Saturday, December 6, 2014

After Action Report - 39-45

This wasn't much of a contest, I'm afraid.  I kind of stacked the game against the US, giving the Germans a Tiger II and a Panther platoon.  I wanted to find out if the best of the German tanks were really powerful.

Guess what?

They are!

The Germans attacked on the right flank of the US, and pretty much destroyed everything on that flank with the Panthers and Tiger II.  The far right US infantry platoon (3 squads) and 76mm Sherman platoon (2 sections) lasted a while, but didn't do any significant damage.  One of the Sherman sections managed to suppress and put a hit on the Tiger II section, but that was the high point.   When things were going tough, the US tried to Heroically Rally the far right infantry platoon, but the platoon Lt. only made it through one rally before he bought the farm.  BOOM!  After that loss, the entire infantry platoon went suppressed, and the writing was on the wall.

I thought the US was deployed too linearly, and the Germans made them pay.  At the point of contact, the Germans had at least a 2:1 numerical advantage, not to mention the qualitative superiority of their armor.

So - '39-'45 worked well.   My scenario skills need honing, however....

Some shots from the game (a crushing German victory):









Pre-Battle View of My '39-'45 Tabletop

So, the guys are on their way over.  We're playing a late war game, US vs. Germans.  The Germans have a rather intimidating force - King Tiger section, a platoon of Panthers, a platoon of PanzerGrenadiers, etc.   To counter this, the US is fairly light in infantry, but should benefit from having a couple of FO's to facilitate their sections of off-table 105mm artillery.  They also have a platoon of 76mm Shermans, 2 platoons of 75mm Shermans, and a platoon of M10 TD's.   How many Shermans does it take to take out a King Tiger?   We'll find out in a few hours....

Here is the battlefield, prior to the troops being set out.








Thursday, October 23, 2014

39-45 Game

We played another game of 39-45 this past Saturday.  The Germans were outnumbered by about 50% but had the advantage of being on the defensive  (2+ US companies, plus Sherman platoon, AT gun, offboard support vs. 1 German company plus Stug section, 20mm and 75mm AT gun.  The game played well, with a narrow German victory - they had 1 Morale Point remaining when the US failed their Morale test!

I made a few modifications based on the post game discussion and observations.  At this point, the game feels pretty "tight", and should only need a few tweaks here and there.  I'm very happy with it - it plays fast, with many swings in momentum.

I didn't get many photos of the game, but here are a few -



German commanders.  Terry and Adolfo appear to be clapping in glee at an American misstep.  Greg appears to be doing a Coca-Cola commercial with great product placement.  Greg (in red) just waits to destroy the Americans.


John's American squads race up the hill to take out the 20mm gun section.   They eventually did so, but at a very high cost.





Sunday, September 21, 2014

Finally - A New Post!

I see that the last post was back at the end of May.  Ouch!   Where did that Summer go??   Well....Mile High Nationals, visit to Rosebud battlefield/Fetterman battlefield/Little Bighorn battlefield, Black Hills/Sturgis motorcycle vacation, wife knee surgery, house projects.....and here we are with the impending first day of Fall!

We played a test game of the new WW2 set of rules I'm working on, titled "'39-'45".   These are a low level game, with each 3 stand infantry unit representing a squad, each vehicle 1-2 real vehicles, each weapon 1-2 weapons.   The game had 2 companies of US infantry vs. 2 companies of German infantry, with a platoon of 3 tank models per side.  I know, I know - not very imaginative.  But, I wanted the game to allow both sides to both attack and defend and it WAS a test game after all.

I'm pretty happy with the rules - they play fast and seem to reward good tactical decisions.  This was a pretty big game - around 23 units per side, and it was played to a decisive conclusion in 3 hours of play time.

Some photos from the game:








Monday, May 26, 2014

Franco-Prussian War Campaign Ends.....With a Thump

The final game was "interesting".   "Odd" might be a better description.  The French had elected to fight on the same battlefield as in Game 3 (the campaign mechanism gave this battlefield as a choice, and they chose to fight again on the same ground).   The terrain was very full, with probably 40% of the table full of woods.  The Prussians had a huge advantage in initial deployment, but since the French won the actual deployment/placement rolls, the Prussian plan (to get as far up the hill as possible in the initial set up, as well as get on the French left flank) hit the windshield at 120 MPH with a giant splat.

The French were huddled on the hill in a formation best described as a giant blob, and stayed on that hill for the duration of the game, gleefully firing off round after round of Chassepot ammunition at the flailing Prussians.

The game was a disaster for the Prussians - they ended up losing by 16 points - a crushing loss.

The campaign ended after 4 games with 1 win for the Prussians, 3 for the French.   10 Campaign Points for the Prussians, 26 for the French.  At this rate, I'd say the French are eyeing the German border...

One item that was noticeable was that in all three losses, the Prussians made little if any use of their vastly superior artillery.

