Test Game of Mr Rapier’s OHW WWII Mods

 All,

I've been a fan of Martin's blog (https://tgamesweplay.blogspot.com/p/downloads.html), particularly his WWII fights on small tables at higher echelons (Brigade, Division, sometimes even Corps-level fights).  I absolutely love reading his batreps at this echelon, they watching battalions move into the attack, get mauled, fall back, replaced by another battalion that carries the objective, true combined-arms fights that add in air support and logistics in very simple, straightforward mechanics.  I've always been a fan of his batreps, but then he went and made an even simpler set of rules (by modifying Neil Thomas' "One Hour Wargames" rules), and was kind enough to post them for all of us to use, as well as a number of scenarios.  

After much hemming and hawing, I finally got around to giving them a run out on the table.  Now, don't get too excited, I played them solo and in a hurry, screwed a couple things up (well, one thing, but a couple times), it's about as plain-Jane a table and minis as you'll ever see, with relatively small forces and a pretty vanilla setup and scenario, but the goal was just to get it out, give it a spin, and see how it worked.  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!  And I REALLY like them; it was quick, easy, felt about right (I have a couple thoughts, but that's par for the course), and was fun.  I want to get the boys involved and play some more, but I want to play with bigger toys (15mm vs 6mm) and I need to play it on a hex-grid (I played on a 'normal,' un-gridded mat, and it worked, but it really felt like it would have been a bit 'cleaner' and thus faster on a grid).

What really set this all off was that I'd cleaned up the table a few days ago but hadn't had time to set it up again, then ended up not having time to do anything Saturday.  Sunday we got home from church and had a couple hours before family came over ('going away' party for my eldest, headed off to college); wife was busy, boys were playing video games, I was scrolling through files on my phone and came across a Rapid Fire scenario that looked pretty small and simple.  The stars had aligned: a little free time, an empty table, and a simple path to some gaming fun.  It took me 20 minutes to set up the table, forces, rules, and markers, then off we (the 'royal we') went!

Here's the scenario: 29 June 1944, Operation Epsom, 9th SS Panzergrenadier Divison counterattack at Grainville Chateau.  

Elements of the British 8th Royal Scots are occupying the Grainville Chateau, with the remainder on the way, as well as a Squadron of Churchills from 9th Royal Tank Regiment.  They have two batteries of 25-pdr artillery off-table.  The Brits are 'regulars' (each stand is removed at 6 hits) and their job is to hold the Chateau.

Elements of III Battalion, 20th Panzergrenadier Regiment are occupying Les Nouillions, with a company of Panthers from 9th Panzer Regiment on the way and a battery of 10.5cm artillery off-table in support.  The Germans are 'elite' (each stand is removed at 7 hits) and their job is to take the Chateau.

There is an interesting note here: the Rapid Fire scenario actually does not include any indirect fire support.  I was looking at the opposing OOBs and was thinking this looked like pretty tough sledding for the attacker, so I tossed them a battery of 105mm artillery.  In line with Martin's 'logistics' mechanisms, I gave each side two stands of 'supply' trucks, which would allow each side to replenish artillery ammo (gave each Brit artillery battery five fire missions and the German battery four) and/or 'reorganize' (i.e., "rally") decimated units.  I probably should have given the Brits three, maybe even four logistics elements for Operation Epsom, but I was just testing things out and didn't think too hard on it.

Overview, north is right.  The table is 3' x 3', with minimal terrain due to the scale of the engagement (I believe the ground scale is somewhere around 3" = 800m).  Les Nouillions is at far left, Le Haut de Grainvilles is at bottom center left, Queudeville is at top center right, and the Chateau Grainville is at right center.  There is hardball road (the gray roads) running to all of the names urban areas, the dark blue line running top to bottom on left side of table is actually an elevated railroad (sorry, I don't have any 6mm roads or railroads), and each of the hedge-looking things is actually a treeline.  If it looks odd and you're wondering what the hell it is, I've used 28mm barbed wire at each corner of the fighting area to square out my 3' x 3' area.

The opposing forces, Brits on the left and Germans on the right.  Each stand (minus the supply trucks) represents a company/squadron/battery, so each side has a reinforced battalion on the table.

