Contact:Wait Out - Desert WW2 Take 2

After the somewhat abortive test of CWO in the desert with Nick I decided to run another scenario - paying closer attention to gun ranges this time.

Each element represented a Troop, so there was about a Tank Regiment/Bn on each side. I'd reduced the number of cover categories and rebased the to hit/spot rules, and also simplified the penetration calculation (and made it penetration not save).

The game played a lot better this time, with the roughly equally matched sides exchanging a couple of squadrons each before I called a halt. The British Crusaders were just completing a flanking move round the hill, but the freshest Panzer Kompanie had gone to intercept.

Much as I love the look of WW2 Desert I'm not sure it actually wargames well - just armour heavy and a lack of cover, or a slogging match like El Alamein. Back to Normandy for a while I think...

Remnants of the central squadrons exchanging blows

The British flanking move about to be stoppered

Crusaders on the attack

Matlidas brewing up!

Western Desert "Combat Wait Out" Playtest

The Crusaders are late to the game!

Over the Bank Holiday weekend Nick and I got the chance to playtest my Combat Wait Out Mechanised Warfare rules in a Western Desert scenario - more on that below. It was a scratch force on either side, 1 model = 1 tank, so about a squadron plus on either side, and no check as to in service dates!

The Grant hull gun did untold damage on the PzMk IIIs

Whilst CWO had played well in the last "Baltic" play test it seemed very unbalanced this time round. The -2 TM for fighting in the desert was just too much (on a D10) and the Brits were hitting every time (woudln't have been so bad if Nick hadn't spotted the Matilda's range limitation). Penetration was also too easy for guns below the armour class (only +1 per difference), and initially I made the mistake of having over-powered guns automatically penetrate (which also meant kill).

The final tank melee, with tanks flying everywhere - which seems realistic!

Day 2 we made changes and the whole thing played much better, but by then it was all over for the Germans! Question is are the rules now too unbalanced at the cluttered terrain/modern kit end. Will try again in a few months, and also mature my Desert Force.

Pesky Matildas too - shooting well beyond their 1000m range!

Scenario Generator

One of the reasons for the game was to play test the MechWar scenario generator I've been working on. I love the pre-game in Blucher and wanted something similar but a) more suited to MechWar and b) added even more rationale rather than just collide with and kill the other guy. I think it worked pretty well - Nick was trying to move in line of march along the coast whilst my German's had a seek and destroy mission, so we weren't sure where the battle woudl take place, and I managed to get all my troops on the table early on whereas his Crusader's really only turned up when it was all over!

We'll give the model a bit more testing and then I'll hopefully get it into one of the wargames magasines.

More or less the only German kills, two humble Honeys

Combat Wait Out: Development Playtest #3 (last)

The last session of the CWO playtest was on the assault rules. Never quite been sure of them and they've changed more often than more or less anything else, but think they're about right now.

2 Pl BAOR is dug in at Repelen (top left) with 2 Pl 311MIR attacking from the front (top right), supported by 3Pl 311MIR on the flank (bottom centre).

3Pl managed to destroy 3rd Section 2Pl from sustained suppressive fire. The lead BMP stuck out in the "open" had some lucky escapes from two Milan fired from its flank off screen.

2Pl 311MIR closed, taking damage and suppression as the troops ran across the "open" ground, but their supporting BMPs kept suppressive fire up against 1 and 2 Sections, 1 Section in Repelen itself taking the most damage.

As the two sides finally came to blows the first round was inconclusive, as was the second. But the attrition built up, with first one of the Soviet sections falling back (top right), and then finally the two remaining British sections (bottom left), leaving the Soviets to occupy the village. With that I decided to call the playtest to an end.

At first I thought the melee rules were not aggressive enough, but with each turn being only a minute or so, then 3-4 minutes of full-on combat  to clear the weakened platoon from the hamlet and wood seems not bad, and it was by attrition and the platoon slipping away once the position was untenable, so not bad I think.

So overall I'm really happy with this latest iteration of CWO, and I think there are only a few tweaks needed to make it ideal (for me!). The next test of it will be WW2 North Africa, and then some time in the autumn I'll try and do an all-arms MRR attack against a BAOR BattleGroup. And of course I've now got some 10mm Moderns to try it out with too!

However this table, which remember started life as Adwalton Moor in 20mm, is still not finished as I picked up Sabre Squadron at Salute so I'm going to keep this scenario running, but with the fight out from Repelen onto the third line of the BAOR defence run on Sabre Squadron.

Combat Wait Out: Development Playtest #2

The CWO playtest is progressing well. Shots were exchanged between the Chieftains and T64s, the T64 ERA saving at least one shot. With one Chieftain lost for no T64s (but lots of suppression/button-down) the Troop decided to pull back to their #2 positions. The recce Scimitar did manage to take out one of advancing BMPs although its troops escaped.

