Les Deux Collines de Saint-Mathieu: June 1944

Myself and Mark had a game of Kampfgruppe Normandy at the weekend.  300 points per side in a escalating engagement (Page 92 of the rules).  Beforehand I set up as aesthetically pleasing a battlefield as I could with the club terrain:

The quiet village of Saint Mathieu had already been ravaged by artillery fire, and deserted by its' denizens.  But now it found itself at the centre of the conflict for Normandy.

German reconnaissance forces moved into the village as the guns fell silent and delays in the American advance gave them time to occupy the village.

However the eventual American attack was led by a Forward Artillery Observer and more threateningly, two Sherman Tanks.  Who made short work of the lead German armoured car.

The Americans followed this up with a motorised platoon supported by armoured air defence and company artillery elements.  A third Sherman arrived to join the advance into the village.

By comparison German Panzergrenadiers supported by a troop of Panzer IV's (AKA 'Tigers') approached the village through the densest of Bocage.

The Americans lost one tank to the Tigers, and the main attack diverted to the right of the village where the fields were more open.  But the Panzergrenadiers supported by a Stummel and Hanomag were already in position to meet them.

On the left of the village the Germans were pressing forward, thinking there was no resistance to their front (and hoping to roll up the FOO in the process).  However, a second American squadron of Sherman tanks burst through the hedgerow; amidst them!

And did absolutely nothing.  One can only presume they were disorientated by breaking through the cover.

Artillery support from Divisional 105mm's was pounding the Germans on the American right giving their pressured infantry enough time to partially deploy to the hedgerow and an orchard outside the village.  The Americans by this stage had lost four tanks.

 But one of the remaining tanks at least made a valiant effort to contain the German advance.  Managing to destroy a Panzer IV and a Stummel in a single engagement.

But the cautious advance of the Germans was slowly pushing the Americans back from the Village. Artillery fire was ridirected against the centre of the village in an attempt to close down or destroy German armour.

One tank was already burning from the last exchange with American Shermans.  But the other drove through the fire unscathed.  Further away a Hanomag was destroyed by the fire, most of the crew escaping to the gardens of the village.

The last throw of the dice for the Americans was to use the M16 half track in its' lethal anti-personnel role (48 dice laid in to a German squad as direct fire saw it swiftly removed).

 Alas, the last armoured asset of the Americans was in no way going to stem the tide, with the Germans still having access to a tank, a Stug III, a Stummel and its' own AA platform, any infantry deficit it may have had was inconsequential.

The Americans (i.e.me) were forced to concede.  And retire hurriedly.

Myself and Mark had been trading morale checks for a number of turns and it was only with drawing a pair of fours at the end of the game that I came to defeat.  I turned out Mark was only one point off of defeat himself, and drawing a heroic action and air attack were the only reason he hadn't broken long before.  In the end a close battle, but one in which my armour performed desperately badly, whilst my infantry proved grimly determined.

We neglected to roll for spotting throughout the game, but as both sides failed to it probably equalled out.  I had wanted to play a 500 point game, but on reflection Mark was right to restrict us to 300, which took a good four hours to set up and play.  The extra units were a contributing factor to this, both of us had battlegroup commanders to ensure a reasonable number of commands per turn.

Interestingly Mark played a force devoid of any artillery support, which could have given me an advantage, but in the end I was unable to spot really juicy targets from the hill my observer deployed to and so the artillery I could call in was of limited effect.

Until the next time that is...

Breaking News

It comes as no surprise to me that the following has occured:

http://www.warhammer-historical.com/

"Warhammer Historical Has Now Closed



We can no longer accept any further orders for our products






We would like to thank our customers who have purchased our publications over the years and hope you will continue to get many more years of gaming enjoyment from them."

So it looks like Games Workshop's ginger haired stepchild has finally been unceremoniously dumped.  For something like a decade GW has at times given the impression that it was fully behind WHH but for most of that period it was scarcely interested in what to it was surely a niche market.  Palming it off to its' Black Library subsidiary can't have helped.

And so that is probably it for Warhammer Ancient Battles, and possibly their other rule sets. Knowing GW I would predict there will be no second life with another publisher for their core rules, I can't imagine them permitting anyone else to develop WAB; as for rules like Kampfgruppe Normandy, which do not use the Warhammer game engine as a core and are the intellectual property of their authors there may be more hope, but only time will tell.

