Real-Time Waterloo at Valkryx

On Sunday I was honoured to be amongst the first group of players to play Valkyrx’s Real-Time Waterloo, played on 8 of their Intelligent Wargames Tables (IWT)

You can read my description of their IWT system in a previous blog post. Essentially each ~2m hex tables is composed of 150+ 15cm hexes, and each hex has an NFC reader and a multi-colour light. Units (typically representing Brigades for Napoleonics) are a goodly number of 10mm miniatures on a 10cm square base.  

The table in "add unit" mode, clearly showing the hex arrangement

To play a wargame you just move the bases on the table, the hexes light to show illegal moves of when you’ve gone too far, and then once moves are complete the computer automatically works out all the firing and melee and then flashes lights to tell you who’s been involved and what their strength is at the end of the round. Each table also has a small touch-screen which allows you to interrogate units in more detail and to change formation and to limber/unlimbers guns.

One of the touch-screen controllers showing unit data

I’ve played with both the fantasy system (GW style skirmishes) and the Napoleonic system before, but this was the first time that Valkyrx had tried to run such a large scale set-up and to run a whole historic battle in real-time. The real-time bit is something that Jon and Valkyrx has always been after, and in play each turn represents only 5 minutes of real battle, and players have 2 minutes per side to make their moves (IGOUGO) and then 1 minute for the computer to workout and display the results - so 5 minutes of real play should equal 5 minutes of historic “battle” time.

For this game we had about 4-5 players a side (essentially one per table/Corps), plus about half-a-dozen Valkyrx staff to help out and keep the tech running. There had been a test game about a month ago, that I’d missed, but Saturday was an “open house” session for everyone to practice with the tables and rules and to get a handle on how best to spend their 2 minutes effectively, and how to move the units so as to ensure that the NFC readers didn’t miss things or get confused. The scenario used a standard Waterloo Orbat, but we had free deployment as long as we didn’t go over our front line. The terrain was a reasonable representation of the battlefield, with all the main ridges marked by low hills (getting the NFC reader to work through them had been a real challenge), and all the main building complexes featured. No sign of streams or hedges and pretty billiard table like between the hills, but a good enough representation to have a sense of it being Waterloo. The table had though been laid out so that the Allied ridge was within about 3 hexes of the back of the table - so there was very little space for British manoeuvre, and no real option for a flanking attack by the French. The Prussians were assumed to be lurking the other side of the Bois de Paris at the far end of the table, and there were even rumours (that proved unfounded) that Grouchy might be around somewhere.

Come the day Juan (who I know from our Rose Hill games and Francis’ games) was Napoleon, I was Reille and given the left flank with orders to pin the British right, Martin was Lobau, keeping an eye out for the Prussians whilst also trying to sneak round the British left, whilst Theo had d’Erlon and Kellerman with the intention of smashing though the Allied line just at the E (ie French right) end of the ridge.

We just about started at the historic 11am, but a few glitches on the computer meant that it was probably half an hour or so before we really got into our stride. I sent a division or two under Ney to skirt around Hougoumont to threaten the Allied right, but although the whole of the end table was devoid of troops there were no VPs in the game so nothing to be gained by exiting off towards Brussels, so the Brits basically just sat on the end of the ridge, and the two of us faced off against each other for most of the game. Meanwhile the main fireworks were between Theo/d'Erlon and the left of the Allied line, with Martin/Lobau's cavalry sweeping round to join the fray. It took a lot of turns but eventually they managed to get a unit or two on the Allied table-edge - but the lack of depth meant that there was no real space to exploit and wrap the flank up.

The fighting on the Allied left

In the centre Juan led the Imperial Guard cavalry and the Old Guard into an assault straight up the Brussel's road and into the Allied centre. With ENDEX looming the Allied right finally pushed forward and my Corps with only 2 cavalry units to support it was at the mercy of 7+ Allied cavalry units - guns don't seem to do a lot to charging infantry or cavalry in the these rules! The Prussians did finally arrive,  so Lobau's troops mounted a hasty defence and the Chasseurs of the Guard were dispatched to rescue from a precarious position in La Belle Alliance!

A late computer glitch brought a slightly premature end to the game, but it's early days and this was a real test for the software (not least the somewhat chaotic movement of bases in the middle of the table) and we'd had many cracking hours gaming. 

Being able to play a big Napoleonic wargame so quickly and without recourse to any rule set was quite something. Several people commented on how easy the grid system made things - no arguments or gaming over distances - but I'm used to that anyway with my rules. Not having to look up rules or do calculations was the real time-saver. Whether I felt more like a Corps commander is perhaps debatable, playing with more players so as to get a proper 3-tier model would be wonderful, and I know that Jon wanted to enforce message passing etc to get more of that role-play element in - something for the future perhaps. It also made me wonder if I could do an SLS-FastPlay set of my rules to try and get somewhere close to a similar result. I think Jon said we did 35 turns in a day - and we could perhaps have managed 50-60+ if we (and the computer) all knew what we were doing! (60 turns = 300 minutes = 5 hrs elapsed and game time). That compares to c.10-12 turns a day both for SLS and Francis' games!!

We were all up for a rematch to give the ever improving software another test in a few weeks if Jon lays a game on, and I can't wait to see where Jon and his team take this over the coming months and years.

Here are a couple of videos showing what happens during the 1 minute "results" phase, initially the lights flash red/green to show who is in combat/firing, then hold steady green then red to show who has one or lost that round, and then steady orange for weakened, flashing orange for badly damaged, and red for removed. Although the tablets show per man level casualties you never really look at that but just learn to read the colours on the table.

