WW2 mini-campaign begins

With campaign maps and counters made it was time to begin the WW2 mini-campaign. I have tried to keep the forces in line with those described in Donald Featherstone's "War Game Campaigns" book, but there are some differences. British forces are defending this area of the front in Northern Europe 1944 and comprise an infantry battalion with a variety of supporting units and armour:

3 x Infantry Companies (represented by 3 platoons on the tabletop)
1 x Armoured Company (represented by 3 platoons on the tabletop)
3 x Tank Troops
1 x M10 Troop
2 x Mortar Sections
1 x Reconnaisance platoon
2 x AT Guns
1 x 25 Pounder Artillery support
1 x AA section
1 x Engineer Platoon with bridging equipment

British forces can place units anywhere in rows C, D, E, and F.

The Guards opening defence positions

While there are no stacking rules. When playing out a game on the tabletop a maximum of 6 units can be deployed chosen by the players. The unused units can brought on as reserves during the game when a playing unit is eliminated.

The campaign starts with morning intelligence reports indicating a Panzer Grenadier force is in the area. The British Guards Battalion has been asked to defend against this threat and stop German forces advancing south and into open country around the junction town of Louisville. While hopeful that the intelligence reports are overstated, the British commander has issued the following orders in the morning with the aim of detecting enemy activity on the more exposed area of the front they are holding:

• Reconnaissance company (supported by a tank troop) to advance to the sunken road bridge and delay any attack.
• Company B (supported by ) to secure the Chateau and stall any enemy advance.
• The 25 pounder artillery troop is to move and provide artillery support for the Reconnaissance company. Note - artillery have a range of 2 squares.

Orders are written before the Panzer Grenadier move

To keep the campaign simple, all units can only move 1 square providing there is a linking line between the squares.

The attacking Panzer Grenadier force consists of 4 armoured infantry companies and 2 reconnaissance companies. These have supporting units, tank and assault gun troops. I am not going provide a detained list of units as they will be revealed when engaged in combat. To add more  uncertainty included are blank counters. The counters were shuffled in two batches and placed face down on row A. The first batch containing the armoured infantry companies and reconnaissance companies are placed one in each square in row A, then all remaining units are evenly distributed.

At this point in the campaign I must confess I do not know if this will turn out to be a balanced campaign, or whether it is totally unbalanced and end with one side totally trouncing the opposition.

Unknown Panzer Grenadiers are placed in row A.

The Germans arrived on row A, and the British orders are actioned.

Panzer Grenadiers units are moved in their stacks. The rules for movement are determined by dice rolls. In most cases the choice is 1-4 advance forward a square, 5 shift left one square, and 6 shift right one square. If the option to advance is not available due to a river for example, then 1-3 shift left and 4-6 shift right.

At the end of Panzer Grenadier movement there will be two games to be played:

1. Reconnaissance forces at the Sunken Road bridge
2. B Company holding the chateau

The first clash of forces to be played are at the sunken road bridge.

The Panzer Grenadier counters are now exposed and using the detail from the map a tabletop will be constructed. When constructing the tabletop additional terrain features are added as the maps are rather devoid of features. Four terrain features are added (2 small woods and 2 fields) which are spread evenly one in each quadrant and positioned using scatter dice.

Panzer Grenadier forces are revealed

The tabletop will reflect the map.

The tabletop look from the south

The next post will cover the small game using One Hour War-game rules.