Battlegroup Blitzkrieg - 3 Games

Being determined to further my understanding and enjoyment of this set of WW2 rules, I have managed three games in the last couple of weeks. Two have been solo, and a third was with my old opponent Paul, being in fact a game of Battlegroup Kursk rather than a game of Battlegroup Blitzkrieg. The overall conclusion is that I continue to enjoy these rules and will definitely stick with them, but I think it might be worth sharing some thoughts about how the games went.

Game 1 - Defence Line
Playing this solo, I selected the following forces, making this a platoon level action. The numbers after the units indicate points/battle rating.

Poles

Forward HQ 23/3 (senior officer, spotter)

Cavalry patrol 17/1 (scout, brawura)

Infantry platoon 1 102/7 (officer, runner)

HMG team 16/1

Light mortar team 14/1

ATR team 8/1

ATG with tow 19/2

Infantry platoon 2 (2 infantry squads only) 72/5 (officer, runner)

ATR team 8/1

ATG with tow 19/2

2 Trenches 20/0, 2 ATG dugout 40/0

TKS platoon, 2 mg, 1 20mm 32/3

7tp platoon, 37mm 87/6

Forward observer team (spotter) 16/1

Off table mortar battery, 2 81mm 54/0

545 points, 3 officers, Battle Rating 34.

Germans

Forward HQ 24/3 (senior officer, spotter)

Sdkfz 221 16/1 (scout, spotter)

Sdkfz 231 24/1 (scout, spotter)

Kradschutzen recce patrol (scout, m/c) 39/2

Infantry platoon 112/8 (officer, runner)

HMG team 17/1

ATR team 12/1

ATG with tow 19/2

PzI platoon (officer) 40/3

PzII platoon (officer) 55/6

Medium Tank platoon (2 PzIII, 1 PzIV) 90/9

Forward observer team (officer, spotter) 21/1

Off table mortar battery, 3 80mm 81/0

550 points, 6 officers, Battle Rating 38

The game was set up with the Germans attacking from the near baseline. Table size 6' x 5'. German scout units plus the allowed 3 other units (in this case 3 PzIIs) have been deployed. Objectives were the copse on the near ridge, the road junction and the church on the far ridge. The roll for the number of Polish defenders was reasonable: two anti-tank guns plus infantry were deployed, but there were still some empty trenches near the road junction.

The 20mm cannons on the PzIIs are very effective against infantry and gun teams.
The Polish 37mm by the road junction was quickly silenced.

Polish reinforcements arrive in the shape of three 7tps.

A tank action develops in front of the rearmost ridge.
The Germans suffered some casualties, but a timely air attack from an HS-123 turned the tide.

As can be seen, the Germans managed to take the copse and associated ridge feature. Infantry, PzIIs and mortars had
co-operated well. The road junction fell shortly afterwards.
The HS-123 hung around for a strafing run but this had little effect.

Despite significant German losses (20 /38), by German turn 9 the Poles had exceeded their battle rating
and the game was over. All the Polish armour and anti-tank guns were destroyed.

Thoughts on the game
'Defence Line' is one of the 4 standard scenarios included in the core rulebook. The number of defending units on board at game start, and therefore the number of reserves which will arrive later, are decided by dice roll. This a departure from the more usual procedure of deciding defenders and reserves first, then rolling for the arrival move of the reserves. I thought it was an interesting twist and meant the scenario would produce a different game each time.
The rate of arrival of both German and Polish reserves is also diced for - one gets D6 units per move. I thought this not such a good rule - some command confusion is always welcome, but I felt the possibility of having units arrive in dribs and drabs a bit unrealistic. Formations tended to march together, after all. However, the initial moves of this scenario proceed quickly, and reinforcements are soon arriving. The Germans have the advantage of the Panzermarsch! rule, which means on one turn they can roll an extra D6 for reinforcements. At least, I use this rule, although the rulebook suggests it should only be used for France.
At this point on the learning curve, keeping track of the various campaign special rules can be a problem, but this will improve. I am considering making the arrival of an air attack more probable once the appropriate battle counter has been picked. This is a rare enough event in itself, and allowing just a 5 or 6 roll to allow the attack to arrive seems a bit mean - in fact, for the Poles, a 6 is required. A 4+ for the Germans and 5+ for the Poles might be better.

Game 2 - The Bridges at Zamosc
The background to this scenario, and forces for Blitzkrieg Commander, have already been described. I'll repeat the original map which inspired my battle.

Map © Miniature Wargames magazine. Thanks Henry.

The first photo below shows how I adapted the map to my own terrain for a 1939 game. Rules for the armoured train needed to be developed from scratch - this was their first playtest. They have been posted on the BGB forum here. Forces for BGB were:

Poles

1. Forward HQ 25/3  (senior officer, mortar spotter)

2. Armoured train no.51 270/17 (officer, spotter, communications)

T-18 draisine 10/1 (scout)

3. Wz.29 22/1  (scout, mortar spotter)

Wz.34 mg x 2 20/2 (scout)

Infantry squad in 2 PF621 trucks 38/2

ATR team 8/1

HMG team in Lazik 20/1

4. Cavalry platoon 48/4 (officer, runner, brawura)

HMG in tazcanka 20/1

ATG with horse tow 19/2

TKS mg x 2 20/2

518 points, BR = 38, 3 officers, 4 scouts.

