All,
Hey guys, it's been quite awhile, but baseball is finished and I'm trying to get back on the solo wargaming horse. A few years ago I played a few games of a campaign I called "Blood and Guts," following a squad of GIs and a platoon of tanks through WWII, but my creative juices ran dry and it fizzled out. But my desire to play through WWII following a platoon of average dogfaces, in a bit of an homage to the citizen soldiers, has not gone away, and so I have decided to give it another shot, this time kicking it up to platoon-level. I'm using a home-brew set of rules I jokingly call "BoltCoreFront," because they are a mash up of Bolt Action's card-based activation system, Battlefront WWII's maneuver roll, and FiveCore's combat and morale mechanisms.* I'm playing solo using Joe Legan's "Platoon Forward" system, hewing as close as I possible can to playing the system as written (for once!).
*Well, that was the plan, but after I got it all set up and started I decided to go with Chain of Command, pretty much as written, but using Platoon Forward rather than the Patrol Phase and Jump-Off Points.
My plan is to follow the platoon from Tunisia to Sicily, Italy, France (not sure if Normandy or Southern France, but I really want to do Hurtgen Forest, so I guess Normandy?), and then into Germany, all the way to the bitter end, probably suffering 250% casualties along the way. I didn't really get into a strict T/O, just kind of winged it, going with a 2nd Lieutenant as the Platoon Commander, a Platoon Sergeant, a couple runners and a bazooka team in the command element, then three 12-man squads, with the Squad Leader carrying a Tommy Gun, an automatic rifleman carrying a BAR, and the other ten men sporting M-1 Garands.
All support for the platoon will come via Platoon Forward's mechanism of rolling for it with odds based on the type of mission the platoon has been tasked with. Support ranges from off table artillery or mortars to on table machine guns, light mortars, armor, and engineers, which I plan on keeping appropriate to the theater/year of the war I'm representing. All enemy forces (Germans throughout, just because I don't have any French for Morocco/Algeria or Italians for Tunisia/Sicily) will be generated via Platoon Forward's system of 'blinds,' where you lay out potential enemy forces across the table, then roll to see what they are (or if they were just 'dummies'), which can be anything from rifle squads to machine gun teams to Tiger tanks.
While my intent is to play through fights in various real-life locations during the real-life time periods those locations were fought over, I'm sticking completely with Platoon Forward's system of determining the types of battles (missions), so I'm not going to be recreating any actual historical battles. For example, when my real US forces were fighting at Longstop Hill, El Guetter, or Kasserine Pass, I'm just going to put "In Vicinity of Longstop Hill/El Guetter/Kasserine Pass."
So with that being said, let's get to it!
0545, 24 December 1942
In vicinity of Djebel el Ahmera/Djebel Rhar (Longstop Hill), northern Tunisia
The regiment came ashore in the fourth wave on 8 November 1942 in Oran, Algeria, by which time everything the landing areas were secured, the Vichy French troops having surrendered. 2nd Lieutenant Steve Pelluer's rifle platoon spent most of the next month securing various Algerian villagers from... well, let's just say resistance was light, if not non-existent. The men's bodies, not in great shape after the weeks-long trip over from the States on a troopship, quickly acclimated and hardened to the harsh conditions in the field. Yet they still hadn't seen action, so there was quite a buzz around the regiment when word came down that the brass was finally going to make a push for Tunis; the men eagerly boarded trucks and headed for the front lines in northwest Tunisia.
Lt Pelluer and his Platoon Sergeant, Staff Sergeant Smith, looked at each other apprehensively as they listened to the battalion commander brief the battalion's leadership; "Last night, the Brits of the 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards, attacked and took Hill 700, so tomorrow morning the regiment is moving up to relieve them, but we've been given a special task. In order to shore up the left flank, our battalion is not moving directly into relieve them, we're going to push a bit further north to capture a bridge and, hopefully, some high ground beyond known as Hill 234. The attack will be carried out by Golf Company, with... (checks notes) Lootenat Paloor's platoon leading the way." The Colonel searched the faces, smiling as he found Lieutenant Pelluer's, "congratulations Lootenat, I expect to have my breakfast atop Hill 234 not later than zero eight hundred tomorrow." Lt Pelluer grinned sheepishly and grunted out a perfunctory "yessir!"
"Arty will plaster the area prior to jump-off time, you'll have engineers with you, you'll have the battalion's 81mm mortars on call, and the Brits are even providing some armor! Intel says the area's lightly defended, just a few Eyeties hanging around, should be a piece of cake! Get yer boys fed and in the sack, Lootenat, I expect you to be at the line of departure by zero four hundred."
