'Closing The Pocket' - The Ruhr 1945 Using Startline

I have recently been passing many enjoyable hours tinkering with Startline, my WW2 rules. But there comes a time when the tinkering has to stop and the playtesting has to continue. I was lucky enough to find 5 wargaming friends who were actualy free at the same time on a mid-week day (ah, the joys of retirement/semi-retirement!), and so a serious playtest could take place. Space in my dining room is limited, and with 6 of us and a 6' x 6' table planned, the Big Battles facility in Cirencester seemed to be the solution (thanks for the suggestion Steve). And so, about a week ago, we gathered together and got stuck in. 

L to R, Glenn, Steve, Adam, Paul and Jon.
Thanks for coming over and helping me out guys.

I am not a man who has extensive WW2 collections at my fingertips, but I know a man who has. My friend and gaming buddy Roy chipped in with toys suitable for a 1945 game between the Americans and the Germans, even though he couldn't attend in person. Fabulous. So all I needed now was a scenario.

Well, I couldn't resist. Time to get some German big cats and U.S. Pershings on the table. I chose a 6' x 6' table to give more room for manoeuvre, particularly in depth, and came up with a scenario called 'Closing the Pocket - Beringhausen 28th March 1945'. The narrative was as follows:

"This fictional scenario is based on the actions of the 3rd Armoured Division during the encirclement of the Ruhr pocket in March/April 1945. The 3rd Armoured was part of the southern pincer of the encirclement, which was completed on 1st April near Lippstadt when elements of 3rd Armoured met up with units of the 2nd Armoured Division, who were advancing as part of the northern pincer.

Beringhausen is a real village, but this battle is totally fictional. The Germans are attempting to stop the advance of 3rd Armoured Division in the days just before the final link-up. A small battle group ('Kampfgruppe Trippenhof') has been scraped together, based on a company of panzergrenadiers and a company of tanks. Indirect fire support is weak, anti-tank guns are lacking and the Luftwaffe is absent, but the Germans still have some poweerful tanks available. The American Task Force ('TF Boss') must overcome the German opposition and keep their advance going."

Closing the Ruhr Pocket

We had our table at Big Battles from 09.30 until 17.00, so forces and game length were designed for a battle that might well last all day. The forces involved were:

Task Force Boss (CCA, 3rd Armoured Division)

HQ: Command base in 1 x M3 halftrack

Tank Company: HQ 2 x Sherman 75mm

3 x platoons each 2 x Sherman 75mm, 2 x Sherman 76mm. Heavy tank platoon of 3 x Pershing

Infantry Company: HQ command base, bazooka base

3 x platoons each 6 x infantry base, 1 x bazooka base

Recon Platoon: 2 x M5 light tanks, 2 x M3 halftrack, 2 x infantry base, 2 x bazooka base

Anti-tank Section: 2 x M18 Hellcat

Anti-tank Section: 2 x M1 57mm gun, 2 x M3 halftrack

MMG Section: 2 x Browning 0.30 MMG bases, 2 light trucks

Artillery (off-table)

Battery: 4 x 105mm howitzer, AFO with radio and jeep, 4 turns pre-planned fire

Mortars (off table)

Battery: 3 x 80mm mortars, MFO with jeep and radio, 4 turns pre-planned fire

Pre-Game Barrage: 2 zones available

Random Air Attacks: 1 x P47D section available on a roll of 9+

Kampfgruppe Trippenhof (personally responsible to FM Walther Model, Army Group B)

HQ: Command base in 1 x Sdkfz 250

Panzer Company: HQ 2 x Tiger II

3 x platoons, one of 3 x Panther, one of 3 x StugIIIG, one of 3 x PzIVH

Panzergrenadier Company: HQ command base, panzerschreck base, 1 x Sdkfz 250

3 x platoons each 6 x infantry base, each base has 1 x panzerfaust available

One platoon is carried in 2 x Sdkfz 251/1, 1 x Sdkfz 251/10

Flak Section: 2 x Sdkfz 10 with 2cm AA

Mortars (off-table)

