Small Unit Actions During the German Campaign in Russia

This recently arrived in my mailbox and it has been worth far more than the modest purchase price already.

Small Unit Actions During the German Campaign in Russia, Department of the Army, July 1953

Now, I'll be the first to note that you can find this publication free of charge online- legally from https://history.army.mil/catalog/pubs/22/22-2.html (thanks to Chris for the link!)- but I wanted a print copy. I tend to hate reading long form things, like books, on a screen after working on a screen all day.

The fold-out maps are great:

And there are many included in the pages of the book itself:

They're all just begging to be used for scenarios or campaigns (and the text gives all of the details you could want).

[At that point, I'll probably print them from one of the online versions. ]

The Library Book Pt. 2 : A Game Using The Quests of Brin The Barbarian

Due to an exhausting few days at work and preparations for a performance Saturday night, I've had no time for gaming or blog activity (my apologies to those who thoughtfully posted comments on previous posts, my replies are forthcoming!). However, last night, I had a little time and decided to
put something on the table.

So, let us rejoin our hero on his quest to return an overdue and ancient tome to the library...

Following the road through the dreadful dark forest, our hero was none too surprised when a yellow-skinned goblin appeared before him, demanding he turn over his valuables. Replacement fees are far worse than late fees, and so it was that the battle was joined.

Unfortunately, in his haste to cast a paralysis spell our hero fumbled one of the words and the spell fizzled.

The goblin was not at all impressed. 

A blurry close-up.

And to add to our hero's surprise at his failure, a second goblin appeared at the edge of some trees.

And then a third!

The bow armed yellow fellow was suitably nervous engaging a spell caster and let his arrows fly with apparently no particular destination in mind. The other two charged in madly and laid some wallops on our hero that he would not soon forget.

Weakened by the failed spell and the blows of his assailants, he had no option but to try to out run the humanoids. He would not willingly give the cretins a penny.

The goblins followed and the archer, having finally calmed his nerves, let loose an arrow that struck home. Our hero staggered and then all went black.

The goblins admire their handiwork.

Is this the end of our hero?

I should think not. Tune in for the next installment!


*****
A quick and fun game,that went not at all how I imagined and was just the thing after a tiring few days.

Secrets of the Quilters

I mentioned awhile back that I had acquired some fabric to make a new square grid ground cloth.

As I had made a squared cloth once before, I figured "This will be easy." Famous last words.

While using fabric paint in a similar, but not quite matching color of the cloth, to indicate vertices worked well, the size of the squares fluctuated wildly. I figured this was in large part due to working with a 12" ruler and a only slightly larger square.

A reasonable but wrong conclusion.

My roommate sews quite a bit and has a proper yard stick and a humongous square. Even with these tools my squares varied considerably. The inescapable conclusion was that this was more of a "me problem" than a problem of the tools. Rulers are apparently outside of my skill set.

I realized, after I thoroughly botched the grid on this cloth that the last time I did this I had a bird-house with a 6" square base that I used as a template. Even if I still had the bird-house, I want to move to 5" squares. Making my own template this time didn't occur to me but if it had, well, I clearly have issues measuring (never mind cutting) and I feel it likely that I would have run into a similar problem.

To soothe my battered ego, I made a grid on some kraft paper using pencil, so I could erase as needed. Twenty or thirty times erasing squares and a few hours measuring was all it took. Sigh.

An experiment. A battalion of 3 infantry companies and a heavy weapons company + regimental support from an ATG coy. and a howitzer coy. Also I have yet to redo the bases in a uniform fashion.

"Someone," I thought, "must make square templates."

Of course, they do. You can buy 6" square cork tiles or even MDF - well, not coasters, but that's what I'm calling them - coasters. But, it turns out, quilters are way ahead on this. Yes, quilters.

They use laser cut acrylic squares (ruled or not). And they come in all sorts of sizes (the squares. I mean, I guess the quilters do, too). And, hold on to your hats, but there are HEXAGONS for quilters!

Quilter's hexagon template. Picture "borrowed" from Amazon.