Lt Pelluer let out another "yessir," grabbed his Platoon Sergeant, and headed back to brief his platoon on the upcoming attack. "Our first time in action, Sergeant, going to be quite a day tomorrow," Lt Pelluer stammered nervously." "We'll be fine, Sir, we'll do it just like training." SSgt Smith was a long-service regular, having joined the Army in 1934, and despite Lt Pelluer knowing SSgt Smith had yet to hear his first shot fired in anger either, hearing his Platoon Sergeant speak so nonchalantly helped to calm him a bit. "I think you're right, Sergeant," Lt Pelleur stated. "You bet Sir, the boys are up for it, I promise ya, we've done everything we can to get them prepared for this exact moment."
Neither American yet knew how wrong the Colonel was; the platoon wouldn't be facing any worn out, dispirited Italians, they'd be facing off against veteran panzergrenadiers of the vaunted Afrika Korps!
Overview, north is up. The US baseline is the left table edge (west) and the German baseline is the right table edge (east). At top left is Hill 227, at top right is Hill 234, and at far left is Hill 168. At center left is the (fictional) village of Al-Arik, at bottom right is the (fictional) village of El-Eid. Route 1 runs from top left to bottom center, while Route 3 runs from top right to bottom right, with a river paralelling it in the north (top) before cutting to the east (right), where it is crossable via a road bridge (infantry can ford the river but not vehicles, the banks are too soft). There are several orchards around the village of Al-Arik, with patches of trees on either side of the river, and there are several patches of rocky ground not passable by vehicles.
The initial US objective is the village of Al-Arik, the primary objective is the road bridge at far right, and the follow-on objective is Hil 234 at top right.
A look at the northwest corner of the board.
The northeast corner.
The southeast corner of the board.
And the southwest corner of the board.
The table is 4' x 4', mat is from War Sigil, the hills are from Battlefront, the trees are from Battlefront and Gunner at La Petit Armee, the walls are from Battlefront and JR Miniatures, the buildings are from Crescent Root Studios, the roads and rocky patches of ground are from Fat Frank, and the rivers are from Wargamers Terrain.
A closeup of the village of Al-Arik, the initial US objective.
The point of this entire exercise, the road bridge.
And the follow-on objective, Hill 234.
The attacking force. The bottom half shows the US command element and three rifle squads, supplemented by a Valentine tank, a 37mm anti-tank gun, an FO with two 81mm mortar teams, and a team of four engineers (with satchel charges and a flame thrower). All of the support was rolled for, got everything but "Light Support." I must say I was a bit surprised how large the force was.
Everything here is from Battlefront.
Lt Pelluer (with .45, at right) and his Platoon Sergeant, Staff Sergeant Smith (left, with M-1 Garand).
The three squad leaders (far right, with Tommy Guns), their assistant squad leaders (center, with M-1 Garands), and their automatic riflemen (far left, with BARs).
The Valentine on loan.
A 37mm pop gun.
The Forward Observer (FO) and two 81mm mortar tubes from the Battalion's Heavy Weapons Company.
A closeup of the Forward Observer and his radio man.
The engineers. Yes, those are US Marine figures from Battlefront, but it was either these or Peter Pig US Marine figures that are completely grassed.
Overview of the table, now with the enemy blinds added. Also, I rolled that the Germans would have off-table artillery available, so I gave them an FO and put him atop Hill 234 (top right). The Germans have four 'Type A' blinds (likely infantry), five 'Type B' blinds (likely infantry support), and two 'Type C' blinds (likely vehicles). They are concentrated in the two villages, in the trees on either side of the river, and on Hill 234 (top right).
The village of Al-Arik (in the southwest) has two Type A blinds and a Type B.
The village of El-Eid (in the southeast) has a Type A, and Type B, and a Type C. Probably a rifle squad, a mortar team, and a Tiger tank...
The defensive position near the bridge (which is just visible at bottom center) has a Type A, two Type B, and a Type C blind.
While Hill 234 has a single Type B blind and the German FO is dug in and camouflaged (top center right).
Artillery continues to pound targets off in the distance as Lt Pelluer nervously glances at his watch for the eight hundredth time this morning. "Alright, zero five thirty-five, ten minutes 'til we step, Staff Sergeant. One more time, let's go over the plan: the ATG crew will haul their gun up Hill 227, anchoring our left flank and using their great field of fire to support our attack. Me and the runners and the FO go up Hill 168 to make sure we can control everything, while 2nd Squad leads the tank up the road and 3rd Squad envelops Al-Arik from the right, with 1st Squad and the bazooka team in reserve.
