Taming the Tigers - Sicily July 1943

 This is the last of the Fireball Forward 'US Paras' scenarios, another Sicily one. This time General Gavin of the 82nd personally fights off the Herman Goering Division! I'm pretty sure this also started life as a Skirmish Campaigns scenario, as I've seen it on other blogs in various forms, but hey ho, this is the Fireball Forward version converted to Tigers at Minsk. 

Gavins RCT landed east of the US landing beaches at Gela in Sicily. He gathered a force together and set off westwards, capturing the Biazza ridge then pressing on towards the bridge over the river Acate further west. The action starts just after the US capture the ridge.

Battlefield from the south, Biazza Ridge is fairly obvious on the right and the ground is dotted with orchards (open woods). Lets call the hills 111 (north) and 112 (south). The River in the west is impassable except at the bridge and is lined with foliage so is an LOS block. The road is a road but the railway is just for looks. There are four BUAs, each worth 1VP and each of the hills is worth 1VP too. The US win immmediately if they take the building on the far side of the bridge, and the Germans win immediately if they take the building on the US baseline. Lets call the buildings from L to R 1,2,3 and 4.

The Germans set up after the US in the left 4 hexes, while the US set up first in an oddly constrained area to the northeast. I'm sure there is a typo as in the scenario as written apparently the US set up along of the river! I think someone got their east and west mixed up.

Gavins force, quite a crowd! Two platoons of Paras (seven squads) tbh I'd call that three platoons... An airborne engineer platoon (two squads) with grenade bundles, a .30 cal MG and a pair of towed 75mm pack howitzers. I'll treat the latter as 75mm infantry guns with one round of smoke each. The US have a bazooka availability number of 4. The historical description says the howitzers 'arrived in the nick of time' but in the scenario they are are there at start - another typo? 

There is also General Gavin himself, who apparently has a hotline to a 155mm artillery battery, with four fire missions plus a smoke mission. I'll treat him as an FOO but able to activate the hex he is in too, and I'll use the artillery rules (spotting rounds etc) I used in the previous game. The Germans get 1VP if they manage to eliminate him.

These guys are all high quality troops and have a breakpoint of seven.

And this is what Gavin is up against. Yes, those are four Tigers.

The Germans start with two rifle platoons (six sections) plus a company HQ with two SFMG42 and an an 81mm mortar section along with an artillery observer (six missions!). These guys area all dug in defending the bridge and the buildings on the left.

Riding to the rescue halfway through, are two more rifle platoons (another six rifle sections) and two platoons of two Tiger 1s each. These are two of my old Peter Pig metal Tigers and two of my new resin Tigers (Tigers 131 and 222). Size-wise they are very comparable but the metal gun barrels are much thicker than the resin ones. The Americans get 1VP for each Tiger they destroy, which might be a bit of a challenge given the weapons at their disposal.

Herman Goering Div wasn't that great at this time, so I'm treating all of these guys as average. The starting force has a breakpoint of four, and when the reinforcements rock up, that is another four for a total of eight. Slightly more than the US.

The basic scenario has six turns, which becomes 90 minutes in TaM. The Tigers and their mates turn up after 45 minutes.

The US set up first but aren't allowed in the bottom two hexes. I've put one platoon in the south with an engineer squad in reserve in the objective building Casa 4. Gavin is with them, and they are going to clear the woods below the ridge. 

The northern ridge is packed, I'm not massively happy about setting the guys up within LOS of the Germans when the US have the first turn, but I'll rationalise it as the Germans having retreated from the ridge and the US following up, or something.

There are four rifle squads up here, engineers in reserve, plus the pack howitzers and the .30 cal. They are set up to pound and assault the northern building on turn one. I feel that I'm honour bound to try and take the bridge, as the US has 45 minutes of force superiority. This is a longer route but has better cover, and if the US take even one building, they have a winning VP total and will force the Germans to attack. 

Having seen the US setup, the Germans weight their defence accordingly. An MG and rifle section go in the building Casa 3, another section dug into the depth of the orchard in reserve and a third on the southeast corner along with the mortar spotter. The mortars themselves are dug  in beside the river out of sight. The Germans are quite dispersed in the face of the US artillery threat. 

