WW2 6mm game East Front 1942 testing out my own platoon rules

Introduction
Playing a small 6mm WW2 game on a 2’x2’ table using my own rules converted to cards.

Rules
These rules were designed for the 12x12 grid games and are very close to the same rules I playtested in 2018. I have been tweaking the rules just a little and decided that as an experiment I would convert the rules to cards rather than use dice.  I was influenced by Buck Surdu's Combat Patrol.  While I followed the testing of Combat Patrol on his blog, I do not have the game, nor have seen it either.  I simply converted the results in my rules of combat, melee, spotting and morale into 72 cards.  All unique results fit onto 36 cards but just doubled it for ease and greater randomness.  They are printed on paper but if I like it I will glue them to some playing cards.  No dice were rolled during the game.

Sample card with results (from top to bottom) for combat, melee, activation/event, spotting, artillery, unit morale, force morale and then a row of various helpful rolls - 1d, direction etc.

The rules were for WW2 6mm on a 12x12 grid as a portable game.  I was thinking of playing them at home but realised I could play on my 2’x2’ board and simply convert 1 square to 4cm.  This battle report is the result.  To create the battle I used a very rough spreadsheet to randomly generate the forces, terrain and objectives.

Scenario
The Russians need to clear the building in the top right.  Enter anywhere on bottom edge.

The table, Russians enter at bottom; objective at top right.

The Russians will also get a minor victory if after 8 turns of combat they have scored more casualties.
The Germans all start onboard, dug in and hidden.

Troops
Russian
Regular morale

The two Russian platoons

2 platoons with a total of 5 sections (2 platoon leaders)
2 MMG
3 AT rifles
3 81mm offboard support


German
Regular Morale;better command than Russians

The German defenders

1 Zug with a total of 4 Gruppe (1 Zug leader)
1 StugIIIE
1 MMG
1 IG18 75mm gun onboard support


Game
Germans set up with defence around the farm with the infantry gun on the hill.
Russian first move is not subject to activation limits.  Small platoon is moving through the woods; larger platoon is heading for the hill.  One section is testing the centre by going through the fields.

At the end of the first turn, also showing the German defenders.

A random event sees a plane swoop across the battlefield.  It routs a Russian AT Rifle and suppresses an MG in the woods.  It also suppresses an MG and Gruppe defending the objective! The Germans subsequently rally off the suppression.

German defenders suppressed by a random plane.  They recovered later.

The Russians send two sections up onto the hill.  The infantry gun sees them coming and fires on them, pinning one.  The other charges into close combat.  They are locked in melee.

Russians charge the German gun on the hill.

The Russians press their advantage (got activation again) and move the rest of the platoon up onto the hill. They lose the MMG section but hold the hill.  The MMG will be missed - the whole reason the platoon took the hill was for a fire base centred on the MG.

More Russian attackers join the fray.

The Germans turn the Stug towards the hill and fire...and miss.  It has another go..and misses again!
(It was a few moves later I remembered that in the rules I cannot activate a unit twice in a row.  The things you forget after a year!)

The AT Rifle has a small chance of doing some damage - it fires and pins the Stug; the platoon leader rallies the pinned section and they both move off the hill towards the village.  As they cross the road, they suffer reaction fire from the German Gruppe behind the row of bushes.  The platoon leader and a section are pinned just as they start to cross the road and retreat. They lose their bearings in the retreat and move an extra distance at the base of the hill (random event)

The Russian AT Rifle gets a lucky shot at the Stug and pins it.  Meanwhile the rest of the platoon tries to cross the road but a German Gruppe pins one of the sections.

The Russian MMG in the woods does not recover from being suppressed. The other two sections advances to the edge of the wood.

The Russians move to the edge of the wood.  They will wait in vain for the  other flank attack to occur so they can cross the open ground.

On the other flank, the Russian section takes a shot at the German squad that fired at it as they crossed the road.  The Germans fire back at the section at the base of the hill, suppressing them.  The Stug unpins.

Germans and Russians exchanging fire.

The Russian section at the base of the hill unsuppresses and the Stug pins the AT Rifle on the hill.  Another Russian squad (the one that crossed the road) fire on the German Gruppe that is suppressed and then routs while trying to recover!

Finally the German Gruppe blocking the road routs.