Forces 2 and 3 on table at game start up to 10” on rails/south road (enter in column).

Forces 1 and 4 arrive move 5 on west road, enter in column.

Germans

1. Forward HQ 24/3 (senior officer, artillery spotter)

2. Recce command 30/2 (officer, scout, mortar spotter)

Sdkfz222 20/1 (scout, mortar spotter)

Sdkfz 231 6-rad 24/1 (scout, mortar spotter)

Infantry squad in 2 Protz 38/2

HMG team in Protz 21/1

Motorised panzerjaeger 26/2 (scout)

ATR team in heavy car 14/1

3. Sdkfz 221 16/1 (scout, mortar spotter)

Pz I platoon 40/3 (officer)

Pz II platoon 55/6 (officer)

Panzer III 34/3

Panzer IV 40/3

Infantry squad in 2 Protz  38/2

HMG team in Protz 21/1

75mm IG with tow 19/1

Bunkerflak 54/2

514 points, BR = 35, 4 officers, 5 scouts

Force 2 is on table at game start up to 10” on north road (enter in column)

Forces 1 and 3 arrive move 5. Dice for each arriving unit – 1, 2, 3, 4 enter in column on east road. 5, 6 arrive on board edge up to 10” south of river.

Tank platoons and the infantry squad arrive as 1 'unit'.

North is to the bottom of the photo. This is the end of the first German turn - the Polish train and recce units are deployed (background), and the Germans have opted for a dash to the road bridge, which gets them onto the objective but with no chance to fire. This turned out to be a mistake.

The armoured train and its recce draisine move cautiously out of Zamosc station towards the rail bridge.

The puny 37mm on the 'Ursus' armoured car and the Polish anti-tank rifle team are quite powerful enough to penetrate the thin armour of the 2 leading German armoured cars, who have no chance to reply. The Polish infantry also shake out into formation and cause significant casualties to the supporting German infantry.

Three German units, including a 37mm anti-tank gun, are diverted to the rail crossing north of the bridge,
 to stall the Polish train.

Both bridges are quickly in Polish hands. I ignored an 'all objectives held' win. The Germans at the road bridge never recover from their initial drubbing and fall back. The Polish train grinds forward and takes the German blocking force under effective fire. By turn four the Germans are firmly on the back foot, but then their tank reinforcements arrive (top right). Could they turn the tide? Surely that train is a sitting duck?

The train dominates the centre of the table...

...but the German tanks are on their way.

The resulting firefight was intense, but despite the presence of the 'Bunkerflak' (right), the train more than held its own. The accounts of the very few occasions on which such trains were directly engaged emphasise the heavy firepower the trains could develop, and the difficulty of knocking out the various train components. Nevertheless, the two leading train cars are eventually destroyed.

Unfortunately for the Germans, the Polish infantry and cavalry (including infantry from the assault car of the train) are pushing across the board, and help support the train just as the firefight is at its most intense.

After  8 turns the Germans have suffered too many casualties to continue (39/35).
The Poles are at 11/38, have both objectives, and so have clearly won.

Thoughts on the game
Despite also being played solo, I enjoyed this game immensely, and was pleased to see that a) workable rules for an armoured train in BGB could be developed, and b) armoured trains could be incorporated into a reasonable size game with success.

Game 3 - High Ground - Kursk
No photos of this game I'm afraid, which used another of the standard BG scenarios from the Kursk book, also to be found in the core rulebook. It was played with my old buddy Paul in Bristol, using his 20mm forces. We both chose simple armies of infantry and tanks, with no scout/recce units or off-table support. The game was played along the length of a 6' x 4' table.

The result was interesting. Tactically, it was perhaps uninspiring - the Germans advanced, engaged the dug-in Russian defenders as best they could, then took on the reinforcing Russian tanks when they arrived. Not much manoeuvre, more of a stand-up fight. But we had great fun, rolling the dice, wearing down the enemy and enjoying the twists and turns of the rules. For example, towards the end of the game my last surviving Panther moved forward, to then be engaged in flank by a T-34 hiding behind a burning Panzer IV. The Panther survived, was pinned, but then threw a 6 for morale, meaning it had a 'Beyond the Call of Duty' result. Accordingly, it immediately returned fire and knocked out the T-34!

The Germans lost soon after, as the Russians turned out to have just enough tanks to win the fight. The higher points values for vehicles mean that a platoon size game in 1943 has fewer units than one in 1939, so choices are restricted. This also seemed to mean that to reach one's battle rating, you have to lose significantly more than half your force, which in this battle gave a situation similar to those Old School battles from the 1960s when only a handful of figures survived on the winning side. This felt less than realistic, but we had plenty of good, knock-about fun.

