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.

Field Commander Rommel

 Tim came over recently and we spent a day looking at boardgames (and eating biscuits).

 

Tim brought these three over.  I was particularly excited by High Seas Fleet which is a beautifully producde WW1 version of War at Sea. No Retreat is a set of WW2 desert games with individual maps covering specific campaigns (Compass, Crusader, Gazala etc) which can also be strung together into a grand campaign. Nice big counters and nice big hexes!

The main event was Field Commander Rommel though. A solo game covering Rommels campaigns in France 1940, North Africa and France 1944, so three for the price of one! We decided to play the North African campaign as we seem to be on a bit of a desert kick at the moment. Although it is a solo game, we played as a team game, which is easy enough to do.

It covers the period from April 1941 when the Afrika Korps arrived in Africa up until the end of 1942. The units are divisions (and some brigades), and turns are of varying length, from one to three months.

The game uses area movement, and the German stacking limit is determined by distance from Tripoli. In Tripolitania they can stack 3 units, in Cyrenicia 2 units and in Egypt just one unit per area. They can stack extra units in each area, but they cost a supply point each - a very nice way of modelling the issues of logistic reach.

The units have the usual ratings - attack, defence, movement. Units can move one area for free, each extra area (up their movement allowance) also cost a supply point. Supply is really important.

The attack and defence scores are the dice roll (equal or less) required to score a hit - most units have two steps. Some units, typically armoured units, can score multiple hits if they roll low enough.

The Allies start with a couple of divisions in Tobruk, Guards motorised brigade in Benghazi and 2nd Armoured Division at El Agheila - at this time equipped largely with captured Italian M11/39s.

The Axis start with four Italian infantry divisions, Ariete and Trento armoured and motorised divisions plus 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions. As you might expect, 15 and 21 PD are pretty good. We started by attacking 2nd AD with 15 and 21 PD, supported by an Italian Division to absorb casualties. We burned a supply point to stack a fourth division, but otherwise the Italians were strung out behind to save on supplies.

Each side has a number of 'battle plans' - these are analogous to the tactics options in Sam Mustaphas 'Rommel' and are things like AT guns, 'scavange' which lets you recover supply points, 'press' which lets you fight an extra round, 'exploit' which lets you move one unit another area and fight again etc. The cards cost anything from one to four points to use, the budget to spend on them determined by the number and nationality of units - one per Italian and two per German unit, so we had six points to spend.

We really wanted to ensure the destruction 2 AD so picked options which let as fight two rounds, roll results again etc. One of the most useful German options is 'intel' which randomly removes on enemy plan - some of the British plans are really powerful and you want to remove them before fighting.

The British also get battle plans, determined by the number of units and their supply state. The British often have lots of supplies, so get lots of battle plans. These are drawn randomly, which is how the Brits can end up with really powerful ones like artillery, airstrikes and the dreaded 'reinforcement' event.

2 AD was duly routed at the expense of one hit which we took on the Italians - casualties are democratic and start with the units with the lowest attack factors. Exploiting, 15th Panzer managed to overrun the Guards Brigade too.

If you defeat enemy units, you can upgrade one unit for each enemy destroyed. Naturally we put both the upgrades on the panzers, which both became veterans. These are drawn randomly and have varying effects - adding to combat values or allowing units to draw more battle plans.

Anyway, having routed the British troops on the frontier, 15 and 21 PD eyed up Tobruk and decided to attack it. If you can take Tobruk early there are big supply bonuses. 15 and 21 PD were both now veterans, and it was 'only' held by the Australians and a garrison unit.

Naturally the attack went catastrophically wrong as the Allies drew 'reinforcement' and an entire extra division arrived in Tobruk. 15th Panzer destroyed and 21st Panzer reduced to one step. That is the downside of not bringing any infantry support to absorb losses.

Losing 15 PD was a disaster, we didn't realise quite how much of a disaster at the time. You can get destroyed units back by spending supply points to resurrect them and then supply points to ship them back to Africa. The shipping cost is based on attack value though, so we could ship five Italian infantry divisions for the cost of one Panzer Division...