KGN: la petite ferme de chèvres - July 1944

Gaz and Joe came along to the club on Sunday for a rematch against my Americans, and thanks to his reinforcements he fielded a 362 point force as follows:


HQ

battle group HQ - 3 men    2mv
panzer upgrade                     0mv

recon support

sniper                                 0mv

main force units

panzer IV-G squadron        6mv
extra panzer IV-G                 2mv

infantry main force

vet panzer gren platton    16mv
(mounted in sdkfz 251/1)

support units

pak 40                                 2mv
combat medic                 0mv

artillery assets

forward artillery observer          0mv
3x80mm mortors - off table       0mv

                                  totals     28mv

Lots of high quality infantry, but in expensive battle taxis.  For my part I went with the following:

HQ

Signals Truck    0mv
Supply Truck    0mv

Recce

M8 Command Car    1mv

Infantry Main Force

Dismounted Armoured Infantry Platoon    8mv

Armour Main Force

M4 Tank Company (9 tanks)    18mv

        3x M4 Tank Squadrons (including one M4 76mm in 'A' Squadron)

Artillery

Forward Artillery Observer    0mv
Registered target point (RTP)   0mv
4 High Priority Fire Missions    0mv
1 Low Priority Fire Mission    0mv

Total     27mv

 My plan was to use an armoured thrust supported by carefully placed artillery (the Registered Target Point would ensure it would hit exactly where I intended) to try to blunt his attack, figuring I'd need twice as many tanks as the Germans to survive the inevitable losses.

The battlefield was set out as follows, with a mix of bocage around a ruined village, the farm to the west  (nearest camera) being undamaged.  Woodland and some low hills completed the region.

The Germans entered from the North, whilst the Americans advanced from the South in a simple encounter.

The Germans adopted a simple formation with their infantry to one side of the road and their armour to the other.

The Americans adopted a similar general concept, but lacking infantry mobility, set up it's machine guns as covering fire so the infantry could advance along the hedgerows.  My artillery observer retired to the south-eastern woodland where the German's ran up the road in the middle of the field.  My signals and supplies held to the rear.

The Germans advanced and allowed the American armour to engage them in a long range shooting exchange; the range was such in fact that the advantages of the German guns were largely negated; they had little chance of hitting and only marginal chances of penetrating the M4 armour.

It was an exchange I was happy to prolong, as I knew I had a resupply option; every miss for Gaz was critical.  At this stage I even had a troop of tanks in reserve.

However the platoon of Hanomags was arriving on the edge of the farm and hurriedly dismounting, long before my infantry were really close enough to contest the area.  Fortunately I was able to take them under fire from a dug in .30cal; suppressing the western flank of the attack:

The rest of the German infantry pressed home the attack on the farm and the fringes of the village, with the half tracks now acting as armoured cars, my own armoured car having to withdraw.

My artillery seized the moment to lay down the fire of a battery of 105mm howitzers on our RTP; the centre of the junction, few casualties were caused, but the German artillery observer was caught right in the blast and destroyed.  He never acted in anger.  On reflection Gaz should not have exposed him by getting so far forward, he did the same thing last time!

But at this stage the German infantry attack, supported as it was by light armour was turning the American flank, so armour from the centre was rushed over the counter the threat as Hanomags crashed through the Bocage, all but wiping out one squad - only the plucky Bazooka man surviving.

The Bazooka and an M4 wrought revenge from the Hanomags and their infantry.  Elsewhere the Panzer IV's were having little luck in athe long range tank battle and with two tanks lost from their squadron and ammunition low the battlegroup HQ vehicle was called up to support them.

Anticipating this and seeing a chance to outflank the Germans, the American reserve moved around the eastern side of the combat, whilst in the centre the survivor of 'A' Squadron went to resupply.  'C' squadron lost one tank in the advance, but by now the German main force had been forced to retire via the imple expedient of having no armour piercing ammunition left.

The German HQ tank soon fell to the available weight of fire; despite surviving three hits to the front, a hit from the flank finally took it down.  The retiring Panzer IV's had precipitated a general retirement by the German armour, and this freed the American tanks around the farm to concentrate on the infantry, now unsupported.

From this point onwards it was largely a mopping up exercise for the Americans, whose superior material supply had proved telling.  One of the last casualties being a lone rifleman raked by machine gun fire whilst trying to race across the main village street.

Nevertheless the Germans had inflicted significant losses, with around 20 infantry casualties (including 7 KIA) amongst the Americans as well as the loss of three tanks and the M8, totalling another 12 KIA.  German infantry losses were uncertain, but a handful of dead were found around the farm and a half dozen infantry taken prisoner.  Losses of three tanks and two half tracks were far more significant to the limited German supply structure, and the loss of a valued company commander would be even more telling.

