15mm Platoon-Level Test Game #2

 All,

Alright, on the heels of my successful (at least from my perspective) first run out of my home-brew 15mm, element-based, platoon-level wargame rules, I wanted to immediately jump right back.  So, following Lt Hanley's successful combat patrol, the battalion was able to move up and had two days of steady advance against very light resistance.  But the Germans weren't done in southern France, so on the morning of the third day after the patrol the battalion put in an attack on an enemy-held hill.  Lt Hanley's company was in reserve and, on the heels of the attack, the reserve was sent into mop up and consolidate the battalion's positions, but as they reached the intended jump-off point a call came in from battalion to launch a force further north to secure an undefended bridge.  Lt Hanley's company commander summoned him and gave him his orders: "we're giving you one of Recon's armored cars, one of the tank destroyers, and an FO for a battery of 105s, now load up in these trucks and secure that bridge!"

"Are we sure it's not defended, Sir?"

"Good question, Hanley.  Well, I wouldn't say it's completely undefended, but S-2 expects that the enemy is in disarray so it shouldn't be tough getting there, but rest assured, the Krauts are gonna be rushing everything they've got to come take it, so no fooling around, get in there quick and get me that bridge!"

Also, while at the Company CP, Lt Hanley ran into an old chum of his from Officer Candidate School, a young 2nd Lieutenant like himself, but assigned to the Battalion S-4 (Supply) shop.  "Hey, Hanley, how the heck are ya?  I hear you've got a doozy of a mission fall in your lap, a real chance at some glory!  Mind if I tag along?" said Lt Peterson.  "Sure, Pete, grab your gear and follow me, I'll take all the help I can get."

This was one of the post-game events from fight #1, an NPC wants to tag along; I'm going to cheat a bit and use Lt Peterson as another leader, rated 'Decent.'  I was going to need him!  This is the 'Exploitation' mission from Platoon Forward; I rolled it all up and there will be a total of nine enemy blinds, with four starting on table and five coming on table in Turn 3 at a random (diced for) location (which would be right on top of me).

Overview, north is up, with a dirt road running broadly north-south, stone bridge over a small river fordable only by troops on foot (at significant penalty).  There are three hills (southern France is proving VERY hilly), labeled South Hill, NE Hill, and NW Hill.  Other than that it's light woods and bushes, with a destroyed house in the southeast and a couple tank wrecks present.

The opposing forces, with Americans on the left and the enemy blinds on the right, the red dice reminding me which turn those blinds come on table (the ones at far right will start on the table).

The US assault force:  
Platoon Leader: Lt Hanley
Platoon Sergeant: Sgt Saunders
Assistant Platoon Leader: Lt Peterson
Bazooka Team
Riding in Jeep

1st Squad: Cpl Caje
2nd Squad: Cpl Kirby (-1 rifle team)
3rd Squad: Cpl Littlejohn

Each squad in a Deuce and a half

Forward Observer in Jeep

M-10 Wolverine tank destroyer

M-8 armored car

Pre-game event is 'Recon,' so I'm going to let the armored car push up and take a couple extra spotting attempts early on.

Overview, now with forces.  Well, at least with American forces and four of the enemy blinds.  The platoon begins mounted, on the road, at bottom right.  The objective is to take the bridge and hold it against enemy reinforcements.

Close up of the US column.  

Lieutenants Hanley and Peterson are riding alone in the jeep (well, they've got the bazooka team too); when Lt Hanley introduced Lt Peterson to Sgt Saunders, the good Sergeant made a disparaging comment, something to the effect that he didn't believe it was a good idea to allow old girlfriends to tag along in enemy territory, at which point Lt Hanley told Sgt Saunders it would be a good idea if he accompany Cpl Kirby and 2nd Squad in their truck.

Sgt Saunders, riding up front in truck #2, heard the driver say "what the heck, I thought we were the first guys to go for this bridge?"  Sgt Saunders: "Apparently not, hopefully we've got better luck than those GIs."

