the woods nearest the road leading north to another settlement.

With the arrival of the 2nd Panzer Grenadiers a fierce battle for Chernit began, supported by artillery and the engineering battalions for both sides. While Blavatsky took personal lead of the Soviet attack, Schopenhauer took command of the German artillery.

2nd Panzer Grenadiers held off repeated counter-attacks by the 5th and 6th Rifle Regiments and the Soviets were forced to fall back and regroup.

Blavatsky's re-organized his troops to extend their ability to fight and and his inspiring speeches had remarkable impact on the forces in his command.

Schopenhauer, seeking the decisive blow, sent 3rd Panzer Grenadier to assault and silence the Soviet artillery. However, the Soviet 2nd Recon Battalion halted their initial efforts.

To the surprise of all involved, when the 3rd Panzer Grenadiers did finally make contact, they were beaten back the gun crews and forced to fall back.

The Soviet artillery, fueled by their local victory, began to find their targets with astounding accuracy. The Soviet infantry rallied to the sound of the guns and forced 2nd Pioneer and 2nd Panzer Grenadier from the field.  The Soviet recon unit made a run for the German occupied settlement to the south but was soundly destroyed by the guns of the German 2nd Anti-tank Battalion.

Schopenhauer recognized that his hold on Chernit was slipping and ordered 3rd Panzer Grenadier to take and hold the settlement.  They would make no further advance.

The Soviet infantry crashed repeatedly against the German defense. Unable to continue his attack, Blavatsky was forced to withdraw to the north.

**** Campaign Notes ****

Here is the map of the table - again, randomly generated using Bob Cordery's terrain generator - the road was dictated by the campaign map:

Barring total domination by one side over the other, I decided victory would be dependent on control of two of the three settlements. 

The Germans looked like they were gong to crush  the Soviets - having lost only 3 strength points to the Soviet 6 as late as turn 8. But then on turn 9, the Soviets won initiative  and suddenly they could not miss. The Germans went from 3 strength points lost to 7 and hit their exhaustion point. 

Luckily for them, they lost control of Chernit when 2nd Panzer Grenadier Division was destroyed, but then quickly regained possession with the 3rd Panzer Grenadier Regiment on their initiative. No more offensive movement was permitted but that worked out for them.

On the next turn, the Soviets won the initiative again, and while they inflicted some damage, they they were unable to unseat the Germans from the settlement. On their half of the turn, the Germans pushed the Soviets to exhaustion and the game ended with the Germans in control of two of the three settlements.

However, while 2nd SGRD was forced back two spaces on the campaign map, as per my rules, the Germans could not follow up on their victory as 1st Panzer Grenadier Division was found to have reached it's campaign exhaustion point even after recovering lost casualties. They aren't totally out of the fight yet - as they are on their baseline and will regain 1 strength point next turn and have 1 casualty in the hospital to dice for, and it will be two turns before they would face a threat from 2nd SGRD again 

That said, they have maybe one more battle left in them. There are two more battles to fight for July 8th and then I'll assess the German position as a whole. If Phantom loses to 3rd SGRD, that would knock out Phantom entirely, and put 3rd SGRD on the left flank of 1st Panzer Grenadier Division  and hasten their probable demise.

Zombies! And Blocks!

After my son was born, his mother decided we needed a unique family holiday tradition outside of the usual and so she invented "Fall Festival". We play something as a family, make something,  and watch something - usually "Over the Garden Wall". 

Typically, the "play something" is a video game, but this year, after spying some zombie Lego-knock-off brick figures and sets in the Dollar Tree, I decided to put together a game that would use them. To be honest, my original plan wasn't for Fall Festival (which is always the first Saturday in October) but I was asked if I could have it ready and, upon rediscovering the zombies supplement for GASLIGHT on WargameVault, I figured it was feasible.

Almost everything for the game, including the wooden cubes for markers, was from Dollar Tree except for the flora, the lamp posts, and gate with fence. That was provided by Amazon - they are knock-off Legos as well, and inexpensive.

Dice and playing cards were things I had on hand but even then, some of them were from the Dollar Tree.

Overview. of the table. Players had to make their way from the park to the cemetery to destroy the bubbling glop that produced zombies.

The aforementioned glop. As luck would have it, DollarTree sells a zombie figure in black slime. It's like they knew I'd need this!

My zombie horde. Well, as much as 16 zombies is a horde.

In order to make the game more like a video game to appeal to my son, I added ammo tracking (via (wooden cubes) and loot crates (more wooden cubes) with med kits (still more wooden cubes), additional ammo and weapons, and possible "specials".

There were four players each controlling a single figure and an NPC dog that was controlled by the team (but it would run away if it failed a save and potentially leave the table). 

Their objective was to find and destroy the zombie spawn point in the cemetery.

Early turns, the player character figures are entering from the lower left behind the pine trees.

Bob (you know, The Builder) and Brewster (the dog) clearing out zombies in the road. On their right, Potter has fired his AR-15 (The plain cube is a noise marker). Officer Krupke and Hermione in the middle, back (also with a noise marker).

Same turn different angle.

Krupke found this book of esoteric lore in one of the crates.

It contained the secret to defeating the zombies. (And removed the "you must score less than half - quarter at long range - of your shoot score to kill a  zombie" restriction)

The heroes fought across the road into the cemetery. Just before they entered, Potter found a radio in another crate. He managed to reach the outside world. What would it mean?

A helicopter en route!

The chopper lands and a crew of an anti-zombie paramilitary deploy. Will they be able to help our heroes?

Like true heroes, they don't wait to find out.

Bob, Brewster, and Krupke made it to the goop! After fighting off the spawning undead, Krupke planted the bomb. Although caught in the explosion, they made their saves!

The game turned out to be more of a success than I could have hoped for. Everyone seemed to have a great time and my son, who doesn't like to play much of anything table top related save PanzerKids loved it

I have plenty of critiques of course. 

For one, I don't feel it was as intense a game as it could have been - their survival was rarely in question. To do that, I would lower the shoot, scuffle, and save numbers for the player characters if I were to run it again (I let them players assign the values as they chose from 17,15 and 9 depending on how they imagined the character. I would probably go with 15, 12, 9 next time). 

I'd also buy way more zombie figures! There were times when I couldn't spawn any in because there were not enough figures. Actually, I'll probably buy more whether I run this particular game again or not. Zombie games are fun solo too because the zombies don't require any tactical planning.

Finally, a good option would be a second spawn point coming in behind the players so they'd have to watch their backs. As it was, per my original conception, each board section was like a video game level and once complete you don't need to go back. It worked well that way, but I think a second spawn point would be even better.

There was talk about starting a spring celebration tradition as well - mostly because of the game. I don't think another brick game is necessarily in order, but perhaps? The WWII themed brick stuff is very tempting.

As in most zombie movies, the authorities arrived too late to do anything except congratulate the heroes for a job well done.