More ACW experimentation - Bakers Creek 1863

After my rather unsatisfactory experiment with various changes at Stones Creek, I toned the modifications to my ACW rules down a bit and reverted to units facing a hexside, not a hex vertex. What works really well for Napoleonics just seemed to break everything in the ACW, possibly because units are more mobile? Who knows, but I know a bad game when I see one. I kept the additional activation modifiers, tidied up the turn sequence and retained the more generous road movement and rallying near the  enemy distances as they work better with a hex grid. I also upped the Army break point to 66% of infantry bases as the rules are so bloody armies were breaking tooo quickly.

It turned out one of my regular blogging acquaintances was having an ACW month over at https://angrydackel.com/ and he made the brilliant suggestion to adopt the same fire/move sequence as I use in the Napoleonic set. So, with the latest set of revisions in place, off we go for another play test. Grant vs Pemberton.

This time we are at Bakers Creek in 1863 where US Grant faced off against JC Pemberton. There is a proper scenario for this in the V&B ACW scenario book, but I wanted a quick and decisive engagement, so instead modelled the scenario on OHW Scenario 7 'Flank Attack'. Grant had managed to outflank Pemberton, although in the real battle, it was more like a 50:50 split between the pinning force and the flanking force.

To win the Union needs exclusive control of the hill while the Confederates just need one unit left on it to win, but have the huge disadvantage of being surprised from their right flank.

I used Neil Thomas's ACW army generator for this. The CSA have seven infantry units and two guns, two of the infantry are Green and two are Veteran. I used Zouaves for the Veteran units and put the Green ones in a three base wide line with one base in support (you can see them both on the front edge of the ridge with the guns). The seasoned and veteran units I just put in double ranked supported line, the best formation in Fire and Fury.

The CSA units all have to set up on the hill and all facing south. Limits of real estate force them to set up in at least two lines. I stacked their left flank in expectation of the Union attack. Fortunately they make a very unattractive melee target, being uphill, despite being flanked. 

Grants pinning force is two green infantry units, deployed the same as the CSA green units, plus a gun. The US guns are rifled, so more effective at range than the CSA. The two ridges are at long cannon shot but out of rifle range.

The flanking force has four seasoned and one veteran unit plus another gun, so the CSA have the edge in quality and position and equal numbers too. Grants strike force has superiority at the decisive point however. Both sides have a leader (Grant and Pemberton), needed for activation and can help with rallying.

There is little point charging the CSA units as being uphill the attackers can only hit them on 5+, so I'm going to move into close range and get a free point blank shot while the enemy pivot to face. Five units against three should give the US significant fire superiority.

The Union guns roar out and completely miss, the rest of the Union troops move forward. I've reverted to the old move system, so infantry can move two hexes straight ahead, but if they pivot they can only move one, but can pivot multiple times.

The green units shuffle slowly forward, keeping out of rifle range. On the right, the unit in the woods fires at long range while the other four close up - one of the benefits of the fire then move sequence. Both the guns and the supporting unit are now masked as they have a friendly unit halfway to the hill. Hills are assumed to be twice as high as units or woods for LOF purposes. Grant has accompanied one of the assaulting units, and Pemberton is the middle of the units defending the east side of the ridge.

The CSA mostly pass their activation checks (all within LOS of the CinC so anything but a 1) and variously pivot to face the threats. Annoyingly one of the reserve veteran units fails to activate so can only pivot in place, but  turns to set up a two hex move next turn.

The CSA guns concentrate on the green US units and chip off a couple of hits (lucky!).

Both sides have identical breakpoints, 19 bases lost. No bases lost yet though.

Things hot up. Despite being out of LOS of Grant the two green units move up the ridge from the south, while almost everyone else opens up at point blank range. Ouch! I've removed the restriction that fire has to spread evenly. It may be more realisiic but it makes the game dull. The US inflict enough losses to remove some bases and two CSA units are forced to retreat.

They are now horribly stacked up and if unable to retreat any more lose extra bases instead. I do allow units to interpenetrate if they start the turn facing in the same direction, so some of them still have a retreat route, but others don't. 