The Gruppe hidden in the crops moves up closer to the Stug to lend support (random event - move 4cm in a random direction).  However this Gruppe fires on the annoying Russian Section and suppresses them.

However their is another German Gruppe to contend with.

The Russian section with the platoon leader at the base of the hill moves to the hedgeline, fires at that Gruppe and forces them to retire from the field!  The Russians also manage to clear the suppression and  pins from the units around the hill.

That Gruppe also routs!  Only the Stug is in the way,

The MMG in the woods of the other side finally has enough and retires from the field (tried to rally them but a bad card draw!)

The Stug forces the platoon leader and section to retire to behind the hill

The platoon leader is forced to retire to cover by the Stug.

There is only one thing for it - charge the Stug with infantry!  Oh dear, the worst result possible - the infantry is suppressed in the field.  The platoon leader unsuppresses the section and moves  up to near the Stug but is pinned as the Stug sees the move.  The section suppressed in front of the Stug routs.

One of the Russian sections takes the opportunity to charge the tank.  It was a chancy affair and the Russians are suppressed and then rout.

This is when I remember I have an AT-rifle and section in the centre and there is no LOS to them from any Germans.  I move them up to the hedge.

The centre section, wondering if they had been forgotten (they had) advances to the bushes with an AT Rifle, ready to attack the Stug at close range.  The Stug unleashes at them with its MG and they rout. 

In a stroke of bad luck, the Stug MG that has been unable to kill anything it has fired at so far manages to destroy the advancing section and AT rifle.  The Russians have lost more than 50% and take a force morale check.  They lose heart and retire off the battlefield, the objective untaken.

The Russian decide to retreat.  The fores at the end of the game are shown. 

Verdict
Losing the two MGs hurt the Russians, and it was hard to shift the Stug.  And also if I had remembered about the extra unit in the centre earlier it would have made a difference as well!

The cards worked fine.  I think I turned about 80-90 of them for the game.  It did take a little while to get used to reading a result on the card rather than converting a dice roll into a result.  But I was getting into the swing of it by the end.  Planning another couple of games at least.  I may reprint the cards as there are a few colour coding errors on the card (result was correct but the colour for it was not right), I can simplify the combat chart (maybe).

Battle of Asculum 279BC using Ancient Battlelines Clash

Introduction
This is game 33 in play testing my ancient rules by replaying historical battles.  The previous version of ‘Ancient Battlelines Clash’ is on its own blog page. Note at the time of writing the version I am using to play this battle (Version 3.2) is very much in draft as it is a rewrite of what I planned for V3.0 and closer to what V2.5 (the one I used to play most of my games).  V3.2 currently requires a lot of tidying up, and is missing design notes, examples and the programmed opponent. I am play testing the rules by replaying all the Peter Sides scenarios from his Historical Battles books.  ABC is designed to finish in around 30 minutes on a 2'x2' table.

Battle of Asculum
Pyrrhus defeated Roman forces at the Battle of Heraclea and after winter, invaded Apulia.  A Roman army marched to defeat him and battle was joined on an open plain near Aculum.

Very little on the internet but here is an article of interest:

Wikipedia entry  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Asculum

I also used Phil Sabin’s Lost Battles.

Troops

Pyrrhus

Pyrrhic forces

1 Agema, Medium Cavalry, high fortitude, impetuous
1 Allied cavalry, Medium Cavalry, high fortitude, impetuous
2 Elephants, Elephant
1 Phalangites, Heavy Infantry, phalanx
1 Tarantine Phalangites, Heavy Infantry, phalanx, low fortitude
1 Allied Infantry, Heavy Infantry
1 Warband, Heavy Infantry, warband
1 Leader with the Agema

Army command ability is +1

Breakpoint: 9

Note: There should really only be one elephant but they existed on both flanks, so 2 it is.

Romans

Riomans.  The anti-elephant light infantry is in front of the cavalry on each flank

4 Cavalry, Medium Cavalry
4 Velites, Skirmish Infantry, javelins
4 Hastati/Principes, Heavy Infantry, line relief, some MP (missile protection)
2 Anti-elephant troops, Light infantry, javelin
1 Leader with one of the legions

Breakpoint: 9

Scenario changes
I reduced the units/elements by about half as I am playing on a table half the size.  I also have less Phalanx/pike units as there is no benefit to rear pike units in ABC compared to DBA.  There was some light cavalry at the battle but I have not represented them as there was not much of them,

Deployment

Setup, Pyrrhus on the left, Romans on the right

All heavy infantry, including the pike units, are two bases deep are simply for visual effect as I had got enough of them out. They are not two units in echelon and confers no benefit in the rules.  I have just realised with this game I can indicate disordered heavy infantry by removing a base!