This is effectively two games in one so the starting force Germans just need to survive and then they can think about picking up enough VPs to win once the cavalry arrive.

The left flank is more sparsely garrisoned as the terrain is more open here. MG/rifle group in the building Casa 2, another rifle section dug in to the woods - I don't allow woods to give cover against indirect fire, but being dug in does. The US really want to clear that central woods line as they need LOS on the bridge hex to stop the Tigers just rolling right up the table.

The last section is in deep reserve in the objective building Casa 1 across the river, better safe than sorry. Finally the artillery observer is on the bend in the railway. It isn't as daft as it looks as FOOs in TaM are always treated as in cover and cant be destroyed by ranged fire although they can be pinned. I could have stacked him with a rifle section but I'm cautious about over packing hexes.

I think that is good enough, great being the enemy of good etc. Right, to battle!

Unsurprisingly the US start by blazing away at everything in sight, scattering a few pins around. On Hill 112 the Paras push forwards into the trees. Gavin gets a spotting round on building 2.

In the south the Germans either rally or fire rather ineffectively.

In the north the 81mm mortar goes out of command and the FOO puts a spotting round right on the Hill 111 ridge. The garrison of Casa 3 excels itself and guns down the US squad in the open on the ridge, but uses up all its MG ammo in the process. US morale drops to six but losing the MG on turn one is a blow! It can still occupy the building though.

Incomiiiing! The 155s plaster Casa 3 pinning the rifle section, the other units fire at targets of opportunity. Direct fire HE from the howitzers is quite effective and the rifle section in Casa 3 is eliminated. The US move a para squad and engineer squad NE of Hill 111 to ready rush the building.

Two US squads move into the woods line from Hill 112.

Every squad in range opens up on the US paras in the woods line, including the other German MG. Yes it scores two hits and yes it runs out of ammo as well!

Coupled with fire from other units, that is enough to eliminate both US para squads in the woods line. Ouch! US Morale drops to four. German artillery hammers Hill 111, scattering pins. Perhaps this is going to be a short game. To compensate the German mortars go out of command, they haven't fired a single shot yet.

The US give up on attacking from Hill 112, they just dont have the strength any more. The US on Hill 111 do rather better and drop a spotting round onto the orchard opposite, while infantry and howitzer fire manage to pin the other Germans in sight and eliminate the MG team in Casa 3. German morale drops to two.

In a cunning move, one of the howitzers fires smoke to screen the US squad rushing the now unoccupied Casa 3.

There isn't a great deal the Germans can do, fire what they can and rally everyone else. They fire a stonk at Hill 111 which causes a couple of pins.

In turn the US stonk the orchard and both the para and engineer squads take Casa 3. The smoke persists this turn. The US otherwise fire at what they can. 

The stalemate continues, neither side can get fire superiority. The German mortars at last get into action (turn after turn with either the mortars or the spotters out of command). The game clock has been rattling along, so far I havent rolled less than seven, and on a mighty double six we had some random events. The German HQ was temporarily our of action and the US got a minefield, which they put on Hill 112 (those green counters). 

Despite the loss of their HQ, the Germans managed to fire the mortars again. Everyone else in the orchard was busy rallying.

The German artillery fire continued unabated.

Conscious of the sound of approaching tank engines, the US dropped another smoke round to screen the engineers withdrawing from Casa 3.

General Gavin also realised he couldn't see the bridge approach from his location so moved across to Hill 111. However he reckoned without one very lucky German section which managed to pin him with opportunity fire! That is bad, the General is out of position and it curtails the US artillery fire.

So Gavin is pinned down on the road as this lot roars into view. Each pair of Tigers is accompanied by a a rifle section with the rest marching in behind. Now, an interesting side effect of Gavins discomfiture is that he can actually see the bridge hex from his location, so the Germans have to stop. They would have got an extra hex movement otherwise.

With the arrival of the tanks the German target Hill 112. The mortars hit the paras in the NW corner and the section from Casa 2 sneakily moves up in dead ground to the base of the hill.