The CSA suddenly realise that the units which just retreated are out of sight on the reverse slope! They rally in place and each recover a base. The US are now in a tricky position as if they advance onto the ridge it is they who will be on the wrong end of a 2:1 firepower ratio. Umm, perhaps the CSA should have defended one hex back to start with....

The Union shoot away at the CSA units they can still see. That CSA unit in the top right is a veteran and quite resilient.

The CSA have committed all their reserves now as a US unit braves the ridge. The CSA Zouaves in the top right are apparently bullet proof and hang on! Surprisingly the US green units are doing quite well and force one of their opposite numbers to retreat. The CSA leave the gun behind as it still requires a morale check to assault frontally.

Hard pounding gentlemen! Both sides bang away and now it is a union green unit which retreats. The retired CSA green unit is busy trying to rally (it lost two bases to concentrated fire) but it is hard to rally green units (5+). The CSA gun withdrew to join another unit as it was a bit exposed on its own.

A bad hour for the Confederacy. Not one but two units go down demoralised by close range fire and then unable to retreat due to friends blocking the way. The other CSA battery is now exposed on its own, and the breakpoint (BP) count is well in the Union favour.

Now the Union starts to crack and the division on the ridge falls back, as do the Zouaves in the northeast. The CSA still control the ridge but are now compressed into an arc facing southeast. Grant can dimly be seen in the northeast. 

The union now has a choice to make. Spend a couple of turns rallying or push on? Grant opts to be aggressive and three US units crest the ridge from the southeast.

Both green US units would have joined them but they are both dithering (the green counters) as is the unit in the wood. Grant has moved to the very southeast now to better control the army from a central position as his other wing was out of sight before. 

The Union managed to drive one CSA unit back and the unit in the woods manages to rally. Everyone else blazes away.

The CSA also blaze away and one Union unit breaks and runs with two bases lost.

The Union keeps plugging away however and pushes the CSA back into the northwest corner. While trying to steady his troops, Pemberton is hit and carried from the field.  

Despite one last big effort by the CSA which pushes back another union unit, US fire tips the Confederates over their break point. 

The CSA only hope is to do the same to the US. Most of their units dither (losing the CinC makes failing their activation far more likely) but although they chip some hits off the US, at the end of the turn the US are still in the field while the Confederates are pulling back exhausted. A US victory.

That went much better than Stones River, and while there were periods of intense slugging, (as in so many ACW battles), the revised mechanisms all worked fine. I'm particularly pleased with the fire/move sequence which worked really well, and the new Army breakpoints prevent the game becoming endless as units rally, which was always a problem with the older system. The players will have to get used to managing the pace of combat though, as if they just chuck everything in, they are going to get burned out very quickly. I've got a couple of scenarios (Chickamauge and Chancellorsville) which I've only ever soloed, so I'd like to try them real players. They will be appearing in due course.

Operation Battleaxe with Megablitz 23.05

 Many years ago when Megablitz was still relatively new, I wrote up Operation Battleaxe as a training scenario with a detailed description of how to design an operational game, point up the units, sort out the terrain, logistics etc. I think it ended up on the old Megablitz yahoo group, and who knows if it survived the transition to groups.io.

Battleaxe is a great operational game as the forces and area involved are quite limited, and the real engagement only lasted a few days, but it contains scope for both broad manouvre and formal assault and obstacle clearance, reinforcements, supply, air power etc etc. It is the training scenario in Sam Mustafas 'Rommel' and regular readers will recall I also ran it using NQM when that was published last year.

 I first ran this scenario with Megablitz decades ago at the Sheffield club with my 6mm stuff and we got through the entire thing in a couple of hours, I'd planned to resurrect it for COW in 2025, partly for historical interest and partly as an introduction for people who'd never had a chance to play it. Sadly I couldn't go to COW last year, so I put it on at CALF 2026 instead.