Now, I am fond of the humble square. Bob Cordery's original Portable Wargame is a charming sight, in large part, I think, due to the simplicity of the squares. However, there is an argument to be made for using hexagons, particularly in the 20th Century and onward, where gathering up great masses in orderly lines and ranks fell out of favor.

That being said, I have trouble enough marking up the cloth with four-sided grid spaces, never mind six-sided, so I decided to stick with squares for now.

I ordered an acrylic square ruler (like the one pictured below) to test this out but if it works, and I suspect it will, I may consider a hex next and make one cloth of each.

Square quilter's ruler. Picture "borrowed" from Amazon.

Trying Out the Sorcery Rules for 'The Quests of Brin The Barbarian'

On Monday night, my enthusiasm for The Quests of Brin The Barbarian by Maudlin Jack Tar continued and I broke out a few of my 28mm minis to test out the sorcery rules.

I set up and played the same basic scenario three times.


Our hero:

To set the tone and give our game at least the most minimal of flavor, let us say our hero was headed on the road to the Library at Stahlhelm to return a rare, and overdue, tome, when he was set upon by brigands (my favorite enemy in these scenarios I guess).

In the first attempt at the scenario, our hero barely survived:

It played quickly - he summoned 5 skeletons off the bat and though most of them ended up crumpled in a heap early on, they served their purpose well.

In the second run through, our hero met his fate by the sword of the brigand leader (in true pulp fashion, instead of killing him, the brigands brought him to the lair of the one they call Master):

I had time for one more game, so why not? Besides, I was still getting the hang of the sorcery rules, which aren't complex but require some record maintenance during and between turns,  not to mention some tactical finesse (not my strong suit) to make the best use of.

As for the third game?

The brigands appeared out of the woods with the smugness of those who think they have found an easy mark.

Our hero on the road facing a shield-ish wall.

 Our hero was in no mood for the shenanigans of marauders and summoned three animated skeletons to his aid with his dark powers.

Swords, spears and shields crashed!

The brigand leader was at once struck down by one of the undead in a single blow, but one of the skeletons fell equally quickly.

An overview of the fight so far. The dice indicate how many SP remain. I'd do this on a record sheet ordinarily but for illustrating the damage here, the dice make more sense.

Our hero moved to distance himself from the oncoming rush (do note, he could have moved one square further, I don't know what I was thinking. I rarely do.). The skeleton archer did its job to protect its master and struck down the red shirt (who was no doubt destined to die on this mission).

Our hero surveys the skelly's handiwork.

But it too was not long for its second trip through this world and with but one skeleton left, occupied in a struggle with the fellow in the snappy blue tunic, the brigands closed in on our hero.

What shall become of our hero?

As worried as we may have been, to our hero it was no great matter.

Calling upon arcane forces, he again summoned the dead to his aid, thus balancing the scales. And, quite helpfully, they appeared in key positions (all within 3 squares of the caster, of course).

A turn of fortunes as the skeletons appear among the ranks of the brigands.

What had seemed a close run thing, suddenly was not. And at least one brigand turned tail and ran before the undead claimed him for their tally.

The brigands are defeated, their bodies left to rot and provide future armies of the undead should our hero need to call upon them.

With all of the brigands dead or having fled,  our hero continued his journey. He would accrue not one more day of fines.

Our hero prepares to follow the road into the dark woods on his way to Stahlhelm.

Two Movies of the Eastern Front: Demoted (aka Degraded aka Degraded Officer) and Lieutenant (aka Lieutenant Suvorov)

I have been woefully neglectful in documenting my movie watching of late - I assure you, June was a panapoly of WWII themed movies, mostly centered on D-Day. Some were quite good, a few were terrible.  Perhaps at some point, I'll revisit those I liked and make mention of them here. However,  I recently watched two Russian movies featuring lieutenants and since they are fresh on my mind, I'll just talk about them instead.


The first, Demoted (available via Amazon Prime video, at least in the US), is the story of a platoon leader, who refused an order to advance his men into certain death, and his escorts on their way to his court martial.