The British put more troops into Tobruk and busily built up in Egypt (this is all randomised). We weren't strong enough take Tobruk now so I burned a ton of supply points rebuilding 15 PD (you can see it motoring to the front on the top left) while besieging Tobruk. 21 PD and Trento held the northeast sector, Ariete and 90th Light the southeast sector and a couple of Italian infantry the west.

You get more supply the more ground you hold and the more enemy units you destroy, and we only held Tripolitania and were defending so the supplies were trickling in.

The British were busy however, and having shipping 1st Armoured Div into Tobruk, decided to mount Operation Crusader! 1st Armoured sortied from Tobruk , 7th Armoured Div attacked Ariete and a mass of Commonwealth infantry hurled themselves a the frontier defences.

Much to our amazement, we managed to hold them off! Sadly with so many enemy units, we didn't manage to destroy any of them just inflict lots of hits, and at the expense of all our frontline units being reduced to half strength. We burned what supplies we had bringing our units back up to strength and hurrying 15 PD to the front. The British naturally had lots of supplies to restore their horde of units.

No sooner had we reinforced the front, than they came back for another go. The British had a clever mechanism for mounting 'operations' which involved stacking drawn chits which built up an offensive force, and were then committed when the 'go' chit was drawn. 

21st Panzer and Trento were overrun. Ariete and 15 PD held their own, but then the British came for them too....

And were completely destroyed too! All the Axis had left were three Italian infantry divisions and 90th Light at half strength. After that drubbing, the Axis fell back to defend the chokepoint at El Agheila.

But that was to no avail as the Allied juggernaut rolled west to the extent of its seemingly boundless supplies. Starting mid 1942 there is a 'sudden death' situation when Operation Torch is mounted - it takes a roll of 7+ on a D6, reducing by one per turn thereafter. Naturally we rolled a six. During the turn, the score is modified by each Axis unit destroyed that turn, and with El Agheila overrun and three more Axis units destroyed, that made a modified roll of nine and game over. Rommel had been kicked out of the Western Desert in summer 1942. What a disaster!

Well, that run was a bit less successful than Tims solo run earlier where he'd managed to drive the British back to the gates of Cairo. It went wrong early on and we never really recovered the initiative. What a clever game and with vey high replay value. BGG review, resources etc here: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28829/field-commander-rommel

More leaders pt 2 - Russian

 In my WW2 leadership drive the Russians were the ones in the worst situation. My 15mm Russians are mainly from the PSC Russian infantry and heavy weapons sets, and actual officers are few and far between. I had enough for a few HQ stands, a couple of individual leaders (I converted one into 'Megaphone Guy' from Enemy at the Gates) and the rest are kneeling gunners in various pointing poses.

These are some of the existing 'leaders', just kneeling gunners in various poses. I have better uses for these.

So, the Russians got an extra HQ and no less than five extra individual officers. Like the British, these are all from a Skytrex 15mm Command Decision pack. Excellent value and lovely figures, all in different poses again. They are a lot more intersting than the PSC officers as they are wearing a variety of clothing, not just gymnastorkia and breeches.

I did an extra battalion (2 figure) HQ. The guy on the left is in a side cap and holding a map while pointing with his plash-palatka wrapped around him, while the guy on the right is a very serious looking chap in greatcoat and field cap. No doubt keeping an eye on the intellectual.

These three are all in lighter weight dress in a range of sidecaps and service caps. Two of them are waving pistols around while a third has a PPsH and one has his plash-palatka wrapped around his chest The guy on the right is clearly modelled on the extremely famous photo of a commissar urging his troops on, and which graced the cover of the 'Cross of Iron' Squad Leader expansion.

These two are in winter gear, both have leather overcoats of different styles and the one on the left is in a helmet. The guy on the left is straight out 'Stalins Army' so I matched the colour plate with a light tan shuba sheepskin jacket and fur cuffs. The one on the right is toting a PPsH too and seems to be wearing a sort of large waistcoat a bit like the British Army ones. It has a lot of folds so may be a representation of a plash worn as a raincape, but it doesn't hang right or have a hood if that is the case. Anyway, I did in natural leather with an inkwash.

