1985 Company Megatest - Summary and Roundup

 

That's the end of the Modern Company-Level rule set test, more WW2 focussed rules to follow hopefully later in the year. Eight sets of rules played against variations of a single scenario of a meeting engagement to seize the town of Semmenstedt. The summary below is in order played, and each title links to the relevant blog post. Of course your mileage may vary and most based on a single playthrough.

Reviews Summary

Battlegroup: NORTHAG 8/10

• Pros: BR endgame system, just plays pretty well
• Cons: Over generous and IGOUGO activation system. Lookup table for hits.

Seven Days to the Rhine 7/10

• Pros: Nice activation system. Worked better than Iron Cross (may be me!)
• Cons: No HE or indirect fire.

Team Yankee 5/10

• Pros: Nothing seemed really broken.
• Cons: Very old school IGO-UGO. National "to hit" values. Long dice chains. Tank ranges seem short. Repeated "free" attempts to get your artillery on target. No real difference between ATGW and gun fire. No suppression. No friction, no spotting. 

Bolt Action - Reality Check 8.5/10

• Bolt Action plus house mods
• Pros: Bolt Action scales up reasonably well
• Cons: Need to clarify how sub-unit pins effect unit activation

3rd Generation Warfare 5/10

• Pros: Lots of nice info
• Cons: Need to buy a separate data book to play. Multiple fires, cumbersome mechanics

Cold War 3 3/10

• Pros: More nice info
• Cons: Essentially a re-engineered version of Team Yankee. Typos galore (18 per page!). Errors in QRS. Errors in data (or may be typos...)

Sandhurst Modern Infantry Battle - 6/10

• Pros: "What the pros used". 3 pages. "Official" view on what are effective ranges.
• Cons: Very slim-line, not even AT wpn and armour differences. Limited scope.

Contact Wait Out - 8.5/10

• My own in-house set
• Pros: Covered pretty much all the basis. Adding 7DTTR activation and NORTHAG Battle Rating added to it
• Cons: Might replace infantry direct fire with the suppression mechanism (so similar approach to Sandhurst). Bit too hard to kill things? 

I played Sabre Squadron a while ago, I think it would have come out at around 6/10.

Conclusions

So Contact Wait Out did way better than in the Platoon tests, and with the tweaks for Battlegroup:NORTHAG and 7DTTR is playing really well. Bolt Action needs a few more tweaks to also work really well at this scale but is a good second choice. Battlegroup:NORTHAG and 7DTTR both play OK with no major issues, but the rest were very much a mixed bag.

One thing I did note across all the games is that I started with 1 fig = 1 man and individual basing. Even with just a couple of platoons dismounted that was a lot to move, and more importantly place - particularly since most rules were at 25m - 50m per 4cm hex. So I started sabot the figures up, then decided actually I only needed ~4 figs to represent each section. Even so cramming into a couple of hexes (~100m section frontage) was hard, especially in urban areas. Next time I run a company game (and certainly for the Bn games) I think I might switch to 10cm Hexon or 10cm square grid, and use section sized stands.

For my previous megatests see:

• Platoon Megatest
• Skirmish Megatest

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.

1985 Company MegaTest - Sandhurst Current Ops - The Modern Infantry Battle

 

I came across this during VCOW, and what's not to like about a book with Barossa training area on the cover!

Presentation

Another great book from John Curry's History of Wargaming Project range. 124pp b&w softback. The book actually has 4 rules in it , a Platoon Kriegspiel, Battalion Level (all ratios based), this one, and an IED one. There is also lots of fascinating supporting material - I wish Sandhurst had been this into wargaming when I was there - was still a dirty word then (even though Paddy Griffiths was around - never saw him, only saw David Chandler once). The Company level rules only cover 7 pages, of which 3 are the core rules and one a QRS.

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

The Brits raced to Semmenstedt  first again, just occupying the buildings before the BMPs hit. The Chieftains had been assigned to Platoon Groups, and it was pretty much evens between them and the T64s, and likewise between the Scimitars which skited N and the BMPs - but again the Brits were left with minimal anti-armour (even a Milan was taken out by a T64) whilst the Soviets still had nearly a dozen BMP.