The fighting on the Allied left flank

The fighting in the Centre by La Haie Sainte

Vertical Urban Wargame - Summary Report

Vertical Urban Wargame was my game for Wargame Development's VCOW 2023 virtual conference held 3-5 Feb 2023. This post provides a summary and overview of the game, and I may do a second post to go into more detail on its genesis and design - and both will then be condensed down for my Onside for the Nugget (WD's journal). The game was set as a notional 1985 engagement in Berlin between Blue and Red, with a Company Group Blue force, and a slightly smaller Red Force.

Aim

The aims of the game were:

• to explore if/how a "vertical" (i.e. point-of-view table level) viewpoint changes the experience of a wargame - particularly an urban one;
• to see whether consumer grade systems (phones, bandwidth, video conferencing software) are up to the task;
• to have some fun on a Friday evening!

Game Set Up

I chose to use Dropzone Commander as the rules, with stats modified for 1980s. I chose these as they are pretty simple and had been used by Dstl in some of their own work. The players weren't given the rules, just a rough sense of engagement distances on the model for the various weapons. I rolled all dice and didn't bother to measure movement (although I had guidelines) and typically moved units in tactical bounds.

The terrain was built from two sets of Dropzone buidings (Cityscape and Ruinscape) which at c.£30 each are a wonderfully cheap way of building city urban terrain. The buildings are all fold-flat, and the pack also includes the 1ft street tiles. Each pack is designed to provide 6' x 4' of playable space with reasonably open urban terrain, I found that two packs wasn't quite enough to do a dense 6' x 4' table! Models were 10mm Timecast, with 10mm Pendragon civilians.

Tech Set Up

I looked at various options for the cameras and stream but decided in the end that the best bet was mobile phones for the cameras, with each feeding its own video conferencing room in Jitsi (a free open-source Zoom clone). The nice thing with Jitsi is you just name a room (e.g. VerticalWargame1Pl) and give players the URL to that room, and then they can go straight into it with their browser - no download, no sign-up, just straight in. One issue was initially I'd hoped to have the phones vertical so as to make them easy to use and get the cameras really close to the ground, but all the conferencing software I tried kept trying to re-invert the image - so it was always upside down. So the phones had to be on their side, which kept a lowish camera but meant they didn't fit down the streets so I had to keep moving the buildings out of the way! Something to improve on.

Camera set-up, with a simple balsa holder to keep vertical

We used Zoom to start the session with video on whilst I gave the briefing. Once that was over we switched video off and used it effectively as the Coy radio net, and the players (two teams of two) called up the Jitsi feed from their AFV. The Coy Comd had no video (as he wouldn't in real life in 1985) and had to rely on audio reports. 

This screen capture from a test game shows the two JITSI feeds running on one screen, plus an overview via Zoom.

Scenario

The game had 2 1/2 phases:

• Phase 1: Each team had a single Scimitar recce tank to try and find a route through the city to the 3 objectives, and then report this route back to the main force. The real aim of this was to get players used to the tech and mechanics;
• Phase 2.1: Each team now controlled a Platoon Group, each of 1 Pl and 1 Chieftain (one player controlling each but sharing a single camera in each team). The aim was to secure and hold 2 of the 3 objectives.
• Phase 2.2: At some point during Phase 2.1 I allowed the Coy Comd to start tasking a choice of UAVs, and the option of calling forward a reserve Pl Gp.

The company moves off in line astern!

How it Played

The Coy Comd immediately took charge and had the two Scimitars work out where they were in relation to each other (I put them in on different axis 90 degrees apart!) and to team up before pushing forward in a mutually supporting way (something that the solo playtesters hadn't bothered with, but far more sound tactically). 

Scimitar starts its patrol.

Note: All the images in this section are in-game screen grabs from Jitsi by Ian Robinson.

A hunt of the streets finally found the objectives - which relied on getting close enough to actually read the signs! A Red recce BRDM and BMP were soon dispatched, but then the T72 appeared! Time to fire the smoke and scoot back home.

Friends or foes? One of the few long avenues in the city.

For Phase 2 the Coy Comd decided to send both Pl in on the same axis. At the first junction they them split, one going L down the earlier route, and the other going R across the main square (with a fine 28mm statue in the centre) so as to effectively pincer the closest two objectives. Just to add some more fun there were civilian groups scattered around acting under a simple paper AI, and although painted in bright colours, at a distance, through a smartphone, they were often misidentified at Red soldiers, and narrowly avoided being gunned down. Between Phases 1 and 2 I'd also blocked off a couple of routes with improvised barricades made of ISO containers.

2Pl Chieftain engaging T72s in the murk

Red and Blue arrived at the objectives at about the same time. A tank duel between two T72 and a Chieftain by the main square was eventually won by the Chieftain (despite a T72 getting first shot as it wasn't spotted through the camera). By the Mayor's Office 1Pl dismounted and occupied a neighbouring building as Red rushed the Office. 1 Pl Carl Gustav took out one BMP, and it's Chieftain the second (I think). I then gave the Coy Comd the choice of a mini-UAV overflight of the whole city or a micro-UAV flight along 8ft (8 tiles) of street at building height. This was the first view he had of the city and situation and significantly lifted his situational awareness. 2 Pl realised that it could get in the back of another neighbouring building to the Mayor's Office, and narrowly avoided hitting 1Pl as both fired on the same BMP from opposite directions. 2Pl stormed the Mayor's office and took, it, 1Pl then rush across the street and to their surprise found themselves in the back of the Police Station just as Red moved in from the front. A quick firefight and the Red section was dispatched and it was game over.