Looking west to east (US column is off camera to top right), you can see an enemy blind at bottom left, far right, and atop the NW Hill at top left.

And the last blind is atop the NE Hill (bottom right), with US column at top left.

The US column moves up the road, then Lt Hanley calls a halt; "let's let Recon go up and do their thing."

The M-8 armored car slowly rolled up and halted just short of the bridge, cautiously peering about for any sign of the enemy...

But not finding any (poor spotting rolls), so he pushed across the bridge (far left) and called the rest of the column to hurry up and grab it before the expected German reinforcements arrive.

But, it turns out, there are Germans nearby.  There is a rifle squad with Platoon Leader and Panzerschreck Team atop the NE Hill...

And the Panzerschreck team immediately launches an 88mm rocket at the armored car!

The rocket hits just short of the American vehicle, suppressing the crew!

And way out on the American left flank there is a German sustained fire MG-42 team.

And they (bottom left) wreak absolute havoc on the US column (top center/right)!

Truck 3 goes up in flames, with Cpl Littlejohn's squad immediately dismounting, but it's ugly: one rifle team is out of the fight, Cpl Littlejohn and the other two teams are suppressed.

The FO and Truck 1 are also suppressed by the German MG fire from the flank (off camera to bottom left).

And that's Turn 3, so here come the reinforcements!  Three Type C blinds, one Type B, and one Type A come on the table (far right, with NE Hill at bottom left and the armored car just visible at top right).  They're in full view of the US troops, so I immediately roll them up...

No cheating or messing around there, that's what I rolled up and where I rolled them to come on.

The Type A blind is the only one that's a dummy; other than that, we've got a Stug III, a Sdkfz 250, and an 80mm mortar team staring us right in the face.  So no more rifle/MG teams, but that Stug is going to be a problem for sure, while that halftrack is basically just a mobile machine gun.

The good news is that the M-10 Wolverine crew immediately spot the German halftrack (top center, the Stug is out of sight behind the trees at top left)...

And put a 76mm HEAT round into it!

Okay, not sure if they had HEAT rounds back in WWII, probably just AP or HE...  Either way, that halftrack is now a smoking trash heap.

But the German left-flank MG team (bottom left) opens fire on the open-topped M-10 (top center), suppressing its crew and pinning Lt Hanley's Jeep.  Sgt Saunders (in Truck 2, top right), isn't completely clear of what's happening, but he knows they've got big problems up front AND there's a buzzsaw off to their left that's absolutely eating their lunch, and he knows something's gotta be done, so...

He orders the driver to pull out of formation and haul ass across the field.  "TOWARD the machine gun, Sergeant!"  "Yeah, toward the machine gun, now go run his ass over, or get the hell outta the way and let me do it!"  The truck lurches off road and begins heading at the German machine gun position (left, from bottom right).

The German rifle squad atop NE Hill (bottom right) spots the wayward truck (top left) and opens fire.

They manage to halt the truck and everybody hops out, with Cpl Kirby and the rifle team pinned (yellow beads).

Sgt Saunders (due to an amazing activation roll) is able to rally Cpl Kirby and his pinned rifle team and move them all up to a semi-flanking position on the MG-41 (just visible behind the trees at top left)...

"Nich schiessen!"

That's a really cool photo, if I do say so myself ;)

Back on the road, Lt Hanley tells Lt Peterson to hop out and get the FO back in the fight (Lt Hanley's Jeep at left, FO's jeep at right, Lt Peterson in the middle).  "Roger, on it!"  Lt Peterson tries to rally the FO...

But the FO ain't havin' it!  He yells "Get bent!" as he fails and falls back (bottom right, from top left), leaving Lt Peterson in the dust!

But Lt Peterson has a very good activation roll, too, so...

Lt Peterson rallies Truck 1 and tells Cpl Caje to get up to the bridge...

