A Little Bit Extra

I realised I had missed a couple of half decent photos of action on the Austrian right flank during my last game, so I thought I would pop them in.

Here the two regiments of Austrian cuirassiers lead the rest of the force across the bridge. They are followed by a regiment of dragoons and two battalions of grenadiers. I had high hopes that such a strong force could anticipate some significant success. However, in the background you can see two regiments of Prussian dragoons already being manouevred into striking distance...

This photo illustrates how the Prussians were able to interfere with Austrian deployment, despite being outnumbered. The left hand cuirassier regiment is already at half strength following its first melee (it is also receiving flanking fire from Prussian guns and infantry out of picture to the left). The Austrian dragoons have become vulnerable to a flank charge whilst trying to deploy on a limited patch of ground. Meanwhile the grenadiers attempt to get clear and advance on the Prussian flank. In the event, encountering artillery and infantry fire as well as being threatened in turn by the very successful Prussian dragoons, they would not get beyond the marshy area around the stream branching off the main river.

I hope these extra images are of interest. The Seven Years War period seems to be inspiring me at the moment: those 6mm and 15mm WW2 collections are having a bit of a rest. Next will be a replay of this game with the roles of myself and Paul reversed. However, my next post will probably be a refight of Donald Featherstone's 'Action in the Plattville Valley' from his book War Games. Having acquired a flexible river system, Bull Creek can be properly represented. Of course, it will have to be re-fought in the Seven Years War period, so make that 'Action in the Plattstadt Valley'. Now, what would be the best German translation for Bull Creek...

A River, a Curtain, and a Threat from the Flank

The River

Being pleased with the look of my Games Workshop gaming mat, I went ahead and bought another one so that battles can take place on my larger 6' x 6' table. As I mentioned in the previous post, the next step was to get some river sections to lay on top. This was something I had been looking at for a while, even before I got the gaming mats. The TSS tiles with river sections look good but you do have to put up with a bit of inflexibility in your layouts: the river always runs through the middle of the square and you can only have straights or 90 degree turns.

The Flames of War river sections (from their 'Battlefield in a Box' range) came out on top for quality and price. I compared JR Miniatures, Terrain Mat and Miniature World Maker products, but they all lost out on one or both of these counts. I know I could have tried to make my own, but first I don't really want to take the time, and second I was not convinced the finished article would be worth it. The FoW rivers can be seen in the pictures below. You get seven 1' sections in a heavy, flexible rubber material which ensures the sections will always lie flat. The water is a blue colour. Now, you don't often see a blue river (they are usually a very dark green or brown in my experience), but the blue is a muted one, really a sort of blue-grey. The colour is also shaded and has a satin gloss finish which I like. The banks are nicely textured in a dark brown, and have been deliberately left like this so that buyers can add their own flock (if they want) to match their own layout. This is a good decision by the producers. The product comes beautifully packaged, ensuring you will receive the sections flat and undamaged. And of course you also get two nice bridges, both painted as well and of good quality. The FoW website gives an excellent idea what the sections and bridges look like.

This product is best bought (in the UK at least) from the Games of War website (yep, Games not Flames), where you get it for £45, post and packing free. And they use UPS delivery, not the Post Office. The only problem I have is the original one of flexibility: you get seven straights, but no curves. This is a rather strange decision by FoW, but if you look at the shape of the individual sections on the FoW website ( as I did) you can see that cutting one of the pieces into two produces two curved sections which work very well. Be careful if you do this that the river along the line of your cut is of the right width to match up with the ends of the normal sections - the river does vary a bit in width. Overall, definitely recommended.

The Curtain

Funny how ideas can sometimes take a while to inspire you. In this case, nearly forty years! The idea of using a curtain across the middle of the games table to conceal deployment was presented by Donald Featherstone in his books War Games and Battles With Model Soldiers, both of which I read in the early seventies. I think the problem was that the idea was mentioned only briefly and with little practical detail on how you might rig your curtain up. Well, for some reason, reflecting on the problem of concealed deployment recently, the idea came back to me and I decided to give it a go. I raised the issue on the Old School Wargaming Yahoo group and found some doubters, but also some people who had used the idea a lot and liked it. I also got an idea for a simple and cheap set up from one of the responding posts.

So, £3.95 got me a bundle of 10 bamboo poles, of 2.1 metre length. Taking 6 and chopping a bit off each, I was able to make two tripods, using stout elastic bands to secure the poles together towards one end. It turned out the base needed to be stabilised by drilling a hole in the bottom of each pole and threading a loop of string through, which forms a triangle when the tripod is deployed. Then another pole can be slung between the two tripods to hold your curtain, in my case a table cloth which I simply draped over. Hey Presto.

