Herzöge von Hazzard - Combat Patrol AAR

This past weekend was HMGS' Cold Wars, held once again in the Valley Forge Casino's byzantine halls and rooms. 

I signed up for four games over two days, and volunteered to run one (which was Chaeronea using Strength & Honour, which I've posted about a few times now) as events list was a little thin on the eve of publication. 

Overall I enjoyed the convention, and I think that the players in my game enjoyed themselves. 

I'll be posting AARs of of the four games I played over the next few weeks, so here's the first!

Early Friday morning, after a couple hours drive from Cape May, I settled down for a game of Combat Patrol, run by Gregory with the ever-present HAWKS group. 

Combat Patrol, written by Buck Surdu, is a set of skirmish WWII rules that runs entirely on a deck of cards. The cards are used for movement, shooting, dicing off; anything that might crop up during the game is squeezed into a single card. Shooting, for example, is handled by multiple card flips. You flip to see if you hit, then who you hit, and then where they're hit and if it's deadly. Unit activations are also simultaneous, unless they might be interacting with enemy units, which can help speed up the early turns of a game.

It's a fun system that takes a little getting used to, but plays quickly once you become familiar. I had played a Napoleonic version way back at Barrage, and was looking forward to trying the original WW2 rules.

Greg's game was a fight between a British platoon and German platoon in 1940. The British had three infantry squads, an HMG, an anti-tank rifle, and two Matilda II tanks. The Germans didn't have any attached infantry support, but they had a bunch of tanks! Two Panzer IIs, a Panzer I, and a StuG. 

I was commanding an infantry squad and a Matilda II to start out, opposite a German squad. 

Thanks to a random activation system (that might restart without a chance for units to activate!) this was the position my troops were stuck in for a couple turns. 

Luckily the Matilda's armor was thick enough that the StuG was unable to outright destroy my tank, but the crew was stunned over and over. I did manage to get a fireteam into the ruins, but that left them at the mercy of the rapidly increasing number of German infantry. 

My Matilda, regrettably, was the first tank to brew up, leaving the British infantry uncomfortably exposed to the German armor.

Not that the situation was much better on the other side of the table, with two Panzer IIs blitzing through the town square!

With the indomitable 40k-esque spirit, one Panzer commander ordered his tank forward into the British infantry, scattering the Tommies like a flock of geese. 

My infantry were hunkered down in the ruins, hammered by German machine-gun fire. 

I did get the chance to bring on the HMG (I just forgot to take a picture), which did discourage the Germans from assaulting the Brits in the green ruins. 

The Germans were pressing the British back, having forced my fireteam out of the center ruins. 

In a daring maneuver, the Panzer II continued its rampage through the British infantry, further scattering and stunning the soldiers as it drove past. Two Brits desperately clung to the tank, trying to get their rifles or grenades into a open port. 

After a couple more turns, we decided to end the game with a decisive German victory. The British had lost their armor, taken multiple casualties, and had a German tank doing donuts through their flanks. The only thing to do was find the quickest route to Dunkirk!

 I had fun playing the game and, had it been available to purchase by any vendor at the convention, would have picked up a copy. Alas, no one had a copy, so I'll have to grab one online. I could see this being a fun game for the club, and it's another candidate for my idea of playing the Horus Heresy without GW's rules. 

SMH, SMG - Chain of Command AAR

This past weekend was the Springfield group meetup, where I once again ran Strength & Honour. After swapping out the dice (which have been appropriately designated as "cursed" and thrown into the garbage), it seemed like everyone had a good time. I'm pretty confident in my ability to run the game now. 

I stayed for the afternoon game and got a chance to play in another of Jeff's Chain of Command games, this time set in 1943 during the Battle of Kursk. Two players (myself and John) were commanding two Soviet platoons, while our opponents (Walt and Dave) controlled two German platoons. 

This was a meeting engagement, with both sides at maximum morale (11) at the start and with full command dice. 

The Soviets had a SMG platoon, which I was playing with, and a Motorized Rifle platoon. The Germans had two Pioneer platoons. Both sides had tanks in support. 