One the left Russian flank the 3rd BMP Platoon pushed well forward, flanking and eventually killing the second Scimitar, and then pushed on and caught the MFC unawares and took him out, the FOO wisely deciding to withdraw. Pushing further forward the Platoon came under Carl Gustav fire from the British #1 Platoon, but the fast moving BMP was hard to hit. The BMP replied with 75mm rounds into the wood which caused 2 damage points (section can take 5). The Milan team also now had a theoretical sight-line to the BMP, but cover and dips meant it couldn't get a good lock. With #1 Platoon engaged to its flank the Soviet 2nd BMP Platoon broke cover from the forward villages and pushed on towards their front.

The game now gives a good opportunity to test out the infantry and ATGW rules.

3rd BMP Platoon passes the burning MFC Spartan. Suppressed 1st UK Platoon in the distance.

2nd BMP  Platoon breaks cover in front of 1st UK Platoon

The T64s reach the tree-line recently vacated by the Chieftain Troop

Combat Wait Out: Development Playtest #1

A lone T64 dashes forward

The development playtest of Combat Wait Out (CWO) finally got underway - see my design notes for background.

The setting was a bit ad-hoc, a British Combat Team (Company Gp) holding out against the early elements of a Soviet MRR deploying from the march. The terrain was started by just throwing my new 4cm green hex cloth over the Adwalton Moor terrain, and then adding villages and features based on typical (by Google Earth) Estonian terrain (more fun than NGP, and if I move to 10mm then I'm going to base it around a 2020/2025 Baltic conflict).

The Brits all started on blinds. The Soviet m/c crew headed up the central road to the hamlet of Adenstedt where a first burst from the Scimitar MG missed them, but the second got them. The BRDMs scurried for cover in Shelem and awaited the CRP. The Scimitar engaged and took out the lead BMP emerging from Sehlem, and the rest of the CRP also took cover back in Sehlem. The FSE (rest of the BMP company plus arty, mortars and a platoon of T64s) then crept on. In fact I decided they crept too slowly so I upped the "dash" speed (which is itself varied by N  x Fate Dice).

BMP burns on the highway, platoon mates disordered, and the Gunners drop short!

The Scimitar and Chieftain lining Almstedt Wood started to engage the T64s and BMPs at long range, but to no avail. The FOO then called in an SP70 strike on Sehlem which dropped short (Gunners living up to their name), and failed to get a second Fire Mission in when Sunray got on the net. The Soviets responded in kind, their FOO having got up onto the hill S of Harbarnsen and called in the 2S1s against Almstedt Wood, slightly off target but enough coverage to take out the Scimitar. The Chieftain finally took out the lead T64 despite it having dashed forwards twice to close the range (taking on a camouflaged Chieftain in a wood at 1400m whilst moving at speed cross country was never going to be too easy). The Brit FOO got another Fire Mission, this time was more or less on target and took out one BMP and Neutralised one of the T64s which was close to the town and in the beaten zone. That's it so far.

British (near) and Soviet (far) stonks reduce visibility

I've been tweaking and rewriting the rules each day, and I must admit I think they are playing pretty well now. One big change was I started with die roll then DMs as having + = good and roll-high always seems sensible, but I noticed that the way I prefer to play is to have a target number, apply TMs to that ( so _ = good), and then roll, so I've rewritten everything accordingly. D10 is giving about the right range of numbers, and all the results so far seem narratively correct. If anything spots/hits seem slightly too hard, but with the design I can just change the TN by one to adjust. The DM/TM selection (whilst more than many would like) also seems right to me. The whole indirect fire bit with requests, target deviation (fate dice) and direction (D6 on hex!), beaten zone (basic 7 hex cluster), smoke for 1 turn each in each, and central hex turned to mush) also working well, and have finally simplified the IDF "to hit" table which still showed touches of WRG 1st Edition (and still does).

The fight for Almstedt Wood, Chieftain and T64 firing but not yet hitting.

One other enhancement was to turn the activation cards into reference cards for their units - so the Platoon card shows the firing stats for the Sections under its command, plus HQ, and any orbat notes. This gets away from the "hunting for cards" issue I mentioned previously, looks nice, and there is still a reference sheet to look up the target's armour!

Example Activation and Information Cards

Will update after some more playing, particularly with GWs and suppression, and maybe air.

Battle of Brockham - ENDEX

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Played a few more turns and got to a reasonable conclusions. The German attack on the left across the golf course took a lot of casualties but managed to get as far as the bridge, but realistically without enough strength to push across - particularly as the Brits have move dup most of the Carrier Platoon and remaining tanks to cover it. In Brockham itself the Germans had cleared the brits from the buildings south of the Green, but again didn't have the strength to force a crossing of Borough Bridge. So time to call a halt. Given that the Germans had about x1.5 - x2 the strength of the Brits that validates the old adage of never attacking a prepared position at less than x3, and that extra strength would probably have been enough for the Germans to carry at least one bridge after a preparatory bombardment.

