Eastern Europe, Summer 1944

My friend Matt and I threw down another 28mm WW2 game on the 4th of July - and - this time another friend, John, joined us. We continued to experiment with the SDS/LBSDS engine for WW2 Squad-level actions. This battle did not have a particular plan in so much as the idea was to toss everything out onto the table and experience mayhem and chaos and as many rules as we could.

Matt

John (and Buddha)

Before Matt and John arrived, I created a battlefield for us. The table is about 8'x5'. I created two uneven and hopefully interesting deployment zones for the forces. I randomly rated the quality of all of the units in both sides.

Viewed from the Soviet Deployment Zone

We randomly determined sides, via die roll. I ended up with the Germans and Matt and John with the Soviets. We then allowed the Soviet player to place some defenses on the field, anywhere on the field that was not in the German deployment zone. Some wire fences, sandbag positions and four small minefields were placed. When placing a minefield, they had to mark it (secretly) as either "anti-personnel", "anti-tank" or "mixed". We did not use any "dummy" minefields this day.

On the German side were 28 units and on the Soviet side were 26. This gives each army a break point of 14 and 13 respectively. We deployed units somewhat randomly, via a die roll, where the loser would have to place a command on the table. The Soviets ended up with the bulk of their units deployed before the Germans had to place too much, so deployment fell into the German favor.

Then we got down to the fighting. Various things went well for both sides, each of us experienced some joys and some frustrations. A particular frustration for me was that the Panther section was rated at a "2" (poor) and I did not get to involve them as much as I desired. A particular joy for me was the Puma section, out-classed by the T-34/85, managing to get 2 DIS on it! The Puma soon met the presumed fate however, but went down gloriously to some  Soviet infantry (and in the process exposing them to galling fire from supporting German infantry.

I know the Soviet players cheered the destruction of a section of Tiger I's! The Soviets also did a great job with the wire and the minefields, they totally prevented an assault directly into the larger town. Also, the Soviets had an armored car section (armed only with a machine gun) that survived against long odds and totally disrupted the activities of a German infantry platoon.




My panzergrenadiers did pretty well in a last ditch attempt to salvage the battle, but it was tool late, I did not well-handle them and they arrived just after their armored support had already been ravaged. I tried to do too much in too many areas of the field - mediocre everywhere and powerful nowhere.

The Puma Scores!

Later, the Puma is about finished...

The Famous Soviet Armored Car!

PAK-40 Support moves thru the woods

Soviets take the larger town

Panzergrenadiers in a last-ditch effort

We'll continue the experiment further. We really enjoy the reaction mechanic and the uncertainty that SDS delivers. The game play seems to promote infantry-armor cooperation - which we think important. Tanks are not unstoppable behemoths, if you don't support them with infantry, they are vulnerable to enemy infantry and guns.

We played four complete turns, which had the game 90% decided in terms of breakpoints, and then barbequed burgers and brats and relaxed for the remainder of the evening. When we called the game, the Germans had a breakpoint score of 12 (2 away from losing) and the Soviets only a breakpoint score of 2 (the Germans were not lucky at all this day). I don't know how long we actually played - we were consuming delicious beer and we Skyped in my brother so he could say "hey" and see the game and interact with us for a while. I saw on another person's blog that he has played a couple of games via Skype. I wonder if that is worth a shot with Ben?

It's a Tiger!

Got the Tiger I and the halftrack finished and based up...that Tiger is pretty ferocious looking! It's Wittman's, from Warlord Games. Can't wait to see them on the table! Maybe Sunday afternoon...maybe...

More 1/56 WW2 Vehicles

Was able to complete a few more of the Warlord Games 1/56 WW2 vehicles. First up we have a Soviet armored car. It is only armed with a machine gun, but should serve its purpose well: scoot around, scout, cause a little high-speed mayhem.

Next up is the ubiquitous Panther tank. I thought I had some German national marking decals, but I did not, so I need to order some.

Then, the classic, late-model PzKpfw IV. Again, needs some national markings (soon).

Lastly, a Soviet SU-100. Anyone who has seen the classic images of armored vehicles moving through the high grasses of the Steppe - leaving a set of tracks behind - can see the effect I am going for with this basing. I am just not sure about how it looks. Your thoughts?

