The Road to Minsk

After running an OP14 game over Skype, I thought I'd try a non gridded game, in this case my WW2 version of One Hour Wargames. It fits the bill as it uses a small (3' x 3') table and has a mercifully small number of elements to manouvre.

I wanted to get some of my newer toys out, so I bodged up the 'raid' scenario from the rules and turned it into a Summer 1941 Panzer breakthrough on the Eastern Front! In this scenario, a smaller force (four units) tries to tear across the table evading a larger number (six units) of enemy.

Kampfgruppe von Gow. A panzer battalion (Pz 38s) and a motorcycle battalion with attached AT guns.

Kampfgruppe von Armatys. Two schutzen battalions, one supported by infantry guns, the other by extra AT guns.

These units are modelled on 20th Panzer Div which fought with Panzer Group 3 in the battle for Minsk. To make more of a game of it I had the Schutzen fight dismounted and made the nmotorcycle battalion operate as normal motorised infantry rather than Heavy Recce as otherwise the Germans would have been far too mobile. The HQ elements are just for show.

The Germans had some offtable air and artillery. I modelled these as 1D6 of offtable arty support and four missions of Stukas, each with 2D6. The Stukas had to be called in by the KPzBfw attached to a unit while the 105s were in general support.

10th Rifle Div. These elements are considerably bigger than the German ones, being entire Regiments. The division has three Rifle Regiments (modelled as standard infantry units) and a 76mm Artillery Regiment (modelled as a standard on-table artillery unit) which can fire in support of any unit of the division. Simon had this division, the stand with the red flag is the HQ.

15th Mechanised Corps. Two (weak) Tank Regiments and a Motorised Rifle Regiment reinforced with close support artillery. Despite the T34 and KV, the tanks are just treated as standard tank units. In June 1941 the heavier tanks were hugely outnumbered by obsolete light tanks, and many of the more modern tanks lacked basic like spares, or even ammunition.... The motor rifle troops don't have any trucks, as also common in mid 1941.

Jerry got  my shiny new NKVD detachment and an officer with a megaphone. Mainly there to provide support and encouragement, but also had a house rule which might allow the recovery hits.

The initial setup. One thing I'd learned from Galkow and Tims matrix games was the importance of keeping the players oriented. The big grid labels are pretty garish, as is the compass indicator, but the players said they preferred them as they could work out where stuff was. I might make them a bit smaller for the next game (Tim suggested 64 point text was fine).

The action opens with a single regiment of 10th Rifle Div set up a hill facing west. The Germans are trying to get across the table and leave by the road in square C3. The Henschel spotter is stooging around because I painted it and it looks nice.

Jerry set up to provide encouragement to the soldiers.

The Germans are forced to enter in A1, the top left hand corner. Von Gow turned sharp right and headed due south. Von Armatys meanwhile march stolidy straight ahead. I think some planning may have taken place.

Faced with this target rich environment, the Russians on the hill opened fire while Jerry shouted encouragement.

The managed to inflict some hits on the motorcycle battalion as it sped past, but the Germans called down artillery fire from their 105s which somewhat impeded the Russians aim and even inflicted some losses. Jerry sprang into action and shoved the skulkers back into line.

The Germans approached the road, but the Russian infantry edged off the hill, despite being slowed down by the artillery fire.

Oooer, a major part of 15th Mech Corps came driving down the road from the east. Time for the Germans to get their skates on or they risk being crushed in a vice.

The Germans accelerate their assault. Panzers attack frontally, motorcycles from the flank all shot in by artillery and Stukas.

Meanwhile, 15th Mech Corps drops off its Rifle Regiment and its close support artillery who busily start digging trenches across the road.

Under the overwhelming assault, the Russians give way and run for the rear, leaving the NKVD to face the panzers all on their own.

However help is at hand, as the Tank Regiment rolls up the road.

Unfortunately it gets the full combined arms treatment, Pakfront, Stukas and artillery, all backed up by the panzers. Not a pretty sight.

The NKVD however urge them on.

Back down the road, the infantry finish digging in, overseen by the Corps Commander. Just off to the right can be seen the first Schutzen battalion approaching their position. Out of sight of the entrenched Russians for now (it is till a couple of miles away).

The Panzers assault the Russian tanks, shot in by AT guns, Artillery and Stukas.

The burning wreckage which results can be seen up the road. Meanwhile the NKVD fall back to the Motor Rifle troops, who reorient 45 degrees to face multiple threats. 

Dear me! The rest of 10th Rifle Div and 15th Mech roll down the road from the east, right behind the German motorcycle Bn. Not what you want to see behind you.

The Germans pause to take photos of burning T-26s. A popular past-time in 1941.