What I came to realise during this battle, however, was that a well-rounded Battlegroup game depends on using the full variety of unit types and the full selection of available rules - or at least as many as you reasonably can. When I first acquired BGB I vowed not to bother with the ammo rules for vehicles - too much book keeping, I reckoned. Now I'm not so sure. Having to keep an eye on ammo consumption would have added an extra dimension to the game, perhaps moderating the non-stop shoot out that characterised most of the moves. One would have to think about alternative ways of getting the job done, which might increase the amount of manoeuvre in the game or encourage the purchase of off-table assets. And of course the purchase of a re-supply truck or two! I reckon using a couple of mini dice behind each tank to record ammo usage should be pretty painless.

The army lists provide many more alternatives that I should really be making use of - communications teams, off table artillery (expensive), timed fire missions/air strikes (a cheaper alternative to dedicated support), engineers, and logistic support (those resupply trucks). Lots of recce options are available as well.

Conclusions
I'm definitely enjoying these rules. Whether they're just a fairly lightweight WW2 game, or the heavily period specific, thorough representation that the rules introduction seems to promise, I'm not sure. Actually, I reckon it's both. A not-too-serious game which does try and get some campaign-specific character in.

Army Lists - grrr...
One thing I can't take too seriously are the army lists. These seem very precise and are beautifully laid out, but the choices don't always ring true. For example, my Germans can't have a motorcycle recce squad in 1939, but in 1940 they can. And despite 13 staffeln of HS-126s being deployed to Poland, I can't have an aerial artillery observer either. There are all kinds of little details like this. In short, the lists tend to be too proscriptive, and sometimes don't offer realistic alternatives. But this is always the way with army lists, and is the reason why I won't be offering them in my Seven Years' War rules. I'm pretty sure the authors are quite comfortable with people making their own choices, of course, and this is what most informed gamers will do, but it still makes the lists an occasionally inaccurate guide for the newcomer. And we all occasionally meet those misguided gamers to whom the lists are holy scripture.

Despite the pages of lists, actual OOBs of the various formations as they existed are absent. How does a German Light Division differ from a Panzer Division, for example? Or how was a Polish motorised brigade like the famous Black Brigade organised? No info. My own personal view is that such information is worth more than any number of army lists to a player new to the period. In addition, the rules do not require that units from the same platoon operate together in any way. Thus units from an infantry platoon can be scattered all over the table, even if they are the 2 units which are the components of the same 'squad' (e.g. the rifle group and mg group which make up a German infantry squad). For me, all this creates a situation where one gets rather divorced from reality, into a nether world of allowable army list choices.

Things are not helped by the rather interchangeable use of the terms 'squad', 'section', 'group' and 'team' when describing infantry units and their supports. Take the entry for a German infantry platoon on p.37. It consists of a command squad and then:

"3 Rifle Teams 

Unit composition 9 men

Squad may take anti-tank grenades at +5pts".

So in one paragraph this collection of 9 men is a team, a unit and a squad (which elsewhere aren't necessarily the same thing).

Yes, I know, moaning about army lists is a bit of a wargaming cliché. If you're reading this Piers, sorry for the gripes. I guess I'm just not an army list man. Conclusion - the army lists have been made essential to the game, and generally they are OK, but IMHO some aspects of them are a bit flaky.

Anyway, having got that off my chest, I'll say farewell. 'Til the next time!

Consumerism Gone Mad - A Continuing Series

There's nothing like getting into a new rule set to give a wargamer an excuse for some retail therapy. I mentioned some initial purchases in a recent post, but I felt the need for more. You know what it's like. I am reminded of the phrase from The Fellowship of the Ring, when Bilbo's guests at the Long Expected Party are "at that delightful stage which they called 'filling up the corners'". I guess that's where I am with my wargames purchases these days. No grand new projects for me, just filling up the odd corner. 

Aircraft

I thought it was well past time I had an artillery spotter plane for the 1939 Poland campaign. The Poles didn't really qualify for one, but the Germans certainly did. Not tempted by the boring old Fiesler Storch, I plumped for the much grander Henschel HS-126.

The problem is there is no 1/100th scale model available. Therefore there was little choice but to risk the 1/144th model from good old Zvezda. It had the advantage of being cheap, and I knew from past experience that I would get an accurate little model that was easy to put together. In fact I would cite Zvezda as one of the best reasons to promote better relationships with Russia. Any country that can produce a company like this can't be all bad.

Anyway, the model is indeed absolutely fine. As you can see from the photo above, it was not a small aircraft for an observation plane, and so the model comes out at a reasonable size. Over the table the smaller scale is hardly noticeable.

There was further temptation. In Battlegroup Blitzkrieg there is the chance of random airstrikes, and the rules indicate a selection of possible aircraft which might arrive, including passing fighter planes dipping down for a bit of strafing. Thus the possibility of including a Bf-109E, or a PZL P.11c in my collection raised it's head. I did discover that both models are available in 1/100th scale from Old Glory UK (see here and here). But manfully, I resisted. I already have 4 aircraft in my 1939 collection (JU-87, Hs-123, Karas and now HS-126), and a couple more that would hardly get used seemed a bit over the top. For the moment anyway. You never know.

Markers
A link from the Iron Fist Publishing site led me to a purchase of a set of markers for BGB. They are made by Commission Figurines, and I purchased them from their eBay store.  They are laser cut from MDF and have all the possibilities you could want. In fact, there are rather more markers in the set than I am ever likely to need, so some have gone into store. For a fiver, you can't go wrong. As you will see from the link, they are left in a natural wood colour which I think works well, avoiding them being too intrusive on the table whilst still being obvious in use.