A Couple of my Favorite AFVs

Was able to complete a couple of my favorite armored vehicles. These are the excellent Warlord Games 1/56 scale vehicles. The majority of these models are resin, just the guns and hatches are metal (The exception being the motorcycle, which is all metal).

I am a big fan of the Hetzer. I mean, it just looks cool to me. Sure it is only a short 75mm gun and lightish armor (on par with the PzKpfw-III)...but it is well sloped and a sleek looking machine.

The Puma is my all-time favorite armored car. 50mm gun and a lot of mobility! And bad-ass looking too!

As for the motorcycle, I thought it would make a nice little recon team...you know, just the type of unit that can sometimes be a pain in the butt but not a real threat. Could also be used as a "messenger" type of unit.

Fun stuff...more to come.

Puma

Hetzer

Motorcycle Recon/Messenger

Busy, busy, busy...

I have been pretty busy since the last post...besides work, I have been laser focused on a couple of Microsoft certifications. My downtime from all of that has been pretty free of gaming but I have still managed to paint more 28mm Three Kingdoms Chinese and get about ten or so 28mm WW2 vehicles into various stages of paint.

Regarding the WW2 vehicles, I got a few of Warlord's excellent 1/56 scale vehicles. Germans and Russians. Americans in a future order. When finished, I'll get some images of those up.

About the only gaming I have done has been working on a 28mm variant of WW2 rules based upon the Song of Drums and Shakos engine...but not individual soldiers...squad level. I am really enjoying the mechanic, feels really skirmishy to me...but at the platoon level of skirmishy!

I am basing the miniatures the same as for Brent's WW2 game, so that I get double usage from them. Of course, Brent's game is in the far future with respect to a timeline. I am good with that, I really want to get into Pulse of Battle!!!

Matt came over Sunday and we managed to play a game of this experiment, and really had a good time with it. I'll toss some photos up below. We staged this battle in Estonia in 1944 - Russians on the the offensive.

This Saturday evening, the Austrian Napoleonics campaign continues at Brent's...very much looking forward to that! I'll post again on Sunday about all that...

I took these photos with my iPad, and edited them using SnapSeed. SnapSeed is a really awesome app! The user interface simply rocks! Give it a try! I used some of the groovy effects to try to get a little drama in the shots...

Soviet Armor rolls up with infantry support

Big fight in the town

Intense firefight - small arms, tanks, mortars and at-guns!

I made some markers. "Activation" and "Hits"

Estonian Home Army forces assault the Soviets

Field of Battle WW2 : Follow Me

Was able to participate in another squad-level test game for WW2 Field of Battle. This one pitted my Soviets against Brent's Germans. The scenario provided opportunities to test various aspects of the new rules - defenses, wire and armored panzer grenadiers.Brent also blogged about the game here.

Terry and I commanded the Soviets and Greg C and Brent commanded the Germans - Greg R had a previous commitment and arrived after the beginning of the battle - Brent relinquished his command to upon Greg's arrival.

The scenario depicted summer of 1943 at the beginning of Operation Citadel.The Germans advanced over rolling steppes towards two small Russian villages that were defended by troops partially entrenched. The center of the field was really open terrain except for various hills that broke up some lines of sight. The main Russian village was located in the center area. The northern flank of the field had a stream and some woods and was the location of the second, smaller, Russian village. The southern flank of the field had a good sized wooded area and a large hill.

Brent sent me some information to rate the Soviets while he rated the Germans. I figured that in 1943, Soviet units would be all over the map in quality...from veterans of Stalingrad to fresh arrivals from the far east. So, I rolled on a random table that allowed them a chance to be rated equally from "Raw" to "Veteran" (all five categories). As a result, the Soviet forces really were a mixed bag. That was kind of fun really. There were some great units and some really not good ones!

Anyway, the Russians deployed in a manner that defended the two villages and the ground between them. Entrenchments and wire aided in the defensive layout. The German deployment avoided the open center by placing some infantry on the northern flank to pin down some Soviets while a concentration of armor and infantry (including armored panzer grenadiers) deployed on the southern flank. This force would be ordered to flank the Soviet position by moving through the woods and sweeping in from the hill in overwhelming force.

The battle started a little slowly for the Germans - they successfully laid smoke in front of many Soviet positions, but that smoke did little as it cleared before the attack was truly in progress. During this time, Soviet high explosive rounds from mortars and guns did good enough work on the German holding force to drive it off of the hill it deployed on.