At 1" = 1km my planned layout was something like this (one foot squares). I didn't bother to include Tobruk and Bardia as the battle was mainly fought around and west of Halfaya and Sollum. The battle starts on 15th June 1941 with Axis frontier defences at Halfaya, Sollum, Capuzzo, Point 206 and Hafid Ridge and 8th Panzer Regiment and a mixed battlegroup from 15th Panzer Division in reserve around Sidi Aziz in the north west. One of 15th Panzers rifle regiments (the 104th) had been distributed around the defences, along with various Italian units, and the divisional recce battalion was in a screen from Halfaya down to Bir el Khireigat along the frontier with Egypt.

Western Desert force had committed 4th Indian Division and 7th Armoured Division to write down the frontier defences and armour in the immediate vicinity although both divisions were still understrength after Operation Brevity. 4th Indian could only commit one brigade (!) and was reinforced with both 22nd Guards Brigade and 4th Armoured Brigade, somewhat improbably equipped with Matildas. 7th Armoured Division only fielded a single Armoured Brigade (4th) with just two Regiments of cruisers, although one had brand new Crusaders. between them they outnumbered 8th Panzer Regiment though.

This is how it ended up on the table. 7th Armoured division is down in the desert on the left. Half of 4th Indian is up on and behind the escarpment (Escarpment Force) while the rest are wending their way along the coats road in a huge traffic jam (Coast Force).

On the day I had four players for the game, Chris and Ian took the British, while Alex and Rob took the Axis. Only Chris had any experience of the game before, so I treated it very much as a tutorial session showing how the various mechanisms interacted.

View from the northwest. 8th panzer Regiment is around Sidi Azis with bits of 15th Motorcycle battalion and 33rd AT battalion. I left most of the Axis units offtable so the Allies could try and find them using their recce units.

The players soon got the hang of manouvering and 7th Armoured Div set off across the desert, being bombed occasionally by the Italian airforce while the various armoured car units probed and clashed with each other.

At Halfaya, the Indians discovered the Axis defences and bombed them while the various portions of 4th Indian ponderously deployed for a formal assault. 4th Armoured Brigade resisted the temptation to press on to Fort Capuzzo.

While the Indians deployed, 7th Armoured motored across the desert, uncovering the defences at Point 206. 15th Panzer had been unable to resist intervening though, and had already set off across the desert so the British armour headed in their direction (which of course was exactly what Wavell had originally wanted - to tempt the German armour into battle on unequal terms).

Halfaya descended into bloody chaos as the Indians attacked. Ian got a chance to find out how minefields worked, and despite the best efforts of his engineers, losses were heavy. The Axis held off the first two assaults but as night fell they were looking very battered. I don't think I've ever played Battleaxe without Halfaya falling eventually, although the Allied losses are usually grievous they assault before isolating the garrison.

And in the desert a great armoured clash took place, which given the force ratios (7th Support Group was well up supporting 4th Armoured Brigade), wasn't really going the Axis way.

It was fairly obvious after some time that we weren't going to make it to the 16th June, so we just ran through the overnight sequence (resupply, redeployment etc) as night fell, but didn't bother deploying 5th Light Division, which arrived from Tobruk overnight. Instead we finished early and had a washup about things worked, areas which might be improved or applied elsewhere etc. It probably wasn't the greatest game session I've ever run, but I think it achieved the aim of introducing the game mechanisms, even if we didn't finish the scenario. 

I suspect that is the last Megablitz game I'll ever run, as the world has moved on to a certain extent, but it has rekindled my interest in my own operational rules which borrow heavily from MB, and I've got plans for a couple of large scale games I'd like to run over the next year.

Cube4me counter trays

 As I seem to be having a bit of a foray back into boardgames, I was a bit dis-satisfied with some of my counter storage. The ziplock bags in "Unconditional Surrender" are fine, and a big step up from the brown envelopes (!) all my old Squad Leader counters are in. For a lot of games the counters are just rattling around in the box, which for something like Panzerblitz, is a real pain (where is that last T34/85 counter?).

Riding to the rescue came Tim with a recommendation for https://cube4me.com/ counter trays. A company based in Poland who make loads of game accessories including counter trays in a range of sizes. These A4 size ones have 20 individual compartments and tight fitting lids.