2Pl spies the BMP, engages with CG - just missing 1Pl in the building beyond!

For a fuller sense of the terrain, engagement sites and final deployment there's a short fly-through video on YouTube.

Conclusion

I'll do a fuller set of conclusions and lessons learnt in the second post, but everyone reported having a really fun game and a far more visceral experience than if we'd played the same game over an open table. There was a real sense of trepidation each time a unit poked its front around a corner to see what was there, and spotting targets and identifying friend from foe from civilian was also a real (and realistic) challenge. Several players have now remarked how much the whole experience resembles a tank-based dungeon crawl, with high engagement and emotion. 

So given the initial question "if/how a "vertical" (i.e. point-of-view table level) viewpoint changes the experience of a wargame - particularly an urban one;" the ad-hoc, single experiment answer would seem to be that a) it does and b) for the better by making the whole experience more visceral and more "realistic". I might have to switch into PhD mode to more critically examine that and perhaps start running some versions of the game under proper experimental conditions!

Company Megatest - Fireball Forward!

 

Seen the ads for this set for ages in MW&BG so had to give it a try. It also has a Stalingrad scenarion pack which might be interesting for the PhD. Oh and Little Wars TV has just done a head to head between Fireball Forward and Crossfire - see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3tvgM3_-UE

Presentation

I got the 110pp PDF, which has about 56 pages of rules, optional rules and design notes (!), 26pp of scenarios (13 scenarios), an index (!), 8pp QRS and 11pp of stats - so a pretty full package for $25. Rules are pretty well laid out, line drawing not photos, lots of short examples. My only niggle is that there is a short of quick intro to the whole rules at the start and actions at each phase, but further rules for the actions are later on, so I was always diving backwards and forwards. The RQS also seems to miss some key elements (even if simple) like Morale.

Artillery Stonks from both sides causing a lot of issues!

Set-Up

I used the Choctaw Warrior scenario as the base for my game, beefing the allies up to a Coy+, and giving the Germans some extra MGs and tanks. Germans attacking from the top of the table.

How It Played

The lead P.IV got taken out by the Cromwell as it reached the wood, but the second P.IV managed to take out both of the Cromwells and settled down to providing fire support. A to-and-fro battle for the wood on the L lasted almost the whole 7 turns, with close assaults by both sides but the British ended up in possession. A German attempt to flank L of it was caught by an arty stonk and never progressed. On the R flank platoons traded shots for most of the game, the Germans only belatedly trying to push across the gaps between the hedgelines once their IG started providing support. Unfortunately their Pl Cmd bought it, one section faltered, and one was already Broken so the remaining section to make contact couldn't really achieve much. 

The centre was far more touch and go. An early British stonk caught the Germans forming up, but then a couple of German stonks, and the fire support from the P.IV started to weaken the British line enough (crucially breaking the UC Bren teams that had been brought up to support) and in the final moves the Germans tried to push across the open ground. They'd did their best to suppress any fire, but in the end only the Zug Cmdr reached the hedgeline - to be faced by only the British Pl Cmdr left defending it! And that was the end of Turn 7 so we'll never know which of them won!

In terms of losses the British only had 2 elements KO'd, compared to the German's 5. Both sides lost one Pl Comd. In terms of holding the line the British succeeded, holding both flanks quite securely, and with enough Broken troops to put into the fray if the German commander won his melee!

The fight for the wood

Rules Impression

Unlike some of the rules I've tried recently which have been pretty vanilla Fireball Forward has a lot of novel mechanics and ideas, all of which work, but which possibly aren't as elegant as they could be. So I'll actually step through the key mechanics.

Activation

FF uses a standard deck of cards, shuffled, with Germans activating on black cards and British on red. You draw cards until the colour changes, and the person who's colour it is must then decide order of activation for that many units, so you can't change if things go wrong on the first activation. At first I found drawing then replacing the colour change card a bit odd, but in the end I found it gave a nice Bolt Action type mix of long and shorts spurts of action but without special dice or drawing chits. I used to be really keen on the 1 card = 1 specific unit model to get the extra friction, but certainly for mech games I think its reasonable to let the commander choose the order so as to try and bring off integrated attacks. Having thought more about the card deck approach the more I think I might use it on my next CWO game, with a few further tweaks to introduce some morale orientated friction.

There are also "initiative chips" (1 or 2 per game, but some multiple use) which give you extra activations. Nice.

C2

Good units can take actions automatically, basically one or all of Spot (leaders), Rally, Fire, Move, in any order. Broken units have to take a Rally test first (3+ if by a 3+ leader, otherwise 6+). Any suppression is removed automatically - which really limited the effects of suppression, see below. When the platoons lost their leaders then the 6+ really meant that Broken units were out of the action and the Platoon ceased to work as a cohesive unit, which seemed reasonable (although FF does use extreme terms, Broken is really just "Shocked" and Rout - when a freshly Broken units falls back - is really just Pull Back).

Spotting

You need a basic spotting check (5+) to spot hidden units (default state at start) before you can fire on them. Auto within 3". No DMs.

Movement

Movement distances are as-the-crow-flies. As long as your route doesn't move beyond this radius you can take any route to your destination (although subject to Opportunity Fire).  Terrain is dealt with by allowing a maximum of 2 "zone" crossings in a move, such as two hedges, or a part of a wood divided into 3 or 4 zones. This does bring a nice fluidity to the movement and gets away from the false precision of a 8" or 12" move. Might be tempted to use it, plus maybe some variable element to still increase uncertainty.