There is at least one truly WTF? moment - which you'll know when you see it, and it might be based on historical fact, I don't know - but mostly it's a drama about honor, duty vs. doing the right thing, and other high-minded topics. And while it's not the greatest movie ever made, it was entertaining and I really enjoyed the character of the old man and the bits of wisdom he dispensed. The ending was strange and artsy and I suspect it was making some kind of statement, but I'm terrible at reading into visual symbolism.

There isn't a lot of fighting of the Germans in this one, but what there is, a classic last stand, could make a fun small scale skirmish with about a squad per side.  One Hour Skirmish Wargames would work well.

I'd keep the German motivation pretty low in this one - while the motivation for the Soviets is a bit higher, say 2 for the Germans and 3 for the Soviets. The Soviets have fewer men and several of them are completely immobile, but rank the old man the highest leader on the table and give him another skill or two (watch the movie, make your choice) and do something similar for the demoted lieutenant. If the German leader is killed, any remaining Germans will retreat, but the Soviets will stand to the last.

The other film, Lieutenant or Lieutenant Suvorov  (available on Prime video in the US as well as on Youtube) is about a lieutenant and a few stray soldiers who survive a German attack and find themselves defending the lieutenant's home town. If you can excuse the requisite romance subplot which suffers from the usual thinness, the movie is enjoyable, and includes a rarely seen character: a former member of the Russian White army. From a wargame  perspective, there are two small skirmishes that could make suitable gaming material.

 

In one, a small motorcycle recon group approaches the center of town and is spotted by a lone Soviet sentry. Start the game with the Germans in the center of the town and the sentry just noticing they are there. Once shooting starts, have the lieutenant and remaining Soviet soldiers arrive on turns determined by die roll or move them from the edge of the table towards the town center. It should take each group more than one activation to reach the fighting.

 

The second is a simple delaying action. 

 

A small German convoy of a few mixed vehicles approaches a recently evacuated village along a narrow road through marshy area and are ambushed by a handful of Soviets, armed with an ATG  with limited rounds and a limited number of grenades per soldier as well. 

 

The Soviets need to delay the Germans from reaching the village.The Germans need to eliminate the Soviets or get at least one vehicle off the opposite end of the map.

 

I'd probably use a turn limit victory condition, say 8-10 turns (That can be a lot for something like OHSW or very little, depending on the Jokers) for the Soviets to win. Vehicles can't pass each other but it should be possible for the Germans to push vehicles off the road into the marsh (perhaps using a tank). If a vehicle tries to go around another, there should be some mechanism for them becoming bogged down and immobilized, although any mounted guns would continue to function.

The Quests of Brin The Barbarian

Every once in awhile, I come across a set of rules that I cannot wait to get on the table - so it was this morning when I read The Quests of Brin The Barbarian by Maudlin Jack Tar, based on the works of Eric and William Knowles.

This is a short and splendid set of rules for very low figure count games with tremendous old school fantasy flavor. It evokes for me a very 1970s proto role-playing game feeling and looks capable of reproducing the exploits of Conan, Thongor, and other loin clothed adventurers, as well as those of the armored knights in dungeons variety.

I have quite a few fantasy figures - mostly unpainted, of course - in 15mm and 28mm, metal, plastic, and paper (I love paper fantasy flats). They don't get much love, lately except when my son breaks them out. This set of rules will change that. In 54mm, I have knights and Saracens, and some of the monsters in 28mm work just fine as opponents in this scale, too.

Unable to resist the allure any further, and wanting to keep the encounter above ground, I threw down the only grid surface I had handy that wasn't a dungeon tile  (a two-inch grid, but treated as 1 inch for the rules), grabbed a Britain's knight and some Deetail Saracens (playing the role of thieving brigands in the country-side) and set to it.

The tools of adventure!
And I apologize profusely for misspelling Maudlin Jack's name!