The Brits:

-A, B, C, and D rifle companies, 8th Royal Scots

-Support Company, 8th Royal Scots

-A Squadron, 9th RTR

-A and B Battery (sorry, scenario didn't list parent unit)

The Huns:
-1st and 2nd PzGren Companies, III/20th PzGren Rgmt

-4th (Heavy) Company, III/20th PzGren Rgmt (I'll refer to it as "Schwere Company")

-16th (Engineer) Company, III/20th PzGren Rgmt (I'll refer to it as "Pioneer Company")

-1st Company, 9th Pz Rgmt (scenario didn't provide battalion, I suppose it's probably I/9th Pz Rgmt?)

-1st Battery (sorry, scenario didn't list)

Ha!  I got so excited that I screwed up and forgot to take a shot of initial deployment, so here's what you get, a photo at the end of Turn 1!  It's pretty simple, the Brits started with A Co occupying the Chateau, Support Company dug in on the road behind a treeline, and B Co dug in on the MSR running north-south (all at right center), then A/9th RTR and C Co entered the area (far right), with D Co still off table in reserve (with the two batteries of artillery).  The Germans started with all their infantry in Les Nouillions (far left); 2nd PzGren Co, Schwere Co, and Pioneer Co mounted in their halftracks and headed north via the MSR (left bottom) while 1st PzGren Co sat tight in Les Nouillions and waited for 1/9th Panzer's Panthers to arrive (far left, with their artillery off table).

End of Turn 2; German 2nd PzGren Co, Schwere Co, and Pioneer Co continue pushing up the MSR (bottom center, on road) while 1st PzGren Co and Panthers move up to the railroad embankment (left).  The Brit A, Support, and B Co sit tight in and around the Chateau (right), with D Co coming on to reinforce (far right), while the Churchills move south, looking to take up positions behind the treeline just east of Queudeville (center top), while C Co has a moment of doubt and begins moving east (right, just above the Chateau), looking to reinforce against what is clearly the German main effort.

The German Panthers and 1st PzGren Co push forward, forcing a decision on A/9th RTR; do they move up to the cover of the treeline (center), or do they sit tight and engage the German tanks?

As the German assault element moves up and disembarks their halftracks, with Schwere Co on the road (far left), Pioneer Co on the right flank (bottom center), and 2nd PzGren Co between them, putting pressure on the British line at the Chateau (B Co on the road at center, Support Co above them on the road, A Co in the Chateau, and D Co in reserve at far right).

German artillery opens fire!

Targeting B Co, which takes 1 hit and is automatically (but temporarily) Disordered.

The British respond: B Co opens fire on the German Pioneer Co, scoring 1 hit.

While Support Co (rolling 3D6 and hitting on 3+ since the target is infantry in the open) puts 2 hits on the German Schwere Company.

While in the west, the Churchills fire on the Panthers, scoring a hit, as the British commander, feeling strong, pushes A and C Companies forward to meet the threat!

And the British guns add their voices to the growing crescendo of battle!

One battery targets I/9th Pz, putting two more hits on the Panthers and Disordering them!

*I really screwed up, let the artillery hit the tanks on 3+ when it should have been 5+...

While the other battery targeted 2nd PzGren Co, putting one hit on them and Disordering them.

The white dice show hits (obviously), the white bead shows units that are disordered.

The situation at the end of Turn 3.  The Brits have a lot of troops, have established a solid line, and are levying very effective fire on the attackers.

Another look.  The situation is not looking good for ze Chermans, and I find myself questioning the wisdom of the scenario design.  I know the attackers are Ubers and all, but the defenders actually outnumber them and, at least on the objective, are dug in, with ample supporting fires.  I'm not sure how the Germans pull this off; to be fair, in my haste I didn't really give a whole lot of thought to the German scheme of maneuver, but I'm not sure I could do much better with a full six hours to go through the rapid planning process for this one ;)

In the west, the Panthers and German artillery engage A/9th RTR while 1st PzGren moves up to the treeline and dismounts.  The fire mission is completely off target and scores no hits, while the German tanks score two hits on the British tanks.

There wasn't much of a chance for German victory (in my humble opinion), but this right here, as subtle as it seems, was the turning point of the fight.  The Germans needed a big win here, maybe knock the British tanks completely out of the fight and then jump on C Co (bottom right) and knock them out next turn and they could maybe actually have a chance of taking the Chateau, but with using the arty and tanks and only scoring 2 hits it's not looking good...

The German push on the Chateau's left flank is in full force: Schwere Co (far left) and 2nd PzGren Co (just below them) open fire on B Co (center, with Support Co above them and D Co at far right), trying to soften them up for a close assault by Pioneer Co (bottom left), but... I read the rules and see that there's not really a difference between close assault and ranged fire (which makes sense at this echelon, and don't misunderstand, there are some differences, it's just not as decisive as lower-level gaming tends to be) and, more importantly, the Germans don't really score enough hits on B Co, so... Pioneer Co sits tight and adds their fire to the maelstrom, which ultimately adds three more hits on B Co (for a total of 4), Disordering them.

