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.

2020 Review - 2021 Plans

 

Needless to say COVID had a pretty big impact on my gaming for the year - however a lot was rescued from the ashes.

I had no face-to-face games in 2020, although Nick and I managed a Bolt Action game on Tabletop Simulator and to refight part of Waterloo over Zoom/Jitsi. I also played a number of games at VCOW (and am looking forward to February's VCOW2021), and loads of solo games.

The biggest single change was that for the first time in my life I have a dedicated wargames room (well doubling as my home/office) big enough for an 8' x 6' table as standard - and the ability to push to 10' and maybe even 12'. That means I can leave games up (although that wouldn't have been an issue this year!) and potentially even have 2 games going at once (although time just doesn't allow that).

In terms of my planner, this is what I managed:

Dec: 🎨10mm WW2*, 🎲BAOR Mega*
Jan: 🎨Cara*, 🔪Cropredy Bridge *
Feb: 🎨ED*/Cara*, 🎲WW2 Pl MegaTest *
Mar: 🎨WOTR*, 🎲WW2 Pl MegaTest *
Apr: 🎨🎲ACP164*, 🎲WW2PMT*
May: 🎲WOTR* , 🎲WW2PMT*,🎨NapGen*
Jun: 🎨1987*, 🎨NapRus*, 🎲ACP*
Jul/Aug: 🎨NapRus*, 🎨ACPDead*, 🧱
Sep: 🎨BAOR*, 🎲Moongrunts(BARC*/SG*/MW&BG*)
Oct: 🎨BAOR*,🔪OcanaX2**,🎲NATOBC*
Nov: 🎨WARPAC*, 🎲Waterloo*
Dec: 🎨 ECW@, 🎲1987x2 @>>

🎨 = paint figures

🔪 = historic refight

🎲 = other wargame

🧱 = 1:1painting!

* = done

@ = ongoing

@> = finishing

This year (2020) I didn't plan the whole 12 months but just the next 3 at a time, pulling stuff of a backlog. The backlog at the end of 2020 was looking like:

🎨 Nap: 2mm, Rus@
🔪 Nap: Wagram; FdO,Albuera
🎨 ECW: Last(3)?
🔪 ECW:  MarstMoor(37k), 2nd Newbury
🎨 WOTR: WOTR, WOTR
🔪 WOTR: 1stSA,Blore Heath, Ludford Bridge
🎨 WW2: 10mm Coys
🎨 BAOR: Urban Terrain, Warrior/BTR60 Coys?
🎲 BAOR: 10mm CWO, NATO-FC, SPI, ScenBk
🎨 Mod: 28mm US/Sov,
🎲Mod: 28mm skirmish>>
🎨 SF: Albedo civilians/ILR Assault

🎲 SF: Albedo campaign@

So I suppose I got the core done, but not the cream.

I'm sticking with the same approach for 2021, starting with the backlog pretty much as was at the end of 2020 and not adding anything really in to it. The first 3-4 months look like:

Jan:  🎨ECW@, 🎨NapRus, 🎲1987x2
Feb: 🎨WOTR, 🎲ECWx2
Mar: 🎨WW2, 🎲WOTR (DOK?)
Apr: 🎲WW2CoyMega?

And hopefully by the summer (Indian?) we can start to get some face-to-face gaming in as Nick, Adrian and I really want to do Waterloo 60 before it turns into Waterloo 61!

GDW Traveller Map in VR/3D

 I've finally finished the 1st release of my VR Traveller Map web application. It dynamically pulls data from Traveller Map and you can browse 25 sectors with it.  

YouTube video walkthrough below and at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfnAVowrgug. 

Instructions and link to the app at http://taunoyen.com/wiki/doku.php?id=traveller_3d_map. 

You can switch some data on and off (gas giants, zones, allegiance etc), click on worlds for UWPs, and set height and size to reflect information such as population, importance, tech level and starport. You'll need a WebXR compatible VR headset to use it (e.g. Oculus Quest). The current 2D/3D interface for ordinary users is more limited and lets you walk around Regina subsector but no more - will add fuller functionality next year.

From a technical standpoint the neat thing is that this is in WebXR so you don't need to download any software onto the VR headset, you just access through the built-in browser - but get a full VR experience.

Suggestions for v2 welcome - and of course any bug reports (only tested on Quest and PC).