The US cant really see anything apart from the front line German infantry. Gavin rallies himself and the US managed to pin all the units they can see. They even manage to eliminate one of the German squads in the orchard with concentrated 75mm HE fire.

In a big move the Germans stonk hill 111 to cover the deployment of the Tigers. Both tank platoons and their accompanying infantry sections move forwards, still hampered by being in LOS of Gavin - that actually turned out well for the Americans. The southern tank platoon (the resin Tigers, lets call them 1 platoon) very cleverly exposes its side armour to the 75s, who both manage to get two opportunity fire shots off with three hits. 

The US are unlucky and the hits don't cause any damage (4+ to stun and 6 to kill with 75mm HEAT vs the Tiger side armour) and both guns end up marked as opportunity fired.  I like the way TaM handles vehicle movement as you often end up being exposed. Irl flank shots comprised a surprising percentage but are often hard to achieve in games. 

The Americans also manage to pin one of the supporting rifle sections.

The Germans finally remember that they have a round of 81mm smoke available and smoke the road. If only they done that two turns ago.... That allows for a much more rapid deployment as many of the units are now out of LOS.

Tiger platoon 1 moves south, along with a rifle platoon, while Tiger platoon 2 takes up position in the smoke screen. The panzergrenadiers have got in a bit of a traffic jam on the road crossing the bridge as one hex goes out of command. The FOO stonks Hill 111 again before his vision is obscured.

More 75mm anti tank fire. This time the howitzers manage to stun one of the Tigers, despite its thick frontal armour (I rule a six on a hit  is always a stun). Sadly for the US the crew manage to rally later that turn.

The Tigers set about blasting Casa 3, to little effect. The German infantry have got unstuck and are now moving troops into the orchard. Time is running out fast now. When will I ever roll less than seven for minutes elapsed?

In the south the Germans rush Hill 112 covered by the mortars. The Tigers decide to brave the minefield and one of them is stunned and fails to rally. The infantry following is in dead ground but a section in the woods line is shot down by the US.

The Germans are still two turns away from Casa 3 in the north.

And in the south, although the paras go out of command, the engineers step up and hit the other Tiger with a bazooka! It is also stunned!! Bloody hell, those Tigers would have blown the US to bits in those light woods, but now can't as they need to rally.

Tiger Platton 2 show how it is done and demolish Casa 3 along with its occupants (I'm still using the rule that direct hits from HE ignore cover) . The German FOO shifts his spotting round ready to drop a smoke screen to cover the assault.

German infantry move onto Hill 112 as the Tigers rally.

But another mighty turn roll takes us to 92 minutes and time runs out! Another turn and the Germans would have taken Casa 3 for a draw and two more turns would (probably?) have taken Hill 112. Ah well, General Gavin saves the day, as he did historically.

That was very enjoyable, even if it was on the larger end of TaM than I am comfortable with. Having so much stuff evened out some of the luck and also generated a lot of friction for the less well commanded Germans. It also meant a lot more decisions and I think I mis-splayed the Germans a bit towards the end as I was rushing, although I made a howling error moving Gavin when I did.

Generally the system worked very well, and I'm comfortable with the mods I made. That is the last of the US para scenarios, and they have provided an excellent test bed for both some modified mechanisms and also exploring my changes for varying troop quality. They were all fun games and I think a lot of those scenarios have some re-play value too. I didn't fancy playing that one again at the time, but I think it is one I will comeback to as it has interesting problems for both sides. 

 

CALF 2026 28.03

 Back to Tapton Hall, this time to CALF 2026.Why CALF? Well, it is a one day version of the Conference of Wargamers (COW) and a calf is a small cow, so.... 

As a one day event it doesn't have quite the size of the usual COW schedule, and we ended up with around 20 attendees, two plenary games in the morning and half a dozen games over six sessions in the afternoon. There were sign up sheets for the afternoon games. 

Tim briefs the assembled multitudes.

The opening plenary was SWAG (or Silly Weapons Acronym Game). Each team gets four sets of four scrabble letters drawn at random and has to come up with a company name,  a vehicle, an aircraft and  a ship. We were FAGO (Fabrique Armaments Groupe d'Ordennance) and perhaps handicapped ourselves by picking a French Canadian company. 

