Operation Hasty : Game 1

Corporal May took a look at his map. "There's a farmhouse on the other side of this ridge. Eddie, Atkinson, 'Stain', you're with me. Whiteford, take Saunders, Cross, and 'Lucky' around the base of the hill. I want the Bren covering the road and the farmhouse in case someone's home and isn't glad for the company." 

These paratroopers were among those chosen cause havoc for the Germans and prevent them from destroying infrastructure as they pulled back from Sora to Avezzano and that part of the Gothic Line. It had been christened by the higher-ups as 'Operation Hasty', wich didn't fill May, Whiteford, or any of the others with a lot of confidence.

"Yes, Corporal! Alright you lot, let's move!"  That was Lt. Corporal Frank Whiteford, the second in command for this squad. He had been in it since Dunkirk, and with May since the Moro River. He knew May could smell trouble a mile away.

Of course, May often was the one causing trouble.

A boxer before the war, he was always ready for a scrap in and out of the ring - and always willing to get one started if no one was forthcoming. In war, he learned not only was he good at knocking men out, but he was good at leading them, too.

As May and his team moved down the hill to the edge of the woods, they spotted a German patrol moving up along the farmhouse.

There are two blinds on the board - one in the field, one in the house. Rather than using the Nuts! patrol scenario and PEFs, I used the patrol scenario and forces from Platoon Forward. There are two blinds, one of which is the real patrol, and the patrol will consist of several blinds as well which have to be resolved.

"Looks like the welcoming committee is already here. Let them have it!" May's Sten was already spitting lead before he finished his command, bringing down the German squad's LMG team.

Another German was dropped by rifle fire and then Whiteford's team opened fire as they came around the hill, to terrible effect. 

The few Jerries who had survived the attack fell back behind the house.

Gott im Himmel!

Celebrations were cut short by the sputtering of bullets from a window of the farmhouse. 

"Spandau!"shouted Whiteford, as he was knocked to the ground. Lucky opened fire with his Bren - killing the gunner and leaving the loader scrambling.

From their left, alongside the farmhouse another LMG team appeared and again Lucky's Bren made quick work of them.

A kubelwagen raced up the road to provide cover for the badly mauled German patrol which was trying to withdraw. With its mounted MG-42 it opened fire and wounded Lucky, but Saunders caught the worst of it. 

Under a hail of lead, Whiteford scrambled, grabbed Lucky and Saunders and dragged them into cover behind the hill.

Meanwhile, the MG-42 in the house had repositioned and prepared to open fire on May's team on the hill. The trunk of the tree to his left exploded in splinters and May hit the dirt. Dragging Stainton who had caught one in the arm, he slipped back into the shadows of the trees.

The firefight ended as quickly as it started. The Germans withdrew- unaware that they had come against a single squad - as Cpl. May led his men to temporary safety deeper into the woods. 

Stain and Lucky would be OK and could keep going, but Saunders, on the other hand, was in bad shape.

"What do we do, Corporal?"

 

*****

• Rules used: Nuts! Final Edition
• Platoon Forward generated the German patrol - it was far better equipped than I had expected. I was OK with that given the historical situation.
• I used the Nuts! non-player force movement and such. The decision to withdraw was made immediately after first contact (by the Nuts! table for that). I figured that since the other blinds were in position, they would provide cover for the withdrawal - hence the tripod MG, the extra LMG team, and the kubelwagen getting some action before ending the game. 

Up the Oxs and the Bucks!

 My latest Conte acquisition (the one I mentioned in the previous post) arrived the other day. This set is "Up the Oxs and the Bucks!" - hence the post title. My primary interest was the grenade throwing figure  as I had not seen it except as a single figure (for about what I paid for the set!). I seem to have scooped up all of the bargain priced figures on eBay, so my pre-painted collector figure buying *should* slow down again.

 

I did place an order with Irregular for their SS officer and an SMG figure, as well as a figure suitable as a French partisan to act as a contact/objective. I know I said I was resistant to painting the SS, but I already have some Classic Toy Soldier plastic "Elite" Germans that I can give a paint job to and save myself a couple of dollars. The figures from Irregular will fill in some gaps. 

Also pictured is the first building I have made in a good 8 or 10 years - and I'd only made two then. I realized if I was going to do some very small scale skirmishes - a squad or so per side, maybe less - I needed some buildings I could actually put more than two or three figures in. I was tempted to buy some of the BMC farm houses, and I still may, but I do like the feel of foamcore and at $1.25 per sheet, I figured it was worth a go.

This was intended to be taller but a knife slip meant some additional hacking was required. It wasn't supposed to be Tudor inspired either, but again, accidents had to be covered somehow! Thank heavens for popsicle sticks (a large quantity of which I acquired from the craft section at Dollar Tree late last year). The second floor is usable - thanks to an offcut of foamcore, so I can station figures upstairs or down (it's removable so i can access the bottom level).