Armoured Train
Now, the fact that there are no rules for armoured trains in BGB wasn't going to stop me using mine. I have already knocked up a set of rules for my train, with the help of some pointers from Piers Brand on the forum. Playtesting is yet to come. But then I recalled that a), my train had no assault car, being adapted from the Peter Pig Russian Civil War model, and b), Battlefront were now selling the elements of their own armoured train separately. So around 20 quid got me an assault car which I have added in to give me a complete train. 

The train is preceded by a Tatra T-18 draisine, perhaps the most pathetic armoured vehicle
I have ever wargamed with. But I love it.

As finally completed, my train has most in common with the real armoured train no.51 'Marszalek'. 

Note in the photo the assault car is behind the loco. Most photos of Polish armoured trains show the assault car in front of the loco, hence my own arrangement in the photo above.

The Battlefront assault car model was OK, but not really of the quality I would expect from them. The resin body of the car comes in 3 parts which plug together, the 2 ends being moulded separately. There was some deformation which made the fit of parts awkward and which produces a model which is OK for wargaming, but wouldn't please a model maker.

A close up reveals the deformation of the main parts of the model.

I seem to be using phrases like 'an OK model for wargaming' a lot these days. Very often the models I purchase are a bit, shall we say, average in quality. Maybe I should send them back more often, but the modeller in me always fancies the challenge of putting them right. When buying from small cottage industry companies, I accept quality might not always be the highest, especially when prices are cheap. But when buying from sizeable manufacturers like Battlefront, I don't really expect this sort of thing. They're supposed to have quality control, for heaven's sake.

Anyway, on that sour note I will conclude. I'm looking forward to some BGB games in the near future, and I hope to report back on how they go.

Battlegroup Blitzkrieg - The Story So Far

My copy of Battlegroup Blitzkrieg arrived bang on time on the 16th of April. As I had pre-ordered (just call me fanboy), I had the pleasure of getting the book before its 'official' release at Salute 2015.

Essential companions - you need the £10 core rules book to supplement your supplement.
Total cost including p&p £40.

I have had the time to read it through thoroughly, and I have played a small solo game. I have also given the game an outing with some comrades from the Oxford Wargames Society at a recent club night. And I had a go a few weeks back with a Battlegroup Kursk game. So what's the conclusion? Well, prepare for a longish post - I am not a wargames butterfly, and committing to a new ruleset is a major thing for me. Of course, I will be using the rules for Poland 1939, so comments on sections relating to France 1940 will be limited.

These Is The Rules, Mate

I think I have found the new WW2 gaming experience I was looking for. As a 1:1 scale game, Battlegroup was bound to be a significant change from the 1 base:1 platoon scale of Blitzkrieg Commander; but 'a change' wasn't going to be good enough. I wanted a set of rules that were enjoyable and reasonably straightforward to play, and that I could see myself playing for a good few years. And I think BGB is a winner on all these fronts.

My reservations about the concept remain - can you fit a set of rules covering the whole of WW2 in a single 180 page A4 size book? Of course you can. But there's no use carrying on bitching about it - the guys behind the Battlegroup series have decided on their approach, and I feel they are genuine about wanting to bring out the full character of each campaign. So it's time for me to get over it. The books do make an enjoyable read, and to be honest they are a pleasure to own. And they have that lovely new-coffee-table-book smell. Oh dear me; I seem to be feeling a little faint.

But the real test is, are the rules any good? For me, they score by being built on a basically simple structure that adds enough detail to keep things interesting without going over the top. The three guys I played with at the club night were all new to the rules, but all had a positive reaction. I wasn't much of an umpire, being a newbie myself, but after a couple of hours we were well into the swing of things. There is a reasonable amount to learn and become familiar with, but moves don't seem to drag or get bogged down. The learning process is a pleasure.

This is a 1:1 scale set, so a 'unit' is a single vehicle, an infantry squad of maybe 8-10 men, or a weapons team like an HMG or anti-tank gun. Small teams like artillery observers also form a single unit.

The simple basic structure I mentioned is the turn itself - one rolls some dice to decide how many orders are available to you this turn, then you get on with issuing an order to each of your units one after the other. The basic orders are to either move twice, or fire twice, or move once and shoot once, or shoot once and move once. As an alternative, you can order your units to be ready to fire or move in your opponent's turn. There are, of course, a selection of other more specialist orders available to let you do all the other types of things with your units that you might want to. And that's about it, apart from the chance to rally pinned units at the end of the turn. None of those endless phases and sub-phases and 'go back to the number you first thought of' that characterise some of the sets I've looked at recently.

