Battle 2025 Pt 1. Armoured Action

 As I mentioned in my recent post on my wargaming history, the first "proper" set of wargames rules I used were Charles Grants "Battle". Originally a series of articles in Meccano Magazine, they were published as a book by MAP in December 1970. I think I got my copy in 1971.

I've long had a hankering to 'do' something with these in a more modern setting. There was just something about the style and presentation which greatly appealed to me, and is part of the reason I've plumped for 15mm WW2 figures, accompanied by as many plastic (and metal and resin) vehicles as possible. Unlike Featherstone, Tarr and Young, Charles Grant tried to base his movement distances, weapon ranges and effectiveness on something vaguely based on reality, however imperfect. The book was cobbled together from various articles, and it is clear on reading it that there is actually a lot more going on in the games than is alluded to in the text. Something of an interesting puzzle for a keen 10 year old!

There was a blog poster a couple of years ago who had converted Battle to hexes (sorry, I can't seem to find a link to it) and John Salt very kindly generated me up to date armour penetration tables using the work he'd done for the revised WRG 1925-50 rules. As I've been looking at tactical games recently I thought it was finally time to bite the "Battle" bullet, with three main aims. 

• Can I get Charles Grant to work on a hex board?
• Can I address the numerous anomalies, contradictions and missing bits in the rules?
• Can I set up my toys to resemble those lovely tabletop armies which feature in the book photos?

The basics

Scale: I was trying to cram a game designed to be played on an 8' x 5' table onto a hex grid at most 10x12 or 9x14 hexes. The moves in Grant are also notoriously short for leg infantry, being a mere 3"(!) but perhaps overly generous for vehicles being based on their theoretical road speeds at 1" per mph. In the end I plumped for a ground scale of 1 hex = 150m (or 5" in the original rules), and I'd just have to work around it. It was also fairly obvious in the original that he'd scaled everything down at a ratio of 1:3 in terms of unit representation, so eg a Rifle Company had three 'sections' of six figures plus a leader and some support weapons bolted on, so the sections are actually platoons.

Moves: I wanted to keep it simple, so I plumped for very simple movement relationships, 1 hex for leg infantry and slow vehicles, 2 hexes for medium vehicles and 3 for fast ones. I've found these work fine on Hexon type games. Rather than doubling road movement as in the original I give tracked vehicles +1 hex on road and wheeled +2 hex on road. The original rules also allow units to move and fire, creating some very silly situations to modern eyes, so I added in 'tactical movement'. If it moves just 1 hex, it can still fire, not otherwise.

Turn sequence. The original games were played with simultaneous movement and combat, which is fine, but... Instead of sim move I just borrowed the excellent Spearhead mechanism of semi-simultaneous movement. Roll for initative, A moves, B moves and then combat is simultaneous but goes in a sequence of stationary units first, then moving ones, so stationary units get the drop on the enemy.

Spotting: The original rules allowed units with binoculars to see twice as far as those without, and led to the silly situation that tanks could see much better than infantry. I really liked the variable visibility though, so I changed the 'aided' and 'unaided' ranges to vehicles in the open vs vehicles in cover or infantry in the open, then added a third column for infantry in cover. Any unit firing used the top column (maximum distance).

Comms: the original game required units to make radio contact on a 5+, then maintain contact on a 2+. I think we can assume our guys are all netted in, so radio messages get through on a 2+

AT fire: I just plugged in the revised strike values produced by John, and redid the vehicle defence values in  line with the new strike values (allowing for a 50% chance of penetration for the mean values). The only revision I made to the existing to-hit was to add in a +1 if the target was in any sort of cover. I might substitute the to-hit table I used for 'Tigers at Minsk' but lets see how this goes.

OK, that is all we need for now, so to battle! Grants first scenario "Armoured Action". 

The battlefield. This is 14 x 9 hexes, and is roughly the same proportions as Grants 8 x 5 table. I've managed to get the terrain in roughly the same places as the original scenario. Of course hilariously the book doesn't specify any terrain effects at all apart from road moves and cover vs small arms fire, so we will have to make up something sensible.

In the book scenarios he seems to treat wooded hills as impassable, so we will too, but I'll treat the other woods as blocking LOS but passable to vehicles. The low hedges and ruins I'll treat as providing cover, but not blocking LOS. The river is impassable except at bridges. There is quite a lot of LOS blocking terrain at ground level, which is what makes this engagement interesting.

The Germans will come on from the west (left) and the Russians from the east (right). The aim is to defeat the other, which in the scenario apparently involved knocking out over half the enemy's vehicles (although that wasn't explicitly stated). 

I rolled up the visibility and it was a DR of 7, or 6 hexes for vehicles in the open (1000 yards), which seems reasonable.

The Germans. Four x Pz IVG and two x Pz III L. In the original game the Germans had four 'Panzer IVs' and two 'Armoured Cars', which were very obviously Pumas. I don't possess any models of such a rare beast as the Puma, so instead I substituted the Pz IIIs. The L is actually very heavily armoured on the front, and almost as good as a Pz IV. In Johns new strike tables, the 75L48 is also a pretty powerful gun, far more so than Grants 'long 75'.

Think of this as an early 1944 Medium Panzer Company which still hasn't fully re-equipped and has some Pz III knocking around.