The Soviets made a determined push on the farm complex NE of Remilingen where the Brits had a Platoon (supported by the Scimitars), but the complex fell after two melees. In Semmenstedt the Brits managed to keep suppressing the advancing Soviets, and the BMPs were useful at suppressing them back. In the end the Russians got in and the first building fell. As the reserve platoon arrived to reinforce the assault ENDEX was called, with the British position effectively lost.

Overall it played quickly and smoothly and had one of the better narratives of the games.

Rules Impression

Your not going to get a lot of rules in 3 pages, but what's there works well. Simple movement, direct fire vs inf, and vs AFVs, and indirect fire and that's pretty much it. Half-a-dozen DMs for each. No air, no morale. There's not even armour and AP values - its just hit and destroy for anti-tank. Infantry fire is very much geared to suppress (6+ to suppress, 11+ to destroy - ie at least 2:1). Melees seem very unbloody - 10+ to kill. Simple, but like I say they play well.

What I think is most interesting about them is a) you get an "official" figure for things like effective weapon ranges, and also an insight as to what is seen as important - suppression, hitting (penetration or disablement assumed), ammunition (both for IDF and GPMG-SF, limited to 3/4 turns fire each. The rules really seem there to enable a TEWT ( Tactical Exercise Without Troops) and I'm sure they were played with lots of discussion about options and consequences. John's comments about the Army's aversion to dice are also interesting.

Overall

Not a set for regular play, and they probably leave too much out for anything but a very friendly game between good mates - certainly don't let a rules lawyer need them. But fascinating as a resource, and they gave as good a game as most of the others. Overall 6/10.

Once set left to play - mine!

1985 Company MegaTest - ColdWar3

 

Spotted this one when I was looking at something else on WargamesVault, and for only $13 thought it worth a punt.

Presentation

113 page full colour PDF for $14 from WargamesVault. Like 3rd Generation Warfare it's obviously written by someone very keen and reasonably knowledgeable on the subject. It does include all the stats you need, and there is a downloadable free 2 page QRS.

But..

Even more so than 3rd Generation Warfare lots of interesting facts and bits of detail get in the way of a clear presentation of the rules.

The rules are covered in typos. Some are consistent mis-spellings of military terms (NORTHTAG, reccee etc), but most are just simple typos. I chose a page at random and it had 12 typos on it - and that seems typical.

Worse, there are some factual errors (Chieftain with a 105mm gun?).

Even worse, some of the dice rolls and DMs are confused in sign, and different between rules and QRS. For instance the key "to hit" roll is 4+ for conscripts and 5+ for trained in the rules, but 5+ for conscripts and 4+ for trained in the QRS! The QRS in the back of the "updated" rules (issued today!) manages to miss Trained and Elite from the table entirely. Artillery to hit is based on the target team's skill level (just about makes sense with DF, but for IDF? And what happens if you have mixed targets under the template (which although mentioned lots I couldn't find), but then has DMs of +1 if target has gone to ground (so harder to hit) but +1 if using radar or airborne (which should make things easier).

Basically they are a mess.

Then I got a real sense of deja vu, with some bits of rules ringing bells. A quick check and I realised that this was basically Team Yankee. Google confirmed it, or at least that it is/was a "modern" version of Flames of War. Some of the vehicle/weapon stats are identical with TY, and all the core mechanics are the same. There are a few things streamlined (and generally improved), a few things made more cumbersome, and worse. But there is NOTHING that  I could see on the web site or in the rules that references this heritage even though both FOW and TY are mentioned (alongside other rulesets) in the introduction.

So had I known all this I doubt I'd have bought it.

And all this makes the "puff" at the start with a positive quote from an Army officer and lots of thanks to various military units and people even more embarrassing.

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

Given all the issues this was again a bit of an abbreviated test. A bit more play than 3GW since at least all the material was there and TY was playable, even though I had to keep referring back to TY to work out what CW3 was trying to do. One change from TY is that it had "to hit" values of 3+ for WARPAC and 4+ for NATO, whereas CW3 has 4+ and 5+ respectively. That said the Chieftains rapidly finished off the T64s (both have a ROF of 2), and then only had to dodge the Saggers to start picking off the BMPs. One Scimitar also made short work of a platoon of BMPs (ROF4!). The Russians did try and launch a ground assault, with no casualties on either side on one melee, and a Soviet win on the other.