I found a length of pole in B&Q which I couldn't resist as it was perfect for the cross piece, but a length of the bamboo would work just as well. I suppose it took an hour or so to fiddle around constructing the whole thing and getting the height right and the tripods reasonably stable. Naturally, I was impatient to try out the idea in a game.

A Threat to the Flank.

This is one of the scenarios from the Grant/Asquith book Scenarios for All Ages. The idea is that two main forces face each other across a river, the section between them being fordable. To the flank is another crossing point via a bridge, and the attackers (M) have sent a flanking force (F) to use this route. The defenders (D) respond by detaching their own flanking force (R) in reaction. The set-up is shown in the map below, taken from the book.

Being determined to try out my new curtain, I set up the table as near as possible to the map, then placed the curtain along the line of the river. Players could deploy as they wished but no closer than 12" to the curtain. In addition, no attacking units were allowed within 12" of the north end of the bridge, and no defending units within 30" of the south end of the bridge. When the curtain was carefully raised and the tripods taken away, the deployment was as below:

Unfortunately the length of the fordable part of the river is not precisly specified in the scenario. The fordable length I chose was between the two poplar trees which you can see on the river banks. This turned out to be too narrow and the attacking Austrians could not bring their superior forces to bear. Re-visiting the book, I can see that the description allows for the fordable length to be rather longer than I went for. Anyway, the result was that on this part of the battle field, a series of restricted frontal assaults went in, all more or less doomed to failure as they were blasted by a solid line of defenders. You will also note that Prussian deployment had been canny: the left flank of the main force was well protected, but the flanking units were also sufficiently close by to assist the main force if needed, which is what happened.

The photos above show the initial attack going in. There was a brief flicker of hope for the Austrians (myself) when one of the Prussian infantry units dropped out of the line, but the gap could not be exploited before it was closed up again.

Fighting on the other flank was confused and indecisive. I only took this one poor quality picture, I'm afraid - the camera ended up focused on the tree in the foreground! At least you get an idea of what one of the FoW bridges looks like.

Here is the final attack going in, on the seventh and last move. You will notice how depleted the units now are. In front of the dragoons (waiting to exploit a breakthrough that never came) light troops have been pushed forward to fill the gap in the attacking line. Of course, this attack was a failure like all the rest and the Austrians gave it up and retreated. The game was played with the Rank and File rules, which I continue to like. One or two reservations have surfaced, but with so few games played I will keep these to myself until I build more experience with the rules.

I have to say I was pleased with the look of the table. As I have said, I continue to have nothing but praise for the TSS system which has served me well for many years. But it's nice to ring the changes once in a while. And the curtain idea was great fun to use; simple but effective.

Comments encouraged, as usual. Happy summer!

The Call of the New

Two new things this week: a new set of rules for my SYW gaming and a new terrain mat.

First, the rules. These were the new set from Crusader Publishing; Rank and File: Horse and Musket Rules 1740-1900. The Crusader Publishing website (http://www.crusaderpublishing.com) allows you to get a good idea of the nature of the rules before buying, which is a thoroughly sensible idea and should be more widely adopted. I recall that the availability of a stripped down set of the Blitzkrieg Commander rules in PDF form (called Blitzkrieg Commander Lite) was instrumental in getting me to buy the full Blitzkrieg Commander ruleset a few years ago.

Rank and File seemed to be my kind of thing: designed to be genuinely simple and fast play, and contained in a manageably sized and well produced rulebook. The price of £16.50 including p&p seemed reasonable. They arrived within a week and so far I have read them through a few times and played one short solo game. They seem to do exactly what it says on the tin.

The rulebook is produced to a very high standard, being a 67 page full colour production on glossy paper with card covers. There is very little black and white here, and plenty of eye candy. This is perhaps one of the few criticisms I would offer: the high quality photos might have been better employed as illustrations of how the rules work rather than being mostly just nice to look at. However, explanation of the rules is thorough and generally straightforward, and includes some diagrams to clarify certain points as well as a 3 turn extended example which provides a solid idea of how gameplay proceeds. The rules fit my theory of a truly simple set: you can get a good sense of how they work in a single read through.

You won't find any strikingly new concepts here, but the rules are obviously designed to produce fast and eventful games. Instrumental in this are the generous moves, the fairly quick and deadly morale system and the generally simple mechanisms. There is no order system in the core rules and command and control is basic, which is fine by me. There are a fair number of optional rules which you can add in for more 'realism': at a first look I am quite happy with the core rules and am not particularly tempted by the extras.