6 x 8cm mortars, MFO with schwimwagen and telephone

No air  attacks available

Deployment

The Germans can deploy anywhere up to 4' from their baseline. All non-vehicles can be dug-in. The Panthers, Tiger IIs and the SPW-mounted infantry are off-table at game start as reserves. They can arrive from the start of turn 4. Each unit dices seperately for arrival needing 4+ to arrive. Those failing to arrive dice again at the start of subsequent turns, adding 1 to their roll each turn. Arrival points are diced for: 1 is a right flank arrival, 2-5 are arrivals along the German baseline, and 6 is a left flank arrival.

The Americans can deploy up to 8" from their baseline. 

Winning and Losing

5 objectives are placed by the umpire in the German deployment zone. If by the end of move 6 the Americans are in possession of 3 objectives they have won a brilliant victory. If not, continue the game to a maximum of 9 moves. If, at the end of moves 7, 8 or 9, the Americans are in possession of 3 objectives they have won. If at the end of move 9 the Americans still aren't in possession of 3 objectives the Germans have won.

The Game in Pictures

A picture taken as the game started which gives a good idea of the terrain.
Beringhausen centre right, with 4 of the objectives visible.
The other was off-picture to the left, on top of a hill.

My cardboard barrier (see previous post) in use during set-up.
This is the American baseline.

The view from the other side of the hill. 
The Germans set up.

The American attack gets under way with a strong left flank tank attack.
The Panzer IVs in Beringhausen are quickly turned into scrap by the Pershings.

A Sherman platoon leap-frogs the heavy tanks and moves into the outskirts of Beringhausen.
German infantry refuse to be intimidated and hunker down in their entrenchments,
as the tanks drive past and sometimes over them!

Meanwhile another U.S. tank platoon sets off on a wide left hook.

The American right flank advance is more of a feint than a serious attack.
German mortars claim an M18.

A smoke screen hampers the defending Stugs.

Eventually, American infantry and anti-tank guns reach the
road junction objective.

They push forward, but any further advance would be suicide...

... as German reinforcements have begun to arrive.
The guns of the Tiger IIs now dominate the centre of the battle.

And the Panthers aren't far behind.

Back on the left flank, the main street of Beringhausen is full of
Pershings attempting to get forward.

The lead Pershing engages the advancing Panthers...

... but is knocked out. The German SPWs and their infantry
now make a lunge forward to dispute the objective marker.

Meanwhile, the Shermans are desperately trying to clear out the buildings and foxholes 
in and around Beringhausen. However, the village's objective marker is still disputed
by the fanatical German defence as the game comes to an end.

Finally, an unflattering but candid shot of myself as umpire,
wondering how I could forget my own rules. C'est la guerre!

Wash Up

We called it at 16.30 as we needed to pack up by 17.00. We had managed 7 moves, and the Americans only had 1 objective under their control. They were very near at another 2, but the Germans had managed to hang on by their fingernails to dispute the ownership of the markers. So I called it a German victory.

The scenario had worked well - the Germans were despairing at first, with an entire Mk.IV platoon destroyed almost straight away and hordes of American tanks surging forward, especially the new Pershings. But the arrival of strong reserves gave them the chance to fight back. A traditional final-move charge by the German heavy cavalry (oops, I mean the SPW platoon) disputed the objective north of Beringhausen to give them the victory.

A point of interest was that the American infantry didn't get into the fight as much as they should have. Always an issue in WW2 rules, I reckon, but I think tactics were as much of an issue as any fault with the rules. The infantry should have been pushed forward with, or even ahead of, the tanks, accepting a slightly slower overall movement rate but ensuring the German infantry had a harder time.