NOT going well for the attackers.  In this area, some of it is down to bad dice rolling and some of it is down to trying to shift dug-in infantry.

The British response is catastrophic to Germany's chances of taking the Chateau: Support Company (top center, rolling 3D6 as 'heavy infantry') lay into Schwere Co as B Co falls back (top right, from the three shell bursts at center).  Schwere Company takes three more hits, taking it to 5 total and Disordering it (2 hits away from elimination)!  The British artillery engages the other two German units in line; A Battery completely misses 2nd PzGren Co, while B Battery puts one hit on Pioneer Company, bringing them to two total hits and Disordering them.  But then D Co (center right) opens fire on Pioneer Co and puts two more hits on them, bringing them to 4 total (giving them the semi-permanent Disordered, as opposed to the arty's temporary Disordered).

The Brits really want A Co (just visible at top center left) to close assault Schwere Company into oblivion but they're out of range, so...

A Co wheels and joins C Company, pushing forward on the German panzers as A/9th RTR fires on them, putting two more hits on them, bringing the German tank stand to a total of 5 hits and Disordering it! 

The end of Turn 4, with Hell being rained down on ze Chermans.  Yeah, they're hurtin' for certain, not sure how they have any shot at taking the Chateau.  

So far the only thing that's hit me weird with how the rules are playing out is the aggressive movement towards the Panthers by the British A and C Rifle Companies; certainly not something you see everyday, but then again, as I ponder I realize I can't blame the rules for that, I can only blame myself ;) First, I think if I was playing on hexes (or I hadn't followed the scenario's map so faithfully) then the north-south running treeline would have been a wooded hex, rather than a treeline heading perpendicular to the action, thus making it a logical spot to park A and C Companies, rather than charging past it as an essentially useless terrain feature.  Second, this is scaled up, each stand is a company and so the terrain is a bit abstracted; not saying it's a good idea for rifle companies to go chasing tanks around the map, but in real life that's not a perfectly flat area, completely devoid of terrain.  Lastly and mostly, it's really just down to me being overly aggressive and used to gaining significant bonuses from moving into close combat, whereas what I really should have done was assign C Company an economy of force/security mission and had it park in the wood to control the panzers' and 1st PzGren Company's movement (via it's 'zone of control,' or "that which I occupy by fire") and had A/9th RTR screen (shadowbox) with the panzers until action was imminent and have the Churchills take up positions in cover and engage.  But I have the 'impetuous' trait ;)

Turn 5 begins again with action on the German right flank, with Schwere Co (far left), Pioneer Co (bottom center left, with 2nd PzGren Co between them), and the German artillery battery all pounding the British D Company (right, with B Co at top right and Support Company at top center).  The fire is effective, nearly eliminating D Co (5 total hits and Disordered).

And then 2nd PzGren Co charges into close combat (yeah, I couldn't help it, had to get once melee in this game)!  The Ubers get 2D6 hitting on 3+...

And blow it!  Unbelievable...

Back on the German left, the Panzer Company reorganizes (back to 3 hits and no longer disordered), which is really a Pyrrhic-sort of thing to do without falling back as the British rifle companies, probably the Churchills, and possibly even the 25-pdrs are just going to put those hits right back on, but I again just wanted to play out some mechanisms to see how everything feels and fits together.  Meanwhile, 1st PzGren Co engages A/9th RTR but doesn't accomplish anything (needed 5+ to hit on 2D6)... 

Back near the Chateau, B Company (far right, with the supply trucks) reorganizes, taking it down to 2 hits, as D Company falls back into the Chateau, while Support Company opens fire on 2nd PzGren Co (center) and the British artillery engages Schwere Company (far left) and Pioneer Company (bottom left)...

2nd PzGren (right) are roughed up by Support Company, taking 3 hits (4 total and Disordered), arty puts 1 hit on the Pioneers (bottom left), taking them to 5 total and Disordering them, and the other battery has eliminated the Schwere Company (used to be up at top left)!!!

While on the British right, A and C Company (bottom center) and A Squadron (far right) engage the German Panthers, putting two hits back on them (5 total) and Disordering them.

And this is what it looked like at the end of Turn 5, at which point the Germans threw in the towel, absolutely no way they were taking the Chateau at this point, having lost Schwere Company and on the verge of losing their panzer, pioneers, and one of their two PzGren companies.  Oh, and also, their artillery wouldn't be able to support this turn as it needs to replenish.

