Saturday 25 April 2020

WW2 6mm game East Front 1942 testing out my own platoon rules (game 3)

Introduction
This is the third game in trying out my own 6mm WW2 rules.  I converted all the dice rolls to be on a deck of cards (so draw a card to lookup the result).  For more detailed see this previous blog post. The first game and second games went fine.   This third game went very fast.

Scenario
I have used a modified version of Platoon Forward to generate the forces, terrain and objective (in a spreadsheet).

The table is about 50cm x 50 cm; the figure scale is 1:300 (6mm size) the ground scale is 1:700 so the table is representing about 350m x350m.

The Russians enter on the bottom of the map and have to take the building at the top left.

German defending the top left building; Russians enter from the bottom

Troops
Russians
Enter bottom of the map:
2 platoon leaders (Aminev and Belov)
5 Rifle Squads
2 MMGs
2 SU-76 (Serebrov)

All Russians are Green.

Russian attackers

Germans
Deployed anywhere except near the Russian entry edge

2 Platoon leaders (Hahn and Junkerman)
5 Gruppe
1 50mm Anti-tank gun

On a random future turn, enter on a random edge:
1 Stug IIIE (Bergmann)
1 Gruppe

As per the Russians, all Germans are Green.

German defenders.  The Stug and Gruppe on the left are reinforcements.

All units being Green mean they are less likely to recover from being pinned and suppression.
Germans have better command and control than the Russians.  This means they will get slightly more activations.

The Germans deploy the majority of the Gruppe and the AT Gun centrally on the objective. Across the fields to the right is 2 other Gruppe as an alternative defence point and also a reserve if the Russians focus on advancing only on the left.

German deployment in two groups

Game
The Russians advance in two infantry groups up the left (Aminev) and centre (B) in cover.  The SU-76s will be no good in the woods and so keep level with the infantry on the road.

The Russians enter on a broad front.


Belov on the right continues advancing.

Belov (Platoon Leader) and Serebrov (SU-76s) moves up to the edge of the woods and does not spot any Germans.   The Germans in the field under Junkerman also fail to spot Belov moving up to the edge of the woods!

Belov makes it to the edge of the woods but neither they or the two German Gruppe defenders spot one another!

The AT gun opens up on Serebrov's SU-76 and goes straight through the thin armour and it is knocked out!


The AT Gun takes out the lead SU-76.

With the loss of the SU-76, Serebrov and the unit being Green, it must take a morale check.  The remaining SU-76 fails and flees the game (I will remove it as it cannot be shot at).

And the other SU76 decides to withdraw.

Aminev moves his force move to the crest of the hill, ready to take on the AT gun.

Aminev moves his forces to the crest of the hill overlooking the objective.

A random event sees Belov's force come under an artillery attack.  It is very bad;  they lose their MG and the two squads are pinned.

Belov in the woods comes under some light artillery and is badly affected.

Aminev spots the Anti-tank gun and he directs the fire of his platoon.  The AT Gun is suppressed!

Hahn, Guarding the objective, sees this firing and unleashes with all they have.  It is ugly with some very good luck – two squads suppressed and Aminev and his squad are routed.

Hahn's forces in the building fire on the Russians - Aminev routs and the others are suppressed.

Belov attempts to rally his force and one of the squads routs instead.

Hahn's collection of squads fires on the remainder of Aminev's force on the hill.  It is for naught. Amazingly, the paltry fire that is returned suppresses Hahn's infantry.  The AT Gun finds the time to rally.

Belov tries to rally the remaining squad and fairs poorly as they rout also.

This only leaves two leaderless Russian squads that decide to withdraw as well.  The Germans hold the field with no losses.
 
Belov's forces in the woods completely rout; with only two suppressed units left on the field the Russians withdraw.

Verdict
Well, Green troops are appalling to use on the attack.  Mainly that once pinned or suppressed they are more likely to rout than more seasoned units.  Losing the SU-76 at the start was unfortunate.  In reality – it was bad tactics. A should have moved to the top of the hill first to spot any danger, and then moved the SU-76.  Although spotting a AT gun in cover would have been mostly impossible anyway.  The perils of a random scenario is they may not be balanced.  I guess it is preparing me if I run a campaign. Still, a quick game that I imagine would be quite realistic.  It really highlights that unseasoned troops are not bad on defence and bad on the offensive.

11 comments:

  1. Nice little action and even though quick and bloody, felt right given the forces used. When I play Blitzkreig Commander, the Russians are great in defense, but pretty poor in attack, certainly until late on in the war. Looking forward to your campaign.

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    1. Thanks Steve. I do not think i will be using Green troops too often of attack - the game is over too quickly!

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  2. I think the SU 76 is a difficult vehicle to use successfully in a wargame when there is an enemy anti-tank capacity. It exposes itself when firing and then its minutes are numbered! ..... but it is such a fave vehicle :-)

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    1. Yes, the SU 76 and T70 are my favourite Russian vehicles. SU 76s are great but are so fragile!

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    2. Fragile but oh so lovely to look at! Rather like my Italian tankettes: generally useless but I just have to find a way to fit them into a game.

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  3. Good stuff. Although a bit one-sided, it didn't seem as if there was anything implausible goingo on there.

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    1. In hindsight it was one sided. Being green the attackers were on tough run. Although with the German defenders being green they would have run if the Russians had managed to actually inflict any casualties. I used a modified generation system from Platoon Forward and it will not always produce a balanced game.

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  4. I enjoyed your AAR. Now I have to back track and read the first two reports and look at the rules.
    Thanks!

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  5. Great to see 6mm used in this way and a nice little AAR. Will be following the progress of this and look forward to seeing your eventual campaign.

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    1. Thanks Jon. I do really enjoy these small battles.

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