Armour Clash part two

 Not my usual type of game, an armour heavy meeting engagement in pretty open ground. I prefer Infantry heavy games with lots of terrain on the battlefield. This is the first battle in the drive on Minsk campaign as detailed in the previous post. Click on any picture to enlarge.

Start lines and the PLAN.

The Russian Infantry make great progress and reach the cover of the gully on the Russian right.

 German slow start and Russians great spotting.

The Panzer 3 Plt moves down to the gully.

 just in time to see the Russians deploying their ATG on the hill, they open fire.

 The truck is HIT get that gun into action quick!

 The Panzer IIIs clock two platoons of T26s moving into hull down positions.

 Russian infantry reach the edge of the wood as the Germans top the hill.

 With no big men to rally them the T26s tactics are to hold their position and fire from hull down positions.

 With their first shot first blood!

 Taking a chance when the recce bonus card comes up, they make a dash through the Russian infantry lines. Should have had them on overwatch. Just hoping the armoured car comes up before Tea Break.

  

With the Russians in their superior position the armoured duel is going against the Germans.

 Ivan gets the gun in position.

 The Russian armoured cars turn up and make a flanking move down the left ( two 6s & a 5 for movement). They then proceed to take no further part in the battle, a transfer to the penal battalion for whoever is in charge.

Those damn T26s are so hard to hit hiding behind that ridge.

 The German Recce armoured cars break loose in the Russian rear.

 Overview of the battle.

 German Company CO tries to restart the stalled attack.

 Those Russsian armoured cars threaten the German right. ( keen observers will notice they are not BA10s, I don't have any these are standing in ). 

Skulking at the edge of the wood !!!

 German recce turns back to fire on the rear of the Russian tanks.

 The crew of two T26s abandon their tanks ( Shock overtaking their morale ).

 One final salvo from the Russians takes out two PzIIs

 One T26 knocked out, two abandoned, one with a damaged gun and one immobilised.

One PzIII and three PzIIs knocked out and one PzIII immobilised.

 Russian infantry surrendering. ( should have had more photos of the infantry battle ).

 T26s panic with Germans front and rear.

A German victory, but a costly one. Only one T26 was knocked out, but their low morale and only one big man eventually took it's toll on them.
The battle could have turned out very different if the Russian armoured cars card had come up a few times.

Armour Clash

I decided to play through the Skirmish Campaign scenario book "41 Drive on Minsk" using the IABSM 3 rule set. An article by Tom Ballou on converting the OOB can be found on the Toofatlardies Yahoo Group.

The Skirmish Campaign books are easily converted to most platoon or company level rules. Each scenario can be played out on its own or as a linked campaign. A base force is given to each side and variable attachments are diced for, giving a different game each time you play out a scenario.

The first scenario in Drive on Minsk is Armour Clash which sees elements of the 3rd Panzer Division bumping into advancing elements of the Soviet 22nd Tank Division.

German Orders: Exit at least four AFVs off the eastern board edge.

Soviet Orders: Exit at least two AFVs off the western board edge.

Game length: 10 Turns.

German Force:

5 Big Men

M/C Plt, 3 sections of 8.

Recon Section, 8 men in Sdkfz 251.

Panzer Zug 1, 4 PzII

Panzer Zug 2, 2 PzIII

A/C Plt, 2 Sdkfz 231

Russian Force: 

1 Big Man

Inf Plt, 3 sections of 10 men.

2 Plts, 3 T26s

A/C plt, 2 BA10s

ATG, 45mm

La petite ville française

A Platoon Forward Game

My units are infantry, other units are allocated on a scenario by scenario basis. Below is the battle report.

The Briefing

Through a combination of manoeuvre and combat the regiment has gained a position on the enemy's flank.

Your battalion has been ordered to deliver the "hammer blow" by rolling up the enemy position. Your battalion is once again in the vanguard. There has been no time to arrange artillery support, but you will have the element of surprise.

Aerial view of the town square take from the east.

Aerial reconnaissance suggest that a  French Battalion HQ is located in the town. The French forces are lightly dug in and mainly facing east. They are in company strength with at least one anti tank gun and a high likelihood of one or more tanks. (The defence is set with markers and until they are spotted or the French commander wishes to activate them their exact composition is unknown).

The town square, location of the French Battalion headquarters.