Movement rules are simple and sensible. It is in the firing rules that most of the extra detail comes in. This is the part of the rules where the writers seem to have had the most fun. To quote the rulebook "the heart of the game is shooting at each other's units". There is a basic division between 'area fire' (what you might call suppressing fire), and 'aimed fire' (aimed at destroying individual units). To give you a feel of the rules, firing is divided into:

Area fire with small arms, MGs and HE

Aimed fire with small arms, MGs and autocannons

Aimed fire with HE

Aimed fire with AP

Indirect fire (artillery and mortars)

The first on the list is particularly simple, having only 2 steps. The last, indirect fire, can be challenging at first, having a basic 6 steps, with the last step ('fire for effect') being subdivided into a further 7 steps. Ouch! But the steps are there for clarity, to lead you through the process by the nose, and once you have the hang of things indirect fire is good fun to call in. The authors make clear that the complication is deliberate, to give players the feel of a process that could be both time consuming and liable to break down in real life.

The morale rules are by contrast brief and basic - a single die roll is about it.

The only other thing worth mentioning is the Battle Rating system. Each unit has a battle rating (separate from its points value), which you need to add up before the game in order to get your force's total battle rating. When anything bad happens during the game, most commonly losing a unit, trying to rally a pinned unit, or the enemy capturing an objective, you then take a Battle Counter from a pot, which usually has a number from 1 to 5. This number is taken off your battle rating, until the time comes when your battle rating gets below zero and you must pack it in, ceding victory to your opponent. Some counters have special effects to produce the odd surprise.

The quick reference sheet is 2 sides only (as all QRS's should be).

In general, the rules are easy to pick up, but this is a set where the usual advice to start small and then build up gradually to bigger games is particularly sensible. There are four levels of game (defined mainly by points totals), Squad, Platoon, Company and Battalion. My first game was a company level scenario using Battlegroup Kursk, which rather maxed out both players as we tried to learn from scratch. For my first solo game I therefore went down to squad level, and had the additional pleasure of being able to fit the game on our little 4' x 3' dining table.

Ah, the return of dining table wargaming! Nice.

Germans advance

The Polish counter stroke fails and they lose the game.

The Supplements

So why does one need the supplements, and why are they so large? Well, as far as the game goes they include detailed army lists laying out the composition of all the possible units and how these fit into an overall force organisation, along with points values, battle ratings and any special rules the units might be able to use. There are also the equipment lists (or 'stats' as most gamers would call them) which give you the movement rates, armour classes and weapons of all the various vehicles, along with weapon stats. Then there are potted histories of the campaigns (in this supplement, Poland 1939, France and Belgium 1940), and what you might call an army summary of each of the combatants (Polish, German 1939, German 1940, French, Belgian and the BEF), giving a brief overview and some background to the various vehicles, guns and aircraft. There are also 9 scenarios in a range of sizes, which look pretty useful. Three of these are from the Polish campaign, then there are 3 German-British, 2 German-French, and one German-Belgian. The layout is, as the adverts say, 'lavish', which means the authors don't stint themselves on space, layout and production values. One detail I liked were the perforated pages for the quick reference sheet and the page of battle counters, which allowed you to extract these without destroying the spine of the book trying to get a decent photocopy.

Online

Online support is good. The rules are published by Iron Fist Publishing, but are sold by The Plastic Soldier Company. The main forum is situated on the Guild Wargamers site. The Iron Fist site has some useful downloads (e.g. QRS sheets) and interesting links related to the game. The occasional Despatches online magazine (2 editions so far), is a good read, and can be accessed via Iron Fist.

Downsides

Now, readers of this blog will not expect this gushing waterfall of positivity to last forever. I do have some reservations, and there were one or two things I thought were missing. 

As for the whole 'lavish' thing, this is not something I'm bothered about. I could have made do with 'basic', but people seem to love 'lavish' these days. I'll say no more on this. 

Although the rules are generally well written, there are a few explanations which are lacking and things which are unclear. That I am not alone here is borne out by the extensive Q&A on the forum, where many pages of quite basic questions have come in from players. The upside to this is that the answer you want is generally available with a bit of searching, and the authors (particularly Piers Brand, the author of BGB) seem happy to chip in with definitive responses. I think there seem to be more of these minor issues than there should be, but don't let this put you off the rules - most players will have few problems.

As to missing things - first, there are no rules for my personal little favourite, the armoured train. Admittedly, situations suitable for the tabletop involving armoured trains were few and far between in reality, but for a set of rules emphasising period character and flavour, armoured trains would have been a no brainer for me. Rather more difficult to understand is the lack of basic rules for cavalry - the movement rules and organisational details are there, but nothing about mounting/dismounting, number of horse holders, or what type of target they are when mounted (the answer seems to be treat them as soft skinned vehicles). This is a small but strange hole in the rules. Also missing is my favourite ground attack aircraft, the Henschel HS-123. Including the Bf-109 instead, as the rules do, I find odd, as the 109 wasn't really a ground attack aircraft at all in this period, whilst the HS-123 was significant and (importantly!) makes an interesting model.

And no rules for smoke. How strange, I thought, flicking desperately through the rule book trying to find how to fire it. Piers' response to queries on the forum is "it's abstracted into the spotting rolls. We assume smoke, dust and other obscurants are ever present and troops are popping smoke as needed." A bit unconvincing, to be honest, for a ruleset that goes into so much detail for firing such a wide range of weapons (up to and including 155mm guns and rocket batteries). As a way out of rules for tank smoke mortars, smoke grenades and the like, this is a fair enough approach, but I will develop my own rules for smoke from artillery and from medium and heavy mortars (i.e. weapons able to use indirect fire in the rules). The same goes for armoured trains - I'm not putting my model on hold for the lack of some rules!