The Game

Pyrrhus only advances the centre as does not want the flanks to get ahead of the infantry.  The Romans move up there entire force, maintaining a line.

First early moves.

Pyrrhus advances the right flank and the centre battleline moves to within javelin range of the Roman screening Velites.  The missiles had no detrimental effect and the Velites retire from the field.  The warbands charge the roman line, their blood aroused by the missiles.  The others infantry also advances which brings them into contact with the Roman heavy infantry.

The two battlelines clash early on.

All disordered, except one unit of Phalangites that managed to inflict a disorder with no effect to themselves.

And most infantry are disordered (not the far left pike block.  Note I am trying put the method of removing rear infantry bases to indicate disorder.

Roman right flank unsuccessfully attempts to get the anti-elephant light infantry to charge the elephants.  In the centre, the heavy infantry continues to fight on.  On the Roman left flank, the anti-elephant light infantry charges the elephant on that flank.  The elephant is disordered and the light infantry are still in the fight!

Anti-elephant light infantry charge the elephant.

Pyrrhus charges the Roman cavalry.  Both  are disordered.  The Elephant succumbs to the light infantry (two 6's in a row will so that!).  The Pyrrhic right flank is being held by only Pyrrhus and his elite cavalry.

And very luckily rout the elephant. Pyrrhus charges the Roman cavalry.

In the centre, the Pyrrhic allied infantry routs.

The Pyrrhic right flank, charges into the screening light infantry.  The light infantry is destroyed and the force continues on into the Roman cavalry.  A cavalry unit retreats from the elephant and all units are disordered.

The Roman right flank is not so lucky and faces both the enemy elephants and heavy cavalry.

And then the lone cavalry unit is destroyed.  The centre sees the warband destroyed but one Roman heavy infantry is also destroyed.  The Roman cavalry gang up on Pyrrhus....

Carnage everywhere.  Both have losses in the centre.  A Roman heavy cavalry unit is lost on the Roman right flank, Pyrrhus is under attack by two enemy heavy cavalry units.

Who is destroyed.

Pyrrhus succumbs under the weight of enemies.

History is re-written as The Romans win!

Verdict
Wow - after playing 17 games of Heraclea using lots of different rulesets over the last 7 years, it is nice change to move onto the next Pyrrhic battle.  The new version of my rules continues to be tweaked.  And they seem to play a little faster due to some minor streamlining which is what I was after.  The loss of the Elephant was unlucky for Pyrrhus - there is a 1 in 9 chance of the light infantry taking out the Elephant.  The loss of the elephant collapsed that flank for Pyrrhus and he did not manage to recover.  Hoping to play the next and last Pyrrhic battle at Beneventum soon.

My gaming for the last 12 months (a ramble)

The continuing journey with my rules and gaming in general
Just an update on where I am with my ancients and WW2 gaming that has been light on (understatement) in the last year or two.

This is a post on its own – I rarely do posts that are not battle reports.  I was thinking of putting it before the next ancient’s battle report but it is a bit long for that so I have moved it into its own blog post.

Short version: 15mm ancients and 6mm WW2 battle report writeups (one each) nearly done.  Using my own rules  More gaming likely to follow as mojo is improved.

Background
It has been an interesting 12 months in the world of my gaming.  It has been sort of on pause while we renovated a house. I did a post last year for my priorities for the next few years that can be found at this blog page.  I have had a look and my priorities are still the same.

We moved into the new renovations early July but there is still stuff to do (there will always be stuff to do!).  I have had to put some gaming stuff in storage – mainly 20mm WW2 terrain and a lot of boardgames.  The latter I could not get rid of (even though I do not play them) mostly I keep on the assumption I will get around to playing them in retirement. It is dawning on me that my tastes have changed over the last 20 years and maybe I will never play them. Luckily I will be able to defer that decision for a while as the storage is free and the boardgames do not take up lot of space.