And the Russians. Grants original force was four Roco T34/85s, and here are the Plastic Soldier Company equivalent. With the revised stats these boys are both more heavily armoured than the Pz IVs and have a harder hitting gun. Even the lowly Pz IIIs have a chance against them though, and rather than using just a -1 for hits in the flank as in the original rules, I've calculated the flank defence values based on their actual armour, which makes flank shots pretty deadly against any of the vehicles in this scenario.

I'm doing semi simultaneous moves here. Both sides move in initiative order, then fire simultaneously, starting with stationary units. The Russians got the intitiative and just chugged up the road.

As did the Germans, and as in the original scenario, send the 50mm armed vehicles off up the side track to try and get some flank shots. I'm not 100% convinced about these move distances (2 hexes for medium vehicles, +1 hex if entirely on road). I might bump them back up to the distances I use for OHW.

Using hexes with front/side armour also raises the thorny question of facing. I'm borrowing from 'Tigers at Minsk', the frontal arc is 120 degrees but I'm letting vehicles have a side or a vertex. The biggest restriction is that they can only pivot and then move, unless they sacrifice a hex movement to pivot at the end of a move. It means you need to be careful not to get hit in the flank. 

Another turns chugging saw the Germans all on in neat columns, just like the photo in Grants book!

While the Russians start to spread out a bit. Both sides need to be a bit cautious now abut who moves into range first and at what angles. I'm allowing units to make a 'tactical' move of one hex and still fire, but stationary units get to fire first.

The Germans also do some shuffling. Two Pz IVs shift behind the ruins to get some cover, while the Pz IIIs are using the woods to shield themselves from the main Russian force and isolate one of the T34s at the bridge.

Bang, bang! Firing breaks out. At six hexes range it is actually quite hard to hit anything (8+ on 2D6, 9+ if cover is in the way). One of the Pz IVs and one of the Pz IIIs hit a T34 each, but the hits are ineffective (although the Pz III comes within one point of stunning its target). The T34s fire back also scoring two hits, one is ineffective and the other brews a Pz IV. At 6 hexes the strike value of the 85 is 10, vs the Pz IV frontal armour of 16 so it needs a 7+ to kill with 2D6. The reverse values are 9 for the 75L48 (8 for the 50L60) vs frontal armour of 17 for the T34s.

Both sides do a bit of tactical manouvering, moving one hex. I realised I needed to keep track of who had moved, so put down some green counters to indicate it. The Pz IIIs are trying to keyhole one of the T34s

But once more the German fire is ineffective, either missing or failing to penetrate, while the Russians get another of the Pz IVs in the open.

In the north the Pz IIIs have now isolated one of the T34s (the rest are screened by the trees), so boldly try to close the range. At four hexes the 50L60 has a strike of 9, so needs 8+ to stun or 9+ to kill if it hits the T34.

The Russians just sit and shoot however. The Germans fail to knock out any Russians, while the Russians take out another Pz IV and one of the brave Pz IIIs. 

With only two tanks left and no Russian losses, the Germans pack up and head for home after seven turns. Almost exactly the same result as the original game, although with the original strike and defence values, it was an even more lopsided match.

I actually rather enjoyed that, but I'm not sure about the move distances, they seemed a bit short (a feature of many of Grants games). I'm going to try it again with a three hex basic move, +1 if entirely on road. Not sure if a tac move should be one or two, I'll see how I get on.

I'll also increase the hit chances by 1 step (so basic to hit at 300m is 5+ on 2D6), which is more in line with the WRG hit probabilities. (Basic 2+ to hit on 1D6 at short range).

Off we go again.

The Germans do much the same as before, while this time the Russians come in in line abreast. The extra hex of movement seems to help.  I rolled yet another 7 for visibility, so spotting range is 6 hexes, again.

Both sides are a bit more cautious about moving into engagement range. Both the Pz IVs and T34s advance slowly, and keep just out of sight. The Pz IIIs make a dash northeast to use the screening of the trees, and as in the last game, give themselves the potential to keyhole one of the Russians. In turn the Russians need to be careful they don't get flanked as their side armour is only 11.

Both sides end up just out of sight.

Both sides make some minor adjustments, being careful about their facings. I charge a hex movement to change facing at the end of a turn. I think the Germans have managed to get four Pz IVs against two T34s after that bit of manouvering. The units are just in range,

Shots ring out... this time the honours are more even. One of the Pz IVs is hit and burns, while one of the Pz IIIs is stunned. I've added a stun result if the strike + 2D6 equals the DV. The tank can't fire and can only move away from the enemy, if at all. The stun is removed automatically at the end of next turn.

In return one of the Pz IVs pops a T34. 

The stunned Pz III. 

The Germans advance on the now isolated T34 to the south, but it all goes wrong in the combat phase. One of the Pz IIIs is knocked out, the other is stunned (again) and another Pz IV goes up in smoke. In return the Germans score two non penetrating hits, although one is close. 

Then it is game over very quickly as concentrated fire takes out another Pz IV and the Germans head for home once more.

That actually felt a bit less cumbersome and more decisive, without being quite as lethal as WRG, so I think I'll keep those changes to the hit probabilities and movement rates.

A Charles Grant-esque image, I hope.

And another, even if I don't have the Pz IVs parked in some Bellona vacuum cast buildings, they are at least in some ruins.

Very pleased with that, and an itch partly scratched. Next time, onto infantry combat....