My two Jump-Off Points were located in the woods dominating my side of the table. I brought in an SMG squad and the platoon's flamethrower team. Walt wasted no time in deploying both his pioneer squads, with a flamethrower team as backup. 

One of John's JOPs was on top of a hill, and he deployed two rifle squads into cover. 

Unfortunately, doing so made his squads a target for concentrated German fire from the two opposing platoons. 

With visibility between in the woods limited to 12", both sides slowly crept forward, hoping to get the first strike. 

The advantage, however, seemed to be in the German's favor. The pioneer squads were equipped with 2 LMGs each, which could pour out dice when shooting. Supporting them were multiple SMGs, which weren't terribly effective, but added more dice. It also didn't help that Walt got a double turn. 

My SMG squads could fire up to 4 dice at 6", but only 2 dice at 12", and only 1 die each if they were moving at that. 

Lined up along the bank of the stream, the Germans opened fire and wiped out most of my first SMG squad. 

I quickly deployed another squad to block the German advance. 

Things weren't going so well for John, either, resulting in an... ad hoc method of camouflaging his SU-76 from the guns of three German tanks.

Walt's squads kept advancing, laying down withering fire into my SMG squads and supported by a pair of panzers. 

A couple hours into the game, the German's had mostly halted at the river, but only because it was the best spot for their Soviet-themed shooting range. John's SU-76 was destroyed and none of the three T-34's could land a decent hit on the German armor. You can see Dave's Germans up on top of the hill in the top right. 

Meanwhile, my second SMG squad was being chewed up, and I lost my flamethrower team to an CoC dice interrupt. 

With the second squad breaking and running, and my T-34 forced back, I only had one more SMG squad left, along with the platoon's Senior Leader. 

We decided to call the game there. I didn't catch John's morale value at the end, but mine was all the way down to 3. Neither Dave not Walt had taken any hits to their Force Morale, making this a conclusive victory for the Germans. 

While a fun game, John and I came away thinking that the scenario was a bit stacked against the Soviets (although we had gotten our asses handed to us, so we were a little biased!). The German advantage in machine guns was such that approaching them, even in the woods, was a death trap. If the scenario was supposed to be somewhat equal engagement, then the Soviets needed something to close the gap, like an LMG or two in their squads or smoke from mortars. 

History Repeats Itself - Strength & Honour AAR

This past weekend, I ran a game of Strength & Honour at the monthly SJGA meetup. I'm planning to run this scenario at the Springfield meetup this upcoming weekend (and have volunteered to also run it at Cold Wars in March), so I needed some refresher games to get my head around the rules. John commanded the Romans, while Chris commanded the Pontics. 

The Chaeronea scenario refights a major battle of the First Mithridatic War. Three years into the war, Lucius Cornellius Sulla found himself and his 30,000 strong army facing a Pontic army twice its size, led by the Greek nobleman, Archelaus. 

John set his legions up on top of the heights of Mount Thurium, with his cavalry behind the Roman shields. Chris' pike blocks were flanked by lighter infantry and cavalry, with archers and skirmishers out in front. 

Chris moved aggressively, his massed ranks of pikemen rolling forward and the Scythed Chariots attacking the Romans' Greek allies. 

John began maneuvering his cavalry to swing out to the flanks of the Roman lines. 

Unfortunately, the Scythed Chariots failed to do any damage, and were instead pushed back and destroyed (any Push Back result against Scythed Chariots automatically destroys them, but it only costs a Setback card and doesn't force a Rout result). Buoyed by the victory, the Thureophoroi surged forward to attack the Pontic Cavalry. 

John pushed hard on the left flank, with his Raw Roman Legion joining the Thureophoroi to push back Chris' flank, exposing the line of pikes. 

In the center, legion met phalanx and skirmisher fought skirmisher. 

On the far right, you can see John's Light Cavalry ranging out in a flanking maneuver. 

With Chris' flank tied up, he could only watch as the Roman cavalry turned and prepared a charge into the open side of his pike phalanxes. 