They are a really smart set of figures, highly recommended. I did the uniforms a base brown colour as my years of WW2 Russian re-enacting shows a lot more brown uniforms than the wierd green ones many people like to paint, but I accept that the uniforms were a vast range of colours from light tan to dark green, depending what they were made of. Officers winter weight jackets were pretty green (like the one Jude Law is handed in Enemy at the Gates). So having started with brown I added some variety by lightening some of the browns up, added some greens and did a few of the breeches as dark blue walking out trousers.

I was very pleased with those indeed and they will no doubt be appearing in future Eastern Front games. The only disappointment was when I went to put them in the box, I realised I'd miscounted - the Russians need two more battalion HQs, not one!

I still had plenty of spare officers, so I knocked up another Battalion HQ base with this pair of likely lads. I wouldn't normally put two figures waving their arms on one base, but the other figures were all pointing pistols, which didn't seem very appropriate for a higher HQ.

They are both very nice, figures. One is in a cap with a rolled plash palatka, while the other is in a sidecap and a very well modelled greatcoat. He's also got one of the those drawstring rucksacks the Russians occasionally used. I just did them both in khaki as they were a bit of an afterthought.

Stones River 1862 - ACW rules revisited

 I was having a vague hankering to do something with my ACW stuff as I've spent an awful lot of time on Ancients, WW2 and Napeolonics in the last couple of years. I had toyed with doing a complete rewrite of my Neil Thomas based ACW rules based on my latest Napoleonic set, but after a few abortive attempts I thought I'd just tweak the original set, primarily with switching to units pointing at hex vertices and simplifying the movement system to be more in line with the Napoleonic set.

 I also fiddled around with unit activation to make dithering more likely in some circumstances after playing Chancellorsville and finding the Union Army 'telepathic' command a bit much. I also introduced fixed Portable Wargame style army breakpoints as the old system based on unit destruction just wasn't working - it is almost impossible to completely destroy infantry units in the NT rules due to the generosity of the rallying system and the likelihood of retreats. 

I set up my old Stones River scenario, which we'd played online a couple of years ago. It is based on the Volley and Bayonet one. Briefly, following the Battle of Shiloh, Rosencrans Union Army of the Cumberland had driven Braggs CSA forces out of Kentucky (Nash vile is to the to the northwest) but became very strung out in the pursuit due to poor weather. Bragg stood and fought west of Murfreesboro in Tennessee, hoping to beat the Union in detail.

So, the Union are lined up to the northwest and the CSA to the southeast.

Braggs experienced cavalry outscouted the Union and he weighted his left for a surprise flank attack. Braggs left is here massed across the river. Pointing units at the hex vertices instead of the sides actually works well for the oblique deployment in the battle, but of course it opens up much wider flanks (four hexes instead of three) and restricts forward arcs of fire.

The CSA right is very lightly held by two large CSA divisions including Breckenridges veterans (who I've done as Zouaves so I can identify them) .  Braggs army is pretty much just lined up for a frontal attack.

Straggling up from the rear are few more units of Rosencrans army, two infantry divisions and a (green) cavalry division. The cavalry arrive at 12 pm but the infantry don't turn up until 4pm.

Braggs army has breakpoint of 11 and Rosencrans 14, both 50% of their starting infantry strength. The Union are outnumbered at first but their reinforcements boost their overall resilience.

These BP are reduced for each infantry base lost, even if they subsequently rally (I figure each base lost involves some actual casualties). To win, each side needs to exhaust the other before nightfall, so the CSA need to make the most of their local superiority. Each side also has a rout point at 66% losses.

At dawn the CSA move into close contact on the left while the units on the right engage in long range shelling and skirmishing. The first issue with the new more liberal movement system is that the CSA left cavalry just ride around the Union flank and dismount in their left rear (in that little wood  at the end of the river n the baseline). Mmmm.