Rules Impression

Trying to move beyond the presentation issues, and without repeating the TY comments there were a few positives:

• Direct fire was slightly streamlined, at least 1 step skipped I think
• The Morale idea was nice, randomly determine a target number at the start, then hit it with nD6, but n reduces depending on how bad things are
• Some nice weapon discrimination and lots of detailed weaponry (Firecracker rounds, beehive ammo!)

Oh and side order was not spelt out at all, it just says "taking turns" or "in turn" - does that mean by side or unit, and who's first. Certainly no friction.

Taking TY and adding in the better bits of CW3 would probably give a reasonable set of rules - but I'd definitely start from TY not CW3!

Overall

Disappointing on multiple counts, a pity given the author's obvious keenness and knowledge. In its current state its barely worth 3/10.

1985 Company MegaTest - 3rd Generation Warfare

 

Spotted this set of rules a while ago, so thought I'd buy them for the playtest as they were only £10 for a Lulu paperback.

Presentation

96pp black and white Lulu paperback - A5 sized, order from https://www.3rdgenerationwarfare.co.uk/. There's a wealth of information in there along side the rules, even an APFSDS penetration graph, and some nice B&W wargame photos. Some of that mixing in though does get in the way of a clear read through the rules or when you're hunting to find something. Well written though, and almost everything covered (incl ATGW, AA, Counter battery etc) although the mottled grey background to each page can make the text hard to read. Free downloadable QRS and 6mm mods. Not bad at all though, and the overall style is something I wouldn't mind emulating for my own rules when I publish them, hadn't thought of A5 and the Lulu print is pretty nice.

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

I got as far as the opening tank duel before I realised that there were going to be some real problems playing it, so instead I abandoned the scenario play through and just went through the motions of trying some direct AT fire, AP fire, indirect fire and assault.

Rules Impression

I had a bit of a sinking feeling when I saw the 20x20 table for armour kills, but I decided to stick with it. Moved my units ready for the first T64 vs Chieftain, went to look up the AP and Armour ratings, and realised there weren't any. ALL the stats are in another £10 book! Now a £10 book I'm reasonably happy to buy on-spec, but £20 has probably crossed the threshold into a more deliberate purchase, and given that 20x20 matrix and a few other things I could see that this wasn't a rule set I'd play again. I guessed some values but found this put penetrations at 11+. Luckily there's a snapshot of the Leopard entry on a page on the web site, so I used that as a guide, which gave a more reasonable 9+, but really had to guess things like FV432s, Scimitars and BMPs. Then came my first infantry fire and whilst a "Squad" is given an FP rating all support weapons are in the extra £10 book, and its not clear from the rules is the Squad FP includes its GPMG or not. Indirect fire, same issue - FPs in the extra book. At that point I gave up.

From what I did manage to play:

• Seems like tank guns can fire 3 times, and move twice - which seems excessive on an IGOUGO game, so most Chieftains were out in the first round
• Infantry close range fire seemed cumbersome and then very ineffective. The process is:
• Sum the FP of troops involved (which involves rolling dice for some support weapons)
• Use a table to convert FP to dice
• Roll the dice, total pips = potential hits
• Roll dice for each potential hit against a To Hit value
• If target hit roll another dice for a cover save
• If fail the cover save roll another dice and cross reference with FP on a 6 x 20 table to see if just suppressed, fallback or destroyed (although also results for destroyed and suppressed, and destroyed and fallback!)
• Arty uses same tables as infantry
• There is a morale roll, but for most NATO its an automatic pass 

Overall

OK so I didn't play a complete game, and perhaps shouldn't give a rating, but there should be a clear message on the website that you need to buy the data book to play it - or give a both books for £15 deal. What I did play though just seemed to cumbersome, and the multiple actions too powerful. Overall it would probably still be only 5/10 if I had all the data to play it.

1985 Company MegaTest - Team Yankee

 

I've never actually played Flames of War, or have a copy, but I bought Team Yankee partly because it was another WW3 set, but mostly because of the excellent looking Iron Maiden BAOR supplement. There's some quite nice scenario chrome in both books, but having got the sense of FOW/TY being a bit of a tank-park game I realised I ought to actually try it out myself.

Presentation

122pp full colour hardback main book (Soviets and Americans) and 50pp full colour hardback BAOR supplement. 2pp QRS at the back of main book, reasonable layout of rules.