I bought half a dozen of them, three standard depth (right) and three slimline ones (left). The dimensions of the various options are on the website and they are excellent value for money with a quick delivery time.

One great feature are the tight fitting lids. Unlike the lids on SPI counter trays, these don't fall off when you turn the trays sideways or even upside down, and avoid your carefully sorted counters getting all jumbled up again.

I bought the trays specifically sized for AHGC book-case games, and here is one of the standard profile trays with one and a half sets of Panzer Leader counters neatly in the box. They are even big enough to take the dice. I'm really, really pleased with those, I've got a few games in mind for the counter tray treatment, and depending how I get on I may well by some more.

Sedan 1940

 Another interesting looking Dominion of the Blitzkrieg scenario. This one covers Guderians Panzer Korps assaulting Sedan after its famous march through the 'impassable' Ardennes which rather took the French by surprise. This scenario includes armoured units and attack aircraft, so is more likely to generate the type of 'breakthrough' battles typical of the early war period.

The general setup, this is roughly 18" x 18". The Meuse is in the middle, with Sedan in the large river bend. There are heights to the south overlooking the various river crossings, and to the north is the edge of the hilly and heavily wooded Ardennes.

The French. I must say for 'surprised' troops there are an awful lot of them! Up front we have three Regiments of the reserve 55th Division in bunkers and entrenchments along the Meuse. In support are the divisional artillery. All the 55th Div units are rated as 'unreliable', and that also restricts the artillery to a single fire mission. The infantry units are all dug in though, so if they stand, they will be hard to defeat.

We also have a Regiment from 71st Division in reserve (historically they conducted a counterattack at Le Haut du Wastia, which I've previously gamed using One Hour WW2). Finally we have the Char Bs of 2nd DCR, which historically were committed at Stonne, and which I've gamed already using NBC WW2.

Armoured units in these rules generally aren't that great individually - they fight as well as infantry (basic 5+ to hit) but do get to fight first, get a bonus for outflanking, and also have a chance to disrupt the movement of enemy reserves, increased by the presence of air support.  The French tanks are heavily armoured though so get a defensive (D) bonus. Both they and the 71st will have to weather the storm of Luftwaffe bombs to get there though.

The mighty panzers, representing 1st, 2nd and 10th Panzer divisions, although the Germans have four actual panzer units in the scenario (one is in reserve). Assume they are the three divisions and some sort of Corps reserve.

I've given each of these units three stands as they are divisions, not regiments, and 1st Panzer in the centre has a Pz IV and Sdkfz 251 as it is rated Elite. At the time it was one of the few units to have armoured halftracks, and it had a higher proportion of medium tanks than the other divisions which were mainly equipped with Panzer IIs.

Finally we have that huge He 111, representing the the 850 Stukas and medium Bombers of Luftflotte 2. An elite bomber unit, which is genuinely scary, a base to hit of 3+ AND it interdicts enemy reserve movement. Ouch.

Famously this engagement had been extensively wargamed by the Germans beforehand, and the operations orders issued were just the ones from the wargame with the dates changed. They are reproduced in Guderians 'Panzer Leader'.

A bit more of a worms eye view. I should probably have the 71st up on the heights and the Char Bs in the valley, but hey ho. These are all from my early war collection which have featured numerous times. The German tanks are all Peter Pig while the Char Bs are QRF. The French artillery piece is actually a 1/76th scale model of a 47mm gun which I've converted into a 1/100th scale 105mm.

The action opens with a bombing raid on Sedan - in the first turn the attacker can choose whether to bomb or attack with a ground unit. I assumed (erroneously) that you also got to attack in the sector bombed. In any case, it was ineffective and 1st Panzer was repulsed.

 

At some point the French have fired their artillery (the puff of smoke), but it obviously hasn't done any good. The Germans attack with air support on the left and the French run away. 10th Panzer have their bridgehead. The Char Bs try to fill the gap, but need a 4+ to move under air attack and fail.