As the last post suggested in the end the rules and game played out better than I thought they would after the first few turns. I still need to decide how much info goes on the unit cards and how much on the A5 rules cards (loving that approach - trying it now for ECW and SLS).

The original plan had been to follow straight on with a 1980s scenario on the same ground, but not enough time before Christmas (particularly as I'm trying to show-horn in Edgehill!). In the new year I think I'll start with BattleGroup/Coldwar Commander and see if that is actually closer to what I want. If it isn't then I'll come back to CWO:1980 and try and refine the rules further. Certainly works well to play over terrain you know as helps to anchor the rules and game in reality.

Germans try and force the Golf Course Bridge

The Wehrmacht pushing through the S end of Brockham

Auster's eye view of the two bridges, both still in British hands

The Endex situation on the Golf Course Bridge - a very battered Pz Grenadier unit!

Battle of Brockham Continues

After a busy couple of weeks finally got back to the Battle of Brockham. Was dreading it a bit as was finding the rules quite fiddly, but this session went a lot more smoothly - although I do need to make hit percentages higher. Otherwise the German's are being suitably damaged on their way in - the 25pdr battery, Comets and 6pdrs causing havoc on the Panther and MkIV Panzer Kompanie and particularly on the SdKfz251s of the Panzer Grenadier Kompanie. The German's managed to take the Comets out (or force them back) and missed artillery has blinded the 6dpr so they are now going hell for leather across the fields and golf course (!) to get into the gap and seize the western bridge over the River Mole. Elsewhere the centre "B" Kompanie has gone firm in Strood Green, whilst "C" Kompanie is getting into Brockham round the back through the old council estate (which wouldn't have been there then) but both sides have been trading mortar rounds (the Brits spotting from the church) and are now in hand-to-hand combat. Oh and two Typhoons came in to take out the Panzers but one was lost to the 251/17 and  the other missed!

On about Turn 10, so 25 minutes in in "real time". Couple more sessions should bring to a reasonable conclusion.

Sounds a lot better as a narrative!

Contact: Wait Out - playtest in progress

Finally really got my playtest of the latest incarnation (and now named) set of mechanised warfare rules. They're still not really jelling for a whole bunch of reasons, some of which may be due to the rules but many are I think symptomatic of the period and what I would like (but keep failing) to get out of it.

1) What's the right scale/force size? I played Skirmish Sankin at squad size earlier, and Chain of Command at platoon sized. What I really want is full combined arms, and for that you probably need at least a Battalion Group, which is what I'm playing here. SS worked pretty well, but I think CoC was stuck between being a real skirmish and proper combined arms, and felt a bit too "gamey" for me. With the latest version of Contact:Wait Out I've upped it from a Coy Gp set to a Bn Gp set, and its closer but I think the sheer variety of arms in a combined arms game can rapidly make it too bitty (not complex, just bitty as every weapons system is different). Perhaps next I'll try a "simpler" set of rules, perhaps Cold War Commander which seems to get good reviews.

2) Indirect Fire. It does seem that on most battlefields for the last 60+ yrs that indirect fire rules. You come under fire , your weapons can't kill a well protected enemy, so you bring in the fire support, from 25pdrs to Apaches and A10 - not much or a wargame. You can postulate a scenario where IDF is not available, but then you really are back to the very small scale and it's all about use of cover so has to be platoon or less.

I'll play this one to completion, but then I think back to some simpler ECW and Napoleonic gaming, and then maybe try again with CWC in the New Year, or something like Western Desert tank battles!

Brockham for 1/300th

As part of my testing of the latest iteration of my mechanised warfare rules (now called "Contact: Wait Out!") I've decided to model the area around my home village, Brockham in Surrey. As a kid I remember starting on a similar model for my 1/300th tanks based around 1 ceiling tile = 1 sq km. The model is one 10cm hex = 250m, so I suppose 1mm:2.5m or 1:2500.

Here's the area modelled on a 1:25000 map:

The reason for doing this is that fighting over an area I know intimately gives me a far better sense of how things like distance, visibility, occupancy and cover are converting to the rules and the table top.

I'm first going to play through a "late Sealion" scenario with Germans attacking from the south and trying to secure at least one bridge over the River Mole, but everyone has 1944 era kit. Defence force will be a about battalion group strength, attackers twice that.

Then I'll do a Cold War Gone Bad scenario with the Russians invading!

Just for fun I put out a mix of 1/300th, ECW, Napoleonic, WW2 and Modern to see how they look. As you might guess one of the things I really want to get is for the rules to let me do heli-borne assaults (a legacy of my time in 24 Airmobile Bde no doubt!)