I fancied having another go at Tigers and Minsk, and I wanted to try converting one of the Fireball Forward scenarios to play with TaM. I did Livry as part of my WRG 1925-50 playtest series, and that seemed suitable being quite small but featuring the full range of arms.
As a reminder, the WRG version is here: https://tgamesweplay.blogspot.com/2025/07/wrg-1925-to-50-neu-part-4-encounter-at.html
Battlefield from the south. The WRG version was 400 yards x 600 yards, so strictly this should be 4x6, but it just seemed so constricted that I added in a couple of extra hex ends so some of the columns are 5 hexes instead of 4.
Amazingly I managed to just about replicate the table layout. As a reminder, most of the hedges are high, so block LOS at ground level. There is a lower hedge running along the E-W road as far as he town, which provides cover but doesn't block LOS. Otherwise there are four built up areas and a couple of small woods.
The German defenders from the Panzer Lehr Escort Company. Two panzergrenadier sections, a tripod MG42 and a towed Pak 40. In the original scenario both infantry sections have panzerfausts and there is also a panzerschreck team, so I gave them an infantry AT availability of 4. The Pak 40 has an AT strike value of 7, as do the infantry AT weapons.
These guys are also high morale with a decent leader, so they got a force morale of 3 (ie their break point is losing three units) and the base number to rally is 3+, modified by cover.
And here are the British, from 7th Armoured Div. An infantry platoon with three rifle sections, a 2" mortar. They have an infantry smoke capability and an infantry AT capability of 3, which may be a bit generous.
There is a troop of three Cromwells. These have 2D6 of MG or 2D6 of HE and an AT defence of 6.
Finally there is an artillery observer for a troop of 25pdrs with three fire missions.
The Germans need to set up the AT gun within LOS of the main E-W road and a burning wreck from an earlier ambush. As before I put the wreck on the crossroads in the town and the gun back down the main road, dug in on the edge of the wood.
Otherwise the MG42 team is behind the southern hedge, due to low hedge along the road they can cover almost the entire front with opportunity fire. One PGR section occupies the buildings west of the crossroads, while the other is dug in well out of sight behind the northern buildings. I did think about a more linear defence but it is prone to being overwhelmed piecemeal.
The Germans have to knock out two Cromwells and avoid the AT gun being destroyed. The British also win if they get three Cromwells off the eastern edge. The time limit is 80 minutes, so a deliberate approach is possible.
The British come on with all three sections in line behind the handy hedge. The 2" mortar is in the centre and the artillery observer in the south. One tank comes on for close support, but stays close to the infantry. The northern section pops smoke into the open field beyond the hedge and then the British smoke is exhausted.
Unlike last time I'm going to keep a reserve.
The MG42 opp fires at the two infantry sections it can see (the third is obscured by buildings) but the fire is ineffective. The PGR in the buildings make their infantry AT roll (which now drops to three) and scores a hit on the Cromwell! Sadly they roll a miserable 1 for effect and it bounces off.
The British put down inffective small arms and MG fire on the Germans, they also call down an artillery stonk which falls short. The northern section moves into the smoke, but they are pinned by fire from the PGR in the buildings. The MG42 goes out of command so doesn't do anything.
Both sides trade ineffective small arms and MG fire. The British call down another stonk, which this time scatters wide and misses! I'm really not convinced that observed artillery fire is as useless as this. The 2" mortar is also bravely firing at the Germans, but needs a 6 on 1D6 to hit anything. Perhaps it should have a round of smoke?
The British section in the smoke fails to rally, despite needing a 3+.
Time to shake things up. I rule that the third observed stonk is on target, and the Germans are duly pinned. The British also manage to pin the MG42. The pinned British section falls back and is replaced by a fresh one in the smoke. The two remaining Cromwells come on into the big field now the German defence is pinned.
The Germans prioritise rallying their pinned troops. The other section and AT gun go out of command.
The British manage to activate all their units and pour fire into the Germans. While they miss the PGR, the 2" mortar hits the MG42 and it is finished off by the pair of Cromwells. The British take the northern buildings just as the smoke dissipates.
The Germans try for another AT shot at the massed tanks, but fail the availability roll (which now drops to 2), but they do manage to pin the British in the northern buildings with point blank fire.
The tanks now roll forward to take advantage of the gap in the German line. The British covering fire pins the PGR in the buildings and the 2" mortar promptly runs out of ammunition, which is fair enough. The section in the north manages to rally though.
The Germans rally the troops in the buildings but fire against the British in the north is ineffective. In a bold move, the Pak 40 begins to relocate (it can load up and move one hex). As long as the British are in LOS of the occupied buildings, they can only move 1 hex per turn, plenty of time to move and set up facing the armoured attack, which will necessarily be channelled by the BUAs.
Ooer, what is this. The two covering British sections manage to rout the PGR in the buildings! This opens up the way for the Cromwells to roll forwards two hexes. The Pak 40 hastily reverses back into the woods and unlimbers!
The presence of unsupported armour in the dense terrain has not gone un-noticed however. The reserve PGR section picks up their panzerfausts and legs it down the hedgerows to close assault the tanks on the crossroads.
The British in the northern building manage to hit them with opportunity fire, pinning the German infantry, so they only get to roll 1D6 in the ensuring melee. The Cromwell rolls a 4 and misses, the German roll a 5 and hit! They then roll unmodified against the armour penetration table and score a magnificent 6! Kaboom! Scratch one Cromwell. Iron crosses and tank destruction badges all around.
All is not lost however, if the Brits can take out the AT gun, they win. Covered by the section in the north, one British rifle section advances up the hedgeline. Unfortunately the other goes out of command.
The last two Cromwells swing around the church and line up on the Pak 40. They are out of arc of the gun, so it faces a hefty to-hit penalty for traversing.
They reckon without the veteran German AT gunners though, who effortlessly swing their gun around and roll a whopping 9 on the to-hit dice. Naturally this is followed by a 5 on the kill dice and another Cromwell bursts into flames. The other German section rallies, but it doesn't matter as it is game over with 52 minutes on the game clock and both sides force morale reduced to a measly one each!
That was very enjoyable and felt like a much fairer fight than in the WRG game. I did have to look a few things up as I've never done a close assault vs AFVs before, but overall the game worked very well and was a close fight. My minor morale mods worked OK too, and generally the Germans rallied faster than the British.
Sadly the British fell victim to their desperate urge to conduct a cavalry charge on tracks, but when I pushed the tanks forwards, it seemed we were on the edge of a breakthrough. Keeping up a deliberate approach might have been more effective as we still had 38 minutes on the clock and the Germans were one away from their force breakpoint.
I'm still not very happy with the artillery fire. I don't mind map fire scattering, but I think observed fire was a lot more accurate than that, easy enough to fix I think. That is also quite a complex scenario in terms of the victory conditions (which are actually more complex than I've summarised). There are some simpler ones in the Fireball Forward rulebook, so I might try some of them. They have the added bonus that several are based on my favourite Squad Leader scenarios and I think in future I'll stick to standardish sized tables as this one was really a bit small. So, there is definitely more to come.
Looked good, Martin, and seemed to provide a good game. When you say that you ruled the third barrage was on target, did you manipulate the actual result to make it a hit? This action offers a very small footprint, indeed.
ReplyDeleteNice, simple, good looking terrain. Are those flocked heroscape hexes?
ReplyDeleteThat became quite tense in the final moments. I agree about the Squad Leader scenarios, that game just brings sheer nostalgic joy. It seems strange that something so good and universally respected was allowed to whither as it ‘morphed’ into ASL.
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