Some photos:

General Toby attempts to use the Force to levitate cookies off of the counter down to his location

Initial deployments.  Ick.  This game could have been played on a card table!

French cavalry pass the time on a nice, comfortable flank march

The French win no points for subtlety with their deployment

Rank after rank after rank of French

Prussian infantry enjoy a nice walk in the woods

French division moves off on an assault on a town

So - the campaign season is over, and I'm thinking of trying some WW2 stuff for the next game at the end of June.  I'm rebasing my stuff and working on a new WW2 rule "set" for the game.  I'm wanting to get to a set that fits multiple scales (unit could be a squad, platoon, company, battalion) with somewhat minimal changes that would allow players to play any scale of game that they wanted without learning an entirely new set of rules.  We'll see how that works out....

Sunday, April 27, 2014

There and Back Again

We played the 3rd game of our FPW campaign season last night.  The previous two games had been split with the French winning game 2 and the Prussians winning game 1.  After 2 games, the victory points were Prussians 10, French 6.

The French had selected the battlefield with hopes of nullifying the Prussian Krupp advantage.  As it turned out, both armies completely deployed in the "open" end of the battlefield - as shown below.


My camera battery died before the game ended, so I only have a few shots of the game -

The battle turned into a bitterly contested fight for the Class III woods next to the town.  Terry (Prussian) and Greg R. (French) battled it out while Greg C. (Prussian) and Rodney/John (French) traded some long range fire on the river flank.

Divisional commander Budritzki looks at his map, trying to understand where all the French came from!

More and more of the French army poured into the Class III woods, eventually wrestling it away from the Prussians.


A fine Prussian regiment deploys to protect the army's right flank.


I apologize for the slightly blurred photos of French regiments deployed behind their hasty works.  This was taken to show the first use of hasty works in our campaign!   The French "dug in" on their right, and the Prussians elected to not get shot to pieces in a bloody assault.

A closely fought game, with no wide ranging maneuvers but a LOT of close range tactical decisions required.   When the Prussians ran out of Army Morale Points, the French had been battered down to only having 2 remaining!  When the Prussians failed their Army Morale test, the French had 4 Army Morale Points.

So - the campaign now stands at 10 VP's each.   We elected to continue the season to game 4 to have a season winner.  As it turned out, the new battlefield is exactly the same as this battlefield from game 3!  It will be fascinating to see how the armies deploy differently in the next game, having learned from game 3.

The campaign system continues to work well.   Just a few minutes after the game, and ready to roll for the next game.  Minimal paper work, no real time commitment - the BEST way to keep a campaign going.

So, there you are.  Battle 4 on the bloody battlefield of Battle 3.  There and Back Again!

Friday, April 25, 2014

FPW Game Map

The battlefield terrain is unusually "thick" for the upcoming battle - quite a bit of terrain, and a fair amount of difficult (III) woods.

The French are on the right side - the edge with the two tiered hill.


The game is tomorrow afternoon - it should be an interesting situation!

FPW Game

I've been a bad, bad, blogger.  I've been busy with various things, and something had to give.  In this case, it has been the blog.   We've had pretty regular game sessions, but my blogging hasn't kept pace. 

In fact, we're playing game 3 in a Franco-Prussian War campaign this Saturday.  So far, game honors are 1 for the Prussians (10VP), and 1 for the French (6 VP).

The last game was a French victory - a few photos follow below:

Prussian Commanders (left to right):  Greg C., Terry, Eric
French Commanders (left to right):  Ed, Greg R., John (Mumbasa)





So - we're on to game 3 of the campaign this Saturday.  I have a pretty robust campaign system that I've developed that seems to work well.   All I need to do is write it up and complete the card deck artwork, and it could be ready as a product.   The beauty of the system is that it doesn't take any substantial time to do, you resolve the process for the next game immediately after you finish the present game, and it creates ongoing battles and unit character.   I'm really happy with it.

On a final note, I've cracked the problem with Blogger.   Use Google Chrome!   No problems when using the "right" browser - no problem loading photos, etc.   So, with that irritation solved, I'll try to post more frequently.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

1809 Game

It's been a while since my last post - too little time due to work and other hobby priorities.

We had a nice 1809 game, with tweaks to Field of Battle 2 that I wanted to try. Turns out that the tweaks really didn't do much, which reinforces my belief that FoB2 is pretty robust already.

In the game, the French were facing an uphill struggle, as they were considerably under the initial morale point total of the Austrians. Additionally, while outnumbered in units, the Austrians had the advantage of an initial deployment in a strong position.

The French gave it a go, but ultimately ran out of morale points as they tried to press an attack on the town on the Austrian right flank. Good game, but not a close one!

Some photos from the game:



Austrians defend to the left, as the French press the attack on both flanks.

Austrian artillery defends the bridge linking the towns.
Hmmm.  Can't seem to get Blogger to upload more photos - I'll post later when I might have more luck.