Gaz and Joe recognised they had been beat, and took away a number of tactical lessons from what was at the end of the day, only their second game ever.  The willingness to stand at maximum range and trade shots with little chance of hitting me, when ammunition was so limited was a mistake, and the sacrifice of half tracks in an infantry assault probably cost more than it gained.  True they were unlucky to lose their artillery so early, but these things happen.  A poorly placed anti tank gun to the north-west could have done so much more in the centre of the battlefield...

Overall a great game with plenty of spectacle, I loved fielding a company of tanks!  Here's to the next one; though by the sound of it they will be at the club this Sunday practising against one another.

KGN Reconnaisance and Forward Plans

Today I was playing a Napoleonics game at the club versus Jez, and more about that in a future post as it'll come with a lot of photo's; but whilst I was there there was a lot of discussion about the Nightowls direction in the coming year and the shows we would be doing, whilst Mark and Andy had a run through of one of those games.

The club intends taking a new direction this year and getting out there a lot more; whilst we've mainly been known in the past as part of the Gaming Club Network, demoing Flames of War (interminably)  and for putting on shows at Gamesday, this year we are moving towards a more varied and historical slant, with plans to appear at Vapnartak, Triples, Partizan, Fiasco, recon and possibly WarTorn and Battlegroup North (attendance at Gamesday is still presumed...)  Games should include The Zulu War, my own Yugoslavian project and Kampgruppe Normandy: WW2.

To that end Mark and Andy had a test of one of the scenario's from the rules; Screening Cagny (p.125):

The chaps set up the battlefield as per the scenario, on a 6 feet square table and quickly disposed of two squadrons of Sherman tanks in a race across open fields at the defending battery of 88mm gun.  They reset and took the view of a more seasoned commander and sent the Shermans in via the woodland on their left.

 
The result this time took longer and cost the Germans a gun or two but ended with the same group of destroyed tanks.  It is a good scenario to play at shows, as the reset time is minimal and a game can be played with explanation in well under an hour.

The thing, as I keep banging on to the club is, to improve the display terrain; this was a good looking club game, for us, but it would never grace a glossy wargames magazine, and this would be one of the indicators of success.  Getting into a rag.

I suppose I'm going to have to take my role in all of this and get involved with another terrain project....

Sherman's and Tank Riders

So I've been on leave since the 23rd, and with time on my hands the other day I cobbled together another Sherman Tank squadron for my WW2 games.

Inspired by the tank rider equipped Panzer IV's of Gaz at the club, I decided to add infantry to mine.

One tank was painted some months ago and only needed infantry adding; the other two were done quickly on Xmas Eve before shooting off for the festive whathaveyou's!

Over a base of Russian Green plus a little German Camouflage Green, I built up layers of more Russian Green with with a little yellow.  This was then weathered with red-browns and yellow-browns.  The unit markings are speculative but pretty typical of the period; obviously one applies them before weathering...

The tank riders are from the Hat minibox range and excellent little sculpts, except for the figure with optional weapons; when assembled he clearly has three elbows, he's an abomination!

You can see them better in this shot:

To ensure they stay in place, each figure has been pinned to the tank; they were painted separately, given a black varnish wash and then glued in to place.

Nice quick work to fill a few idle hours whilst watching The Man Who Would Be King; classic Xmas fare!

Kampfgruppe Normandy - Action at Petit Filous

It's only my second game of these rules, and yet I volunteered to take a new attendee of the club through them; in an effort to make a gamer of him.

I'd had to work out two simple, evenly matched armies, that importantly incorporated the collection of my opponent, Gary.  These we'll see shortly, but of course on the morning I also set a suitable battlefield:

The village of Petit Filous, in northern France, surrounded by fields of Bocage, and areas of open woodland was the scene of a German withdrawal in the face of a feared heavy assault, that failed to transpire.  Other localised German counter attacks had blunted the American advance and left the ground deserted.  The Germans aimed to retake the no-man's-land, before the Americans recognised the lack of a defence.

A reinforced American Infantry platoon was supported by an over-strength squadron of M4 tanks, one with a 76mm gun.  Reconnaissance was supplied by an M8 Greyhound, with an artillery spotter on hand to try and request up to four fire support missions.

Conversely, the Germans, short on mobility and fuel, marched on to the battleground largely as foot troops, even having to drag on their anti-tank support.  However they were able to muster a fine squadron of Panzer IV-H tanks and had a full complement of 80mm mortars available to support.

The armour of both sides advanced upon the small village.and stumbled upon one around the curve of the road.  A Panzer IV quickly engaged one of the M4's; but missed.  Having drawn attention to itself, the Sherman's positioned themselves to counter, and by some fortune managed to destroy two of the German tanks in short order (despite needing 9's and 10's on 2d6 to do it! I counted myself very lucky, and felt Gavin, my opponent, would now struggle).