Firing

This is where FF fails I think. When you fire you roll at least 3 dice (4 for MGs/Guns) these being your normal damage dice (typically needing 4+/5+ to hit), one or more "hit dice" (needing an invariable 6 to hit) and a range dice (which can be a single D20, or D4+D8 or other weird combinations). MGs and guns roll another D6 for ammo/stoppages. With bigger guns and HMG you could be rolling 7 dice or so, a mix of D6 and other types, the D6 in three different colours! Just looking that up each time and then finding where the dice are on the table just really gets in the way of the flow (although if its just basic rifle fire then you tend to just hold the 3 dice needed in your hand the whole time). The range dice is there both to give variability in range (your range is range dice+ a basic range for the weapon), and to give a short range effect (+1 if range < just the range dice). There are some very basic DMs.

For each hit you take a morale check, typically 4+ for separated unit, 3+ for leader or unit adjacent to leader. Lose 1 check and you are "broken" and pull back to cover and out of LOS of enemy, upto 12", two losses and you're dead. I found the pull-back very unnatural - from what I've read the pullback is more likely to be a Pl level thing, sections just going to ground if they are being hit and pinned. With an element now 12" behind you the Pl Comd then has to decide whether to spend a turn moving back to help them rally on a 3+, or leave them trying for a 6+, again in contrast to what I usually read of the Pl Comd and Sgt running along the line to motivate people.

Any hit means you are suppressed, so no opportunity fire, but you automatically lose suppression when activated - so if you try to suppress with one Platoon from the front and then charge with another Platoon on their activation the target is only suppressed if the opposition hasn't had an activation between them to recover suppression.

Opportunity fire works in the same way, but doesn't cause suppression which seems odd - surely its normal effect is to get a moving unit to dive for cover. It also wasn't clear to me if a unit could do Opportunity Fire and normal activation, or even multiple opportunity fires.

Anti-tank fire is a bit simple. D6 plus a range dice, hitting again on around 4+/5+. The tables give the "penetration" points and the defender rolls D6 per armour point - but saves are then a complicated none for 1s, 1 for 2s-5s and 2 for 6s. Anything not saved means KO, and a morale test if equalled.

Close Assaults

Close assaults are relatively simple, Morale check to commit, then pair off, D6 each and a couple of DMs. In practice I found that if a Platoon charged forward you'd be lucky to get 50% of the Platoon actually committing (looking for 3+ for 3 units, 4+ for the winger), which again doesn't quite seem right, more likely all or nothing as otherwise you get one section stranded - but guess that happened, just not as often as in the game? Loser takes morale checks equal to the delta in modified die rolls.

Indirect Fire

Each side gets a number of missions, no discrimination between mortars and guns. FO needs a Morale Check to call in, if successful then roll on a 2D6 table for the result, 6-10 on target, lower is bad news (delays, deviation), higher is good news (double impact etc). Very basic.

There are extra rules for things like Grazing Fire/Beaten Zones,  Snipers, Mines, Air Support, fanatical Soviets, jungle and even small boats and horses but I didn't play any of them.

ENDEX

Conclusion

So some different ideas which is good, but some work, some don't. Trying to "house rule" it to fix is probably too big an ask as the direct fire system is just too clumsy for my liking. No issue with the multiple morale check principal though. In reality I think I'll just steal the bits I think I can work with. Overall I guess 7/10.

Company Megatest -- FiveCore Company Command

 

Had a so-so relationship with the Skirmish version of FiveCore so let's see if I get on any better with the Company version, although I'm a bit wary of a system that uses almost identical mechanics for Skirmish, Company and Brigade level combats.

Presentation

Single 62 page PDF from Wargames Vault - $7.99. No hunting through multiple supplements like the Skirmish version, all in one place and pretty well laid out. Very simple 1pp QRS.

Set-Up

Like a lot of the Nordic Weasel products there's a complete scenario and even campaign generator in the back of the rules so I used that to generate the 3' x 3' terrain and force objectives. Company Group on either side, Germans defending the village against a simple attack.

How It Played

The Cromwell advancing down the road got ambushed by the German AT gun and by a Panzerfaust in the woods and had to pull back, shaken but not out. The German MG in the house on the S of the table effectively pinned the southern British platoon at the wood line. The Cromwell put a few rounds into the house to take him out, but an artillery stonk on the German hedgeline missed, and the Cromwell was finally taken by the AT gun. In the centre the British pushed through the woods, whilst the Germans swung down from the fields N into the woods. A couple of firefights and assaults saw the Brits as victors, although a lone German squad managed to keep the reserve platoon pinned back. The Germans tried to push forward again in the S, a Panzer coming up the road getting hit by the last Cromwell. The German infantry were luck with the Brits rolling a Scurry round as they legged in across the field. They made it to the hedgeline and into close assault for no loss, forcing one section to withdraw. The British on the N side were making their own flanking action rather than taking the village head on, but both sides were at 7 squads, 1 above the morale threshold and we were on turn 10 (no idea how you're meant to do it in 5!). Then the Brits rolled an order change and higher command obviously felt they were too spent to take the village and ordered them to go firm around the village and woods. All over and even honours.

ENDEX

Rules Impression/Overall

Way better than last time. Yes it's very abstracted but it moves along quickly, is internally consistent and works and all the extra bits generate a good narrative. Perhaps not the ruleset I'd play for a more analytical game (been reading too much Jim Storr) but for a fun game it's probably hard to beat.