The introduction states that the rules were 'designed so that a fairly large game can be set up and played to a conclusion within an evening'. Of course, what you consider a 'fairly large game' might vary, but I am aiming to raise forces of maybe 200 infantry, 50 cavalry and 4 to 6 guns per side, organised in units of around 8 to 10 cavalry and 20 infantry each. I think these rules will allow me to get a game with these forces played in around 3 hours quite easily. I would say these rules are definitely simpler than Minden Rose, and much simpler than Die Kriegskunst. They are perhaps a little more complex than the rules I have been developing myself which can be found on this blog, but I have no hesitation in saying they are much better, and my own little project will probably now cease development.

The fairly lengthy historical period covered is coped with by providing period specific tweaks for three time divisions: 1740-1792, 1792-1848, and 1848-1900. These tweaks (or 'period specific rules') are undemanding but sensible and take up only a page each.

What you won't find in these rules are army lists or detailed set up rules for terrain and scenarios. For myself, I can easily do without both. If you know your period, or are prepared to do a little research and reading (and surely the latter is part and parcel of wargaming), who needs army lists? And only a complete newcomer to wargaming will be phased by the absence of instructions on how to set up a battle. So, you provide your own armies, organised how you think they should be organised, and you devise your own scenarios. Suits me, and it saves many pages of extra rules.

I should finally say that the rules aim to accommodate all figure scales and basing conventions, and a variety of levels of play: that unit of six bases might have 4 28mm infantry figures per base and represent a battalion, or a larger number of smaller figures on it and represent a brigade (or vice versa, if you see what I mean). However, for 28mm figures the basing conventions and units sizes used in the examples and photos are almost identical to those of Minden Rose and Die Kriegskunst.

In summary, these may well turn out to be my new rules of choice for SYW. I recommend you look into them. And if you have any questions, there's an active Yahoo group called Crusaderminis where the author (Mark Sims) is available.

* * *

My second new thing is the purchase of a Citadel (i.e. Games Workshop) gaming mat. Easily available, and a snip at £14.70 for a 6'x4' mat, but the reasons I decided to buy it go back a fair way.

During my visits to shows over recent years I have noticed one thing in particular: for my money, a lighter coloured green as a basic terrain colour made better looking games. In particular the lighter shades of tile or mat showed off the figures better. Those games with a more drab green base colour looked rather, well, drab. My own TSS tiles have served me very well over nearly twenty years, and I would recommend them to anyone. But I began to wish they were flocked in a brighter shade of green.

So my search for possible alternatives began. I certainly wasn't going to model a new set of terrain tiles for myself! The idea of spraying the TSS tiles a lighter shade was kicked around, but I have a bad feeling commercial spray paints would react with the expanded foam, and I had no great hopes of making a decent job of the spraying even if I could find the right colour. So it came down to some sort of terrain mat. I looked around a number of local fabric shops seeking a nice bit of green cloth that would do the job but the right shade eluded me. The Terrain Mat people seemed to produce mats that had a reputation for being easily damaged, and the colour was a bit too olive. Mat-O-War were a favourite for a while but they are widely reported to be rather stiff. This would mean I would need to find a new set of matching hills to put on top of them: more expense. Ditto the mats from The Terrain Guy in the US. These had a mottled appearance on the website which I didn't really want and I would have to buy the matching hills.

The GW mats were a genuine, flexible cloth, so I could create hills by placing my current TSS hill contours under the mat. This is a technique I have been reading about since Donald Featherstone mentioned it in his 1962 book Wargames: yet I have never used it till now. I had also seen the mats in use at the WMMS show this year, and they were widely reported to be durable and well made. The final sell on the GW mat actually came via the Rank and File rules. Most of the photos in the rulebook use the GW mat, which is a nice green colour significantly brighter than my present tiles.

The results you see below. The mats are indeed well made, and the packing creases are easily ironed out. They lay well and don't seem to slip much. The hills I created are not really obvious in the shots: the Prussian infantry on the left are on one hill, and the Prussian guns on the right are on the other. The photos were actually taken during my solo run through of the Rank and File rules. The table was only quickly set up and will probably look even better when properly 'dressed' in a bit more detail. Generally, I am pleased with the new look. The only problem now is that I have to get some new rivers if I want to use them with the mat: my current rivers are produced by using TSS river tiles. The Flames of War river sections on sale for £45 seem a good option, but funds are lacking at the moment!

One thing I will have to look into is why my photos make the green on my terrain look less green than it really is. My TSS tiles often look a khaki shade in the photos, and the new mat looks a lot less green than it really is. If anyone knows why this may be, I would be interested to know. For the moment, I will search out a high wattage daylight simulation bulb for the light in the dining room where my games take place. Perhaps that will help.

As usual, comments encouraged. Go on, surprise yourself! Wishing you good wargaming until the next instalment.

P.S. Some excellent photos are now available of an ACW game using both the Rank and File rules and a table laid out with GW game mats in the same way as shown above. See the Crusader Publishing website at crusaderpublishing.com then look up Battle Reports.

