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.

On the Grid Again

 Friday the dam burst and I played a flurry of games on a grid - spurred in no small part by my acquisition of a foldable card table.

It measures 38 in. square, which with my current grid cloth is still just 6x6 of 6 inch squares. But that's fine for One Hour Wargames scenarios with small forces.

I set out Scenario 14: Static Defence  - a favorite of mine  - and I tried some rules I had written up over the course of the preceding week. 

In this iteration, weapon companies were split up into attachments to rifle companies.

Soviet ATR companies can engage armor up to 1 space away. Other infantry have to close assault it.

I played two games like this. They were Ok but they weren't quite what I had hoped and had some flaws I found bothersome.  I combined them with some ideas from The Portable Wargame and tried again.

That was better but still not quite right. So I gave The Portable Wargame a chance as written - but using three hits per unit.

Soviets held off the attack on the town - which was the German target. They instead captured the hill rather accidentally.

That still wasn't quite right, for me. So, I scribbled some ideas down and slept on it.

Saturday morning, I set up a new scenario (Scenario 20: Fighting Retreat) because I needed a change from the last one.

Dramatic sunlight.

Classic Toy Solider MG team holding off the Soviet advance.

Very close to what the end of the last game looked like. The Soviet advance collapsed due to losses. I set exhaustion at 50% of strength points due to the small totals for each force.

The end result was exactly the kind of game I had wanted to play. I played twice even, just to be sure.

In the end it was an amalgamation of my own preferences, Hold the  Line, Bob Cordery's Memoir of Modern Battle and The Portable Wargame, and a little Morschauser (4's and 6's to hit and 2/4/6 for MGs).

Operation Citadel-ish

In the mood for getting some kind of game on the table, I flipped, well, scrolled, through, my copy of One Hour Wargames and realized I could treat scenario 8: Melee as a suitable substitute for Grossdeutschland's attack on Cherkasskoye in July, 1943.

Regular readers may recall that I fought this battle as part of a campaign last year.

Panzer and Tiger units from GD advance in front of PzGrenadiers.

Elements of Soviet 199th Guard Rifle Regiment protect the hill, while others advance to meet the fascist invaders.

GD Panzer IVs were completely destroyed but GD recon unit and additional PzGrenadiers arrive to press the attack.

Two AT batteries of the 67th Guards Rifle Division reinforce what remains of the 199th.

Assault lead by Pz Grenadiers supported by recon and Tigers (off camera)

The Soviet left flank collapses under the weight of GD's advance.

Recon foolishly leads the charge to eliminate the last of the defenders.

The Soviets lose Cherkasskoye at great cost, while GD losses are minimal.

I used improvised rules based on my Division Squares: Simple WW2 Combat on a Square Grid but converted to grid-less.  The biggest changes, besides using a ruler, were that I left out leaders and artillery. 

Obviously some of the specifics of the scenario didn't match my original from last year - which I tried to base on research - the Soviets weren't dug in, there was no artillery barrage, and there was no village, but honestly, it was close enough and just as enjoyable.

Another Panzer Kids Deluxe Eastern Front Edition

Tuesday night, my son and I held another game of Panzer Kids Deluxe. This time I set it somewhere on the Eastern Front in winter.

 The Soviets had three T-34/76 tanks, while the Germans had a Tiger I and two PAK-40 anti-tank guns.

The mostly immobile Germans were no match for the speedy Soviet tanks, who also rolled better when it came to shooting.

 

 

At the cost of one tank, the Soviets captured the village.

This one wasn't a nail biter by any means -  the forces were mostly balanced cost-wise, but the lack of mobility and low defensive values for the PAKs was too much of a difference.  I should have given the Germans just one PAK and a PzIV. Still we had a fun time - plenty of sound effect making and dice rolling hi-jinx, and we can't wait to play again.

It was also nice to try out the winter table. The ground cloth is a military surplus poncho I acquired for performing at noise shows - it's far too hot to wear under lights on a stage, but it does make a decent winter landscape I think.

Crossfire 2x2 : The River

I had another go at Crossfire this weekend. This time, I fielded a scenario that gave me fits when played with my own rules - The River. It works much better using Crossfire! As a note, my table is 3x3, because the bases are 2" x 2", which is slightly larger than standard.

Pictured below is the second game - the first wasn't supposed to happen, I was just setting up the table late Saturday night, in advance of Sunday's game, and thought, "Well, maybe I'll just move some stands around for fun." Before you knew it, I had played an entire game.

 The Germans got off to a poor start - no smoke landed and their recon by fire failed.

So the Soviets popped up with their MG and started firing. Fortunately for the Germans they were mostly ineffective.

After several short initiatives of failed smoke arrival, the Germans managed to land some which allowed the river crossing to begin. That brought the Soviets in the bunker into the action.

The German engineers walked right into the minefield and started clearing it. Fortunately the Soviets in the bunker were incompetent.

I didn't feel like getting out the cotton batting to set up the smoke so I used these "markers" I created years ago. I think they fit the look of my table.

With the mines cleared, and with some help from their 50mm mortar landing smoke,the Germans were waded their infantry into the river.

 

 The Soviet mortars gave the attackers some trouble when the smoke cleared

But using the woods as cover, the Germans were able to storm the building. Fierce close combat followed. In the end, the defenders were wiped out to a man: heroes of the Motherland, all.

I used the Bogged Down markers to indicate "no fire".

The Soviet FOO and mortar turned their attention to bombarding the formerly-held building.

While the Germans launched an attack on the bunker, supported by their mortars.

Having cleared that obstacle, they moved on to capture the Soviet FOO and wipe out the Soviet mortar in close combat.

End of the game,the Germans held the objective and the Soviets were completely eliminated.

As a solo game, Crossfire, like most games, works well- although the hidden units in these scenarios takes a little effort to setup in a satisfying way. I think the hardest part about solo play with Crossfire is the need to always be aware of when the inactive side has an opportunity for reactive fire. Unlike some games, where a missed opportunity for reactive fire isn't the end of the world, in Crossfire it's the difference between stealing the initiative and not getting a chance to be the active side.

The solo player is forced to dedicate some brain power to examining every action from the perspective of both sides. It's not insurmountable, and I find the mental involvement enjoyable, but I can imagine some solo players would find it less so.

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).

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.