And then Lt Peterson dashes back to the FO (bottom right, from truck at center) and pleads with him: "Dammit man, we need your arty on that hill right now or we're all gonna die!"

But the FO still ain't havin' it, and he falls back again (red bead at bottom right, from the sold figure of Lt Peterson standing in the field at left top, with the remains of Cpl Littlejohn's suppressed 3rd Squad at center)!!!

Cpl Caje orders his driver up to the bridge, and then to halt just short of it (center left, from bottom right), where he and 1st Squad immediately dismount out onto the stone bridge.

The Stug (bottom left) doesn't have a perfect view but he can see enemy activity on the bridge, so he opens fire and sends a 75mm HE round up there, showering the Americans with shrapnel and pieces of stone from the bridge itself.

One of Cpl Caje's rifle teams is 'Men Down' (white bead on bridge) and the other is suppressed (red bead), while Cpl Caje is pinned, but the BAR team (between the two rifle teams) opens fire on the German Panzerscrheck team (atop NE Hill, top center)...

And manages to put them out of the fight and pinning a nearby rifle team (yellow bead)!

As I'm reading this I'm realizing I screwed this up, the Panzerschreck team is in hard cover and should have caused the BAR team to lose its Kill Dice, shooting only with Shock Dice...  Also, since the rifle squad is next to it, I shouldn't have allowed the BAR team to hone in on the Panzerschreck team, I should have made it roll to see which team got knocked out.

Meanwhile, Lt Hanley self rallies, then rolls up to the M-10 and rallies its crew.  They're good and he orders them to get off to the left of the road so that it can deal with that Stug without exposing itself.

The M-10 does as ordered, and then Lt Hanley drove his jeep right onto the damn bridge, looking to rally 1st Squad.

The suppressed rifle team is good and Cpl Caje is good, but the 'men down' rifle team goes out of the fight.

Lt Hanley (bottom center left) and the bazooka team dismount (center), as the Platoon Leader moves up to rally the crew of the M-8 armored car.

They're good, and they immediately begin plastering it with tiny 37mm rounds, suppressing it!

And then backing into cover off the road (next to the bazooka team, with Lt Hanley still out on the damn road).

Further back, Cpl Littlejohn gets to work rallying 3rd Squad, with very limited success.  He and the BAR team get 'up' to pinned, while the remaining rifle team is still suppressed.

While I try to self rally the Forward Observer (red bead at bottom right, with 3rd Squad at top left)

And he fails one more time, leaving the battlefield!  

There goes our 105mm support!  I don't think I've ever seen such bad rally rolls as in this game, makes up for the great activation rolls by Sgt Saunders and Lieutenants Hanley and Peterson.

Back on the NE hilltop, the German rifle squad rallies itself and then opens fire on Cpl Caje's 1st Squad (on the bridge, top center left)...

And Lieutenant Hanley goes down (casualty figures at center)!  Additionally, the armored car (just right of Lt Hanley's casualty) is immobilized and suppressed, the bazooka team (just right of the armored car) is suppressed, and Cpl Caje's BAR team (yellow bead on the bridge) is pinned!

Lt Peterson cautiously makes his way towards the bridge (bottom center right, from off camera to bottom right, still angry at the FO turning tail and running), as the M-10 (far left) doesn't have a perfect look because of the trees (center) but he's seeing the GIs on the bridge getting torn up from there, so they slew the turret right and launch some 76mm hate up the hill, roughing up the German rifle squad up there.

Sgt Saunders and Cpl Kirby lead 2nd Squad towards the bridge as well (center, from bottom right).

The German mortar team is forced to fall back (bottom right, from far right), trying to open the range because the Americans on the bridge are actually too close to engage, while the German Platoon Commander (two-man stand atop the hill at center left, next to the mangled rifle squad) is in a real bind.  He surveys the situation: the Squad Leader is pinned, a rifle team is suppressed, and the LMG team is 'Men Down;' he wants to help, but he also knows he needs to dash across the battlefield and rally the Stug (just visible above the trees at top right) in order to get them back into the fight.