Nothing either for airborne troops. Glider assault on Eben Emael? Fallschirmjaeger in Holland? Sorry! Piers has indicated these rules will appear in the supplement including Crete. He also added that, of course, there are no Dutch lists in BGB. I think there should have been. Apparently, they will be made available in a forthcoming article in WSS magazine, which is something.

A detail too far for me was that vehicles with significant weapons have an ammo figure, which you need to keep track of. This means you can make use of supply units to top up ammo when needed. I doubt I will be bothering with this extra workload - the odd 'ammunition low' battle rating counter will cover this aspect for me.

Other rule areas are surprisingly vague - line of sight is left entirely to player agreement, taking account of the situation on the table. This is actually quite liberating and caused no problems at the club, but the principle might have been made more explicit. Things like visibility within woods, or how close to the edge of a wood you need to be to see in or fire out, must be made up by the players without guidance. 

There is also the odd rule I disagree with. When throwing for number of orders using the designated number of D6s, there is the opportunity for quite a wide variation in the number of orders available. A bit of command frustration is one thing, but with this system some bad luck over 2 or 3 moves can really spoil your chances, rather unfairly I think. I might try using average dice rather than D6 for this. Another more minor example - artillery spotters can spot for arty and mortars, which I don't think accords with reality. But enough - this post has gone on long enough and I don't want to nit pick.

Cut!

Time to wrap it up. The reason I'm going for these rules is that they promise a straightforward but entertaining gaming experience which is enjoyable and fresh. Games seem to have a number of interesting twists and turns, made possible by some clever rule mechanisms. The scale is very different to what I have been used to, which I was hesitant about at first, but which turns out to be a real plus. The Battlegroup rules are well worth your attention.

A Return To Poland 1939, and Battlegroup Blitzkrieg

Over the past year I've spent most of my wargaming time developing and testing Honours of War. With the manuscript now submitted, it's time to give my other main period some attention - the 1939 Polish campaign.

1. Wheeling out the Armoured Train

The first tickle of interest was inspired by a scenario map in MW377. As you can see, 'The Bridges at Monocacy' was an ACW scenario - but my thinking was, firstly, what an intriguing map for a wargame and secondly, that railway line can mean only one thing - a chance to use my armoured train!

Many thanks to Henry Hyde for providing this map. Image © Miniature Wargames.

I decided to go for a scenario where Polish recce forces were co-operating with an armoured train to seize the two bridges on the map. They would encounter opposition from German recce and armoured forces. Additional inspiration regarding encounters between Polish and German recce units came from the excellent PIBWL site, for example the accounts of actions involving the Wz.29 Ursus armoured car. Rules in use would be Blitzkrieg Commander.

Scenario - The Bridges at Zamosc (6' x 4' table)

Poles CO CV8 (with the cavalry)
Initial forces (static deployment)
On railway from south east corner - armoured train (CV8) with Tatra T-18 drasine
On road from X - reconnaissance company; HQ CV7, 2 x Wz.34 armoured cars, 1 x Wz.29 armoured car, 4 infantry units (trucks), 2 mg units (motorcycles).
Forces arriving on the road from the west on move 5 (mobile deployment)
Cavalry detachment; HQ CV8, 6 cavalry units, 2 mg units (tazchanka), 1 37mm ATG (horse tow), 2 x TKS tankettes (mg).

Germans CO CV9 (with the tanks)
Initial forces (static deployment)
On road from Y - Reconnaissance detachment; HQ CV9, 1 x Sdkfz221, 1 x Sdkfz222, 1 x Sdkfz231(6-rad), 3 infantry units (trucks), 1 mg unit (truck), 1 37mm ATG (truck tow).
Forces arriving from the east on move 5 (mobile deployment)
Panzer battlegroup; HQ CV8, 2 x PzI, 2 x PzII, 1 x PzIV, 3 infantry units (trucks), 1 mg unit (truck), 1 75mm IG (truck tow).

The German forces arriving from the east should dice - on a 1, 2, 3, or 4 they arrive between the river and the north board edge. On a throw of 5 or 6 they arrive up to 30cm south of the river.

The bridges are the objectives, so obviously possession of both gives you a victory, and one each would be a draw. I suggest a turn limit of 10 moves.

This scenario is untested at the moment, and so may need tweaking after the first game. The idea is that the Poles have the advantage at first with their armoured train, but this is in turn threatened by the German armour on move 5. The arrival of the Polish cavalry will then hopefully even things up. I suggest the T-18 and one of each side's armoured cars be rated as recce units, and all other armoured cars are rated as recce support units.