German OOB

1st Company & 2nd Company

CC +1, HMG

3 Plts. each

PC +1, rifle groups x3

Support

3 x Pz38t

Pz38ts thread their way through the woods.

Pre game events reveal three French positions, giving me some much needed intelligence.

Move 1

Company 1 advance through the woods the 38ts are just out of shot.

Move 2

Pz38ts break off left intending to strike deep into the rear of the french. Company 1 continues its advance through the woods. Company 2 still in reserve till we can identify French positions.

The French muster their forces realising the Germans are striking for the rear of the town!

( In pre game events the French commander was Bold, uncharacteristically, and would be quick to react, hence the activation early of some French defenders).

To be continued !

German Infantry Company for Platoon Forward.

Company OC Hauptman Malwitz: A gifted commander very loyal to the government but with a pessimistic outlook.

1st platoon OC Oberleutnant Urtz: An average commander but cunning with a keen interest in engineering.

2nd platoon OC Feldwebel Breiding: A sensible but poor commander, motivated by increasing his position  in life.

3rd Platoon OC Feldwebel Gunter: An average commander. Hedonistic and addicted to living life to the full.

MG Platoon OC Werner: An average commander, obnoxious and looks forward to the next bottle.

The company started as a Regular company at full strength and its current strength varies with combat losses and replacements.

How the company is represented on board is dependant on the rule set being used:

In Crossfire it could be 1CC, 3PC  and 9 stands plus HMGs

In PBI 1CC, 3PC, 9LMGs and 18 rifle stands plus HMGs

Russian Civil War

Another project started ! White Russian troops for a game in November. Peter Pig army box, a long way to go yet.


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France 1940

Well my first game with Platoon Forward saw my German Company tasked with capturing a prisoner during a combat patrol against the french lines. Moreover only two platoons were allocated for the task. Support came in the form of one HMG from the company support platoon and Battalion HQ laid on a pre planned mortar strike.

The scenario required my troops to engage the french for at least four turns, inflict casualties and capture some prisoners.

I chose 1st and 3rd platoons commanded by URTZ and GUNTER respectively.

The French forces were placed as blinds, there are three types A,B and C. Blinds A will likely be an infantry section, blinds B could be heavy weapons and blinds C could be HQs or even armour. This allows you to set up a credible defence but not know exactly what you will face.

Next I diced for pre game events, luck was on my side with Gung Ho, company morale was high. This increased my chances of motivating my troops to engage in close assault.

Table seen from the German side, French units are dug in.

The artillery strike was planned on the right flank in front of the villa extending to the field.

Move 1


The strike was on target, killing one rifle stand and pinning the rest.

One section assaulted the pinned troops in the scrub killing another rifle stand and pushing the rest back.

The section captured some wounded French left in the scrub ( Result ).

In the centre a fire fight ensued with the dug in French section losing out to two German sections in the woods. However one French rifle stand hung in preventing any advance by the Germans.

Two French HMGs, one each side of the road poured fire on the German units but to no avail.




After four turns I retired my Platoons off the board having lost just one rifle stand, the French had lost two full sections.

The HMGs protecting the road.

A Major victory!

After action events make good my losses with replacements from Battalion HQ and the promise of an extra weapons team on our next outing.

Did Platoon Forward work?

1: The differing blinds allowed a credible defence and actually worked very well. Not knowing exactly what would the blind would represent but having knowledge of the probable units.

2: Any decision for the German force was helped by having a personality for the platoon commanders.

3: Random events anything from reserves to leadership tests add uncertainty.

Thumbs up for our first outing.

Next Blog I think I will layout my German  company OOB.

Platoon Forward

As I play most of my games solo I thought I would give Platoon Forward a try.

It is a generic system for adding personalities to your game, generating scenarios and random events.

It is split into three sections, each section can be used independently of the others. Section one generates the personalities of the unit, section two generates scenarios and section three events pre game, during the game and post game. It consists of over 50 pages with plenty of examples of how to interoperate the various tables.

I am going to base my games on a German company during WWII, but it can be used with a little tweaking for other periods. All references in Platoon Forward are at platoon level, but it scales up to company level with ease.

For my first game I will be using the PBI rules from Peter Pig, but plan to use other rule systems on a scenario by scenario basis.

Platoon Forward is available from toofatlardies for £7.00 on PDF.

The first game generated is a combat patrol with the objective of bringing back a prisoner. Look forward to the game report after the weekend.