Set-Up

Essentially the same as the last two, but I swopped the British and Soviet board edges round. Company Group on either side as before. No attempt to use points!

How It Played

With the swop of sides the Brits got to Semmenstedt first. Again Chieftain vs T64 tank duels dominated the early game - and I kept the same "tactical" separations as before so no tank parks. Again the Chieftains came of worse. As the Brits dug in around Semmenstedt an artillery strike mauled the units in the woods. A direct assault out of Remilingen ended up with a lot of burning BMPs. Two platoons of BMPs then rolled in from the West, supported by the artillery and took the wood, and it was time to call a halt. yet again with the MBTs gone the Soviets are left with an armful of BMPs with 73mm/ATGW and the Brits just have a few Milan and Carl Gustavs (roll on Warrior!).

Rules Impression

To be fair, not as bad as I'd feared. That said....

Very old school IGO-UGO. For some reason all Brit units are 4+ to hit and all Soviet 3+ with no real reason for it. Once you've hit you roll for save, then you often have to roll for firepower. Tank ranges seem short (4x AK47, so 800-1200m?). Similar Gun Factor+D6 > Armour Factor to 7DTTR. Repeated "free" attempts to get your artillery on target. No real difference between ATGW and gun fire. No suppression. No friction, no spotting. Nothing seemed really broken though.

Overall

More playable than I expected, but nothing innovative or to lift up from being a very simple rule set with one to many dice rolls. If I was looking for a "starter" set I think I'd prefer 7DTTR. Overall 5/10.

1985 Company MegaTest - Seven Days to the Rhine

 

Next up is Seven Days to the Rhine (7DTTR) by Great Escape Games and the Cold War partner to their Iron Cross WW2 set. I'd heard good things about Iron Cross, but was then a bit disappointed (4/10) when I played it last year. Would 7DDTR fair better?

Presentation

44 page soft-back, staple bound so lies flat. 2 page QRS on back pages and a set of Tactical Advantage cards. Similar mix of pics to Battlegroup:NORTHAG but no annoying punch holes. Pretty sensibly laid out.

Set-Up

As for the last game, meeting engagement with the Russians aiming for (Semmenstedt) whilst NATO was sweeping the area clear of enemy. Same Reinforced Company Group as before.

How It Played

The British got moving first and fast, pushing down to Remilingen and a wide R flank against Semmenstedt. Similar Chieftain vs T64B duels as before, but this time the Russians were fairing a lot better. The Brits played a Tactical Advantage card to get another Chieftain on but that was promptly brewed by a BMP. The Soviets called up a Hind and the last Chieftain bit the dust. A pesky Milan team had to be cleared by the BMPs but then it became a bit of a turkey shoot for the T64Bs. In Semmenstedt both sides had occupied a block of flats each and it became a slow game of attrition, but the British soon tripped the 2/3rd losses trigger from the T64B activity and it was game over - a Soviet win.

Rules Impression

I must admit it played a lot better than the Iron Cross game - don't know if I was reading the rules better, or it was more suited to a more armour heavy game. I really liked the activation model, lots more choice, but I didn't have the "pile it on" problem I had last time. Tempted to limit each unit to two activations just to be safe, but otherwise certainly prefer it to Battlegroup:NORTHAG. Combat seemed a bit one dimensional with not much differentiation between kit - even something like an AGL. The AP+D10>AV mechanism worked pretty well and was easier than the 2D lookup table for B:N. Reaction rolls were OK and broadly replaced spotting. Infantry firing was very basic though and no concept of suppression. There was also NO HE or indirect fire (apart from a simple initial bombardment). 

Overall

A lot better game than the Iron Cross one - weird , will have to go back and try that again. The activation model is really nice, and actually using that with B:N would make a good game, and maybe some other hybridisation - or use both learnings to improve ContactWaitOut (my own set). Lack of HE and poor infantry firing and weapon definition is a downer though. Overall 7/10 - well up on 4/10!

1985 Company MegaTest - Battlegroup NORTHAG

 

I had the Battlegroup NORTHAG rules on pre-order last year and finally got them on the table just after Christmas as I was also painting up a 10mm Coy level force to fight them with. I've not played any of the other Battlegroup rules. I'd also picked up Seven Days to the Rhine earlier in 2020, and then I've had Team Yankee/Iron Maiden for ages, so I felt the start of the Company Mega Test coming on. The plan is to do it in two phases this time, 1985/ColdWar for Phase 1, and then a break and then WW2/Normandy for Phase 2 with a different set of rules (IABSM etc).