A good deal of time was naturally spent in explaining and discussing the rules (and consuming lunch), so just 7 moves in about 5.5 hours didn't bother me. Only two of the players had any experience of the rules, and that was limited to one or two games a while back. The rule discussions were polite and very useful, resulting in some worthwhile rule alterations. The 76mm Shermans and the Hellcats were allowed 2 turns of HVAP each, which they used sparingly. This minor bit of rules granularity seemed well worth it to me.

Overall, we had a very enjoyable time. I'm glad to say that I left the guys to themselves on a couple of occasions (as the quest for bacon sandwiches at a local bakery took place), and they were quite happy to play the game without me in attendance. In addition, it was pleasing to see that as the moves went by, the progress of the game itself was holding people's attention as fortunes swung back and forth - the rules themselves had slowly faded into the background. This is always a good thing to see.

A fun day. More of this kind of thing is needed to give the rules their final polish, and happily the guys seemed willing to play more games. With rule testers like these, I am hopeful that Startline will mature into a solid set of rules over the next few months.

P.S. See also Steve's lovely blog for another take on the game.

'Til next time!

EDIT: 25th November 2025

Just got sent some nice photos of the game by Glenn. Find five of the best below. Still no shots of the P-47s! They attacked twice but encountered accurate flak and didn't achieve much.

Thanks for those Glenn!

The Fog of War - In Cardboard

If you go back a couple of posts you'll see a report on a Crimean War wargame I played in October. This was in my good friend Roy's lovely wargaming room, and when deploying we had the pleasure of using the pre-installed roller blinds which one can wind down from the ceiling, so that each side can deploy simultaneously without knowing what the other side are doing.

The idea, of course, is as old as recreational wargaming itself, dating back at least to the 1960s - Donald Featherstone describes the use of curtains in chapter 5 of War Games. Setting up a curtain or erecting some sort of barrier across the centre of the table so that both sides deploy in ignorance of what their opponent is doing is an elegantly simple way to recreate the fog of war, and is also a way to save time by avoiding the need for alternate deployment of units or the setting up of 'hidden' units with counters or 'blinds'.

I had a go at this some years ago using a curtain, as you can see in this post from 2016. But the bamboo tripods I had to use were rather fiddly and prone to toppling over, and whole contraption rarely got used. 

But after that Crimea game I decided to think again. Maybe not a curtain, but a solid barrier laid across the table between the opposing sides. I remembered those TSS Terrain 2' x 2' tiles I used to use before the days of terrain mats. Standing those on edge would probably work - but I had only kept one of my old tiles (in case I ever wanted to try DBA again!).

Eventually I settled on using plain old cardboard. I could get some good-sized sheets, then construct some sort of concertina-style barrier that would fold up for storage but would also stand up fairly solidly across the table. Getting card in large sizes is pretty easy on the internet, and eventually I went for some corrugated cardboard in A0 size, which is 1189mm x 841mm, or about 47" x 33". I used these guys on eBay. Cost me less than £14 for 5 sheets, including delivery. Bargain. 

Then it was just a case of cutting up the pieces into a more suitable size, and using duct tape to put them together in a way that allowed the whole thing to fold up nicely. Only a moderate amount of swearing was required. I would say that 24" high is plenty high enough in most cases, but you might want to go for 30" to cover all eventualities, such as very tall gaming friends! Your line of sight to the far side of the table is now completely blocked.

Each panel in my finished barrier is 24" x 16". The dining table here is nearly 6' long, so for a 6' x 4' gaming table five panels was plenty. I have extra card left over if I want extend the barrier for an 8' table. And storage is a doddle, as you can see below.

It's time this kind of device had a rennaisance. It's handy and simple, and creates a better game in a very straightforward way, especially for ancients and the horse and musket period. Let me know if you're already using something like this in your gaming.

'Til next time!