Chris' Thureophoroi had also been caught by the fast moving Roman Light Cavalry. Of course, it didn't help that the Thureophoroi had refused to move for several turns.

At least Chris' attack on the Roman left flank was going better. Two pike phalanxes, supported by the Pontic Light Cavalry, were pushing back two of John's legions. 

With the skirmishers on both sides chased out of the line of battle, the Roman legions and Pontic phalanxes continued to clash. 

However, the Pontics were in a precarious position. With the legions to the front, and flanked by cavalry, Chris' Veteran Phalanx was automatically Disordered. And his Thureophoroi ended up fleeing the Roman Light Cavalry... right into his phalanxes' other flank!

Being stuck between two enemy units in Strength & Honour (really, in any wargame) is pretty disastrous, although I did mess a few things up. There probably shouldn't be this many Disorder markers on the phalanx the Pontic general is attached to, or on the skirmishers. But by this point, Chris had accrued enough Setback cards that, when John called Haemonculus Est, they were well above the Pontic break point of 20. 

Chris and John were great players, and I really appreciated them helping me out.

Later that very same day, I then went up to Ted's and replayed the game with him, Chip, and Steve. Steve and I played the Romans, while Ted and Chip played the Pontics. 

I won't get into the full details of the game, but it seemed like the Romans' luck had turned sour, and we were gathering Setback cards left and right. However, a reversal of fortune from the Pontics gave us the momentum to win some important combats and give the Pontics enough Disaster cards to barely eke out a win. 

Chip was a major help in figuring out several rules that I had misread or misapplied, which will be great for this coming Saturday. And it's a reminder that I shouldn't play in games I'm also trying to teach! It does my head in trying to do both at the same time (although already having played the game once, and not sleeping all that well the night before didn't help).

All that aside, I'm definitely more confident in running this scenario. I do think I need to "pretty up" the tale a little more. I do need to make the stream that the scenario mentions (which is entirely fordable and doesn't impact the battle), and maybe toss down some green tufts for small groves of trees. 

Back off, Boches! - Chain of Command AAR

This past weekend I went over to Springfield for their monthly meetup. Luckily, for the first part of 2023, they're meeting on the third Saturday of the month, which means it doesn't overlap with the SJGA meeting on the second Saturday. 

While I had to be elsewhere in the afternoon, I got a chance to play a game of Chain of Command set during the 1940 invasion of France, run by Jeff. 

I was commanding a French platoon, while Hutch was my opponent and commanding the Germans. Hutch was later joined by Scott. Apparently this was the painted French's first outing, so I hoped I could do them proud. 

The German objective was to secure the stone house at the end of the road, while the French objective was to keep the Germans away. 

The Germans started with 10 morale, while the French had 8. 

I got lucky with the Patrol Phase and managed to lock down two of the German patrol markers with one of mine. I got one JOP in the ruins at the front of the buildings and the other two behind stone walls on the other side of the road. 

With not much in the way of cover approaching the village, Hutch had to place the German JOPs in the woods on either side of the table. You can see one on the far side of the table, and two on the close side.

Hutch's advance started with an aggressive double phase for the Germans, deploying two squads and a senior leader into the far side of the table (and catching me off guard. I had expected the German attack to push from the two JOPs on the other side). 

Needing to stem the German tide, I got the chance to deploy a VB-armed team in the stone house, and an infantry squad in the ruins. They caught some fire from the German LMG team that was on overwatch, but the Germans were worse off in the exchange. 

Hutch brought on a light mortar to target the infantry in the ruined building, which I managed to chase off with a Hotchkiss HMG. 

The firefight between the Germans in the forest and the French in the ruins continued, with both sides accruing casualties and shock markers. 

To bring more fire on the French defenders, the Germans drive their armored car into range. The 222's armor was enough that nothing on the French side could handle it, apart from the Panhard that was in reserve. 

So I brought the Panhard on, and the French armored car immediately missed its shot at its smaller German counterpart.