2. Buying Stuff
Of course, no renaissance of interest in the 1939 campaign could avoid the spending of a little money. I thought I already had all of the worthwhile English-language books on this subject, but was alerted to one I had missed by the Polish Army 1939 section in Anatoli's Game Room. The book in question is from MMP, entitled Invincible Black Brigade (by Jerzy Majka), and deals with the creation, organisation and exploits of the Polish 10th Motorised Brigade. Being from MMP, this 120 page, A4 sized soft back is aimed particularly at modellers and so is fundamentally a picture book, with a large number of excellent and interesting photos of all the kit involved. But there is also a decent summary of the fighting which the brigade undertook and a good organisation table, along with some nice colour profiles of tanks and soft skins. All told, well worth getting, although cheap copies may be hard to find - I was lucky to get mine off Amazon for about £20.

I also decided my Polish armour needed a modest reinforcement. I ordered a 7tp twin-turret tank from QRF Models, to match what I already had, and out of interest I also ordered a 7tp from Battlefront, which can be completed as a single or twin turret vehicle.

My 2 original QRF models are on the left. The Battlefront 7tp is on the right in unpainted condition.
In between is my new QRF 7tp with tracks from a True North Miniatures vehicle.

The Battlefront 7tp is easily the best 15mm model of this vehicle you can get - you can make either version, it is pretty accurate and you get the option to have a tank commander in the turret. The only negative is that the rivet detail is overdone and needs sanding down. Unfortunately, at the time I was building my Polish forces the Battlefront Poland 1939 collection was way in the future, and I had to rely on the QRF models, which at the time were the best there was. I am actually quite fond of them - they are inaccurate, but have a quaint old school feel about them. Sadly, the moulds for the older QRF offerings are in poor shape these days. The tracks for the 7tp I received seemed to have been eaten by moths. I should have sent the model back, but I found some tracks from an old True North Miniatures offering which, whilst too small, were good enough for my needs.

I also ordered an additional Praga truck from QRF, a vehicle used extensively by the 10th Motorised Brigade. Confusingly, this model sits in the 'German' range of QRF vehicles. This is another old kit and whilst a bit rough, is just about acceptable for wargames purposes. QRF seem to have a generally good reputation, mainly due to their main man, Geoff, being considered an all round good egg. However, if ordering their older kits (usually obvious by the dodgy old photos on the website) be ready for poor quality. Their newer stuff is generally good. 

The QRF Praga truck as it comes from the manufacturer. Poor, but just about acceptable.

It is a great shame that Battlefront never completed their Polish range, particularly with the soft skin vehicles eagerly awaited by fans of this period. It just goes to show that big companies driven by profit margins rather than enthusiasm for the hobby won't always give you what you want.

3. Battlegroup Blitzkrieg

Talking of profit margins, we come to Battlegroup Blitzkrieg. When the first 'Battlegroup' title came out (Battlegroup Kursk, of course), I was predictably enraged that a 180 plus page, A4 size, full colour rulebook only covered one campaign of WW2. Clearly, a book that size was plenty to cover the whole war, and the principle behind the rules was endless supplements to maximise profits.

Nevertheless, at the time of writing you find me eagerly awaiting the latest supplement, which covers the 1939-1940 campaigns in Poland and France. That's £25 plus £5 p+p to you sir. £30? Have I gone soft? I think the answer is yes, a bit. I have been looking for an alternative to Blitzkrieg Commander for a while now - not because I have grown to dislike the rules, which I continue to consider excellent, but because after over 10 years of use I feel the need for a change, or shall we say a new perspective. But the various sets I have looked at all failed to inspire - mostly, they were too complex for my taste.

However, a while back my wargames buddy and good friend Paul acquired a copy of Battlegroup Kursk, and recently we got around to having a game. The rules (in my opinion) sit in a slightly uncomfortable space between skirmish level and the company level rules exemplified by Flames of War. The author (Warwick Kinrade) indicates the rules can be used at 4 levels - squad, platoon, company and battalion. The game I played with Paul was at company level: the rules proved a little hard to pick up, and were rather more 'granular' than we are used to (granular being a fancy way of saying 'detailed' in this context). We didn't get anywhere near finishing the game, but against my better judgement I began to develop a fondness for the rules. They were indeed a change from BKC, and at squad or platoon level I thought they could be a lot of fun. Once I am more familiar with them, company level might be OK as well, but I feel battalion level games would take a lot of time, familiarity and patience, as well as a fair amount of space.

This experience coincided with developing the scenario already presented above. In order to give the different perspective I was seeking, I had determined to play the scenario at what BKC players tend to call the squad level, where each stand of infantry represents a squad rather than a platoon. This means your basic formations are companies rather than the more usual battalions. But, having never tried this before, I found that how to play at this lower command level was far from obvious. Apart from the statement that ground scale changed from 1 cm = 20 metres to 1cm = 10 metres there wasn't much guidance. Did you have to double all game distances? Weapon ranges are given in centimetres, and only one range is specified, so where did that leave you? I didn't know, and neither did those who responded to my forum question. So it seemed that Battlegroup Blitzkrieg might fill this void.

I have already purchased the Battlegroup 'core rules' booklet for £10, and to be honest I am looking forward to playing another game. As long as I keep the games small, all that detail will be fun. It was also interesting to read Warwick's justification for this extensive series of large and expensive books. He says:

"The reason why Battlegroup exists is to try and infuse World War II wargames with more historical character... Each supplement deals with an individual theatre or period of the war in detail, providing gamers with its own unique character and feel".