Union fire scatters some hits around, but no bases lost yet.

At 7am the Union right is forced back having lost two bases to massed CSA fire. That also leaves the next unit along rather hanging in the air. Rosencrans rides over to help it rally next turn and moves his reserve division up to counter the threat to the Union right - it only gets as far as the track crossing the river. Over in the far right the CSA cavalry push along the table edge, threatening the Nashville turnpike. 

Rosencrans drives back the CSA cavalry in the south with a brief charge, but reorients this entire half of his army to face the threat from the south. He is forced to strip away one of his centre divisions to deal with the cavalry in the north. This isn't going well for the Union. I'm not massively convinced by all these units running around, but the more open flanks due to the facing changes make it tactically necessary. 

Up in the north the desultory firefight continues but the bigger CSA units are definitely gaining the upper hand. The CSA cavalry is over the river, so the Union infantry reinforcement has arrived in the nick of time.

I've skipped ahead a bit. Both sides are standing and firing now, and attrition is catching up with whole bases lost (the little white crosses). These force morale checks which even for seasoned troops as most of these are, need a 5+ to pass, so various units fall back and need to decide whether to attempt to rally or re-engage. I prefer to leave the bases on the units and mark them rather than  take them off. It makes it easier to sort the troops out at the end and looks neater. NT asserts that most of these 'losses' are stragglers anyway, which is why it is so easy to rally.

Eagle eyed readers will notice that in the north the CSA are attacking!

Everyone is looking a bit ragged now. It is a bit  hard to make out but the 'pinning' CSA force has just conducted a charge and driven right into the middle of the northern Union troops. Each base lost takes one off the army breakpoint and thus chips are going down fast now.

Back in the south the Rebs come in for another go as they are inflicting disproportionate losses. They move to close range as it is so much more decisive.

In the north the Union have been forced back beyond the Nashville Turnpike and the road is blocked by the CSA cavalry. Attrition is mounting on the CSA forces here though and they are both forced back by losses. All the forces in the north have been hampered by the absence of their Generals, and various units have dithered instead of moving.

The CSA are suddenly running out of men. Only three chips left!

The fighting in the south continues unabated. The Union are down to four morale chips now, but are in a worse tactical position. Both sides are now concentrating on inflicting as much damage as possible through careful target selection. You can see a CSA unit with no less than  three bases lost, Bragg is trying to rally it. 

I've loosened up the target priority rules, and coupled with more liberal rallying (I'm letting units rally as long as they aren't adjacent to the enemy, they dont need to be out of range any more), the game is rather more ferocious. 

The Union infantry desperately try and clear the road north so the reinforcements can enter. The CSA cavalry are very tenacious though. It doesn't matter now that they keep failing to activate for movement as they are in a good position.

The CSA make one more big push and finally put the Union over their breakpoint (the red marker). I had originally thought about splitting breaks into an exhaustion level and a break level, but it doesn't really add anything except more maths.

The CSA are by now also one point off their exhaustion level, so I decide to adjudicate exhaustion at the end of the turn. The Union however fail to kill another base so Bragg has exhausted Rosencrans and the CSA win the day before the Union reinforcements can arrive.

That was a very useful process as although some of the changes worked well, many others didn't. I'll keep the changes to activation, fire priority and rallying, but the new facing mechanism didn't work well and coupled with the more liberal movement led to some silly situations. I'll revert to the old facing and movement system which worked OK. 

The main thing I didn't get right was the army breakpoint, the Union broke far too quickly, with the CSA not far behind. NT said in his designers notes for the game that it was deliberately very bloody to represent straggling, but it just meant the morale chips evaporated too fast. I'll set the breakpoint at 66%, which will prolong the game to a more sensible duration, but avoid some of the previous tedious slugfests as units endlessly lose bases but then rally them back again. I'm very glad I tested those changes before inflicting them on my long suffering players. Of course now I'll have to test the changes to the changes....