Presentation

110 page softback, well laid out, rip-out QRS and counters at the back, nice pics but not too many. Could have done without the faux punch-holes! Wont lie flat as perfect bound. Having wpn data separate from ORBAT data was a bit annoying.

Set-Up

I used my MechWar pre-gaming to set the game up, WARPAC had to take and hold a town (Semmenstedt) whilst NATO was sweeping the area clear of enemy. NATO just managed to get to the town moments ahead of the Soviets so it became a meeting engagement, with the town in the  middle/bottom of the table. Both sides had a reinforced Company Group with Tank Troop assigned, plus extra support weapons and a FOO/MFC. ground scale was estimated from the rules as about 1"= 5/10m, and I treated one 4cm hex as 1".

NATO arrives bottom left, Soviet's on far side, target town on right

How It Played

NATO got the benefit of initiative rolls and sneaked a Scimitar into the town ahead of the BRDMs and the lead BMPs. Chieftains moved into Remilingen (village in middle) and well placed to pick of the advancing Soviet armour. T64B's and Chieftains duelled away, keeping the British from reinforcing Semmenstedt and letting a BMP platoon move in from the extreme right. The Russians consolidated their hold on Semmenstedt, pushing one Pl into the woods beyond, and another Pl bravely up the road towards Remilingen! With the Chieftains blocking the exploitation the Russians pulled the Gunship counter and sent a Hind in against the NATO armour - and one Chieftain bit the dust - leaving only one.

Russian losses had been building up though and some of their BR draw were high - with the result that they reached their breakpoint first. They had Semmenstedt but NATO had Remilingen and the other two objects were also split - so on NORTHAG terms NATO won, just, but in strategic terms WARPAC held their objective and NATO hadn't achieved theirs.

Rules Impressions

Can't say I'm a great fan pure pure IGO-UGO. The Action allocation seemed very generous and I started playing the random allocation but even them wasn't really stretched. The core movement/firing rules worked well - I really liked the way that you could only use suppression against infantry. The indirect fire was also good, rolling for comms, then for the spotting round and then for fire for effect. The table scale (4cm hex = 10m) meant that deviations were big but so was the danger zone. The BR chit system was wonderful - of course playing solo I knew both sides but in a PvP game would add a nice touch of uncertainty. Some of the points and BR values were a bit off though - with a British FV432 platoon being better rated than a BMP platoon.

Overall

Really nice set. Might tweak the activation system but otherwise very playable. Overall 8/10.

Battle of Königslutter am Elm - 5 Jul 1984 - AAR

 

Played through the Königslutter am Elm game in 8 turns over a total of about 3-4 hours. A bit of a blood bath but a useful outing for the rules.

AAR

The Soviet 1/62 Gds Tank Regiment took the northern route from the Lappwald through Süpplingenburg to Konigslutter. They hit the minefield in front of Süpplingenburg head on, and the combination of Chieftains and Harrier ground attack managed to take out the mine-clearing tanks and lead companies. 2/62 GTR then came up, pushing through and round the wrecks of 1/62, and inflicted enough damage on 3RTR BG to push them back from Süpplingenburg, and on through Schickelsheim to join a final defence at Rottorf.

On the southern flank the MR/BMP Bn of 62GTR took the lead, and had slightly more luck with the minfields. But the RGJ BG dug into Wolsdorf and Warberg held the BMPs off until reinforced by 3/62 GTR and stonked by repeated 2S1 and BM27 missions. A BMP assault was finally needed to clear the RGJ out, who then fell back through Rabke to join the final defence of Konigslutter. By this time the RRF BG was the only capable fighting force, whilst the Soviets still had 2/62 and 3/62 going strong, and elements of M/62 and ENDEX was declared.

FRAGO Rules

It was evident pretty quickly that the Attack-Defence model that I'd used in the BAOR/Corps game didn't work too well here - mainly as most combat was ranged and so the attack/defence model meant less. I'll probably recast to Anti-Armour/Anti-Infantry next time - which is what an earlier version had.

