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.

New Cloth, New Look

I present without fanfare, a preview of my new ground cloth:

This picture, mostly lit by daylight on an overcast day. is the closest I could get to capturing the color.

Pictures do not quite capture the richness of the color, but in-person it is exactly what I want. 

I contemplated quite a few options: fleece - plain or printed, felt - plain or painted, neoprene, painted plywood, flocked mats, etc. over multiple weeks. In the end I decided on microsuade in "celery", ordered it early in the week and it arrived Friday, several days earlier than expected. It was relatively inexpensive at under $30 usd for 3 yards, 58" wide, and is easy to clear of cat hair.  The latter was a driving factor in choosing this material. 

One can't can't get a new cloth and not setup a game, so Friday night that's what I did. Stay tuned!

Recover the Tiger Revisited

British Paras vs Waffen SS: Small Skirmish

On Friday, I watched a short documentary on Arnhem Bridge, and that got me itching to get my British Paratroopers (King & Country and Conte metal figures) on the table.

I decided since I was getting those out, I might as well pit them against my Conte and Britain's Waffen SS.

Unfortunately, I only have five of each. So I was looking at some kind of small skirmish.

Rather than spend a lot of time looking for something suitable or making something that might not be fun,  I went with a simple scenario I first encountered in MG-42 (Two Hour Wargames) many years ago and have enjoyed playing many times and with different rules: a German half-squad with MG-42 has taken up a position in a farmhouse with a clear shot at anyone using the road that passes in front of it, the paratroopers have been assigned to take out the MG.

For the rules, I broke out "Kokoda Trail" by Kevin White, available for free download from the Lone Warrior website. I used to play these rules fairly often (also many years ago), but it had been awhile. They are pretty simple, and you need to fill in some blanks on your own, but I really enjoy the card initiative and card based attacks.

The country.

Guard out front.

MG team in the house. Pretend they are on the 2nd floor.

Brits got the first shots at the guard, but then multiple German cards had them all come running out to join in the fray (I diced for their location / actions

Caught in the open.

Flank attack from the woods.

Charge! (and grenade but ineffective and then it went further south)

Avenging a fallen comrade!

Not quite.

And another fail.

Things got a little silly at the end when the MG team moved out the back so they could get  a shot at the last attacker. In hand to hand the our hero would take out two Germans.

But alas, it was not to be. 

I played nine turns. Some of them went very fast, with the stop card coming up after just a few activations. It was enjoyable with just a few bumps. Although grenades are mentioned in the rules, there aren't really rules for them. And it's not clear whether hand to hand combat is instant death for the loser or not - I decided it was, which motivated my attempt to close on the Germans, but it just wasn't in the cards (please pardon my 'dad joke', but I am a dad after all).