They hurry off, pursued by a great mass of Russians. Are they advancing or retreating? Who can say.

Fortunately the motorcyclists are bit nippier down the road than the KV-1s... they have accumulated quite a few hits by now.

The Germans rapidly regroup around square B3. This is a somewhat target rich environment for the dug in Russians, and the 76mm guns do grievous damage to the motorcyclists as they drive past.The panzers and one of the Schutzen battalions go for the 'table edge creep'. They do actually need to exit via the road though. The battered motorcyclists park up by the farm, while the other Schutzen cover the panzers flanks with their AT guns.

The Russians deploy into line while shelling the Germans. The 10th Rifle Div are trying to get within spotting range to call in their Div artillery, but the Germans keep running away. They are running out of table however...

Much to the annoyance of the Russians, the motorcyclist speed away. The Panzers finally make it on to the road. If only the Motor Rifle troops had deployed on the road exit rather than 6" forward... hindsight is a wonderful thing however.

The Germans call in their last airstrikes and artillery to pin the Motor Rifles in place. It would be very embarrassing if they close assaulted the Germans in the rear at this stage.

The Russians close in on the Schutzen battalion protecting the flank. They are looking distinctly ragged now, with four hits and disordered. The Germans drop artillery on the Russian tanks to slow them up even though it doesn't do any material damage. An armoured overrun would be disastrous.

The Panzers motor off to Minsk, followed by the Schutzen. The Motor Rifles pour fire into them but are hampered by the airstrike. The motorcyclist follow (with five hits!).

The flank protection battalion falls back.

The Russians form up for a mighty attack as the infantry close up behind the tanks and advance as close as they can to the remaining Germans.

The Schutzen battalion on the road is now also looking distinctly shaky, with four hits and disordered. German artillery keeps the Motor Rifles pinned in place though, precluding an infantry assault.

The German infantry are right at the brink, as the Russians close in.

The Russians aren't in a position to finish them off however as the Schutzen on the road march off east to join the Panzers, and the remaining Germans disappear eastwards cross country. The Germans have therefore achieved their victory conditions of exiting two units by the road (the ones which left cross country don't count) albeit with no less than 13 hits between them. The Russians are left with quite a force, three Rifle Regiments, a Tank Regiment and the entire 10th Div and 15th Mech Divisional Artillery . Sadly, with the Panzers racing up the road and hordes of German infantry rolling up from the west, this lot will being into the bag, unless they head south to the Pripyet Marshes and become partisans.

I was pretty pleased with that. Once again, it ran over two nights in two one hour sessions and I was rendered hoarse at the end of each, but the tech all worked OK this time and the players said they appreciated the big location markers to keep oriented. They'd obviously all read their briefings and hatched plans, and the Russians came so close to crushing the Germans in a trap.

The game mechanism worked well, and I was pleased with how the revised air and artillery worked. No-one attempted to rally so we didn't get to try out the new rally rules, but the NKVD house rule worked OK and provided a degree of entertainment, although I can always rely on Jerry to role play well. I realised that I wasn't using the mods for soft cover, and I think I'll drop that from future versions in  line with the rule that is you don't remember a rule and it doesn't break the game, it is probably unnecessary. It would mean that there are essentially three levels of protection in the game with 3+, 5+ and 6 to hit respectively (ie halving each time) which is nice and neat and lets me deal with CB fire against single dice artillery battalions.

Gabr El Ahmar August 1940

Inspired by Tims Corinth Canal game I thought I'd put on an NBC game using my slightly tweaked WW2 version (units were slower, shorter ranged and stood a bit closer together than on the nuclear battlefield!).

I'd bought the kit to do all the scenarios from Frank Chadwicks 'Benghazi Handicap' some years ago and added them to my existing 6mm desert stuff. As Simon had expressed an interest in using NBC for desert warfare I took the opportunity to work up the stats for the desert in 1940-42, largely based on my early Eastern Front stats.

This particular engagement was the first tank battle between British and Italian forces involving medium tanks, and was a chance to use my M11/39s.

The battlefield from the east. I oriented it this way as that is how I'll set the table up to play the game over Skype. The Italians are approaching from the North (right) and British from the South (left). The battle was fought along the coast road leading from Sidi Aziz to Fort Capuzzo. The map is my attempt to convert the one in the Benghazi Handicap book into hexes.

It was very interesting converting the Command Decision scenario into NBC as it raised a whole load questions about force/space ratios and movement rates. I ended up tweaking the NBC movement rates quite a bit to reflect operational experience of actual unit movement rates in various terrain types. The ranges were a bit of a fudge as rather than measuring hex-hex it is not unreasonable to assume that the units actually fill up a fair bit of the hex (so adjacent units are actually quite close).