Once this threat had been neutralized, Soviet infantry and anti-tank assets began to withdraw from the center to deploy southwards to face the German armor and infantry that had finally jumped off.

The German strike force, lead by the StuG-III's (long 75's) and backed by the panzer grenadiers began to roll over the hilltop and towards the flank of the Soviet position. The Panther tanks swept wide to try to complete the encirclement. At the top of the hill, the panzer grenadiers dismounted and moved forward with the mounts providing fire support.

The Soviet infantry that had redeployed from center immediately rushed to assault the StuG-III's. The Soviets, lacking much in terms of man-portable anti-tank capabilities, were decimated. The remnants of this assault quickly fell back - they were soon overrun by the panzer grenadiers.

A fortunate artillery strike (from off-board assets) next eliminated one of the StuG-III's and nearby mortar teams took out one of the half-tracks.

At this time, two T-34/85's entered the field and engaged the Panther tanks - for the rest of the battle, these units engaged in the classic Eastern front tank-v-tank confrontation! Neither could gain the upper hand until the end...but kept each other engaged and out of the main fight.

The coup de grace was delivered by the panzer grenadiers and their half-tracks - wow, Greg R really rolled in and kicked butt! The Soviets were soon drained of army morale and adding points to the German totals. At least in this sector, Operation Citadel was off to a good start for the Germans!

Thanks for the fun gaming last night fellas!

Kampfgruppe: Normandy Game

Enjoying the last day of a 4 day weekend. I took some time off to relax and enjoy our club's three-day gaming blow out. However, yesterday (Sunday) I did not go to the meeting, as the games being played did not interest me - and I played Friday night and most of the day Saturday. I planned a simple Sunday of watching football and painting 28mm French Napoleonics.

But - Matt called. He's a great guy, someone I am fortunate to be friends with - and he was looking for something to do and wondering about the games going on at the club. So, change of plans. Matt came over and we hung out and drank beer and listed to football while we played a game of Kampfgruppe: Normandy (KG:N)!

Since getting the rulebook, I have been excited to play and Matt was game, so we decided to improvise a scenario. We decided to set up a very terrain intensive table - hills, hedgerows, roads, fields, woods, buildings, everything - to put the game through its paces. Then we divided out roughly even forces for Germans and Americans. We don't care about even forces typically - but we improvised a meeting engagement and thought it best.

The Germans had the following:
1   PzKpfw-IV G
1   Marder-III M
2   Medium Mortar Teams
2   Heavy Machinegun Teams
1   Infantry Platoon (1 HQ Section and 3 Squads - all four units with 1 panzerfaust)
1   PAK-40 ATG

The Americans had the following:
1   Sherman M4 76mm
1   M8 Greyhound
2   Medium Mortar Teams
2   Heavy Machinegun Teams
1   Infantry Platoon (1 HQ Section and 3 Squads - each squad with a bazooka)
1   Medic
1   3" ATG
1   Bazooka Team

In KG:N, the types of units you have give a certain number of morale points each - it turns out that both sides had 17 morale points for the battle. There are events that cause you to draw a morale chit from a sack - the morale chit will indicate the number of morale points lost, ranging from 1 to 4. There are a few "special" chits int he bag too but none where drawn during the game!

So we went off to battle and had a great time. We both enjoyed the game and would play again. We think we played for 4 hours and 30 minutes - but this was due to the slowness of a first game, trying to figure things out. We did not mind playing that long - but the next game will go quicker.

What concepts in the rules were enjoyed and appreciated?
1. Infantry versus infantry close assaults. Costs you a single casualty when you initiate. Unlike other games, only the initiator will cause losses. Odd, but it does work within the context of the rules.
2. Suppressive Fire versus Direct Fire. Makes the player make important decisions.
3. Artillery support - feels right, hard to get sometimes - which is right for this level of a game.
4. The ability to place a unit of overwatch.
5. The fact that I could not move all of my units at will. The command system works well. You get a variable amount of points to spend activating units - and it is usually never enough!

What concepts were not enjoyed and appreciated?
1. The rules are easy and sections are very well laid out and presented - but some things are buried in weird places.
2. We felt that a sniper needs a longer range to be worthwhile. Maybe even a spotting bonus.

Would we play again? Assuredly. We enjoyed the system and the game and the outcome!
Would we recommend the rules to fellow gamers? Yes. Obviously what is cool to one person is not always cool to another.

Onto the images...