Many Rivers to Cross

On Saturday night, while Peppermint was asleep and my son was busy playing Roblox with a bunch of his friends, I decided to sneak in a game. I recently painted the bases on my WWII figures (finally) and I wanted to get my newly painted bridge out for a game, so I decided on one of the small Crossfire scenarios, scaled down force-wise, and using Hammer of Democracy.

Because the rulebook is a PDF that I have yet to have printed, I wanted my laptop close by. I figured the best way to do this would be to play on a portion of the kitchen table. After clearing stuff of the table (well part of it - the kitchen table serves as my hobby desk, work desk, dining table, and toaster storage!), I decided on a  36" x  30"space

The US had two squads, mortar and FOO (off-table heavy mortar). The Germans had a single squad, FOO (off-table heavy mortar), mortar, and an MG team (inside the bunker).

The squad on the US right attempted to cross the river but soon came under off-table mortar fire, fire from the house, and from the German mortar team across the table. They never made it across the river.

 

 

On the US left, after waiting for several rounds of off -table heavy mortar fire  to bombard the bunker, the squad crossed the river under MG fire.

Shot up, but determined, the squad assaulted the bunker...

Both the US squad and the MG team inside were in bad shape. Each had 5 points of damage. With the automatic point caused by the assault both were at 6. Units are removed at 7 points. In the event of a tie, both sides would suffer a point of damage and both would be eliminated. 

I rolled the dice and held my breath.

The MG team held their ground and gave better than they got. 

With the second squad destroyed/routed, I called the game a German victory.

I got the toys out and played a game, so that was a success, but I think three squads vs one would be a better balance. Or I could have sat back and let the US off-table mortar and on-table mortar do more of the work, but that would be boring. 

I also could learn the smoke rules. Smoke would definitely have helped!

The small space used worked just fine and I can see doing this more often. Rolling dice on the table but not on the game portion of it was refreshing. And it turns out it was nice to sit down and look at the rules on the laptop when needed. 

Heck, maybe next time I'll sit down while I play!

The Bridges of Blastoff County

Well one bridge really.

In an effort to further test Hammer of Democracy, I set out a classic scenario layout. Some cover was added - after all, this is the age of the automatic machine gun. 

Both sides have a platoon with an MG in support and I would be using the Support rules this time to try them out. Basically, it's a 2nd die, rolled when you roll for your command points that turn. The Support die gives you points you can spend to fire support options in either in an offensive or defensive capacity, based on what's going on with friendly units within 12".

The US is on the bottom edge of the picture. The Germans would enter as blinds - 5 for infantry (2 blanks) and 2 for the MG (1 blank). 

The Allies are the attacker in scenarios set in the late war, so the US went first. They rolled poorly for their command roll and just two units entered the table.

The river is from Pegasus Models. I've seen it used by others and like the look of it. Due to the banks, it's a little too wide for the Airfix bridge, so some of my old balsa river runs under the bridge.

Here they are again, just because I like how it looked.

The US sends two squads across the river, while one advances, intent on reaching the house. Not shown, the MG opened fire on the house as the Germans had a blind in there. It turned out the MG team was firing at shadows.

A view on the opposite side of the river.

An actual German squad reached the farm house, and the US squad moved up to the stone wall to engage them in a firefight - planning to assault the building once the enemy was softened up. The MG provided effective support fire.

 On the other side of the river, the a blind in the woods turns out to be a German MG. It viciously poured fire into the lead American squad. That was followed by fire from a German squad which took the hill.

e

Both the Germans in the farm house and the US squad by the wall were suffering losses of morale and men, but then the final German squad appeared and caught the Americans in a crossfire. They were done for.

Meanwhile, the German machine gunners had a field day mowing down US troops on their side of the river.

 

 

With two squads down, the US platoon leader ordered the remaining squad and MG to fall back. It was a decisive German victory.

I am quite pleased with the look of the thing. Except the bridge. After many years in its natural plastic state, I finally feel like maybe I should give it a paint job. So that's next on the to do list.

******

The support rules are interesting and worked quite well to make the MG feel like I was using it as a support weapon. Next time, I'll use the support points for calling in off-table mortars as well. Maybe I'll give the US a mortar on table, too, just for variety.

Like many solo gamers, I've used blinds before. In this particular instance, the blinds worked great. 

Indeed, the fact that they Germans essentially held a squad back in reserve (unbeknownst to me) was a better approach (randomly determined though it was) than my own. Because I didn't know what each blind was (real or blank), I was aggressive with their squads, while I was perhaps too concerned about preserving my squads before committing them to any assault.