Perhaps the mechanic is less suited to Skirmish where you (well I) really do want something a bit more gritty, and having abstracted it may well be that it works OK at Bde level as long as the terms for results are changed - will have to see in a couple of years when I get round to the Bde test. I could see it as an interesting alternative to the Megablitz/Division Commander type portable wargame rules.

Probably 8/10, even 9/10 on its own terms (somewhat better than the 5-6/10 last time!).

Company Megatest - Panzer Grenadier Deluxe

 

Time to get David Brown's Panzer Grenadier Deluxe on the table. I've always thought his General de Brigade a solid set of rules, and I'm keen to try O Group, so be interesting to see what this older set is like.

Presentation

242pp hardback book with lots of model pictures and historic photos. 4pp QRS at the back, a 1pp play aid and 1pp or markers/templates. Pretty logical layout but pretty chatty and possibly broken up into too many chapters.

Set-Up

Same as for the Crossfire test. Germans Coy+ deployed ahead of and behind the river and bridge (top of photo above), and British with 2 Coy+ advancing from the bottom.

Finally clearing the R field

How It Played

The Cromwells did a bit better this time, not only taking out the PIV on the ridge line but also chasing the Pak back from the fiver, and then taking out the second PIV, all for one damaged but not KO'd Cromwell. With the ridge clear B Coy made better time down the L flank, but 1 Coy caught it badly both in trying to get to the field in front of the bridge, and to the one between the wood and the stream, but both positions were eventually taken by 1 Pl and 2 Pl of  A Coy were fairly spent.. Both sides made repeated attempts to bring in fire support, the Germans nicely catching 1 Pl as they consolidated on the LH field. As the Brits went firm just before the river they finally managed to bring the fire support in, and winning the firefight on both flank. Finally the river was crossed with key German units suppressed or forced back and it was game over.

The dismounted Carrier Platoon moves through the marsh

Rules Impression

I really liked these. The C&C mechanic was just about right, variable CP but you only spend them on the "harder" stuff. The different levels of "morale" test rather than specific damage also worked nicely, and it gave a good "company" feel as you weren't too concerned about whether units had taken x% losses, but more just were they in the fight. Likewise fire was at the # of "section equivalents" level. Fire support worked well too, although all the gunners were shooting accurately - luck of the dice. The "Battlegroup" breakpoint test for ENDEX was also nice, and a 75% first threshold meant a relatively early finish on a bad dice roll. The whole thing just hung together well.

Crossing the river

Conclusion

A few minor things I might tweak but otherwise a nice set of rules and probably better than any of the Modern ones I played. If they are still scoring high by the end of the test then I'll certainly do a Modern version. Overall 8/10, maybe even 9/10.

The Final Assault

Basing

In playing Crossfire something just didn't seem right, and PG confirmed it - my basing was hideous. In an attempt to be "flexible" and save cost I'd sabot mounted my 1p soldiers into 3 or 4 figure sabots to represent each section - but they took up way too much space. So before I do the next game I'm rebasing them (but leaving enough on 1p pieces for Pl sized games) with 3-4 figures per 4cm x 3cm rounded oblong base. Looks way better.

Valkyrx - Intelligent Wargames Tables

 

I've had a couple of chances now to go down to www.valkyrx.com in Birmingham to see their evolving Intelligent Wargames Table based wargames centre. They are busy beta-testing the Fantasy version at the moment (single models) but on the last visit I got the chance to play with the Alpha version of the Napoleonic Big Battles game (10mm, 1:15, ~ Bde per 15cm base)

I'm doing a full write-up for The Nugget which I'll post here later but in brief:

• Each base has an NFC chip
• Each ~2m hex table is split into ~ 127 15cm hex tiles
• Each hex tile has an NFC sensor to read the chip, and a set of LEDs
• Players just move their units (IGO-UGO, 2 mins max per turn - the aim is to work in "real-time")(lights highlight illegal moves)
• The computer then does everything else, using the lights to show who is attacking who, and what the combat results are
• A tablet PC lets you drill down to individual units to see strength and losses (to the man) and ammo states (to the round!)

Here's a video of the system in action.

And a few more photos showing the guts of the system:

Legal move

Illegal move

The NFC Sensors under the table cloth

The hex tile/NFC sensor array

Our Napoleonic test game, my double envelopment underway (note: terrain can be added)

More on all this later.

1985 Company MegaTest - Contact Wait Out

 

Time for the last in the run of 1980s Company level games, and time to put my own set through its paces.

Presentation

I did have a "rule book" edition several versions ago but whilst it's still in flux all recent editions have been on an A4 landscape QRS - two sheets (admittedly 9pt) for main rules, 2 more for stats, and a few extra pages for air/engrs etc.

Set-Up

As previous, but now had the British coming in broadly across the East edge, and the Russian's coming in broadly on the West edge.

How It Played

Seemed a far more even game than the others. The Brits were slow to get into Semmenstedt with both sides more or less meeting in the middle. The Russians got to the farm first, only narrowly beating the Brits. There was the standard face-off between T64s and Chieftains, with T64s tending to hit but not penetrate and the Brits fluffing a few shots (although Milan got one). By the end all the Chieftains were gone and two T64s were left.

By the farm the M109 battery put in a couple of fire missions, causing suitable pinning/shock but minimal damage - although one BMP bought it. The Brits dismounted from their FV432s about 150m and tried to take the site before the Russians could recover, both slides lost a section but the Brits couldn't unseat the Russians and pulled back. 