The US start line, ready to cross the Line of Departure. At top left we have the 37mm ATG, which should get up Hill 227 and support the attack by fire. Moving down and right, next we have 2nd Squad and the Valentine tank, which plan to move up the road and support the assault on the village of Al-Arik (far right). Continuing to move down and right we have the mortar FO and then Lt Pelluer and his two runners, which plan to get up on Hill 168 and direct the battle. Continuing to move down and right, at bottom right we have 3rd Squad, which has the Platoon Sergeant tagging along and the Engineers attached for the assault on Al-Arik.
The 81mm mortars are at far left, which are just a marker as they will remain off table the entire game, while below them is 1st Squad and the platoon's bazooka team, which Lt Pelluer is keeping in reserve.
The barrage comes in on the suspected enemy positions near the bridge, 105mm HE rounds pounding the treeline, as Lt Pelluer checks his watch one last time. "Alright boys, time to go," he says, more to comfort himself, as he fires a green flare into the sky...
The Americans surge forward, crossing the Line of Departure at exactly 0545 (top left to bottom right).
The ATG crew had done an excellent job of prepping prior to crossing the Line of Departure and thus had no problems getting their gun into place atop Hill 227 (bottom left, with Hill 234 visible at top left and the enemy's treeline position near the bridge at top right, still being pounded by US artillery).
Lt Pelluer, his runners, and the FO easily get atop Hill 168 (bottom center), watching 2nd Squad push towards Al-Arik, with the tank following in trace, just off the road (worried about land mines) as arty continues to rain down on the enemy bridge defenses (top center right).
And as 2nd Squad and the tank approach Al-Arik from the northwest (top center left), 3rd Squad pushes through the rocky ground southwest of the village (bottom left), mouths dry and eyeballs nervously scanning for any sign of the enemy. Lt Pelluer wanted arty to come in on Al-Arik, but the battery was too afraid of short rounds hitting friendly forces so the river defense line is as close as they were willing to go.
U.S. artillery begins to fall on suspected enemy positions near the river.
And enemy forces start to appear in the village, in this case a Heavy Machine Gun team (sustained fire MG-42).
A look at the German MG team's predicament, U.S. squads closing in from two directions, one with engineers and the other with a tank!
Uh-oh, another MG-42 team pops up near the village.
Close up.
And how about yet another MG-42 team, atop Hill 234, near their CO.
Closeup.
German units on the south bank of the river take a pounding, but the Marder on the north bank is just fine.
105mm HE pounds the German positions.
The Marder crew looks on calmly.
While lots of casualties and morale problems arise on the other side of the river.
The FO looks on (bottom center) as US troops to the west open fire on the village.
Roughing up the MG team on the roof a bit.
The Doggies continue their advance.
And then, again from the south.
Looking good so far.
Rifle squad moving up, with engineers in tow.
The Lieutenant chatting with the FO. "Hey Lootenat, I think that's a Kraut SPG over there, across the river."
Lt Pelleur decides to go bother the British tankers.
And get them (bottom right) to toss some shells at the enemy across the river.
The Marder crew still chilling, not particularly worried with the Valentine's feeble efforts to take them on. "Well, Karl, I suppose we should fire back."
The Marder's 76.2mm 'crash-boom' roars (bottom right)...
Lt Pelleur stupidly looks on as the Valentine goes up in flames.
Having taken out the allied opposition, the Marder motors to the bridge.
As German infantry on the river bank open fire on the U.S. squad approaching from the west.
A couple GIs go down.
And then the German MG team in the northeast (bottom right) opens fire on the U.S. squad approaching from the south (top left).
The dogfaces take cover in the broken, rocky terrain and no one is hit.
Part of the squad dashes forward to the orchard.
The engineers move in.
The U.S. 37mm ATG comes in and gets set up (top left).
As the U.S. squad in the west pushes into the cover of the town.
Meanwhile, the German MG team in the town fires down on the U.S. squad in the south.
While the Marder continues pushing east, a bit scared off by the appearance of the U.S. ATG.
More fire from the MG-42 in the village, suppressing the engineers...
The German MG team on Hill 234 opens up on the U.S. troops in the west end of the village.
As the German infantry on the south bank of the river inexplicably decide to break cover and move towards the village.
The engineers bust out their flamethrower...
And cook them some weinerschnitzel.