While our schoolboy French was OK it was not brilliant, though we did christen two of our creations "Quebec" and "Kleber" which used up a couple of awkward letters. 

As with all these sorts of games, it was a good group bonding experience although most of us knew each other anyway. 

Next up was one of John Bs sprawling military political games, big enough for everyone. This one was more military perhaps, covering the attempt to kill or capture Tito in May 1944. Titos mountain fortress is above. 

The German assault force consisted of Brandenburgers and 500 SS Fallschirmjagsr Bn. The whole operation came under the direction of 2nd Panzer Army (General Rendulic played by Ian). 

And motoring up from the south, a mechanised relief column, negotiating Partisan infested country.

7th SS Prinz Eugen Division, a wierd mix of SS auxiliaries (John A) , Croatians (Rob) and some Heer armour. The whole lot was under Heer command (Lloyd). 

I was cast as Admiral Canaris, Head of the Abwehr, and my main job was to promote the role of the Abwehr, support the Army and do down the SS and Luftwaffe. Goring (Chris K) and Himmer (Jim) naturally had different views. I also had to locate sympathisers for the plot against Hitler.... 

The German High Command! Ian rendered us into wicked Germans with Grok AI. Himmler, Rendulic, Goring and Canaris. Goerings yellow socks are hilarious, but at least we all have the right number of fingers.

Goerings airforce. Gliders, Ju 52s and various ground attack planes. Naturally there wasn't enough lift capacity for everyone so we went for four companies delivered by glider on the first turn, then everyone else by parachute once the Junkers had refuelled. 

Two companies of Brandenburgers at one entrance, two companies of SS at the other. Resistance was heavy! 

Meanwhile the ground force slogged forwards. The armour left the infantry behind racing to relieve the Paras. I'd also managed to approach no less than two extra co-conspirators ready ready to save Germany. I was sure our OPSEC was perfect. 

Things got a bit desperate in the mountains as Partisan armour turned up. In a shock development, the Brandenburgers captured no less than Randolph Churchill (Churchills grandson), as he was a partizan liaison office at the time. We also captured a ton of intelligence documents, but wily Tito (Russell) escaped down a secret tunnel.

Aided by masses of airpower, the relief column finally broke through 

And just in time as the Paras were on their last legs. In the confusion, Churchill escaped but was shot by the SS. Everyone claimed credit for the successes, while blaming everyone else for the failures. Sadly the two patriot/traitorous Generals were arrested and shot by the SS as they had left their personal briefings lying around to be read by the prying eyes of the Gestapo. 

And what of Operation Valkyrie? Well, it was a sadly depleted group who mounted a coup in July, however magnificent dice rolling saw Hitler killed! Unfortunately for the conspirators, Himmler out manouvered Goering and was made Fuhrer. 

That was loads of fun, and apologies to all the other player roles I skipped over. You can only interact with so many people at these things.

After all the fun in the morning, I ran Operation Battleaxe in the afternoon. I'll do that as a separate report. 

Ian again enlivened proceedings by turning the Allied command into action figures! 

There were three games in the later session. 

Ian ran "Der Tag" covering Jutland. 

Russell ran Labyrinth, the elaborate and ambitious board game on The War on Terror. 

While I took part in James 'Soviet Wargame'. As part of his PhD research , James has uncovered a set of rules used for training by the Soviet Army, and this game was to give them a try. 

In some ways it was a fairly typical CPX and the training intent was to reinforce doctrine and the use of operational norms. The command team was  divided into four 'cells', Intelligence (Alex and Chris), Frontal Aviation (Pete), Artillery (John and Jerry) and Operations (me, Rob and Tim). 

We were handed a Class I Motor Rifle division (all nine battalions in BMPs!) and told to plan the first phase of an attack on a NATO position in the Fulda Gap. The cloth is a print of the actual terrain. 

There are seven NATO locations, five in the front line and two in the rear (an HQ and a 'choke point'). We had to allocate forces, fire missions and strike packages to each, coordinate the different arms and designate reserves for exploitation. The Intelligence Cell gave us some indication of the enemy forces. 