The end result was that I hesitated to try and take the hill because the Germans had moved up two blinds to the opposite side. In the end, those blinds would turn out to be blanks, and I had lost the opportunity to capture the hill.

Went Down to the Crossroads (Hammer of Democracy)

Although it might seem hard to believe given the number of WWII figure games I've posted over the years, but at times over the past year, I have felt like I'm on the verge of letting my entire 54mm WWII collection go. In fact, I had put it all in box and put it in the back of my closet.

However, during the recent Winter Offensive Sale on Wargame Vault, I decided to pick up a copy of Nordic Weasel's Hammer of Democracy. This is the WWII variant of the Hammer games that include Squad Hammer and Trench Hammer. In part, I just wanted to support Nordic Weasel, but also, given my enjoyment of Trench Hammer, I wondered if Hammer of Democracy (HoD from now on) could bring some life to my WWII collection.

HoD  like the other rules in the series are geared primarily toward fielding a platoon to a company, where each base or two, or a group of 5-6 figures is a squad. Vehicles represent one vehicle. All units have hit points and there is no figure or base removal until the entire squad is removed. Hit points represent morale as well as casualties. 

Combat is the same as far as the basic game goes - shooting combat occurs at three ranges: Long distance, Firefight, and Close Assault. The Close Assault reflects the method use in the Trench Hammer Expansion. Damage in ranged attacks is fixed, by default, and then modified by the roll of a d6(one up or one down or left alone) and by cover. Units are removed when they reach 0 remaining hit points and on average, infantry can take 7 hit points of damage. 

Units can recover lost hit points through various orders. 

Unlike Trench Hammer, HoD doesn't assume leaders on the table, nor does it put an emphasis on a leader being able to give orders to a nearby unit - this reflects, I believe, the difference between the nature of command-and-control in WWI and WWWI, where squads operated more on their own initiative. Leaders are one of several possible character types that are included in HoD, so they can be added, but they function in a different way - which I have not yet tested.

Speaking of, reading a set of rules is helpful to get a sense of the layout and mechanisms, but it's in playing that I learn the most, so I set out a scenario featuring two platoons, each with MG support, fighting over a small village/intersection, as suggested in the book, for a first game. Control of the objective would be determined by controlling the majority of buildings.

US 1st squad (followed by their MG) enters from the north east.

Two German squads enter from the south.

Germans get one of their squads into a building first.

US 1st squad enters a building opposite Germans and open fire. Return fire is devastating and then the Germans poured on more during their activation. 

US 2nd squad has captured the half-timbered building and 3rd squad moved up to replace 1st squad. However, the Germans decide to advance to capture the vacated building, too. 

3rd squad reaches the building first and throws the Germans back in close assault.

An out of sequence picture of the largely ineffectual MG team.

The Germans countercharge the 3rd squad and are thrown back again and then eliminated by fire from 2nd squad.

 

A shot of the largely ineffectual German MG team.

Firefights between the various squads (and the US MG which finally starts hitting) eliminates both of the remaining German squads.

With only the German MG team remaining, the US captured the objective at the cost of one squad.

The game played smoothly with minimal reference to the rules PDF. This owed much, I imagine, to my familiarity with Trench Hammer. The rules themselves are mostly clear, and when they weren't, a more careful reading tended to answer my question. 

The game had the feeling of Crossfire without having to cover the table in massive amounts of terrain or constantly evaluating defensive fire. This brings up one of my favorite parts of the Hammer system and that is the fact that a unit that is fired on or close assaulted will return fire automatically except at Long Range. The result is that I don't miss reaction fire and I don't find myself having to maintain an awareness of whether a moving unit could be fired on by the enemy or at what point in the move that would be best to do.

Speaking of Crossfire, I should note that HoD has a clock mechanism, like I've seen used in Crossfire. It has potential, but perhaps my playing area was too large (4' square) for the unadjusted measurements and the sides took two full turns of movement before any firing. When there is no firing, the clock advances 2d6 minutes for each of those turns and this case went from 36 minutes (randomly determined at the start of the game) down to 15 remaining when contact was made. Time actually ran out before either side had even lost a squad let alone captured the objective.

I should also note that I didn't use any the Support rules or anything outside of the basic rules, just to get a feel for things - which, again, was suggested by the rules.

My outlook on my WWII collection has changed as a result of this game. Another game of just infantry and then one involving armor are most certainly merited.

Oh, and for the curious:

The German figures are Airfix and Airfix copies, and reissued Matchbox.  The tripod MG team is Classic Toy Soliders.

The US figures are primarily W. Britain "Big Red 1" figures (including the MG) with Toy Soldiers of San Diego filling out the ranks.