Honours of War - A New Scenario Book

Anyone who has been part of Honours of War's online presence these last 10 years will be familiar with Dinos Antoniadis. He has been a prolific presence both on the original website and now on Facebook, particularly with battle reports and scenarios. He also provides maps for the prestigious Kronoskaf SYW website. Now, those maps and scenarios have come together in this co-operation with Partizan Press.

Above is the edition currently on sale from Caliver Books for £24.95. Below you can see the version sent to me just before the book went on sale. The cover colour was changed at the request of Osprey to avoid any confusion with the original Osprey 'Blue Book', although this new book is a larger, A4 size production. Naturally, the small number of blue coloured books produced have become instant collector's items and are changing hands at over £100. Or maybe not.

Anyway, regardless of the cover colour, you get a softback of 103 pages in full colour, with 9 historical scenarios and 6 fictional ones. I've written a preface, and none other than Charles Grant has written the foreword. Some sample pages can be seen below.

To introduce the book more fully, I include my preface here. As you will read, I am extremely pleased to see this book in print. Dinos deserves to be congratulated on a good product, and with luck more people will end up playing HoW. However, whatever rules you use for this period, I feel the book will be equally valuable.

If you're buying the book, I recommend you go straight to Caliver at the address below. Happy reading!

Honours of War Scenarios

'Til next time!

Photo Report - Cotswold Wargaming Day 2025

So, CWD7 has come and gone. Once again, the venue was Big Battles Ltd in Cirencester, and once again I reckon a good time was had by all.

8 games in full swing.

Numbers were down a bit this year, mainly due to some regular groups of gamers being unable to attend. But the upside was that a few gamers new to the event turned up, and it was nice to welcome them in. My thanks to everyone who came along, it is you who make the event and your support is much appreciated. To make the hire fee of £300 I had to raise the attendance cost to £15 per person, but there was not a murmur of dissent, and in the end £26 was spare and was promptly sent to support the local Air Ambulance - thanks to Andy and Derek of Big Battles for arranging that.

Eight games were presented. Unfortunately a couple of games had to be played solo due to lack of opponents. Next time I think I will forego bringing a game myself, and therefore be available to support gamers without an opponent. I will also be able to circulate and socialise, which is such a pleasure and such a part of this event. Anyway, brief details of the games follow.

Matt and Paul - Relief of Tobruk (10mm, BKCII)

Willz Harley - Invasion of Cuba 1762 (28mm, own rules)

Steve Johnson - 'Blue vs Red' Napoleonic (10mm, Black Powder II)

Ian and Paul - N.W. Frontier/Afghanistan 1920s (28mm)

Julian and Shaun - WW2 Russia (6mm, Battlegroup Kursk)

Keith and Roy - WW2 Rhineland 1945 (Startline, 15mm)

Jon Billington - WW2 1944 (own rules, 15mm)

Cirencester Wargames Club - Napoleonic 1809 (28mm, Lasalle II)

This year I decided to present just the Stuart Asquith Trophy for best game. Chris Gregg and Pendraken Miniatures both offered prizes to support the show, but for this year I decided to keep it simple. I got together with Andy and Derek of Big Battles to choose the winner, and we were unanimous that Willz Harley's game deserved the prize. An original period, rules developed independently to give a result in a big game after about 2-3 hours, and classic Spencer Smith 28mm figures. Mr Asquith would have loved it.

Andy, Willz, me and Derek.

It's only fair for me to point you in the direction of some supporters of the day. So check out what Pendraken and Chris Gregg have to offer at their websites:

Chris Gregg Art 

Pendraken

'By Wargamers for Wargamers' is a well-worn phrase, but one that applies strongly to Big Battles Ltd in Cirencester. If you're a Cotswolds or Gloucestershire wargamer, you should check out what they have to offer. Once again they couldn't have been more helpful in supporting the day.

Big Battles Cirencester 

I've been thinking maybe next year I might give the show a year off, or perhaps move it to November. I'll make a decision soon. Stay tuned.

'Til next time!