The dice per platoon model worked well though, and happy with the attack values for most combats, and the assaults worked well. Indirect fire seemed a bit week, should at least suppress every time. Ground attack/helarm also seemed a bit weak, but air defence did its bit and took a Harrier and TOW Lynx sortie out.

I massively over-allocated the LOG/Activation tokens, both sides barely using half by turn 6. Will significantly scale down next time. From turn 6 I zeroised the tokens and went onto the A1 roll which made for more thinking about allocation but still a bit generous. The model felt good though.

The old paper Heroics and Ros buildings were better than the small 6mm ones, and the 1/1000th. Also the 6mm trees better than the 1/1000th ones. I wouldnt mind trying with some 2mm or 3mm tanks though.

The overall scale and effect was pretty much what I was after though - this felt like a Brigade game, not a company or platoon one. So iterate the rules and try again, perhaps at Bn level whilst I have Waterloo on the main table, and do another Bde game in the new year.

 

Battle of Konigslutter am Elm - 5 Jul 1984 - Setup and Rules Considerations

 

Whilst my Combat Wait Out rules are developing OKish for games with Bn and smaller forces I've always wanted a more "operational" set for playing Bde and maybe even Div level engagements (shades of SPI NATO Division Commander). Brigade has always hard a particular interest for me having spent 2 years at 24 Airmob Bde HQ, and in the last few months I've actually also been wargaming with our current 3 Div brigades. That plus holiday reading the other week of Russell Phillip's The Bear's Claws and Harvey Black's The Red/Black Effect meant I was keener than ever to get something on the table.

The rules I developed for my BAOR game earlier in the year (on the SPI map but rules developed from FreeHexBlitz) seemed to work pretty well, so I've refined them for play at Bde rather than Corps level - but the aim is to have the same core rules deal with Bde to Corps.

What I want on the table is something that is not a million miles from an SPI style game with figures. I've got a nice 4cm hex cloth, and all my 1/300th are mounted on 4cm hex bases, so half way there! As ever getting building scales is hard, proper 1/300th is too big, Brigade Models 1/1000th too small! Actually some old 1980s Heroics and Ros cardboard buildings were not too far off! In future I might try with 2mm models and then the 1/000th might work well.

At this scale each hex is 500m. Units are represented 2 down, so for a Bde game the manoeuvre unit is the Company.

I don't like the SPI CRT ratio approach, and "my" BAOR/FreeHexBlitz  rules gave each unit:

• A size, based on number of constituent units (eg Pl for a Coy), so typically 3 or 4
• An attack strength, starts at 5, but then modded for type of kit, training etc, emphasis on tanks/IFVs, typically ending at 6-8
• A defence strength, again starts at 5 and modded, but an emphasis on Inf/GW, typically ending 6-8
• An AA strength and range, based on type of kit, 0 (rifles) to 4+ for Rapier etc

In combat a unit rolls the number of D10 equal to current size, with a TN of the Attack or Defence value as appropriate, looking to roll under, with TMs, and scoring hits (size reductions) for wins.

A Company RGJ dug in at Warberg

The BIG change from the BAOR game is the introduction of logistics. I think I've found a neat way of playing this, and in fact combining with activation - but we'll see how it plays. The idea is that each Unit (ie Bn) gets 12 log tokens, although held at Bde. On a turn to activate a Unit you need to spend 1 Log to move it and/or 1 Log to fire it, and/or 1 Log to go into close assault. You can also spend upto 1 more Log for a +1 in fire. The idea is that the initial allocation represents F echelon on vehicle/man stocks for 6 turns. You then drop into A1 Echelcon for the next 6 turns where you "might" get 2 Log per unit per turn, but interdiction and foul-ups might stop that. Then form turn 12 onwards your into A2 and a full log load becomes unlikely. We'll see how it works!

Here's the table set up showing the valley between the Elm and Lappwald hills from Konigslutter to Helmstedt.

Need to find an easy way to show roads! Note also that the hex grid just disappears at any reasonable distance.

And here are the two opposing forces 1 RGJ Battlegroup and 62 Guards Tank Regiment lined up on the parade squares ready to deploy.

RGJ Battlegroup with Sqn from 3RTR

62 Guards Tank Regiment with integral BMP Bn

Will report back once I've played a few turns. Working title for the rules in FRAGO!