The MG team in the village breaks and runs (right, at end of wall, from far left, with German infantry from the south bank of the river at top right).
As the German infantry approach the village from the river, the U.S. squad on the west end of the village opens up on them.
It's a bit of a turkey shoot, so the Marder moves up and begins shelling the village in support.
No one likes having high velocity HE rounds lobbed at them...
The German MG team in the northeast also opens fire.
And now the Americans begin taking casualties.
The German infantry, despite being caught in the open, return fire.
And all of sudden things are looking grim, so Lt Pelleur dashes up to be a big help in the middle of the firefight...
Supported by two MGs and the Marder, the German infantry regain their composure and press home the attack, quickly crossing the open ground!
The U.S. squad in the south moves forward in drips and drabs, looking to get into the fight, sort of...
The Platoon Sergeant and the engineers are the first ones to pop through (bottom center).
The boot Lieutenant is unsure of himself...
As the German infantry closes in on his men in the orchard.
And the Yanks make a stand, opening up a ferocious fusilade at point-blank range, decimating the German infantry!
Several of the Germans surrender!
One of the Privates is detailed to escort the prisoners to the rear.
But the damned Marder and MG-42 in the northeast make it impossible to move any further north or east...
The Marder continues firing HE rounds at the unfortunate Yanks.
And it's really not fun on the other end.
The FO calls in his 81mm mortars, and they hit the riverbank positions, but that's not really where the greatest threat is, but might as well since the 81s aren't likely to do much to the Marder anyway...
The German MG team on the riverbank has had enough, the lone survivor breaking and running (top right, from far left)!
SSgt Smith rushed to Lt Pelluer's side: "I'm glad you're here, Sergeant, call 1st Squad forward and let's prepare to advance! What? What's that face for?" "Sir, we're done for." "Done??? What the heck do you mean? We've taken Al-Arik, the enemy's beat down, and we've still got 1st Squad that's not even been kissed yet!"
SSgt Smith stroked his stubbled chin, looked down, kicked a rock; "Sir, you're right, we need 1st Squad up here, but only so's they can help us secure the village and allow 2nd and 3rd to regroup and evacuate our casualties, of which we have EIGHT. But that's not even the real problem," SSgt Smith stated flatly, pointing east, "the real problem is that there's a hundred yards of dead-ass open ground to cross and the Krauts still have at least two o'dem MG-42s sited in out there, plus that damn Self-Propelled Gun running around, which our little 37mm pop gun can't see and probably couldn't knock out even if it could, and without dem (jerking a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the furiously burning Valentine), we got nuthin' for it."
"But, but, what about our bazooka team," stammered the Lieutenant. "Sir, the bazooka can't reach from here, and you'd just be tossin' away the lives of two men if you sent them out there hunting that SPG."
"But the Colonel wants to eat breakfast on Hill 234," the Lieutenant whined. "Sir, we ain't crossin' that open ground without arty and some more tanks." Now it was Lieutenent Pelluer's turn to push his helmet back and stroke his chin, deep in thought; "I suppose you're right, Sergeant. Have 1st Squad come up and take up defensive positions to relieve 2nd and 3rd, and make sure they're out of the line of fire, no sense in taking unnecessary casualties while we're just sitting here. Let's get the casualties looked after and evacuated, and I'll go let the Colonel know what's going on. I'm proud of the boys, that was a heck of a fight, we did well this morning, and wowsers, what the heck got into Sergeant Hackett!!!???"
Casualties:
Corporal Roselli - Turns out he's fine, simply knocked out by the concussion from the HE round
Private Eatman - Lightly wounded, he'll be cleared for duty in about a week (30 Dec 42)
Private Snow - Lightly wounded, he'll be cleared for duty in about a week (1 Jan 43)
Corporal Birden - Moderately wounded, he'll be cleared for duty in about a month (28 Jan 43)
PFC Lewis - Badly wounded, he'll be cleared for duty in about two months (26 Feb 43)
Private Berry - Suffered debilitating wounds, shipped back to the States and medically retired
Private Barker - Killed in Action
PFC McGovern - Killed in Action
Thoughts... Well, it was a fun fight, no use denying that, BUT... it wasn't as fun as maybe it could have been:
-I individually named each soldier in the platoon, and it's a platoon-level game, but it didn't feel like a platoon-level game from the standpoint of having individual characters. And maybe that's an unfair knock against the rules; the rules only carry about Senior Leaders (the Platoon Leader and the Platoon Sergeant) and Junior Leaders (Squad Leaders), and everything else is just 'teams,' i.e., the rifle team, the LMG team, the mortar team, etc... And even within the rules, a leader's capability (in terms of what he can do each time he's activated, i.e., 'Command Initiatives') are determined by the rules, which is the Plt Ldr gets 4, the Plt Sgt gets 3, and each Sqd Ldr gets 2. Which isn't bad in and of itself, but what if I think the Plt Sgt is more capable than the new Lieutenant, or one of the hot-shot Squad Leaders is a future Audie Murphy and the Platoon Sergeant is a dud? I suppose that's easily enough remedied by simply handing out Command Initiatives based off of how I've rated that leader's capability, but it still left me feeling wanting regarding the lack of character in the rest of the troops, who are really just part of teams. That may be unreasonable, i.e., I may be trying to get too much of a squad-level action feel out of a platoon-level action set of rules.