Gaming stuff
With me I still have:

• all my 20mm WW2 wargaming figures and vehicles and a little bit of terrain I used for some skirmish games
• all 6mm WW2 figures and terrain
• all 15mm ancients and terrain
• some spaceships
• some 15mm SF figures
• some 1/600 medieval ships
• some 20mm civilian figures (maybe for Pulp Alley)
• a few selected paper rules I do not have in PDF and a few selected boardgames that I may get around to playing.

Actually, quite a lot other than 20mm terrain and the majority of boardgames!  I have all these the figures as they are stored in two sets of drawers that are also nice pieces of furniture that my wife likes so they are keepers and also easily accessible in the lounge.  And I have the map drawers wherein I play 99% of my games anyway. Therefore I am not really constrained too much by what to play!  Other than my favourite – 20mm WW2 on a large table.  It can wait.

I did a post last year on what some priorities would be for gaming to help with my mojo.
One of them was to do some solo RPG. So, while no miniature gaming in the last year, I have still been gaming, sort of.  I have been slowly running through some RPG solo games using THW rules and a spreadsheet.

WW2
But on miniature gaming, my number one love is 20mm WW2 on a table tennis table but that is out for the next year or two. Last year I did a few portable 6mm WW2 games on a small 12x12 grid.  I planned to do some more during lunchtime but them my back got sore, then a foot problem came back, then my back got sore again.  Nothing dramatic but enough that I did not feel like sitting down and crouching over a game during lunch.  In the meantime I had read some battle reports using Buck Surdu’s Combat Patrol.  Completely card based.  I thought – hey I could do that with my rules.  I have not seen or played or bought Combat Patrol so what I did was work out all the different results for combat, melee, spotting, morale, artillery, activation and events.  They would mostly fit across 12 cards but all possible results would need 36.  I used a spreadsheet to create the cards.  I made a set of 72 (double the 36 simply to allow for more randomisation),  It was harder to do this than I thought.  Anyway I finally cut them all out but this was during the last of my back issue.

Ancients
My number two love is 15mm Ancients on small tables.  I have been replaying historical battles using my own rules – Ancient Battlelines Clash.  I slowed down in 2017 as I was not entirely happy with them.  During 2017 and 2018 I did tinker with them to produce a new version and played the Battle of White Tunis with them.  I thought they made me happy but in reality I was still unsatisfied.  I detoured into writing a number of different 6mm ancient rules for a 12x12 grid…then ended up adding a lot of ABC into the last set to make them more solo friendly.  So they were really a newer version of ABC with hopefully all the things I did not like fixed, but on a 12x12 grid.

So now I had two rules to test on a 12x12 grid.  Rather than play at lunchtime I could just play at home.  But that then defeated the purpose of the 12x12 grid – the whole idea was it was portable and here I am playing at home where I have access to everything!  It should have taken one second but took to days to realise the rules would work fine if I changed “move 1 grid square” to “move 4cm” and use my normal 2’x2’ boards for non-grid battles.   The ancient rules did need a couple of minor tweaks to do with ranges that had to be slightly adjusted to move from grids to free-form.

Games
So the excitement is I have actually played two games!

1. 6mm WW2 on roughly 2'x2' table using homegrown cards instead of die rolls but the rules are the same as last year's 12x12 grid rules
2. 6mm ancients on a 2'x2' table using the latest incarnation of my own Ancient Battlelines Clash rules

Blog reports are in draft as I write.

Rest
I have not forgotten the 12x12 grid 6mm WW2 and the 12x12 grid ancients and will need to find time to play them during work lunchtime.

I also aim to revisit my 20mm WW2 Skirmish rules and have ideas on how to improve their play on the 2’x2’ table.

I have also played two games of The Final Frontier using a spreadsheet. I have some draft posts on why and the game reports.  Handily, I have also written and am testing some spaceship rules for small battles that play on a 8x8 grid.   Handy in that The Final Frontier can throw up the occasional battle that I could play out using these rules.  It hasn’t yet though.  So spaceship gaming may be occurring in the future as well if I play them again.

I have some boardgames with me - the ones I thought I may play - but in reality I can see I will not get around to them for years at the earliest.  Miniature gaming is a priority at the moment.

Final word
My output on the playing side of miniature gaming has been very low of late but the writing of rules side has been high!  But hopefully the playing ratio will improve now I seem to have broken the seal.