The Surviving German tank managed to destroy the 76mm M4, and tried to engage another tank with its' second shot, but failed to penetrate.  Similarly their Panzerfausts and Shrecks proved unable to score a hit.  finally, German infantry rushed to the village on foot, leaving machine guns to lay down covering fire.

Half of the American platoon rushed into the village, and deployed to the nearest houses, but German infantry had struggled in to the other building complex and soon each side was trying to pin down the other.  The Panzershreck team in the field were able to knock out another tank and the surviving Panzer IV took out a third.

It was providing close range support to the infantry, as well as avoiding the threat of American mortar fire that was targeting the corner of the road where it had been; but it had not considered the danger of a flank attack...

The remaining American tank fired from under a hundred yards range and penetrated the side armour with ease.  Recognising the threat of German armour was now scant, it retired out of infantry weapon range to a position where it could move around the flank of the village.  The second half of the American platoon now advanced around the outside of the village to take the left flank too.

German mortar fire began to impact on and around the only intact building in the village, apparently intact for good reason, as the infantry inside huddled in surprising security, safe from the bombs rattling off it's roof (only two casualties to 6 direct hits represented extremely light losses)!

Far behind the front line the American infantry were racing around the German rear, but a wisely deployed MG34 team was able to eliminate their command jeep and crew, which saw the infantry begin to deploy in an effort to eliminate the attackers.

The M8 engaged the Pak40 with machine gun fire, but failed to inflict significant casualties, in return the German crew hauled their gun around and took their only shot.  The M8 was a smouldering hulk in seconds.

The opposite flank was the concentration now though, with the surviving tank doing it's best to out flank and harry the German infantry.  In the village American 4.2 inch mortar rounds started to pound the remaining German infantry, knocking out a section and a weapons team.  By this stage it was clear the Germans were a spent force (their morale limit was passed) and they had begun to melt away through the woodland behind the village.

Petit Filous was finally liberated.

This was an excellent, simple little battle.  Gav asked for little tactical guidance, but accepted advice where I felt his choices would be ill advised; he also had the benefit of a junior commander Joe, who after some initial confusion, soon got into the swing of the game, to the point of deciding which units to use, and what to do with them.  I felt the Germans had much the worse luck in the battle, and the American advantages of numbers told more than they ordinarily would.

By contrast on another table, Mark and Andy were also going at it with KGN, and the Germans here were in control...

Grand to see two games of KGN on, and even more pleasing to get a new player or two involved.

So far December is proving a good month for historical gaming, and there is more to come with a big Napoleonics game scheduled for the coming weekend.  More on that, another day.

Kampfgruppe Normandy - Action at Pont Deux

For me, the childhood nostalgia accociated with 20mm World War Two soldiers is a heady brew.  Names like Airfix, Matchbox, Fujimi, ESCI, Hasegawa and Nitto conjure up vivid memories of my youth, making hamfisted attempts at assmbling plastic models and fighting endless battles accross the bedroom floor.  To this day there is perhaps no pleasure in my gaming hobby, quite like that of a table of plastic soldiers and tanks squaring up for a classic engagement.

Hence my joy at Kampfgruppe Normandy (KGN) reigniting interest in the 20mm scale at my local clubs.  Time to blow the dust off my Americans and return to the battles of Northern France.  Just setting up the battlefield and taking photo's of the troops made my inner 8 year old's heart sing in pleasure!

I set up the battlefield before Mark arrived, and discovered that the Headingley Club didn't have any roads!  I'll have to sort that out.  Otherwise the effect was pleasingly retro.  My force of an American Armoured platoon with support from a squadron of Sherman's and some other equipment was to  to make an attack across the river in the face of initially light German resistance.

I immediately found my force was short on command, and so progress was slow; one section of infantry decamped into thick woodland where a 57mm gun had deployed overnight, whilst another tried to set up a fire position by the bridge.  Shermans' lumbered forward to put suppressive fire on the opposite bank.

However, I carelessly exposed one of my tanks to a flanking shot from the only German tank on the field at the time.  Mark's Stug easily punched through the weak side armour of my 'Ronson'.  On my next turn another Sherman moved to a hull down position on a slight rise and started to trade shots.  But it's ineffectual 75mm rounds had no luck at the range against the slabs of German plate.

Meanwhile my infantry were getting bogged down by enemy artillery and machine gun fire.  I began to respond with fire missions from 4.2 inch Mortars and the arrival of an M16 AA Half Track in the anti-infantry role; but German reserves were arriving too.