This, it seems, means in particular a number of special rules in each book intended to provide that 'historical character', plus a series of very specific army lists. Do I buy this? Well, I don't want to call Warwick a liar so I accept his intention, though whether I actually agree with him is another matter. BKC managed this very well using a modest number of simple rule variations, conspicuous among them different command ratings for different armies in different periods. When I get hold of Battlegroup Blitzkrieg I guess I'll be able to judge the quality and accuracy of the army lists and special rules, and we'll see. I am by no means a beginner in this period. It might be interesting to play the bridges scenario above with both BKC and BGB, and compare. Let's hope I have the time and motivation.

And that's it. Let me know what you think of the scenario, and I eagerly await comments from anyone who plays the Battlegroup rules. 

Bloody Big Battles

We all know that sets of wargaming rules are coming out thick and fast these days. Personally, I think this is a good thing - whatever period you are gaming in, or are thinking of gaming in, you have a wide choice of rules to compare and contrast. It is also heartening to find that some of the new rulesets offer a genuinely new outlook on wargaming, offering fresh ideas and the chance of doing something genuinely different. In this latter connection I wanted to flag up the recently released Bloody Big Battles rules.

Now I should admit to a personal interest here. I first encountered these rules at the Oxford Wargames Society a few months before publication, as the author (Chris Pringle) is a member of the society and was one of the first members to welcome me in when I joined. Since then I have enjoyed three or four games with these rules, usually in a group of at least 4 wargamers, and all have been an excellent experience.

The rules do not cover either of my own main periods. They are designed primarily to game actual battles of the late nineteenth century (1850-1900), from the Crimean War through the American Civil War and on to the Franco-Prussian War, with stops at all the more minor wars along the way. The idea is that the big battles of these wars can be fought out in an evening. This I have found to be entirely possible - my most recent experience was to fight the 3 days of Gettysburg in the company of around 5 other gamers in (if I remember correctly) about 3.5 hours. The game was a lot of fun, as well as being quite instructive.

The rulebook is of 54 pages in roughly A4 size (being published in the US where they don't do proper A4). The publishers are Skirmish Campaigns, and I got my copy through Caliver Books for £18.50 plus p&p. The rules are contained in the first 25 pages, and the rest of the booklet consists of 9 scenarios for the Franco-Prussian War, covering all the main battles. Full details are provided, including a detailed map, to allow each to be fought out on a 6' x 4' table, except Le Mans which requires an 8' x 4' layout. This is a no-nonsense black and white printed rulebook with no fancy pictures or modelling tips, just the rules and the scenarios.

There is no real need for me to detail how the rules work - suffice to say that they are straightforward, easily comprehended and neatly summarised on a 2 sided playsheet which is provided at the back of the rules. The trick of condensing these big battles down is done by making the basic element a 1" square base representing around 1,000 infantry or cavalry or 36 guns. The basic game 'unit' for infantry is a brigade or division of 3,000 to 7,000 men, obviously of 3 to 7 elements. Cavalry brigades or divisions tend to be smaller, and are allowed down to a 2 element size. Gun elements operate as individual units. Figure size is not important - stuff as many of your favourite figures on a base as you want. Obviously 6mm or 10mm figures will work best in creating a physical picture of these large engagements. You might even try 2mm or 3mm figures, but if thinking along these lines I suggest you seek professional help, or just admit you don't like toy soldiers. To get started quickly, some gamers might want to resort to troop blocks or card markers rather than actual stands of figures. Ground scale is around 1" to 200yds, and a turn is 1 hour or thereabouts.

As to creating the battlefields themselves, I can reveal that the author makes excellent use of felt for roads, rivers and woods which can thus be made cheaply and used flexibly. Imaginative use of a collection of TSS 10mm-depth hills creates the topography. Carpet tiles come to mind as a good alternative for hills. The use of a gaming mat, under which you can put whatever comes to hand to create the appropriate hills, would probably be my method.

Already available is a further scenario book, entitled Bloody Big European Battles, which contains a further 16 scenarios and campaign suggestions from a variety of European wars - the scenarios are listed in full in this post on the Pendraken Forum, where you will also find some additional info about the rules concepts from Chris. 

However, Chris has asked me to say that rumours of a forthcoming work covering World War One, entitled Fucking Big Battles, are incorrect.

One would have to say that this is a fairly specialised ruleset written for a specific purpose, but any wargamer worth his salt could easily use them for fictional large battles and campaigns. They represent a very well thought out and straightforward way into gaming large size engagements involving tens of thousands of real troops. 

Online support is available at the Yahoo Group, as are more scenarios to freely download. These downloadable scenarios have the battle maps in colour, which is a big plus, and perhaps my only criticism of the rulebook is that some colour would have been welcome to make the maps easier to use. See also Chris's Flickr page for more maps and photos of games in progress

I'm looking forward to enjoying more games of BBB in the future. They really are something different and well worth looking into.

Increasing Pressure On Wargamers Leads To Alcohol Abuse

This evening I had planned some painting of a Prussian 12pdr battery. But I have had a frustrating day at work and can't be bothered. I am going down the pub to get pissed.

Good night and God bless.