This flank is now open, if the Germans make an outflanking attack from it, the French can roll to plug the gap again. The Germans can even attack French reserve units if there are none in the front line. That is very clever, and a nice way to represent an armoured breakthrough,

The French response is  muted, the Sedan garrison attacks but the fighting is indecisive (they had to pick the most advantageous sector, and that is it).

The Germans attempt a crossing with 2nd Panzer, but it is repulsed by the defenders despite the air support. I got this wrong as the attack should have ended with the (unsuccessful) bomber attack. It does actually say that in the rules, but you need to read them carefully,

The German reserves move up to plug the gap. The French don't have any bombers, and none of their tanks are opposing them, so this is automatic.

The reserves promptly vanish in anothe failed river assault.

And now the Germans are forced to commit their bombers to holding the line - imagine a series of interdiction raids. This precludes the bombers from conducting any more concentrated attacks, and is similar to gunners suddenly finding themselves holding the line. 

10th Panzer exploits its bridgehead to outflank and destroy the Sedan garrison. That gives the French a chance to move up reinforcements.

I got this wrong too. I assumed the only reserve penalty was because the French were facing German armour in each sector now the bombers were 'holding the line' so to speak, so success on a 2+. In fact if a side starts with reserve bombers, the penalty applies for the whole game, so it should have been 4+.

Anyway, 2nd DCR moved up to block 10th Panzer, while the 71st moved into Sedan opposite 1st Panzer.

1st Panzer promptly crossed the Meuse and routed the 71st! The French gunners now found themselves in the front line as they made their reserve roll.

Sadly for the French, they rolled 'activate centre' - the unreliable gunners ran away and 1st Panzer occupied the heights.

The Germans then got to choose a sector and 1st Panzer outflanked the last Regiment of the 55th on the Meuse, routing them. 2nd DCR counterattacked 10th Panzer but the action was indecisive. Reduced to one unit , a French defeat. Which of course was the historical result, but a hard fought battle nonetheless.

I was conscious that I had made some mistakes so re-read the rules carefully a few times. There is also a vey helpful example of play which funnily enough covers the Sedan scenario.

Having improved my understanding, time to go again.

The Germans open with a bombing raid on Sedan, which routs the defenders (they failed their reliability roll). Combat then ends, but effectively 1st Panzer now has a bridgehead over the Meuse. I've pushed an infantry stand over the river.

The French reinforcements fail to move up (needing a 4+ in the face of tanks supported by bombers).

There is an indecisive action in the right as the 55th engage 2nd Panzer, but at least the French stand.

1st Panzer then exploits the breakthrough with a flank attack on the left which routs the defenders along the river bank. You can either make a bomber attack OR a conventional attack. This attack allows the French to roll for reserves again, and the 71st move up to seal the breach. 2nd DCR fails to block 10th Panzer though, who also now have a bridgehead.

More indecisive fighting on the right between the 55th and 2nd Panzer.

Now the Germans ineffectively bomb 2nd DCR, while 10th Panzer makes an outflanking attack on the 71st. The French commit their artillery support, but the fighting is indecisive.

2nd DCR does however make its reinforcement roll and braves the German bombers to block 10th Panzer.

2nd Panzer is routed on the right, and reserves move up to take their place.

1st Panzer breaks out of Sedan supported by bombers, and the 71st flee. The brave French gunners of the 55th Division however managed to manouvre into place to block the panzers.

The French then manged to rout 2nd Panzer on the right (again).

Which leaves the Luftwaffe to hold the line. The Char Bs of 2nd DCR rumble into action and finish off 10th Panzer. 1st Panzer suddenly looks rather isolated as there are no more German reserves.

1st Panzer tries to outflank 2nd DCR but the move fails.

In turn, 2nd DCR flanks 1st Panzer and wipes it out. Guderian is flung back across the Meuse!

Well that was a turn up. What an interesting scenario, certainly excellent as a learning framework for the rules, probably more so than the Narvik one I originally picked. That was a great game, and what a clever and subtle development of the rules, although obviously  a bit too subtle for my ageing brain cells! There are a couple more France 1940 scenarios I'd like to try out, which both feature more tank battles, so watch this space.