Elements of the Italian army actually made it past some of the French defenses - a platoon with L3 support is advancing to capture a small village.
French infantry are heading to the scene to stop them.
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| The sides race for positions. |
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| The Italians make use of cover to protect their advance. The tankette however decides to chug along in the open. Not because of its superior armor - it's not especially renowned for its thickness - but its pilot's bravado demands nothing less. He has had exactly 1 day of training on the L3, which is more training than most. Also, his L3 is still running which is a miracle in itself. |
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| French squad with LMG stakes out a place in the woods. |
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| And the LMG draws first blood! |
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| The French mortar had a mildly successful day dropping rounds on unsuspecting Italians. However, it wasn't enough to slow them down. |
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| The tankette sat for awhile once the pilot realized getting close to infantry without support might be a bad idea. Instead he unloaded double HMGs at the French in the fields, to horrific effect. |
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| From this angle the L3 looks menacing, despite actually being super cute - dual machine guns tearing up the French squad excepted. |
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| Throwing caution to the wind, drunk on his own success, the Italian pilot mashes the accelerator (or however these things worked) full speed ahead. This exposes him to a state-of-the-art French anti-tank grenade delivery system. It's a tense moment. |
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| If you look closely, you can see how it went. There's a downside to leaving cover even if it's to do something arguably heroic. |
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| The tankette sped off the table. The remaining French from the squad in the field and the mortar were unable to act before it did so. This was one of the Italian objectives accomplished, by a very gamey maneuver might I add. |
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| "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!" |
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| The last French survivor (an NCO) and the mortar itself were captured. The fellow with the scared expression, front row, right, has just realized that the mortar crew had spiked the mortar with a grenade, which is about to go off. |
A few things of note:
I once again used the venerable, and free, One Brain-Cell Toy Soldier Rules,with the advanced options for wounds, the advanced turn sequence, and a house rule for AT grenades.
While other, more serious, games may have greater depth, these rules manage to"feel right", if you try to use proper WW2 tactics (at least to my imperfect understanding of what that means). As I'm probably on the "Pulp WW2" end of "feels right", take that as you will.
Play time was maybe an hour or so?
I like how the minifigures look with my regular terrain and scenic items. It reminds me of playing with toys with my son when he was little.
Speaking of scenic items - the two buildings were probably made around a decade ago and have served me well since. Foamboard / Foamcore is solid stuff.
Oh and no one has asked, but the mortar can fire if you put a spring in it (sometimes it comes with one, sometimes it doesn't - this one did not, but I have a suitable spring from a Lego-type cannon).
The French FT should be arriving soon - USPS says it's in TN on the tracking site, but we got an email saying it would be here today. So, who knows?
Looks like it was a fun game - I'd also be very much at the Fun end of gaming so these rules might just be good for me too!
ReplyDeleteLooks like an excellent game John! Your figures really look great and the buildings are perfect! I love picture #7, the tankette does look wicked, and I am so proud of its performance in this battle! Thanks for sharing this very enjoyable report!
ReplyDeleteI can see the appeal of these figures but it is an entirely new field I won't be venturing into. Thanks for the entertaining report.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Quantrill! It's definitely a niche within a niche. I doubt I would have gone down this road, had I not become enamored with the figures while playing with my son. My hope too is that they entice him to ask to play! (probably wishful thinking, that)
DeleteLooks like a great game. One Braincell are great rules as well. What rules did you add for the vehicle as that is the one thing One Braincell wargame doesn't have?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Roger!
DeleteUsing tanks with OBC is a new thing for me, I just started recently (in several undocumented games with unpainted 1/32 figures - it was like being a kid again)
For the French infantry without their own AT weapons, I decided they would have anti-tank grenades(it's a common +2 points per figure option in Bolt Action, so I don't feel bad adding them). I decided that they had minimal range - maybe 4" long range (Which I believe I took from Morschauser's How to Play Wargames in Miniature). 2" or less for short.
The tankette would always count as in cover. I used the wound chart but decided 1 meant the grenade bounced off, 2-3 meant the tank would move at half speed or be disabled in place if it had already been reduced to half speed and 4+ meant that it was destroyed.
My poor infantryman missed wildly on the attack, so I didn't even have to roll for a wound.
For the tankette, which is armed with dual MGs, I treated it as 2 HMGs, which had to target the same unit. Movement was 12" regular speed. It could race across the table at 24" but then could not shoot. And being an L3, it would probably break down (it didn't come to that, as he stayed close to the infantry as he should).
I have at other times used the bazooka (which is listed) and given the vehicles -1 or -2 when checking for AT results depending on armor, decreasing the chance of a destroyed result.
So, a PzIV might get -1 on their wounds check, while a Tiger II would get -2. You could of course say rear armor has no adjustment or even +1 when checking for wounds, sides are -1, and front -2, depending on how granular you want to be and whether you care about such things. I sometimes do, I sometimes don't.
I treat proper tank guns like the bazooka as well (roll 3 dice), and you can increase or decrease the dice pool based on how heavy the gun is relative to other tanks on the table if any. I treat their MGs as appropriate (MMG or HMG) but only allow the tank to fire one or the other. Otherwise they dominate the game.
I hope you find something there worth using (and improving!)
I really like your take on OBC and how to include vehicles into the rules and game. I think it's done in the very essence of the other OBC-rules with dazed/stunned. Well done!
ReplyDeleteI've not done any OBC games yet which includes vehicles. In one game I just let the vehicles be static positions for HMGs (https://modelrailsandwargames.blogspot.com/2022/06/1-bc-one-brain-cell-toy-soldier-rules.html). I've been toying with the idea to simply just adopt and use the FUBAR rules for vehicles, as I think they will work well together with the rest of the OBC rules and AT weapons. But again John, I actually think you made it more in the essence of the OBC-rules.
I don't know much about tankettes except from seeing some at museums, so I had to briefly read about the L3. It seems like it was armed with different weapons. I would treat a twin 8mm MG as a 2 LMS, simply because the caliber are close to what you'll find in a periodic rifle. The 13,2mm Italian Breda MG I would treat as a HMG though.
Thanks, Roger! I really wanted to keep the mechanics similar to everything else. It makes it easier for me to remember.
DeleteAnd thank you for the L3 thoughts. I'll use it as 2 LMG next time - although I now have a Renault FT for an "epic" tankette duel!
Is the FT17 armed with a cannon or a machinegun? Their cannons were not effective against armour, but I guess it would be sufficient against a light armored tankette. The tankette on the other hand is faster and more maneuverable than a FT17 and will outrun it. If you arm your self with a little 'modeller's licence' and the tankette with a 13mm HMG, it will be able to penetrate the Ft17's armour.
DeleteI think both of these vehicles are so lightly armoured that they're both pretty vulnerable against infantry. So a duell between those two with infantry units on both sides would be quite interesting. I'm looking forward to read about "the duel"