This was a straightforward 'fight over the coloured pencils' planing session as the different cells tried to allocate their assets in accordance with an overall plan. We each had to complete a planning sheet with force allocations within 45 minutes, which is a lot harder than it sounds. 

We went with a very conventional attack with two Motor Rifle Regiments up, concentrating two battalions each in sectors 2 and 3, sector 3 also got divisional engineer support as it contained a road. One battalion each in sectors 1 and 4 with a screening company in 5. In reserve we kept the Tank Regiment and most of the third MRR. Each assault battalion was supported by a tank company from the regimental tank battalion. 

Having all read out our plans, duly noted by Intelligence, it was time for resolution at which point we all became 'umpires'. The various combat elements have a numerical rating built up bottom up fashion from assigned weapon values in a very similar fashion to Dupuy. The basic currency is the "T55" worth 1, an AK armed rifleman is worth 0.04 and a Chieftan 1.72, for comparison. 

Fortunately we had pre calculated tables for the various formations (iirc a BMP battalion was around 38), these were compared to the CVs of the defenders modified by posture and terrain and a final combat odds ratio resulted. The desired ratio for a successful ground attack was between 3:1 and 5:1, but we weren't told that beforehand. There were no random factors, but obviously from a player pov we didn't know in detail what the enemy had, so it was a case of throw in what looked sensible and hope for the best.

The air went in first, but it was too penny packeted to have much effect, particularly against entrenched defenders. Petes brave pilots suffered 50% losses attacking the HQ are as it was stacked with AA. The artillery barrage did cause some suppression, which was helpful. 

Finally we resolved the ground assaults. Fortunately our supporting attacks on sectors 1 and 4 had enough strength to overcome the defenders (Bundeswehr and an M113 Company respectively) but suffered 20% losses with the defenders losing 30%. As we were putting whole battalions up against companies, our actual losses were far higher than the defenders, one reason not to overcommit.

In sector 3 we achieved 5.1:1 against an armoured cavalry squadron with Sheridans and got told off for over committing - we could have held back a couple of companies and avoided the resultant losses. But in sector 2 we only just scraped a 3:1 against a well entrenched mech infantry company supported by M60s. The Intel boys had told us they were dug in, but we weren't paying enough attention.

The screening company (unsurprisingly) stalled in its attack on an Air Cav company supported by Cobras, but while it suffered 40% losses, it still inflicted 20% on the US. 

Having done all that, we had to decide whether the division would commit its reserve or keep going. Given that four out of five sectors had succeeded, it was time to keep going. Units are fought out at 40% losses, so the first echelon still had some fight in it. 

And that was it for that phase - the game runs on decision points, the next set of decisions would be when the Division hit the next US defence line.

We made an umpires assessment of where the next US defence line would be - unsurprisingly on the reverse slope of the ridge, and then moved up the Soviet units. The big red counters are Motor Rifle Battalions, the purple counters are Tank battalions and the orange ones are attached companies.

Assaulting the ridge will be the next set of decision points, and played out at COW in the summer. Finally each cell was asked to give feedback on the performance of another cell, we were asked to comment on the artillery and as far as possible everyone offered constructive criticism.

That was absolutely fascinating, and hugely enjoyable. As regular readers will know, I'm a big fan of military training games and have played quite a few. The main thing which struck me was how like Dupuy (Numbers, Predictions and War) it was in terms of the combat resolution, even the terrain and posture modifiers were similar and I imagine the unit rating algorithm was similar even if the numbers were different. The training aim was to teach doctrine and norms, and if we'd known what the norms were beforehand, we would have done a much better job. I subsequently had a look at FM-100-1 and realised we'd both messed up the artillery and air fire plan, and misallocated the MRRs - we should have had all three in line, designated as main or secondary attack. But that is the point of the game, great stuff and I'm looking forward to the published version. It will be very interesting to compare it to the similar British and US ones.

That wrapped up a very enjoyable day out, so many thanks to the organisers, game presenters and other players. To cap it off, I sold a lot more on the Bring and Buy than I came away with. Result!