King of the Hill - One Hour Wargames: WWII AAR

Having to postpone any Lovecraftian adventures until a later date, I instead met up with Alex last weekend to help playest his WWII rules. Like his Dark Ages rules, they're based on the One Hour Wargames ruleset, with Alex's own tweaks, adjustments, and additions. 

The scenario we played is a slightly altered version of the one featured in my Take the High Ground! post. Instead of a road running off to the side of a hill, this road ran right through it. The scenario set the Italians defending against a British force. 

In our first game, I was commanding the Italians, and Alex the British. I had a AT gun unit and an infantry unit to work with. I positioned the guns on the left side of the hill. 

As per the scenario rules, Alex got to pick three units to arrive via the road at the beginning of his turn 1. Two tank units and an infantry unit roared onto the table, heading towards the hill. 

My infantry moved into the wood, and my AT guns exchanged fire with Alex's tanks. Dug into the hill, they were able to inflict a decent number of hits on the lead unit.

At the start of turn 3, I was allowed to bring two units onto the table via the road on my side - a tank unit and mortars. The two units of infantry were at a standoff, neither willing to get closer. And my AT guns continued to hit the British armor.

After some more movement and shooting on my part, the rest of Alex's force came onto the table on turn four - two more tank units and a mortar unit (with the defensive and movement capabilities of a tank unit). This is where things started to go poorly for me. 

I lost my tank unit, and my AT guns were run off the table.

Turn 6 saw the arrival of the last of my units - another tank and infantry unit. My tanks drove to the side of the hill, intending on hitting his tank in the side. My infantry arrived and moved onto the hill. Alex drove his tanks hard towards my mortars, while his own mortars hit my infantry. 

A lucky round of shooting forced one of Alex's tank units back, giving my infantry and opening to try and get to the tanks to do some close range attacks. I pulled my second infantry unit off the hill to save them from the enemy artillery.

Alex's tank poured fire into my guns at close range, and his artillery and tanks continued to outmatch my own armor. 

It's not looking good - my first infantry unit falls to a mortar strike. I send the second unit into the flank of the tanks attacking my mortars, which are only a few hits away from being routed. 

In quick succession, both my remaining infantry unit and my mortars are destroyed, and Alex takes possession of the hill.

I move my reaming unit of tanks onto the hill, hoping to regroup, bunker down, and run out the clock. Unfortunately Alex's weight of fire is too great, and my tanks are destroyed. Victory goes to the British!

I did want to try out the British side, and knowing I didn't have much time left (other engagement called), I decided for a fairly foolhardy headlong rush, hoping to push the entrenched units off the hill quickly. 

Unfortunately, I should have remembered the lessons I learned in my game of Hail of Fire against Curt - frontal assaults on dug-in defenders never work!

Alex deployed his infantry and guns much like I had, but elected to keep his infantry up on the hill. I brought on two units of tanks and the howitzers for some early game bombardments. However, I had forgotten that dug-in units can only be seen from 12" or less away, so my mortars didn't have a shot. 

As both of Alex's units were Ready, they opened fire as soon as I had moved into range. I was still hoping that my tanks could at least get rid of the infantry, while the mortars dropped rounds onto the AT guns.

The arrival of Alex's tanks threw that plan into disarray, and I was forced to pull back lest I offer the arriving armor my own tanks' flank. The infantry on the hill were fully ready for my attack, and delivered a devastating blow to my assaulting tanks, who meekly replied.

Alex quickly finished his one-two blow by knocking out both of the damaged tank platoons. With the rest of my units showing up, I decided for a second push.

I sent my infantry in to attack the AT guns, who had a disadvantage in return fire. Meanwhile I readied my tanks on the left to receive any charges from Alex's armor.

Alex didn't take the bait, however, and simply destroyed my attacking infantry. Now at a distinct 2:1 odds and with still-fresh troops in well defended positions, I realized any attack I made was going to fail. I conceded to Alex, and the Italians cheered with their victory well in hand.

Well, chalk that up as two losses. But here I am, buying a copy of One Hour Wargames to supplement Alex's rules and trying to find some vendor that sells averaging dice (which Alex uses in his rules instead of regular D6's). I guess we'll be seeing more of these rules in the future!