PS. Would also like to try out the WDG megablitz rules, and just as I started writing this the latest TooFatLardies video was previewing Dave Browns new 'O' Group rules for "Battalion and up" - but they look more Rapid Fire style but potentially with some nice mechanics.

My BAOR Boardgame - AAR

As previewed earlier I managed to buy SPI's BAOR at the end of last year - and then instantly worked up my own counters and rules for it in order to have a late 80s scenario and to "own" the rules. Set up was on election night, and I've just finished the first 12 turns (2 days game time) and reached a convenient point to call a halt (with ~250 counters and ~2 hr game time turns (~45 mins real)) this is a BIG game).

The Soviets have destroyed the British 1st line of defence along a line Hanover-Goslar, apart from a small para hold-out in Hildesheim - but not for insignificant loss themselves. There's now a bit of a shaky defence line before the Weser with remains of 4, 7 and 20 Armd Bde, and 24 (Airmob) Bde (me!) has just been flown in to plug a gap in front of Minden. Then it's up to 3 Div dug in along the Weser itself.  11, 12 and 22 Armd Bdes are all goners. The RAF has been doing  pretty well and the Soviets have been losing air superiority fighters.

The para hold out in Hildesheim despite desperate night-time house-to-house fighting

To get a clearer picture of the current state (I may resume later in the year), here is the same map as above but with only Infantry, Tank and Bde/Div HQ units shown.

So key thoughts so far:

• The rules are actually working really well. Tweaking as I go along but giving the sort of game I wanted and without the "predictability" of the CRT and SPI style factors (its all D10+DMs)
• Not had time to really try the command point/bde activation, just playing IGO-UGO
• Not remembering to use EW, either for CP or to support attacks. Need on board not in side bin?
• AIR working OK. Was too powerful initially but have backed it off a bit. Don't think I really need the air base granularity, but am using a refuelling box so each Sqn only flies every other turn.
• FIRES again been backed off and now OK. Have both AIR and FIRES as phases before movement/combat as forces you to remember to use them, and possibly a bit more realistic. Does add time to turn though but think I'll keep (particularly if streamline elsewhere). Not tried CB yet. Soviets (and even BAOR) do seem to have too many Arty units so may keep to Regt level.
• AD working OK, but ranges need to to realistic as people flying NOE, and too many counters. May incorporate AA rating into Regt/Bde HQ (each unit also has organic rating).
• Far too many engineers - counters everywhere! Again may abstract into HQ or to Regt level. Think the mine breaching rules OK. need a "tidy up" for passed fields.
• Not really using recce, so again counters everywhere but no use. May only put on table if using fog-of-war rules (which I'm currently not)
• Put the last few together and next time I play there'll be far fewer counters so easier to see what I'm doing!
• I deliberately avoided a "flipped" counter model as I wanted more damage granularity. But most units are Strength 3; when they get to 1 they take a morale test and leg it unless well dug in, so realistically only using 3 and 2 - so why not flip? Will think about it.
• Really like the 4 turns day, 2 turns night model. Units take fatigue if they have to move/fight at night and haven't sleep banked (in theory). Even though not fully playing it does make you think a lot more about resource management.
• Soviets really haven't got a 2nd wave to push through, guess next time I need to get 10th or 12th GTA ready!

One thing I do want to do is reread Third World War and other counter-factuals to see how close my rate of advance (Hanover line in 2 days) and damage (50% front line Bdes) matches theirs.

So pretty pleased really. I might look at doing a Bde/Div level version (NATO Division Commander anyone?) , with pretty much the same rules, and then with the more streamlined version for the Corps game. I can then use that to drive miniatures games as the scope here is just too big for that. The rules should also work for WW2 and other campaigns, something to try next year!

Preparing for BAOR 1988

When I started to resurrect my 1/300th Cold War Gone War wargaming a few years ago I was keen to have some sort of campaign game to give context to any battles. I then discovered that SPI did a BAOR game (I have their Next War, but that has Div/Bde units and ~10-20km hexes, and I wanted Bn's and ~2-3 km hexes (ie a table) - which is what BAOR has.

I set up a eBay search on BAOR and kept my eye out at shows but to no avail. I managed to find hi-rez scans of the map and counters, and a copy of the rules. I was on the verge of getting the map printed at A1 when I found a copy of the game (less the magasine and the glorious cover above :-( ) on eBay, so now have the proper map.