The Squad Leader manages to self rally, then check the LMG team, but they stay 'Men Down.'  The Platoon Commander gets to work (with the help of a very good activation roll); he manages to rally the LMG team and the rifle team, then takes off at a sprint...

Dodging fire from the imperialist gangsters and arriving at the Stug, which he promptly rallies.

And pushes forward.

Then the Americans get a Random Event, a sniper attack on an enemy leader, so I play it up a bit.

Cpl Caje is sick of being pinned on the bridge, watching his men get cut down, so, taking advantage of the smoke, explosions, and confusion, he slithers forward, off the bridge, then left, gathering himself behind the smoking armored car (just left of the top end of the bridge, from next to the yellow bead on the bridge).

Cpl Caje slowly stalks through the smoke (bottom right), as the German steel monster comes into view.  Cpl Caje (bottom right) spots a German officer in his peaked cap, barking orders (top left, right behind the Stug).  He raises his Thompson submachine gun, draws in a breath, holds it...

And mows down the German commander!

Back on the road, Cpl Littlejohn gets 3rd Squad (bottom center left) to lay down fire on the NE Hill (top center right)...

And the Yankee fire is brutally effective, suppressing the German Squad Leader, LMG team, and a rifle team, while pinning the other rifle team!!!

I apparently missed a photo here, but what happened is Sgt Saunders and Cpl Kirby had 2nd Squad fire on the NE Hill as well, from their position on the American left, across the river.

This fire was also extremely effective, suppressing the already pinned German rifle team (red bead at top center, with the bodies of the Panzerschreck team next to them and the suppressed Squad Leader below them), while forcing the other rifle team and the LMG team to fall back down the hill, suppressed.

*I'm going to review this, I think the fire of the two American rifle squads was probably too powerful for as far as away as they were, shooting at infantry in concealment and hard cover.

As Sgt Saunders dashes onto the bridge and attempts to rally the remains of 1st Squad (Cpl Cage is just visible at top left); the suppressed rifle team is good but the BAR team stays pinned.

I find myself in a weird tactical situation, or at least a 'gamey' one, and I decide to resolve it properly, even though I'm pretty sure it's not going to go my way.  Again, the activation system is such that each stand can move and shoot each turn (and react, if not pinned, suppressed, or 'Men Down'), IF it has enough activation points to do so.  If you go back up eight (8) photographs you will see that the German Stug moved up, clearing the trees.  This put it into a position where the Stug and the M-10 had LOS to each other, but the Stug didn't have enough activation points to shoot at the M-10, and the M-10 couldn't shoot at the Stug because you can only react once per (enemy) turn and it already had (when it fired on the German rifle squad on the hill).  So I've got these two armored fighting vehicles sitting 30 yards apart, in line of sight of each other, but no one is shooting.  

Now it's the Americans' turn; the problem for the Americans is that the M-10's turret is facing the to the right (at the hill), while the Stug is off to the left.  In order for the M-10 to engage the Stug the M-10 has to traverse its turret left, but doing so would allow the Stug to react and fire first, which is almost guaranteed to destroy the M-10.  So the chickenshit thing to do is not activate the M-10 so the Stug doesn't get to react and kill it first, or even activate some other American unit (like a rifle team, for example) and move it in the open to draw the Stug's fire, making it use its reaction so the M-10 can safely engage the Stug, but I'm not having it...

The M-10's commander spots the Stug off to the left and rotates the turret to engage...

The Stug (bottom left) spots the M-10 (top right) and fires!

Turing the poor American tank destroyer into a funeral pyre...

