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.