The full height of the building. Kind of looks like every tavern in a fantasy RPG.

Up close my handiwork doesn't hold up to scrutiny, but at wargames distance, and given my need for glasses to see tiny details anyway, it works OK. I managed to salvage the house despite it not being what I set out to make. Just don't feel too put out by the lopsided windows. 

It was a good learning experience about what not to do, so hopefully the next one goes a little more according to plan (I can get two buildings at least from a single sheet of foamcore).

Eventually I will add a door in the lower left - not a cut out, but probably a drawing of a door glued in place - and maybe a roof. Maybe not, as I need to get inside somehow and I'll just end up taking it off during a game anyway.

My "goal" such as it is, is to be able to fill a good bit of my 38" square table with buildings for some house to house fighting.

New Recruits for My British Airborne

Well, I hadn't planned to buy more figures, but while perusing eBay I stumbled on a Conte Bren gunner figure which I had not seen before. The price was right (Conte and Britain figures vary wildly in price, even for the same figure, so you have to just wait for one to come along that you think is reasonable  - I've seen figures I've purchased for $5 being sold for $99 and as "rare" when they aren't anything of the sort) and the same seller had a rifle figure available. 

And by buying both together, I'd save some on shipping. How could I pass that up?

 

 

They will join my existing British paratrooper collection. Of course, now I find myself looking at eBay for more bargain paratroops to join them. Hopefully my wallet survives!

I also wouldn't mind adding some more of the Conte or W. Britain SS figures and get both sides up to ten or twelve figures. That said, I can use my Airix / Matchbox / CTS Heer infantry as proxies when necessary. 

I could paint some of the CTS figures I have as SS, as that is what they are (they are sold as "elite" troops), but 1) I don't like the idea of painting them - they are the unequivocally the bad guys and I don't want to feel emotionally invested in them (my British paras are the good guys and while I haven't painted them either, I have found that by naming them - usually after Britcom characters - I feel fully invested in them) and 2) I don't like painting camo.

In any case, I picked up the Disposable Heroes/Coffin for Seven Brothers scenario book, Without Fortune: Fields of Battle, Arnhem 1944, in PDF from RatTrap for some ideas for historical scenarios for the figures. A bit dangerous no doubt, as I see force lists that make me think "Oh, I should definitely buy some more figures!"  I intend to pickup a related Osprey or two eventually as well,  at the risk of ruining my ability to play cinematic/pulp type actions. 

Apparently, I'm planning on making this a bigger part of my gaming than I thought.

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.

Recent Arrivals

The same seller who sold me the previously acquired Dulcop arditi, put up a larger lot consisting of Dulcop and Waterloo 1815 WW1 Italians. So, I snagged it.

New arditi to join their fellows.

A unit of alpini.

I didn't take any pictures of the Waterloo figures. There are maybe 16 or 20 of them and most of them are flaking badly. Amusingly, for some reason, the feathers in the bersaglieri helmets are painted green. Eventually, I'll strip all of these figures down to bare plastic, but in the meantime, the alpini and arditi can take the table once I paint up some Austrians.

Less exciting, unless you're me, is that I acquired some Games Plus pluck-foam storage for my metal WW2 54s. Sadly, it's many years too late for them and many have chipped paint - one has a broken bayonet. Still, better late than never.

The collection is a mix of Britain, Conte, and a few King & Country:

Britain's Big Red One US Infantry

British paras and Waffen SS from a mix of makers.

This collection is dedicated to 1:1 squad or less per side gaming. The US were used on bases before, but I decided to save that for the plastic figures. I find these figures inspiring, so I expect a game with them is coming in the near future.

Farmhouse Assault!

The first game at my new place was an exceptionally brief affair, using one of my favorite small scenarios, which is from what to my shock is now considered an old set of rules (Two Hour Wargames's MG-42, a demo version of Nuts!, 1st ed. and thanks to the wonders of technology, available via the Wayback Machine).

 In this case, I fielded four British paratroopers, led as always by Lt. Hardcastle.

Hardcastle and company reach the edge of the woods and observe two German sentries.

The sentries are oblivious to what is about to happen.

I used One Hour Skirmish Wargames for the rules. It might seem an undersized game for OHSW, but multiple move actions by the same figure chew up points quickly, so at worst, the downside is two moves per figure, instead of one, or points unspent. 

 

Unfortunately for the Germans, their random deployment per the scenario had the MG team and NCO heading to the house from the woods, so no cover bonus when being shot, and then a poor card draw on their phase (an ace) left them stuck in the open. 