So, perhaps a bit of an anti-climactic game, but I really didn't care, it was all about getting the toys on the table and trying out these rules (finally), so it was quite a success in my book, and I actually had a lot of fun.  It was quick (took me about 90 minutes to setup, play, photo, and take notes), the mechanisms were straightforward, it felt right (perhaps I'd have preferred a bit more 'pushing and shoving,' but there simply weren't enough troops on the table for the Germans to rotate units out to reorganize them AND continue the attack, but you saw the Brits do it near the Chateau, with B Company falling back then reorganizing, then D Company falling back), and the results were decisive/unambiguous.  

I am absolutely looking forward to playing again, and to getting the boys involved, BUT: 

-I want to play in 15mm (I love my 6mm, but I've invested so much in 15mm that I want to play with it);

-I want to play on a hexed surface (I really just have the feeling it would have made things even faster, flow better, and remove the little bit of terrain awkwardness I had surrounding some of the north-south running treelines present in this fight); and

-I want to play scenarios where one stand = one battalion rather than a company.  Dunno why, just makes me feel more like a General, I suppose ;)  I want to type 5DCLI and 2Royal Scots moved up against II/25thPzGren, supported by 9RTR, just sounds better and feels more like the game I want to play.  I know, silly right?  But I think us wargamers have lots of odd little 'likes' like that, that give us the exact 'feel' we're looking for (yeah, go ahead and try and digest that sentence!), so I type it unabashedly ;)  Also, I have a few things to think on:

-I swapped out halftrack stands for the infantry stands depending on the tactical situation, treating them in accordance with which stand was on the table (moving and targeted as vehicles when I had the halftracks on the table, moving and targeted as infantry when I had the dudes on the table); was that right?  I feel like I screwed this up, like I should have a halftrack and infantry on the base and that they should always move and be targeted as halftracks.

-Not sure if I should have a separate stand for Support/Schwere Co, or add their capability to a Rifle/PzGren Co in order to make them "heavy infantry."  This bothers me even if I move to 1 stand = 1 battalion because the same concept will apply when you think about adding regimental support elements to an infantry battalion.  It can really get weird, but I suppose I'll just not worry too much; I'm thinking about when I've read about US infantry divisions with 'separate' battalions of tanks (M-4 Shermans), tank destroyers (M-10 Wolverines), and SPGs (M-8 Scotts) attached then broken down and assigned out to where each infantry battalion had a platoon of Shermans, Wolverines, and Scotts attached.  Or Soviet tank battalions with a company of tank riders?  This has the propensity to make my head explode if I think too much ;)  Better to just play a division-level game and leave the attached battalions together (i.e., 9 rifle stands, 3 arty stands, 1 stand each of tanks, TDs, and SPGs, rather than trying to break up those AFV battalions and attach them out as companies, much less platoons.  This is where 6mm does have an appeal, because you could have a battalion stand of AFVs with three of them on it, and you could have a large stand of infantry to represent a battalion, but you could have a small stand with one tank on it to represent a company attached out, I think).

-I'm not sure if I played spotting correctly; everything was auto-spotted once within the designated range, no dice rolling.  I think that must be correct, except, then I got to thinking about counterbattery fire and air interdiction.  Are there separate spotting mechanisms for those?  It feels like there should be; an close air support is one thing, there are guys on the ground calling in airstrikes, but medium bombers/attack aircraft on interdiction missions aren't controlled that way, so how do you play out them spotting their (potential) targets?

-Martin has two set of rules, one for games with hexes and one for games without.  Both have firing tables, but one is pretty specific (with regards to type of firer vs type of target and conditions) while the other breaks it down more into 'good' vs 'bad' shots.  During this game I kind of vacillated between the two and I just need to make up my mind on which way I'm going to go, in order to keep it consistent.  I'm generally more inclined to playing 'good shot/bad shot'-types of games, which is fine for my solo games but maybe not appropriate for umpiring for my boys; I can already picture being accused of favoritism ;)  And I also need to not use the wrong column for artillery vs armor in the open ;)

No real showstoppers there, just stuff to think about (even better, I'll bet a month's pay that Martin stops by and weighs in).  More immediately, I need to get the hex thing figured out.

I hope you enjoyed it, I certainly did, hoping to get more on the table this coming weekend.  Got some other stuff going on, too, I'll have to see if I can get it typed up.

V/R,
Jack