A Tiger tank and two more Stugs!  Of course as far as the Americans were concerned it was all Tigers and the reports down the radio were claiming that we'd encountered a Waffen SS Regiment!  A solitary M10 took a brave shot at the tiger and then ran off to try and deal with the Stug on my left.  Dice were not on my side for much of the game; as this roll in particular showed; I only needed threes to hit:

The M10 destroyed a stug, and Divisional artillery requests successfully brought down 105mm fire on the Tiger, stalling it's advance.  But similarly my own infantry were pinned down in the woods, and the best they could achieve was to pepper the open woodland ahead of them with everything they had.

And besides, by now German light troops, and SDKFz 222 and infantry were dashing into my rear lines and soon all my tanks and guns were destroyed.  The Americans began an unsurprising, ignominious withdrawal in the face of indestructible armour.  Infantry losses were light, but with the hulks of five burning vehicles it was a bruising for our green infantry.

As to the rules; I loved them!  I think the balance in these attack and defence games needs some consideration (I think the attacker needs 50% more points if the defender is hunkered in at the start), but otherwise it all worked quite well.  I also feel it needs some bigger tables to play over to get a sense of range, but it still played pleasingly on a standard 6 x 4.

I'm really looking forward to more games, and it may even tempt me in to a little German force yet again.  No! must resist!!!

Kampfgruppe Normandy

Spurred by their present sale and the opportunity I had to look at a copy of the rules a week or so ago, I succumbed to buying a copy of the Warhammer Historical World War Two rules.

Now, had I not had any chance to look at the rules before I would have presumed them to simply be another reworking of the Warhammer 40k game engine, as used for The Great War rules.  I've dabbled with Warhammer World War two in the past, and whilst they worked adequately, they were not especially distinct or innovative.  I would have passed on a £24 version of them (never mind a £48 version!)

But I can happily report that these rules are nothing of the sort. Although based on a purely D6 system, it is far more thought out than Warhammer and contains a number of features to reflect the fog of war and the reality of battle at a relatively small scale.

The rules are for combined actions in the Normandy theatre specifically, dealing typically with engagements of platoon to company scales, though for those with the time and space, Battalion scaled battles can be accommodated.  It is early, and I haven't yet read the rules in full, or played them, but items I like based on first reviewing include:

• Although the rules are IgoUgo, a player can set up his units to interrupt the opponent's turn.
• You can only activate as many elements of your force per turn as you get randomised command points for, plus the value of command assets you've purchased for your order of battle.
• You can always fire for suppression at a target, but aimed fire requires observation.
• Hitting a target is much the same for any firer at a given range, it is down to the concealment of an enemy as to how effective those hits are.  Units running around under the enemies guns, in the open, will get slaughtered by fire.
• Similarly anti tank fire is effected very clearly by armour.  If a tank's armour is too thick and the firers gun too weak, there is no chance of destroying the target, though on a double six you do get lucky and immobilise it.
• Suppression stops units acting until the commander uses morale chips to remove them.
• Artillery cover can be dedicated or limited, so there is no guarantee of getting it when you need it.
• Air cover is even less certain.
• Several actions require the use of morale chips, and when you use a morale chip it reduces your overall morale by a random value.  Your force morale is based on mainline units in your order of battle.  Run out of morale points and your force is broken and the game ends.

In short I like a lot of the core mechanics and they are nothing like 40k!

Also they are only the first quarter of a 360 page, full colour rule book.  Also included are 8 army lists (4  German and two each for the Americans and British), 2 campaigns, a tonne of background and no end of scenarios.  Given the production values, one can see why the book was priced originally at the astronomical price of nigh on fifty quid; but at half that it represents a veritable bargain!

The rules talk throughout about 20mm scale gaming, my first love, and lean towards, but don't depend on single based miniatures.  I think those with flames of war armies would have no difficulty using these rules instead, though I feel the game will be slower and more realistic by comparison.  Additionally small games with 28mm models will probably work well enough.

Given the apparent situation at Warhammer Historical/Forgeworld*, I wonder what future these rules really have, but if they play as well as they look I'm sure internet support will develop for them.  Hopefully other theatres will be covered in the event of such success.

I certainly look forward to giving them a try, and if nothing else they are a rich seam of material to mine for any WW2 gamer.

*Incidentally, indicative of FW's mindset, and part of the problem with my copy of a historical set of rules, I received catalogues for their ranges of resin models for GW's premier fantasy and Sci-Fi gaming systems.  No use to me, or many other of the buyers of these rules I think, and straight into the recycling.  FW does not seem to understand its new subsidiaries audience and so is wasting money marketing wrongly at them.  Yes, they have nothing to offer that audience, making no historical models; better to say nothing at all therefore than to annoy your customers with 'junk mail'.