Of course being me I wasnt happy with the rest of the game. The counters were more like 1983/84, whereas I wanted 87/88 - when I was in BAOR. Also the rules, whilst they used Fatigue for partial damage,  use the standard ratio based CRT of almost all SPIs types games. I can't say I get along with this model, as every game SPI I've ever played comes down to getting enough points together to just make a ratio threshold, and you lose all sense of what the units are.

I'd been looking for a set of "operational" level wargame rules for a while. I thought that Rommel might fit the equation but it just wasn't what I wanted. I found FreeHexBlitz on the web, and thought it a pretty good start, so I started working up my own rules, the key elements being that each unit has:

• A size rating, effectively companies/squadrons, which gives how many D10 you roll
• An attack rating, based on the type and quality of kit
• A defence rating, based on the type and quality of kit

A key decision was that ratings are relative to the norm of the day, rather than trying to work out any details of armour, penetration etc.

Of course all this meant that I needed to create over 200 counters. Luckily I found this YouTube video by RK who had two great ideas which worked really well:

• Use the Panorama feature in IfranView to join images exported from PPT into strips, and then join the strips into sheet. Very simple process
• Use Self Adhesive foam sheets to give the counters more depth than card and make then easier to manage

So SPI map out, my rules play tested over the last couple of weeks, counters made, and all ready to go in time for Election Night!

The Battle for Grosse Mahner Gap - ENDEX

About turn 22 and the game has come to and end. As the Soviets edged closer to Grosse Mahner itself, and started coming under fire form there and so making it a legitimate target, they started to bring down sustained artillery fire on the village, first from 2S1s and then a regimental shoot from the divisional BM21 regiment. The Brits tried to call in a Jaguar cluster bomb strike on the advancing BMPs and remaining T64s but again the SA-9 Gaskin caused both to abort, one with heavy damage. It was the BM21s that made the killer blow through, rolling 18 D6 for each unit around the village (with a 6 hex damage area), and scoring hits on 6+ in the village and 4+ out of it. The company in the village was pretty mush devastated, but the real prize was the Bn HQ sat behind the village in the open (never again) which caught the full force of the rockets and just ceased to exist. With only open operational company and a couple of Chieftains it was time for the remaining defenders to withdraw.

Overall a good game, if a tad long, but there was a whole MRR in the assault. The rules still worked pretty well but quite a few bits to tweak and clarify and make a bit more my own (eg armour saves on IDF - why at full whack? Treating Mortars as IDF not DF. Scope of MFC/FOO, HQ movement and damage). The big issues, as intimated before though, is that modern (any mechwar?) combats at this scale come down to artillery fire - the BM21 stonk just ended the game. Perhaps a more cluttered and distributed environment would give a better game (Harz mountains?).

I'll take a rest from Modern's now, and the next outing for CWC/BKC, will probably be when I do WW2 Desert War in the autumn.

Here's a few photos to finish with.

The BM21 stonk in progress - small white markers show unit damage

First wave infantry company taking casualties - probably 2nd Company that would take GM

Aerial view - note Battlegroup HQ smoking at the top

The BM21 regiment

The Battle for Grosse Mahner Gap - Update 2

The  Battle for Grosse Mahner Gap rolls on - now up to Turn 20! The Russians are finally coming into contact with the main British defence around Grosse Mahner but have already lost most of the T64 Tank Battalion. I think the big tactical mistake was sending the Battalion forward in companies as they arrived from line of march. It would have been better to wait til all were on the board and then push them all forward in one go to swamp the Chieftains, which have instead been able to pick off (with the help of Swingfire on the flanks) each company as it has moved up. The Russians have also had very poor dice, often scoring no hits when the Chieftains scored max. Two worst-case command fumble rolls didn't help last move either.

Still like the system, but think I might stream line it a bit (eg AA), and handle mortars more like Artillery, and remove some of the "special" HQ rules. Will play til Friday then if not finished I think I've learnt enough from this game and time to change periods!

T64 Platoon lost to 120mm APDS. Damaged platoons in distance

2S1 strike against the woods falls short, but effectively obscures the Chieftains from their targets

A BMP Platoon has taken over from the BTR60s fighting through the woods