Thursday 11 August 2016

WW2 Campaign Game

The last campaign action a week ago had German forces successfully seeing off a limited attack from Commonwealth forces. They now followed up with their own limited attack on Colombo-Sur Thaon.

Current campaign progress 
The Commonwealth forces choice of table edge which was a pretty simple decision given the generated terrain layout (see below). The winning side is decided by occupying or controlling terrain features which depending on the terrain type vary in points. To control a terrain feature requires a unit to be adjacent to the feature with no other enemy units being adjacent to contest the feature. Points for features are:
  • Buildings 4 points
  • Forest 2 points
  • Fields 1 point
  • Bridges are 6 points when used.

Dice generated terrain

The German plan was quite simple, launch a full out attack on the buildings and hope the reserves arrive reasonably frequently to maintain the attack momentum. Both sides have half their forces in reserve.

Forces are played out at the start of the game
German forces made successful progress taking builds, but not without loses, which were quickly replaced with a steady stream of resources. The changes to artillery and mortar barrage rules were being applied in this game. They now allow barrages from multiple guns and mortars to target one square, but they can only cause one disruption regardless of the number of hits. It's a way to improving the likelihood a barrage's success. (Previously, only one square could be attacked with a barrage.)

The game at the mid point
By the end of the game the remaining German forces had successfully occupied all building features. A lack of Commonwealth anti-tank guns limited the effectiveness of the defenders faced with combined infantry and tank attacks.

At game end the remaining builds fall to German forces
The layout of the terrain seemingly suited to the defenders at the beginning of the game. However, there was a problem for defenders, all building features were clustered together. This meant attacking force could focus all its attacks on one area and not worry about capturing other areas of the table to gain terrain points to win the game.

On to the next game...

4 comments:

  1. Additional Commonwealth 6pdr Anti-Tank guns seem to be needed to combat the powerful German tanks...an interesting Scenario- very good pictures too Peter. Regards. KEV.

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    Replies
    1. When selecting the units I should have gone with two into-tank guns. The attempt to upgrade to a 17 pounder had failed with a low dice roll.

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  2. In the 4th picture, there is a nebewefer that has moved up adjacent to a building, I am thinking that this unit should have special rules that prevent it getting so close to the action, perhaps not allowing it to leave the baseline.

    The clustering of buildings looks good and I think helps the scenario.

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  3. The rules are very generic when it comes to artillery and mortar units, and ignore the calibre of weapons. So my use of the nebelwerfer model in this case was representing a mortar unit. It also gets used as artillery if I am short of models. Thank you for the suggestions as I am considering increasing the variety and type of units in the rules (once the campaign is complete). Also thank you for the kind mention of this blog on your Commanders website.

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