The OBs were quite easy, I converted the CD platoons into NBC company equivalents and I applied the standard unit quality ratings. Morale levels are the hardest, but in the end I settled on CD morale 8 being the NBC equivalent of normal morale, plus or minus up and down levels from there (so CD Morale 10 or 11 units would essentially be immune to morale tests).

The combatants ended up looking like this. Once again I regretted selling my 15mm desert stuff, 6mm is a bit small for remote gaming.

British advanced guard, 8th Hussars with mainly Vickers IVb and a few A9s, plus a portee Hotchkiss 37mm AT troop and A Sqdn, 11th Hussars in Rolls Royce armoured cars.

Main body, 7th Armoured Brigade, 1st RTR with a squadron each of Mk VIb and A9s, Brigade HQ and A/1KRRC with another portee troop of 37mm guns, supported by a battery of RHA 18/25pdrs. The scenario lists 6th RTR, but that seems unlikely as they were assigned to the other brigade. 

Advanced Guard, Raggruppamento Aresca. I Medium Tank Battalion  with M11/39s and a company of Bersaglieri motorcyclists.

Aresca Main body. II Med Tank Bn (M11/39), IX Light Tank Bn (L3/35), Brigade HQ and brigade 47mm AT company. Supported by a full towed 75mm artillery battalion.

I kept similar sides to the Corinth Canal game to give each side a taste of using rather different quality troops to last time. Tim G, Richard and Simon got the Italians, while John and Tim C got 7th Armoured Brigade in its 1940 incarnation, probably the finest armoured formation ever fielded by the British Army. Just a shame there aren't very many of them....

As is currently the new normal, we ran this one over Skype over two nights.

The battlefield from the north. Gabr El Ahmar is raised on some extra hexes to show it can see over the lower hills. The unsightly labels are essential to help players orient themselves via video call.

I sent the players tons of briefing materials, and we had two seperate email threads going to deal with scenario questions and deployment discussion. It helps to be very prepared for remote games as you just don't have a chance for the pre-game chat. 

The Italian advance guard set up on Hill 32, and could see all the British armour 2 miles away down the valley.

8th Hussars set up on the road (the British were worried about an Italian dash for Fort Capuzzo), while 11th Hussars set up in the wadi, cunningly avoiding the movement penalties for crossing it. 

The Italians rumbled into hull down positions overlooking the main road, while the British pushed north.

The Italians opened fire at fairly long range, which didn't do any damage, but it prompted 8th Hussars to charge the Italian tanks! The Bersaglieri had been busy digging in when the great mass of British armour turned up.

It was all very unpleasant! Columns of black smoke rose into the sky, and when roll call was taken, it turned out that the British had lost over half their tanks, including all the cruisers, and the Italians had been wiped out! Hot dice on both sides.

Meanwhile the rest of 7th Armoured Brigade rolled up on Hill 38, ready to exploit the situation. The RHA set up their 18/25pdrs in support.

8th Hussars occupied the rest of Hill 32, and 11th Hussars tore up the road towards Sidi Aziz.

Ooer, the Italian main body then appeared from the east. Colonel Aresca personally leading II Medium Tank Bn.

The light tanks, AT guns and 75mm artillery rolled on behind Hill 31.

The remains of 8th Hussars (two weak squadrons of Mk VIb and a troop of portees) moved to stop them,

1st RTR pressed rapidly westwards to intervene. The KRRC headed for the Gabr, masked by the hill.

The Italian artillery soon spotted the clouds of dust from 1st RTR and opened fire on them, rapidly followed up by a close assault by Colonel Aresca and his M11/39s. The cavalry spirit was certainly alive today, and no-one had failed any morale tests at all.

This rapidly degenerated into a close range slugging match. At this stage every single element of both sides has taken a hit, but the grim struggle continues.

Meanwhile 8th Hussars charge the L3/35s on the hill.

Another bloodbath ensues, every Italian base is hit and a squadron of Mk VI goes up in flames, destroyed by the 47mm AT guns. The L3s can't actually damage the Vickers lights...

The KRRC occupy the farm and start to dig in. Their FOO scans the swirling tank battle for targets.

11th Hussars return from their roaming and join the battle on Hill 31, hoping to use their Boys ATRs at close range.

The Italians very wisely decide to withdraw, deliberately failing a morale test so they can fall back. This then opens up the British to Italian 75mm gunfire over open sights, and the KRRC spotters locate the firing Italian guns and bring down CB fire. Blimey, quite a lot going on.

Back with Aresca and 1st RTR, things are getting very messy. Both Briagde HQs are destroyed and the British lose the last of their light tanks. Everyone passes their morale and hangs on though.

The RHA provide fire support, shelling their opposite numbers.

Meanwhile 1KRRC are in firm possession of the farm.