EDIT - 4th November 2025

CWD 2026 is on, and will take place on Sunday 8th November 2026 at Big Battles in Cirencester. Maybe I'll see you there!

The Crimea With 'Shadow of the Eagles'

My wargaming friend Roy Boss has an astonishing collection of toy soldiers, collected over about 60 years. Every now and then he surprises me by producing yet another army (or armies) from his Alladin's cave of a wargaming room. Most recently, he revealed the existence of a rather lovely collection of figures for the Crimea. He also asked if I fancied adapting SotE for the period and playing a game. Dear readers, how could I refuse?

I soon found that the required rule adaptions were minimal. In fact, there were just two. Rifled muskets were awarded a range of 18", twice the range of smooth-bore muskets as used in the original rules. Firing at over 9" range with rifled muskets would get a -1 modifier. The other change was to dispense with the rules for skirmish screens, i.e. those skirmishers provided by the light companies of a given infantry battalion. Skirmishing cover would be provided by battalions of suitably trained soldiers, operating with the whole battalion in skirmishing order. This both simplified the rules and seemed to give a more Crimean feel to the fairly large scale battle we were envisaging.

Roy had invited four of us over. On arrival we found a delightfully large battle laid out, on a 10' x 4' table. The Russians were intending to attack a combined British/French force, moving down from their ridge position. There were 26 Russian infantry battalions with a standard 24 figures per battalion, with 17 similar sized battalions on the Allied side. The Allies were outnumbered 12 to 8 in cavalry regiments (12 figures per unit), and 8 to 6 in artillery batteries. On the other hand, the Russians had no rifled muskets (apart from a couple of rifle battalions), and they were likely to have inferior brigade commanders, though this would be subject to dice rolls. And they had the burden of attacking.

A typical Russian 'brigade', formed from a regiment of 3 battalions.

Paul commanded the Russian right. 
He seemed confident of success.

The figures in use were classic Hinton Hunts, of 25mm size. The perfect figures for gaming this kind of battle. The stream was a linear obstacle and so not too much of an issue for the Russians. The dice rolls for commanders gave the Russians all regular brigadiers - not an inferior commander amongst them! The Allied commanders (which included me) swallowed hard and braced ourselves for a tough fight.

And so the game gets underway.
Classic pointing action from veteran gamer Roy.

My opponent on the Allied right was Adam.
I can't say I was very keen on his apparent grim determination.

Well, it was a tough fight, and as the turns went by the Allied defence got increasingly desperate, particularly on my side of the table. There were just too many damned Russians, well supported by 4 deadly batteries firing from the ridge. The first line of Russian columns was turned back, but they retired through their second line which then resumed the assault. This was just too much for the already damaged British units and they broke away one by one. My partner Matt caused some alarm and despondency by doing well in the initial cavalry combats on his (French) flank, but in the end the luck turned against these troops. However, honours were much more even on this flank. 

Here they come.
The Russian infantry was only allowed to attack in assault/company column.

The French flank was rather more open,
as both sides had most of their cavalry here.

My screen of rifleman fell back behind the main line.

The Allied centre under extreme pressure. In the background
you can see the Allied right wing is already folding.

Oh dear me. The Russians are in amongst the British in the centre,
forcing flank combats which even guard units are unlikely to win.

Paul played aggressively against my French allies. Stop enjoying yourself man!

And so it's all over. A conclusive victory for the Russians.
The very effective Russian batteries are seen in the foreground.

Yes, I have to say that the Allies got their butts well and truly kicked. A whole bunch of my infantry units routed off the table and the right flank was broken, with lots of Russian units ready to exploit. The French flank wasn't in as bad a state, but even here we were definitely on the back foot. Time to assess what went wrong for the Allies and how the scenario worked out.