In Semmenstedt 2Pl got into the high-rise and poured fire onto the Russian Pl that was pushing in, causing one section to give up. A Russian fire mission again caused some damage to the S of the city but wasn't fatal. One of the Chieftains took out a couple of BMP before it was fired on from a BMP up the road in Remilingen and taken out.

An attempted airstrike saw one Harrier go down to a SAM-7, whilst the second ship missed the T64 it was aiming at.

With most of the rules tested and both sides at 50% of their battle rating, and SN10 making a spectacular first flight (and even more spectacular second!) I'd run out of time and called ENDEX.

Rules Impression

OK I know this is going to sound biased, but bear in mind I gave CWO only 6.5/10 in the Platoon MegaTest, but I thought that CWO played pretty well and was the closest to what I'm after in a Company level game.

I did make a few changes before the game. One was to simplify the Indirect Fire rules - and in doing so remove the last vestiges of the WRG Armour and Infantry1950-1975 rule set (yes up to a decade before 1985!) in which it has its spiritual home. I also changed the way I did random movement distances, trying to eliminate the use of Fate dice and keep to just D10/D6. In fact I found the new system too random in the first couple of turns and changed it again, still keeping the D10s - random movement is a must I think, especially for this sort of game. I also introduced a new system for randomly determining how much FIRES support you have which worked well.

I also stole the Battle Rating system from Battlegroup:NORTHAG. As it was  both side started with identical BR (not planned, but they did have similar forces) and ended with the same number of BR tokens (about 50%). With the British having lost all their MBT, and the Soviets at least 1 Platoon then playing on too 100% seems a bit much. In future games I might make the percentage national/scenario based, so say Brits play to 60% and WARPAC to 80%. There is the issue that the loss of a section might have a bigger impact than the loss of an MBT - but that may the the price for no bookkeeping and and amount of friction.

The other big change was in activation. I played the first half using the existing random card activation at Pl/Tp level - but really that just doesnt go with mechanised warfare really where reasonable comms and covering fire doctrine means far more co-ordination is possible. I liked the 7 Days to the Rhine system, but having a token per element (so 20-30) was crazy, so I did it at unit level - so about 6 a side in this case. I then did some randomisation to make it +/-2 per turn. Activating like this made it sensible to move FIRES calls outside of the normal activation cycle and do at turn start for both side. Interrupt fire in 7DTTR works as the opponent unit spend its token early, but since I've got unit tokens I'm doing that by a simple overwatch order. I'm keeping the ability to "pass" phasing at any point - but I am concerned that if the phasing player doesnt do that it becomes IGOUGO. So as well as this I gave the non-phasing player the ability to spend 2 tokens to take over phasing and activate a unit (or the phasing player could bid 3 etc). I think this might give just the right level of interactivity and how you spend your tokens becomes a key decision, but without being too gamey. It's not really very easy to test in solo play, so post-lockdown I can hopefully try the mechanism with other players.

I did think that things were a bit hard to hit/kill than in other rules so I'm tempted to drop the "to spot/hit/kill" scores by 1. I think I might ditch targetted inf vs inf fire for the suppression rules, and I need to work a bit on the whole shock/pin/neutralise/kill mechanic, but its definitely getting there. And despite the extra complexity overall I  don't think the game slowed too much.

Overall

Pretty good I think, back to what I remembered it being before the Platoon game, and actually improving on what it was before, so all in the right direction. Just the right combination of friction, grit and playability. Overall 8.5/10, and I think I can push it up to 9 or even more when it comes to the WW2 company test.

Platoon Mega Playtest - Summary and Roundup

So that's the end of the Platoon MegaTest - 11 different rules played out against a set of 6 inter-linked scenarios. So what are my conclusions?

Op Martlet Campaign

The Op Martlet Campaign from Too Fat Lardies was great fun and gave a great structure. Playing it By the book it would have been a real challenge as the British platoon suffered badly pretty much every time, whether it won or lost, and would have found it hard to keep going until relieved. I've got 29 Let's Go but also tempted by the The Scottish Corridor. I'd also like to do one based on the Canadians on Op Totalize.

Reviews Summary

Chain of Command 7/10

• Pros: Good ranges and weapon balance. Shock. Covers most situations.
• Cons: Activation model doesn't seem "real". End up gaming the CoC dice.

Bolt Action  9/10

• Pros: Order dice and activation vs pins. Covers most situations. 
• Cons: Short ranges. Underpowered LMGs. Too many "special" rules. Melee combat. Odd indirect fire (opponent places misses!).

KR16  6/10

• Pros: Pretty simple. Nice activation model where hard tasks are harder to activate (eg assault)
• Cons: Even simple tasks too hard to activate though. Damage removes pins, so better getting 1 hit not two often.

Fireteam: Modern  8/10

• Pros: Pretty good. Nice random events on joker. Well laid out.
• Cons: One step too many some times. 5 dice just to activate each unit!

UltraCombat: Modern  6/10

• Pros: Very few I'm afraid.
• Cons: 3in1 concept makes very bulky. Doesnt cover all events (most HE, smoke, etc). Confusing layout. Hestitate/Pinned/Suppressed confusion. Zero friction, but units often hesitate from hits and get stuck. 

Force on Force  5/10

• Pros: Rules very complete, infinite fire exchanges but decreasing effect
• Cons: Don't like variable dice type mechanics. Masses of dice. No one every pinned.Little friction.

No End In Sight  8/10

• Pros: Best example of section leader commanding. Nice command exhaustion activation mechanic. Good under-fire morale test.
• Cons: Too easy to recover from pin? Dice heavy on combat.