-I love Platoon Forward, and it still proved useful, but my table wasn't set up to optimize its usefulness. In retrospect, my table was too small (4' x 4', should have gone 6' x 4') and without enough cover/concealment. Because of the close proximity of my forces to enemy blinds, and because all the open space afforded long lines of observation/fire (deep fields of fire), I felt the need to get all the enemy forces on the table ASAP, which takes away some of the panache of Platoon Forward, i.e., getting surprised by enemy forces later, as the fight develops. And it didn't seem to mesh well with Chain of Command, from the standpoint of only one of the 'A' blinds being real, but then four of the five 'B' blinds were real, and then one of the two 'C' blinds was real. From a Chain of Command standpoint, that would mean only one 2 or 3 could activate each turn, and I would need five 1s to activate all my forces each turn (minus using Command Initiatives from a Senior Leader, of which there was one on the board). I cheated a little bit for the Germans, treating two of the four tripod-mounted MG-42s essentially as squads, and doing the same thing for the Marder, but even then I was screwing it up, forgetting which was which, and still having a hard time getting the MG 'teams' (vice MG 'squads') to get activated. It just felt kind of weird and unfair to the Germans, even though some of it was simply down to rolling up some odd choices via the blinds (to hit MG or HMG four times out of five is quite a feat).
-I'm generally okay with rules that restrict what I'm able to activate on the tabletop, but it did hit me as kind of funny that I had a hard time getting everything done that I wanted to get done each phase even though a full squad of rifleman (a third of my platoon) and bazooka team were still off table! But that's no accident, that's exactly how the rules are designed, with 'regular' forces getting five Command Dice per phase. And it felt like it wouldn't be 'fair' if I'd have used the Platoon Forward blinds as intended (blinds are resolved one at a time, either as they are spotted or the owner views it as an opportune time to un-mask), from the standpoint that either the Germans would have few troops on the board but would be penultimately flexible in terms of what that small force would be able to accomplish (i.e., with one rifle squad on the table, there is precious little chance it won't get a most favorable opportunity to activate its rifle and LMG teams as well as its squad leader's two Command Initiatives, using five Command Dice), or would be severely restricted and overcome quite easily if the Command Dice were restricted. Again, none of this is the fault of Platoon Forward or Chain of Command, it's just how I'm playing/using them, in this case, specifically that I'm not using the Patrol Phase and Jump-Off Points (because playing solo I want my force on the table). I'm not sure what the answer is here; it's occurred to me that a more traditional 'IGO-UGO' type of rules would probably work better for what I'm trying to do (solo, all friendly forces on table at start, enemy popping up off blinds without knowing their OOB prior to the game starting and the blinds being revealed), or an action/reaction-type set of rules, such as Nuts! or Force on Force. I'm generally a big fan of card-driven games, either the Bolt Action/Fireball Forward or IABSM models), but with all friendlies on the table and enemies popping up one at a time that won't work either as one enemy card in the deck will get swamped by ten friendlies. So maybe back to the Battlefront rules maneuver roll concept, without cards?
-Another thing that really struck me, and I'm not sure why, other than the lack of characters below squad leaders, was that this game really might have felt better at company-level, with one base = one squad, Junior Leaders are Platoon Leaders and Senior Leaders are the Company Commander and Executive Officer (or 1st Sergeant). It just seemed like it might make the game feel cleaner, more straightforward, but then I'd have to change the fire and close combat mechanics (the current kill and shock stuff in Chain of Command wouldn't work).
Again, some of that is down to me putting all/most of my force on the table and not playing off the Patrol Phase/Jump-Off Points.
Anyway, more to follow.
V/R,
Jack
No comments:
Post a Comment