Learning Points

Were there just too many Russian units? Maybe not. They were lucky with their initial command rolls - statistically a third of their brigadiers should have been 'inferior', which would have slowed down their attacks. And Allied tactics were at fault - we failed to move forward from our initial dispositions, which meant that we were cramped against our baseline. This gave us restricted room to fall back and rally, and units were lost by leaving the table when they should have had the chance to reform. And perhaps a redoubt or two (or three) might have been granted to the Allies. After all, what is a Crimean wargame without redoubts?

Some rules needed changing. All the British forces should have been superior for training, making their fire more effective. Making the Russians superior for motivation is a mistake - their performance in the Crimea makes 'regular' a better option. We also failed to use the British counter-charge rule, which means they are the only infantry able to counter-charge, representing their 'volley then charge' tactics. On the other hand, we gave all the French infantry rifled muskets, which I believe was wrong. Rifled muskets were not generally issued until after the Crimean War was over.

The main problem in moving SotE to the Crimean theatre is assessing how the main 4 nations (Russia, France, Britain and Turkey) should be classed for the various rule mechanisms. Books on the Crimea giving the kind of detail that wargamers want are much rarer than for the Napoleonic period, and it was difficult to make some of the assessments. 

Nevertheless, a fine time was had by all. Thanks to Roy for setting it all up and letting us use his marvellous collection of figures. I look forward to more Crimean action in the future.

Those wishing to check out the extra Crimean rules and the various National Characteristics can find free downloads on my Facebook page:

Honours of War, Shadow of the Eagles, Startline

'Til next time!

In Which I Become A Global Influencer...

 ... or not. Anyway, I am pleased to inform readers that a piece I wrote for Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy magazine has been accepted and will appear in WS&S issue 137 - available for pre-order as I write.

The article will appear in the 'Irregular' column slot, and is called 'Let's Escape!'. It's about how considering our hobby as some kind of escape might not be the best idea if we want to get the most out of it. I have a couple of other ideas for the column which I'm hoping might be accepted. I'll guess we'll see.

Whether anyone will find it worth their time reading the piece also remains to be seen. I myself always flick past the painting and terrain articles in wargames magazines, being most interested in the scenarios and game reports. But I also find the WS&S columns worth reading, especially those written by well-known personalities (recently, Rick Priestley and Richard Clarke). I spend a lot of time doing hobby-related stuff, and I like to reflect on the whys and hows. But I also fully understand that some gamers flick past the opinion columns and love the terrain and painting articles. 

Chacun à son goût, as they say in France. WS&S is the only magazine that does this sort of thing as a regular part of each issue, and it's something I admire the editor (Guy Bowers) for doing. You won't be surprised to know that WS&S is easily my favourite of the 3 wargames magazines on offer at the present time.

One other little bit of fun is that as a column writer you get a pencil cameo to head up the article. So I submitted a photo and you see the result below. It seems to be an image of a much older man! But there we are. A little boost to the ego nevertheless.

I didn't know I had that many wrinkles.

As to going global, it was interesting to get the photo below from my eldest son, who lives and works in Kuala Lumpur.

Yes, there's actually a shop in Malaysia where you can get all the wargames magazines - if you live in the capital. Apparently, it's a pretty unique bookshop stocking English language books and magazines, including military titles like Ospreys. So if you're ever in KL... In fact, my impression is that wargaming in KL is mainly limited to Games Workshop-type stuff.

One Million Hits

Sometime in the past couple of months my hit counter has gone over the 1 million mark. This is very gratifying, although of course it's impossible to know how many of those hits represents someone actually reading what's here. Those 1 million hits have occurred over the 17 years the blog has been in existence. I have certainly enjoyed creating every post, and the blog as it exists represents a excellent record for me of how my gaming has been developing. I hope it continues to be of some use to other gamers. 

My thanks to all those who have taken an interest in this blog since it started in 2008. Although posts are rather less frequent than previously, I hope to continue with the blog for many years yet.

Anyway, that's it for now. A Shadow of the Eagles game report is coming up soonish - set in the Crimean War.

'Til next time!