The battle was tense - as our hero was incapable of rolling higher than a 1 for initiative. Fortunately, he was a bit handier with his weapon than his attackers were with theirs. In the end, he was victorious, although badly wounded (reduced to but 4 SP, after starting with 15) - hopefully he'd reach the nearest inn before he was set upon by some other foe, be they beast, man, or monster.

Maudlin Jack just added sorcery rules (that update is how they came across my radar) but I have not had a chance to try them. This evening, however, I will break out the 28mm figures (I don't have suitable 54mm wizardy figure) and have a go with them.

Down by the River (On a Grid, Not in a Van)

Friday night presented me with some time to play a game and so I decided to try my hand at "The River" from Dick Bryant's 2x2 Crossfire Scenarios. In this scenario, we see the Army Black trying to cross a river into Army Red territory, where they need to capture the building and occupy the woods on the right side of the map, with the majority of their force.

The rules used are my own Company Fire (link on the right hand side).

Army Red starts hidden - I used counters, a mix of blanks and real units. Army Black moves onto the bottom row of the table to start the game.

Immediately Army Black's right platoon came under fire .

And yet again!

As luck had had it, Army Red had occupied Black's objective. Perhaps there were spies in Army Black's HQ?

An untold amount of lead was spent as squads on both sides engaged in heavy fire fights and were pinned down. Having pinned the Red squad in the bunker, Army Black gambled and sent 2nd platoon to cross the bridge, hoping they wouldn't end up stuck there.

To their great benefit, their PL coordinated effective group fire on the Red MG positioned in the house on the right and temporarily took the fight out of it.

A Black smoke barrage arrived to protect them from the Red squad in the woods.

And then a second barrage left them with only the pinned Red squad in the bunker to worry about.

Firing as they advanced under cover of yet more smoke, they took out the Red MG for good along with  the rifle squad and PL in the house.

A Red squad which had been firing on Black's right quickly moved to reoccupy the house and almost as quickly the advancing Black squad close assaulted them.

The Red soldiers did not go down however .

It took a second effort to remove them and the Black squad captured the house.

Meanwhile, Black's advance of first platoon across the bridge met stiff resistance from the Red mortar, the squad in the bunker, and the artillery raining down, called in by the Red FO, who was also safely ensconced in the bunker.

Their losses, though not numerous, were enough that Army Black would not be able to meet their victory objectives entirely. 

******

I called the game once it passed 30 on the "play clock" (using a system I found somewhere online - roll 1d6 after each defender initiative. When the total is 21 - or 30 in this case - the game is over.). It was also getting late. 

Because Army Black had captured the house, but would not be able to get the majority of their force into the objectives (less than a majority of their units remained on the table), I called it a draw. The soldiers of Army Red put up a spirited, if costly (2 squads and a PL) defense.

There were a few issues I had with my own rules - the group fire of 3 squads in a space with a PL was ridiculous (SEVEN DICE when attacking a space that provides cover). A simple option is to limit group fire to no more than two units. However, I'm also not sure on allowing 3 rifle squads to occupy a space. I might limit it to two units + a single mounted figure. Or perhaps limit it to 1 rifle squad or similar (SMG, engineer), 1 other unit (mortar, MG, vehicle, etc), and 1 single mounted figure, and change group fire to be units in adjacent spaces and require a PL or CC to be within 1 or maybe 2 spaces of each of the units involved. 

This was a fun scenario despite the incredulous reaction I had to the group fire. It seems to me to be a tough one for the attacker to win (at least with my rules) as the bunker provides an added cover bonus. This virtually assures that either artillery or close assault will be required to take out anyone inside (or some ridiculous group fire I guess would work too) while those inside have an unobstructed view of the attacker's left and the bridge, as well as being able to cover defenders in the house across the road.  Pinning the defender and judicious use of smoke (or a lot of luck) are necessary to get troops across the bridge and into a position where they can close on either the house or the bunker. 

For reference sake,  here's my converted grid map. I chose 6x6 rather than 8x8 because I like the more compact size. In the event, I went with 7 wide by 6 deep, in order to put the road in a space of it's own rather than on the borders, as that made things difficult to judge with respect to the bridge.