The only rules I know of that prevent this sort of thing are NUTS!, which would have had both vehicles take an 'In Sight' test when the Stug moved into view, with one or the other winning and getting in the first shot.  Something for me to ponder; I suppose I'm not too worried as this sort of thing doesn't tend to happen very often (you know how many activation points you have, so I can't for the life of me recall what I was thinking when I pushed the Stug up around the trees, into LOS of the M-10, when I knew I didn't have enough activation points to allow the Stug to fire, I just screwed up).

In any case, I think justice was served.  Unfortunately ;)

With Sgt Saunders large and in charge on the bridge (far right), Lt Peterson dashes across and dives behind the armored car, next to Cpl Caje (left).  "Corporal, we need to do something about that German tank!"

"Calm down, Lieutenant, I've got the situation under control."

Cpl Caje creeps forward and rallies the the armored car's crew and the suppressed bazooka team.

The M-8 armored car resumes plastering the Stug with 37mm rounds to keep them buttoned up.

"That's it, pour it on!" screams Cpl Caje, "now fire that bazooka!"

The anti-tank team promptly launches a 2.36" rocket at the Stug...

Blasting it straight to hell!

Their commander dead, their assault gun, halftrack, Panzerschreck team, and MG team knocked out, the 80mm mortar team and rifle squad head for the hills.  Well, other hills than the one they were on.

Sgt Saunders and Lt Peterson begin policing up the battlefield, establishing defensive positions, redistributing ammo and weapons, and treating/prepping the casualties for evacuation.  They both panic when they can't find Lt Hanley, and begin inquiring as to his whereabouts.  The vehicle commander of the armored car pointed, "I think that's him, he'd come up and just started yelling at us to open fire when the Krauts up on the hill cut him down."  Sgt Saunders and Lt Peterson rushed to Lt Hanley's prostrate form, knelt down, gave each other an anxious look, and rolled him over.  "Well, I'll be, apparently I'm still not dead," Lt Hanley croaked, slyly referencing he and Cpl Kirby's conversation following the previous battle.  Sgt Saunders and Lt Peterson let out a collective sigh of relief.  "Well, how is it," inquired Lt Hanley.  Sgt Saunders gave him a quick look over; "Meh, I seen worse, Lootenat.  Quite frankly, I think you're setting a bad example for the men, goldbricking like this."  Lt Hanley laughed, then winced in pain; "is that you, Petey?"  "Yes, Hanley, still on my feet, somehow.  You sure know how to show a girl a good time, but if it's all the same to you fellas, I'll go ahead and back to the S-4 shop now."

Sgt Saunders saw to it that the men got the casualties taken care of, and word quickly came back that Lt Hanley was only lightly wounded and would be back in eight days.  While recuperating at the Field Hospital he put Cpl Caje in for a Silver Star for his leadership on the bridge, taking out the German commander, rallying the armored car and bazooka team, and getting the bazooka team to put a rocket into the German assault gun, but it got downgraded to a Bronze Star.

In the post-game events, both Lt Hanley and Cpl Caje got upgraded from 'Decent' to 'Good' leaders, although they didn't receive any replacements, so they'll be heading into the next fight without their Lieutenant and down three rifle teams (one from each squad, as it happens, with Cpl Kirby's 2nd Squad losing the team in the first fight and Cpl Caje's 1st Squad and Cpl Littlejohn's 3rd Squad losing a team in this fight).  Hopefully they'll only have to go into one fight like this, but only the dice will tell, it's possible they might have to do two fights without the Lieutenant, though there's an opportunity for reinforcements after every fight (though they're not guaranteed by any means).

I roll it up to see what's coming next: the next mission comes three days later (that's not good, almost ensures there will be a second mission without Lt Hanley), the battalion's been on the move, steadily advancing, but they've reached another river line and this time the bridge has been blown.  Sgt Saunders and the platoon are tasked with babysitting some engineers as they search up and down the river for a spot that's fordable by vehicles.  

Looking forward to it!

V/R,
Jack