Iron Cross  4/10

• Pros: Few
• Cons: No penalty for over-reaching activation. To easy to recover damage. Kill in one turn mentality. Fire-React too pervasive. No smoke. Start min/maxing combats to eliminate a unit in single go.

Monty Gunner Who 

• Pros: Nice and fast card mechanic, with gambling option! Good HE.
• Cons: Melee and anti-tank a bit card heavy.

Contact: Wait Out 6.5/10

• Pros: Scales to Bn/Bde at different resolutions. Covers all situations.
• Cons: Needs better HE rules. Firepower model didn't handle small units well.

Bolt Action Reality Check  9.5/10

• Pros: Played really well - as it should
• Cons: A few tweaks but otherwise fine

So Bolt Action with house rule changes a clear winner, and even struggling at this scale to see why I need to waste time improving CWO. May be a different story at Company upwards though.

Platoon Mega Playtest: Part 11 - Bolt Action:Reality Check

The "pillarbox Panzer" has its target partially masked by smoke

That's all the rule sets I want to test, so as a finale I played Bolt Action again but with various house rules to hopefully give more realistic ranges, better balance between rifles and MGs, and fixes to indirect fire and smoke amongst other things, I've christened as Bolt Action: Reality Check.

Presentation

3 sheets of A4 QRS covering pretty the whole of the BA rule book and incorporating my changes. Hardly needed to check the real rulebook at all.

British advancing in line from top to bottom

Set-Up

Operation Martlet Scenario 6: The Last Ditch at Ruaray, the final Op Martlet scenario, again with open ground to a mix of wood and buildings giving a good defensive position. The Germans lost their IG, and the Brits lot the 4th Section and UC but gained an MFC as the mortars were going to come in handy!

The Panzer IV lies in wait

How It Played

The Brits just went for it initially, No. 1, 2 and 3 sections in line abreast, moving rapidly across the open ground so they managed to get rounds on target in their first turn. It was then a slogging match, each Section paired against a German Gruppen.  The Cromwell came out to give support, and Panzer IV countered, and got its tracks blown off for the privilege - but became a very useful turreted strong point. Despite smoke coming down No.1 Section began to suffer the most and soon routed, followed by No. 3 Section. The Germans were taking some losses, but had the benefit of cover. With only No.2 Section left and that suffering the Platoon was pulled back. Round 1 to the Germans.

Smoke on the crossroads doesn't save the Brits

The Company commander still had to get his objective though, so the Mortars put down a round of fire on the German position, putting 2-3 pins on most units, and killing the sniper hiding in the farm attic. No. 2 Platoon was then sent forward, again rapidly moving across ground in line abreast and into rifle range. The weakened German Gruppen had to spend a turn recovering pins, and given the order of the dice this meant the Brits got 2 rounds of fire in before the Germans could respond. Again the weakness of the German Gruppen was telling as they couldn't inflict the same damage as the brits, despite taking No. 2 Section  Commander out. 3. Gruppen on the German L was first to go, then No. 2 Gruppen fled, and so finally the Zug pulled back, the Panzer IV firing HE at No. 1 Section which had gone to ground behind a hillock to cover the withdrawal. Game over, Campaign over, the Brits had got the the Ruaray cross-roads on the second try.

No. 2 Platoon moves in to clear the now empty crossroads as the Germans exit stage right

Overall

This played really well. The openness of the terrain meant that it was lacking some of the manoeuvre of the first Bolt Action game, but all the results seemed realistic, and 2 Platoons to unseat 1 defensive Platoon seems reasonable. All my changes worked well too, and this has certainly ended up for me as my go-to Platoon set. Next to try it for SF and Modern, and then next year at Company level. I'd give it 9.5 I think.

Platoon Mega Playtest: Part 10 - Contact: Wait Out!

Having ripped everybody else's rules apart, time for my own!

Presentation

Although I have a 43 page A4 rulesbook (few photos) I played exclusive off the 2pp A4 QRS.

Set-Up

Operation Martlet Scenario 5: Winning Your Spurs again with a mad advance across open ground.

How It Played

No. 1 Section on the left (fm British), No. 2 Section on the right. As No. 2 Section got to about 100 and crested the hummocks, failing to spot the 2. Gruppen in the hedgeline, 2. Gruppen opened fire and wiped out No. 2 Section (they got 3 activations - one for reserved overwatch, one for normal that turn, and one early next turn!). The Cromwell and No. 4 Section moved up to replace but the Panzer IV cam out and after Panzer and Cromwell bounced a few shells off each other it was the Cromwell that took a fatal hit.

On the N flank No.1 Section went to ground behind the hummocks as soon as it came under fire - suffering far less than No. 2 Section. Even with No. 3 Section and the UC coming up in  support the German defensive line was going to be a tough nut to crack and so the Pl Commander lost patience and called in an artillery barrage from the Battalions Direct Support battery. Couple of turn later it arrived and although slightly long, decimated (accurate in this case) the German position, 1. and 2. Gruppen gone, 3. Gruppen badly mauled and the Panzer button-down. The Brits could have walked onto the position but I called game over.

Where did all the Germans go?

Rules Impression

I certainly have more DMs than the other rules tested here - but not too many I think - and the niceties are there to cope with systems right up to 2020. I did realise I was missing rules for direct HE, but everything else was covered with random activation, randomised movement if running, and smoke.

But it didn't feel as good a game as my last 1985 outing of them. Partly the scenario is a real tough one, but also this was PL+ where as that was Bn+, and it was hard to cope with the fire factors at bolt-action rifle group scale, and the 30m grid seemed to make a huge difference when the HE came down.

