3x4 WW2 Advancing Companies - Onslaught

 I've been following Shaun Travers wargaming blog for some years, and a series of small WW2 games he ran intrigued me. They use a 3x4 grid and feature squad sized elements and forces up to company size. 

I'd downloaded the rules ages ago, but didn't play them at the time. For some reason, I have a bit of a tactical WW2 itch to scratch at the moment, so I thought I'd give them a go. 

Battlefield from the south. The Germans are holding the tree line to the right, and in front of them is a large field of low crops with a gully running through it. This is using one of my Cigar Box mats, 18“x24", the 3x4 grid is marked by corner dots, so the terrain items fill the whole square, but I've arranged them to be more visually pleasing. 

This scenario is 'Onslaught' from the Red Guards at Kursk skirmish campaigns book, which covers the Soviet counteroffensive on the northern flank of the Kursk Bulge. There are three mini campaigns in the book, and as I've already played the 'Red Surge' campaign, I'll use the three scenarios of 'Panzer Relief' as a test bed. This covers the actions of 11th Guards Army and 5th Tank Corps against 2nd German Army on the northern flank of the Kursk Bulge.

The first scenario is 'Onslaught' the attack by 11th Guards Army on 293rd ID.

The game scenario has a German rifle section from 293rd ID defending, so I scaled that up to a platoon of three sections (each with two bases). The scenario variable attachment was a German company HQ, so they got another section and a leader. These are just regular German landser, so I rated them as average. 

The base scenario gives the Russians a rifle platoon from 6th Guards Rifle Corps, so I scaled it up to a full company. Three platoons of three sections each. They also rolled up a leader as their variable attachment. Neither side had any attachment credits to modify their attachment rolls.

These are Guards infantry, so also average, like the Germans. Line Russians I would have classed as raw. This scenario is a pure infantry action, so a good way to get started.

The victory conditions require the Russians to completely destroy or drive off the Germans. Both sides also get VP for enemy units destroyed. The Germans have some trenches which they deployed to cover the centre, occupied with two sections and the leader. 

The other two sections occupied the woods on the right. The plan was to move forward and occupy the gully (which functions as a trench) both to cover the flank of the centre and deny it to the Russians. 

The game uses activations, generally each side gets one activation a turn, sometimes two. An activation can activate ONE square only, but that includes all off table elements (as offtable counts as one square). The Russians brought on all three platoons, and as the stacking limit is 3, they just packed the first column of squares. 

Each square is 150m, so small arms ranges are short. Just one square (including one diagonal) for rifles, two for MGs. 

The penalties for being in the open are also severe, so the Russians pushed their lead platoon down the gully, while the Germans also took a section of gully. 

All units start the game unspotted, and if they are in cover, are really hard to see, unless they start firing. The Germans failed to spot the Russians, but if a target moved or fired, you can conduct speculative fire anyway. The Germans opened up and suppressed a Russian squad. 

The Russians responded in kind and suppressed both German squads in the gully. 

And followed it up with a close assault! The German leader had moved into the square already and managed to rally one of his squads. 

In the melee, one Russian squad was suppressed, but both German squads were suppressed too, and without any good order infantry in the square, they retreated back to the treeline. The Russians had captured the gully. 

There are some subtleties to the way close combat works and the sequence of activation which I'd slightly missed this time around. CC is resolved at the end of the entire turn, so charging in before the enemy activates can be a really bad idea. I'd find that out the hard way later. 

In this case the Russians had moved second and caught the Germans trying to rally. Moving second also stops the enemy running away.

The Russians activated their centre platoon and moved up through the field. One of the squads was left behind to rally, but of course now needs a seperate activation to do anything. Interesting. 

The Russians in the gully followed up the retreating Germans with another assault (the Russians had two activations this turn), again they had to leave a suppressed squad behind, which rallied. When you activate a square, the units in it can do different things. 

Oh dear! The Germans proceeded to gun down both Russian squads, while only suffering a suppression in return. 

Dead Russians litter the battlefield. Clearly assaults need a bit more planning than I'd thought. The modifiers in assault mean suppressing the enemy helps a lot, but doesn't make it a sure fire thing. The Germans also rolled really hot dice, which always helps.

Time was now running short, the 14 turns had sped by as to add insult to injury, a random event produced a reinforcement squad for the Germans. I probably shouldn't have counted the 'events' as game turns. 

The Russians made one last push on their left, but the German reinforcements tipped the balance and the assault failed. 

Decisive German victory. The Russians hadn't destroyed a single German unit, but I have given them a couple of VP for end game suppression. 

OK, having got an idea how it works, time to try it again. 

Following the success of the 'forward defence', the Germans set up two squads in the centre and two on their left with the leader, ready to advance. 

The Germans advanced, and the Russians did much the same as before, using the cover of the gully to push their centre forward and supporting on their left via the fields. 

The Germans moved another section into the gully, leaving the centre weak. The Russians used a fortunate double activation to rush across the open fields on the right. The remaining Germans gunned one of the squads down. Moving in the open is dangerous. Who knew? Fire against targets in the open get a +1, whereas those in light cover like fields are unmodified and heavy cover like trenches gives a - 1. With a modified 6 needed for a kill, those +1 and -1 make a huge difference. All very Squad Leader. 

The Germans took the initiative and gunned another squad down. Dear me! In fairness, the Germans rolled quite hot dice. 5 needed for a kill, 3 to suppress vs targets in the open. 

That was such a catastrophically stupid move I ran it again. 

This time with their double activation the Russians rushed the German trenches with their centre platoon, using the fields as (light) cover.

In the ensuing melee the (unsuppressed) defenders killed one of the Russians squads, but were suppressed in turn and forced to retreat. I think they are allowed to retreat north (there are some retreat priority rules, and I think I got this right). If forced to retreat off table, they can't come back.

Hooray, we've captured the trenches! Shame that wasn't the Russian objective. The Russians managed to kill the isolated squad in the trees with fire, but couldn't do anything much to the German platoon stack in the gully. 

At best a platoons worth of rifle fire might get one or two suppression, which the German leader rallied off. The lack of any supporting heavy weapons to suppress the Germans, was a real problem for the Russians, and they couldn't really assault before time ran out. I should probably have done a death or glory charge, but didn't. 

A slightly better result for the Russians this time, but still a German victory. Historically 2nd German Army blunted the intial attacks by 11th Guards, so that is historical.

German VPs 7, Russian just 2! The Germans also get two attachment credits, these are used to modify the random reinforcements dice roll.

At this stage of the proceedings, I'm not entirely convinced by the 'one square only' activation sequence. It plays very similarly to Memoir 44 as force superiority in multiple squares doesn't count for anything, and rewards bunching, which doesn't seem very WW2. I shall reserve judgement for a while, but there are plenty of other activation mechanisms which produce a similar effect. 

I need to have think about how I convert the scenario units from 1:1 representation too. Having one stand for every three or four figures might be too many, when I did this before I converted each skirmish section into two teams, which worked OK. A full Russian rifle company should probably have had an MG section as well. 

The next scenario includes tanks and obstacles, so that should be a good tryout of combined arms.