20mm Napoleonic Casualty Markers

 When playing Steady Lads Steady we tend to use smoke puffs for damage markers. A unit can typically take up to 4 before it routs, but by then it has usually withdrawn behind own lines, so still having the puffs seems odd as they no longer show where the action it - and it eats up puffs! So I've gradually started painting up old Airfix casualty figures to act as 4-damage markers. In the Waterloo game I found that they were easily overlooked once placed with a unit, so with this batch I've tried orange and red edges to make them stand out a bit more. Think they look quite nice, will check them in context before painting more.

SN8 Test Flight - Just Wow!

Well that was awesome. Starship SN8 just made its first (and only test flight). Really does make a return to the Moon and on to Mars seem so much closer than the Team Artemis announcement.

T - 2m16s

That belly-flop was just awesome

Imagine that filled with a platoon of Imperial Marines!

Just about to touch down when the fuel pressure goes

OK so it didn't end well but it proved so much, just seeing the belly flop and swing actually work was quite something, and I'm sure SN9 will nail it on the next test.

Waterloo 60 Test Game 2 - Remote Gaming

 

Unit for unit starting positions - all the French left is further back!

As a second test of our plans for Waterloo Nick and I tried to play a game remotely. I had my main desktop webcam, and an iPhone on a small Gorilla tripod that I could move around the table so Nick could see what was going on. We used Jitsi as its free for unlimited duration multi-participant calls. I put out playing card size labels for each of the British brigades so Nick could see which of his units were which. I did all the dice rolling as Nick didn’t have any FATE dice. The whole set up actually worked pretty well and we were able to rattle through the turns.

Remote gaming set-up - iPhone on small tripod and Bde labels

On the first evening we did the attack of d’Erlons Corps. I played the French historically but gave Nick some latitude. He drew the Dutch back behind the sunken road so as to avoid them being blown away, and moved Pack and Kempt’s brigades up into the sunken road.

A full Grand Battery this time

d’Erlons divisions surged forward, this time with a full 8 battalions each.  

Some awesome looking Divisional Columns

Donzelot's Division

Bourgeois' Bde came straight onto the 95th in the sandpit and managed to push them back. Roger's battery opened up right in front of them, causing the to falter. 1st Life Guards then surged forward past the Duke’s elm and straight into their flank, routing them nicely. Meanwhile Donzelot’s column had got up to the sunken road having taken some artillery damage, but was again staggered. With 1LG having cleared Bourgeois out of the way was clear for 2LG to charge into Donzelot’s flank. 

Just before the Life Guards strike

Quite how any rule set handles one cavalry regiment flank charging 8 battalions in one go is a good question. We decided to treat it as one cavalry regiment against one battalion not in square. That was a rout, but nicely the morale tests then cascaded through the whole column and pretty much every battalion routed, and the LG picked off the remainder. With just a very exposed Marcognet Division left we decided to call it a day after about 6 turns.

In come the French Cavalry again

Two days later we played out the French cavalry attack on the British squares. Again I managed a 1:1 unit match, so the French had 9 cuirassier, 2 dragoon and 4 guard regiments, and the British an ominous looking like of 11 batteries. The first French wave charged but the gun line forced them all back. The French guns came up so as to soften the guns and squares. Counter-battery achieved a bit, but the worse damage was from bounce-through into the squares with Kielmansegge's Hanoverians looking very shaky. A second wave of cavalry then charged, the Cuirassiers on the (French) left flank being hit first by the remnants of the Household Brigade, and then by some Light Dragoons. 

Guns firing and casualties being taken

It was the Guard Lancers that made the most progress, the only unit to actually close with the gun line. They charged through the guns and onto the Hanoverian square, were faltered and then hit in the flank by Light Dragoons. Although the rest of the Guard Cavalry was uncommitted it had very little left in support, but after 6 turns we decided to call it a day.

Dutch Light Dragoons hit the Polish Lancers in the flank

All-in-all it went pretty similarly to the historical battle - and perhaps closer than the programmed game. Again every action was believable and we rattled through the turns - even though I was doing all the moving, rules and dice rolling. The remote play worked pretty well as well - and the big cards I had for Nick to spot the Brigades certainly helped.

All being packed away now, but perhaps we'll do another remote game in the Spring, and perhaps a face-to-face rehearsal in late Spring/early Summer. For now its back to the logistics of the big game - getting more terrain done, sabot bases and the like!

The French repulsed - but battered units everywhere