Feeling pressed on the far side of the table, I decided to deploy a second squad of infantry on the opposite flank. Two of the German JOPs were relatively undefended, and it would be a huge hit to their morale to lose them. 

While I had given the Germans a bloody nose, the overall fight wasn't going my way. Hutch and Scott had pinned the Panhard and wounded the commander, reducing his Command value. The French infantry in the ruins, while staying put, were rapidly dwindling. 

My flanking squad was moving quickly, hoping that the 222 would be too occupied by the Panhard to notice them. 

Scott did deploy an infantry squad to cover the JOPs, but they were met with fire from the Hotchkiss team and the last of the VB squad's ammo, resulting in several casualties. 

Unfortunately, the end came all too soon as a few critical events went badly for the defenders.

With only the LMG team left of the infantry squad deployed to the ruins, they finally accrued enough shock to force them to retreat, pulling the platoon's sergeant with them. The Panhard's crew ended up abandoning the armored car after suffering more fire from the 222. 

This confluence of Bad Things was enough to reduce my Force Morale from 5 to 0 in one turn, and my platoon routed. 

I hadn't done too badly, all things considered. The Germans were pretty chewed up (having been reduced from a starting Force Morale of 10 down to 5), and the only casualties I had lost were from the infantry squad that took the brunt of the fighting.

I thought this would work as a great introductory scenario for Chain of Command (all thank to Jeff for running it), and Hutch and Scott were fantastic to game with. 

Vive L'Empereur 2023 - Introduction

Welcome to the new year!

I would describe myself as something of a "wargames butterfly", flitting from project to project as my interests take me. 

While indulging these whims means I always have something new to focus on, it also means that my limited wargaming space and budget fill up quickly. My backlog grows with half-finished projects that I either box up for storage in the attic, or sell and recycle the funds back into my budget. 

In 2022 I managed to cut down my lead pile by giving away or cheaply selling some projects that I had lost interest in. And instead of going back to the trough for more, I decided to instead hold off and focus on a single project for this year.*

And what a project it is. 

There's a certain period of history that I've mostly steered away from due to its intimidating nature: Napoleonics. It's the ultimate wargaming iceberg; a relatively small surface above the water that hides an absolutely terrifying depth. 

I've dabbled in it before; mostly with Sam Mustafa's Blucher rules, since they've got some really nice unit cards that don't require any painting to play. 

So I've decided that 2023 is the year of Napoleon for me and this blog. I will spend my time and attention putting together my first dedicated Napoleonics collection. 

Technically, I'm cheating with this goal, as I started last year with some Russian cavalry to round out Ted's collection and play the Weissenfels scenario from the GDA '1813' scenario book. 

Conveniently, that's also what I'm going to base my Napoleonics collection on. The 1813 campaign for Germany was a desperate fight between Napoleon's battered French forces against a coalition of Russian, Prussian, and Austrian forces. Both sides had a mix of tired-but-tested veterans and new recruits. 

Having played General d'Armee and enjoyed it, I'm going to stick with it as my set of rules, although I'd also like to try Soldiers of Napoleon, which has army lists for the nations included in the main rulebook. 

Of course, between the time that I had original written this post and its publication, General d'Armee 2nd Edition was announced. 

I'll be using 18mm miniatures from Blue Moon, Viking Forge, and AB Figures.

My first target will be to match the OOBs from the Weissenfels scenario in the 1813 campaign book. That will give me a good start to my French force, and finish off the Russians I started last year. This is also helpful as I can then use the same French models in the Lutzen scenario (with some reinforcements), against the Prussians. 

As an example, here's the expanded OOB for Weissenfels. I've had to identify the Russian infantry regiments that were at the battle to get the correct flags, and it's also a convenient spot to put any links for uniform research. 

Let's see how far along this project I can get. If I can at least play out Weissenfels and Lutzen, then I'll consider it a success. 

So, let the year of Napoleon commence. Vive l'Empereur! Vive la France!

*I will probably have small asides here and there, as a means to avoid burnout and reduce the lead pile. The goal here is to avoid starting any new projects.