We resumed the following day. View from the south. The Italians are clustered behind Hill 31 while they shell the Rolls Royces and Vickers Lights on the hill. The rest of the battlefield is littered with burning tanks.

The remains of 8th Hussars come off the hill to engage the few remaining M11/39s. Each side is down to a handful of operational tanks now. The Italian 75s continue to shell the British.

In a surprise move, the 11th Hussars disengage and head for the coastal road.

The tank battle ends in mutual annihilation.

The Italian artillery scores a long range hit on the 11th Hussars and one of the armoured car troops goes up in flames.

The survivors however motor down the road in fine style and capture the exit point leading to Sidi Aziz.

Meanwhile, the Italian L3s reorganise themselves and living up to their 'high speed' designation, set off south in the direction of Fort Capuzzo.

The RHA finally manage to hit one of the Italian batteries.

This prompts them to pack up and head for home.

Much to everyone's surprise, the 37mm portees up on Gabr el Ahmar open fire at extreme range and manage to knock out a company of L3s. The rest of them pressed on but time ran out.  The game had a random end time, 8-12 turns or four to six hours, and the timer stopped at five hours, which is pretty average for a WW2 brigade level engagement.  

At the end of the game the British were left in possession of both Gabr El Ahmar and the road leading to Sidi Aziz, while the Italians hadn't made it down to Fort Capuzzo. On paper, a fairly resounding British victory, however both sides had managed to lose the bulk of their armour and although I'm sure the majority had either broken down or suffered just minor damage, it would cripple both sides ability to continue the campaign.

In real life, Aresca actually won this battle. 8th Hussars were bounced by the Italian Advance Guard and withdrew after losing half a dozen tanks without managing to knock out any of the M11/39s in return. The main bodies never really got to grips after a short while later 7th Armoured Div withdrew back to Egypt to refit as it vehicles were suffering heavy wear. Later in 1940 they launched Operation Compass and destroyed the entire Italian Army in Cyrencia, but that is a different story.

I realised after the game that I'd been a bit over generous with the morale ratings (only one unit failed its morale in the entire game!), so for future converted CD scenarios I'll rank it down a notch. I also need to tweak some of the equipment ratings to better reflect actual effective ranges in the desert, but on the whole it worked well and the players claimed to enjoy it. The biggest surprise was how quickly it went, I'm used to NBC games being a bit sedate. Tim thought it was because I was rolling all the dice. With multiple dice of different dice being thrown for movement and combat resolution, the scope for 'dice dithering' in f2f games is fairly great, whereas with the umpire doing it, it flew along. 

QRF 15mm R35

The Renault 35 was a light tank designed to replace the Renault FT in independant tank battalions and with over 1500 produced it was was most numerous French tank of the war. It equipped 21 battalions in May 1940 (along with eight battalions of Renault FT) and was also supplied to Poland, Rumania, Yugoslavia and captured versions were used by the Italians and Germans. A fairly ubiquitous vehicle then, although when I picked these up I was primarily thinking of their use in 1st Rumanian Armoured Div (where they served well into 1944, many upgraded with Soviet 45mm guns).

So, along with he rest of my recetn QRF order, I added two of these. I went with the short 37,, version as these were the most numerous, although I do also have some spare R35 turrets provided by Mr Gow, so I may have a go at building some of the R40 turrets with a long 37, which would also do for the Rumanian 45mm turrets,

Here they are in all their tiny tank glory. For an interwar designed two man light tank they were astonishingly long lived and served in every theatre of WW2 in Europe. They thick armour helped a lot, and actually having a gun (unlike the poor old Matilda 1 which was very similar). 

These are lovely little castings, very crisp and easy to assemble (just hull, turret and seperate tracks). The tracks are a bit unusual in that they are double sided, so you can stick either track on either side, but it keeps the complex suspension system delightfully open.

Engine deck, you can also see the neat casting of the rear turret hatch hinge. If I do make up some extra turrets I might brave doing a commander hanging out of the back.

You can see the excellent detail on the suspension which really brings the tank alive it is just a shame that the side portions of the exposed track are a bit flat.

I spent a long time thinking about what colours to paint these. The original French R35s were mainly done in an exuberent factory paint scheme, while Rumanian R3s were in  a very boring mid green. I wanted to be reasonably authentic, but in my copy of Vauvilliers 'French Tanks and Armoured Vehicles' I noticed the H35 light tanks were done in a mid green and red brown disruptive scheme. This would do nicely for captured specimens in German and Italian (mainland Europe) service and would look close enough to a dirty Rumanian scheme for wargaming purposes as well as being a proper French scheme. So, green and brown it was, followed by my usual daubings of mud, dust and an inkwash on the tracks. Vive la France!