In terms of that barrage though a Bolt Action one would have covered a similar area, and seeing as I rolled double + three times (so 1:9 chance three times) I'd have had 6s all the way through on BA - so probably a similar result (although may have been in pins and rout, not elimination). Also just thinking of the rec outside my old house which is a similar size (~ 200m x 150m), having a platoon lying there and a 25pdr battery shoot arriving in the field I can believe that not many would walk away - so maybe not as off as it seemed.

What I didn't try was shooting for suppression - doing a quick check on that No.1 Section could probably have readily got suppression and the odd damage, so No. 3 could have charged through, so it may have been possible.

At the end of the day though with a British Pl going 1:1 with a German Pl in defence and no cover the German's are pretty much bound to win without some deus ex machina!

Overall

Not as good a run out as usual for CWO, but they are really more intended for Company up (that's my excuse!). Looking like Bolt Action - Reality Checked might become my preferred Pl set, be interesting to see if I can stretch that up to Coy in the next round. Overall, a disappointing 6.5/10 I think.

Platoon Mega Playtest: Part 9 - Monty Gunner Who?

This was something of a late entry being a set of private rules developed by one of the guys in the ACP164 campaign which he has graciously let me playtest. I'll only post this if he's OK with it.

Presentation

29 page word document. Simple layout, no pics, but it is a private set so same state as most of mine. Sensible structure though.

Set-Up

Operation Martlet Scenario 5: Winning Your Spurs. This is a delaying action with the Germans holding a shallow spur line and the British advancing across mostly open ground. I randomly added some of my felt "humps" which block line of sight for infantry but not for tanks. Both sides are reduced in force from the previous scenario, the Brits losing the 6pdr (no great loss) and the German's the Pak (but keeping the IG).

A pretty empty table - Germans at the bottom end

How It Played

The Brits went for a 4-square approach, 2 up, 2 back, either side of the road. The Germans waited til thee Brits were in close range and then 1. Gruppen in the hedgeline on the N side of the road opened up. No. 1 Section went to ground and the OC brought in smoke to cover them. Meanwhile No. 2 Section moved forward S of the road and came under similar fire from 2. Gruppen. The Cromwell moved up to support No. 2 Section but the Panzer darted out for cover, and tried to get a quick shot in before the Cromwell but failed. The Cromwell fired and hit the Panzer IV tracks, and a second shot took it out completely. Meanwhile No. 2 Section Gun Gp and the UC Bren team (now midway down the road) concentrated fire on 2. Gruppen MG team in the copse and eventually silenced it.

The Panzer IV moves up to engage the advancing Cromwell

With more progress being made on the S side No. 3 Section was switched S, and supported No. 4 Section who were passing through No. 2 Section to assault 2. Gruppen. This must have taken the Brit OC's eye off the ball as he forgot to stoke the smoke, and as it cleared the IG and 1. Gruppen hailed fire down upon No. 1 Section who were routed.

Fresh smoke to protect a shattered No. 4 Section as 2. Gruppen pull back

Back on the S No. 4 Section took a lot of damage on the way in on their assault, but just got the better of the melee (although on checking the rule both sides may have eliminated each other!), pushing 2. Gruppen back behind the spur. 3. Gruppen had swung round to the road to protect the German L flank, 1. Gruppen considered a similar swing to come down on the flank of 2 and 3 Sections, their own front now bring clear, but initially thought better of it.

No. 4 Section just didn't have the oomph to push on to the road, and fire from 2. and 3. Gruppen was enough to force them back to the shelter of a hummock. 3. Gruppen pushed their LMG team into the copse, but the Cromwell and No. 2 Section soon took them out. But 2. Gruppen then snuck a Panzerfaust man into the copse who, despite taking hits, managed to put his round through the hull of the Cromwell, effectively putting it out for the rest of the game.

With 1. Gruppen finally swing round and bringing enfilade fire down on the UC and No. 3 Section, and the IG also putting HE into No. 3 Section the British situation was looking dicey and although neither side had reached breakpoint the Brits decided to call it a day.

Rules Impression

The main rules mechanic is a deck of playing cards, with red=good, black = bad. For shooting its typically 4 cards, +/- extra cards as "DMs", and a hit for each red, with saves likewise dependent on drawing reds from 1 or 2 cards.  A really nice and fast mechanism. Activation is by a unit deck - IABSM style, and there's also a hand of 3 "special action" cards for commanders to use and refill. On activation a unit can either take 1 activation, or gamble and draw 2 cards and get an activation for each red - there's even an option for 3! Damage is in two stages, hits that reduce capability, but once they are "full" you start taking morale hits - which might cause a fallback or worse, and once a threshold is reached (typically 4 hits and 4 morale for a rifle group) then the unit is destroyed.

Where the rules fell down a bit was in tank/anti-tank fire. It roughly 5 cards to hit, then 5 cards to penetrate, 4 cards to counter penetrate, 5 cards to locate the hit, and 5 cards to assess damage - 24 cards to end up with just a bent sprocket wheel! Melee is similarly card heavy. In contrast HE is spot on, with cards giving accuracy and distance.

Overall

The core mechanic is really good, and very tempted to use it for some of my own rules. With some mods to the anti-tank and melee it would make a superb set for newcomers, or oldsters fancying a different sort of game. Seems inappropriate to give it a score since it's someone's own set, but with a few tweaks I think I'd rate it as at least as good as Chain of Command.