 

It turned out that the British were all skilled shots, drawing high cards, and the Germans were poor at avoiding damage: the British had downed the sentries, claimed the farmhouse (killing the sentries) and the small woods across the road, and also downed the machine gunner and the NCO, by the time the first Joker came up and the turn ended. 

 

I decided it wasn't worth checking the status of the remaining downed figures - they would have been in the open and that stretched my suspension of disbelief a bit too far.

For giggles, I tried MG-42 as written and then remembered why I had given up on the idea of trying Nuts! until the 2nd edition. 

 

It played fast -  a hallmark of THW - helped, in part, because I have played THW games many times and understand, to a degree, how it works.  If you're not familiar with their rules, you may not want to start with this old, and less clearly written, demo set.

 

I played three initiatives, but the Germans again had issues: failing In-Sight opportunities, missing when shooting, and being knocked out of the fight whenever they were hit. The base movement range is far more generous than OHSW, and so it took no time at all before the paratroopers were storming the one remaining German (a Rep 3 sentry) and I decided he'd surrender.

This scenario would probably work well with Fistful of Lead and I will give that a try soon.

First of the 2020 Draftees

The post has been busy the past few days, bringing me packages filled with hobby joy!

Up first, a pre-painted 1/35 Can Do German MG team. This brings up my Germans to three MG-42 bases. I'm aiming for four eventually and will probably pick up one more of these sets in the not too distant future.

Two boxes of the much ballyhooed Waterloo 1815 WWI Italians arrived next. First, notice the box art - ordinary helments.

But the figures are Bersaglieri! I knew this going in, but nothing on the box indicates this.

The pictures below could not look more bland (grey figures on a gray-white background - white balance would have been a good thing to use I suppose) but you can at least see the poses. They'll obviously need some cleaning up - almost every helmet has a plume of flash.

Finally, what amounts to my biggest eBay score in awhile - five 1/32 Waffen SS figures (a mix of 3 Britain's, duplicating a set I already have, and two Conte figures).

I usually lose auctions on eBay (foolishly I bid the max I'm willing to pay and I won't increase my bid beyond that) and so I tend to stick to Buy-It-Now offerings, but this time I put in a reasonable bid, and won the whole lot for far less - just $28USD. At less than $6 for a fully painted metal figure, I'm pretty stoked.

I'll also probably never win another auction again.

These join the other five SS figures I already have and will see service against my British paratroopers and my "Big Red One" US infantry in small skirmish games using One Hour Skirmish Wargames, Five Men in Normandy, or Fistful of Lead (which I just picked up in PDF format after reading Reese's recent game report.)

When I'll get any of these on the table is a good question - I'm dying to kick off an OHSW campaign with my TSSD winter Germans and winter Soviets and so that will probably take precedence when the next gaming moment presents itself.

One Hour Skirmish Wargame: The Patrol

Saturday night, after the plastic eggs were hidden for the Sunday morning hunt, I cut up a coconut fiber doormat for use as fields in my games. Combined with an itch to field my British paratroopers was all of the motivation I needed to set up a game.

The rules were One Hour Skirmish Wargames, the scenario was "Scenario J" (the patrol) from Platoon Forward.

Paratroopers enter the table in heavy woods.

The lighting is much better in this shot.

I stole the idea for using farm animals as blind markers from someone online - I can't remember who, but they are a genius. Much less obtrusive and kind of comical even. In this case, the cow was not the real force.

The firefight does not go well for the paratroopers who had split up to enter the fields. I was playing that the fields were fully grown and limited visibility (this is not part of the OHSW rules). I'm not sure I liked it. One high point for the Brits - the Deetail PIAT trooper made his debut by taking out two Germans with a single HE round.

Germans fall back to a defensive position at the farm. The paras, their numbers slightly reduced, opted to try to further engage the Germans - to their detriment.

Black and white because the new light bulb in the kitchen really washed out the ground cloth in this one.

The Brits were beaten soundly. In large part, the Germans benefited from having three leader figures on the table (generated by the tables in Platoon Forward) - a squad NCO, jr. NCO, and the Platoon Leader. Lot's of extra cards for attacks.

Maybe it was the scenario, but something just didn't work for me for this one. It was fun, to a point, but I ended up feeling like there were too many grey areas and question marks. I suspect, ultimately, the OHSW rules work best when there is a clear objective or turn limit. A patrol with a sort of vague objective (scout this terrain but give the enemy a bloodier nose than they give you) isn't really ideal. 

Also, as this is the second time I've played scenario J this year, I've decided that the way the blinds appear doesn't work for me. I think maybe Nuts! (at least the older versions, I can't speak for the newest) provides a better system for randomly generating the location and composition of the enemy in a patrol scenario.I probably won't go back to using the Nuts! rules mind you (too much dice rolling), but their Possible-Enemy-Force (PEF) system is pretty great in my opinion.