Austrians in Rout

I have recently ordered a set of the new Rank and File rules from Crusader Publishing. However, they are not here yet so last night's game was played with Minden Rose. Not a bad thing: I haven't had a go with these rules for a while and they produced an excellent battle. Just for once I decided to have a straight encounter punch-up, rather than work out a clever scenario. Below are a few pictures: I won't go into too much detail, but the Austrians (me) were soundly beaten. Cavalry on both flanks fell back then routed, and at the end of the game the infantry in the centre also routed decisively under a hail of Prussian fire.
Tipple of the night was a very pleasant Rioja.

Light infantry occupy the town, which they will hold throughout the game.

Infantry faces off in the centre. The Prussians put everything in a single line, which seemed to work. This was the age of linear warfare after all!

Another view of the centre. No, those aren't Bavarians: a trick of the light in the camera has somehow turned the white Austrian coats to pale blue! Hungarian columns in background.

Destination disaster: the Austrian left flank cavalry are under pressure.

Meanhile the light infantry continue to hold out: mainly because the
Prussians decided not to charge in.

Prussian grenadiers in the centre brace themselves for an Austrian volley.

Run away! In the final move Prussian firepower triumphs. Austrian infantry routs and the Prussians pursue. The C-in-C (centre, with black counter indicating he is inferior) is powerless to stop the rot

And on the right flank the remaining Austrian cavalry are being ushered back over their baseline. The Austrian officer (inferior again!) seems to hang his head in shame, whilst the Prussian officer urges his men on

Light infantry still there in the last move!

Polish Counter-Attack

It's been quite a few months since my 1939 Polish-German forces had an outing, so I decided to give them a go last night. I also decided to make it a reasonably big game (by my standards) to see how far we could get. I won't overdo the detail of how the game progressed, but present you with some captioned photos and some general points that the game raised in my own mind.

The game was a fictional scenario. It imagined a bridgehead across a river held by elements of a German Light Division. These elements are counter-attacked by a strong Polish force trying to eliminate the bridgehead and recapture the two bridges the Germans have used. German reinforcements are on the way. The game used a 6' x 6' table, the miniatures being 15mm size. Details of the forces were as follows:

Poles

CO (CV9)

Infantry Battalion x 2
HQ (CV7), 8 infantry units, 2 mg units, 1 37mm ATG+tow

Cavalry Regiment
HQ (CV8), 8 cavalry units, 2 mg units, 1 75mm unit+horse tow, 1 Wz34 (recce)

Armoured Battalion
HQ (CV8), 5 7tp (37mm), 1 7tp (mg)

Recce Battalion
HQ (CV8), 2 TKS (mg), 1 TKS (20mm), 3 m/c units

Artillery Battalion
FAO (CV7), 3 75mm artillery units, 6 assets

Artillery Battalion
FAO (CV7), 3 100mm artillery units, 6 assets

Karas Flights
2 Karas units, 2 assets each

Points: 2030 Breakpoint 23 (25% = 12)


Deployment/Victory Conditions.
All units use static deployment on baseline from move 1. Capture both bridges for major victory. Capture one for minor victory.

Germans

Initial Forces

Infantry Battalion
HQ (CV9), 6 infantry units, 2 mg units, 1 mortar unit, 1 37mm ATG+tow

Recce Battalion
HQ (CV9), 1 Sdkfz 231, 1 Sdkfz 222, 1 Sdkfz 221, 2 m/c units, 2 cavalry units, 1 mg unit+truck

Artillery Battalion
FAO (CV8), 3 105mm artillery units.

Reinforcements

Light Panzer Battalion
CO (CV10), 3 PzI, 3 PzII

Motorcycle Battalion
HQ (CV9), 6 m/c units, 2 mg units+2 trucks, 1 37mm ATG+tow

Stuka Staffel
FAC (CV7), 1 Stuka unit

Points: 1580 Breakpoint 17

Deployment/Victory Conditions.
Initial forces deploy dug in (except vehicles) anywhere in own half of board. Reinforcements use mobile deployment from baseline from move 4. Break Polish battlegroup for major victory. Cause 25% casualties for minor victory.

Notes.
Making up a Polish battlegroup of sufficient striking power to have a chance at a successful attack during an evening's wargaming usually involves creating a fairly non-historical force. This game is no exception, as Polish experts will be able to tell.
The recce formations on both sides were treated as fighting units. The only unit which counted as 'recce' for the purposes of the rules was the armoured car with the Polish cavalry. The Polish cavalry, recce and tank formations were all given an extra point to their CV (representing their 'elite' status). Even so, the Polish attackers were only about a third stronger in points than the Germans, although not all German forces would be present at game start. All artillery was off table except the 75mm unit attached to the cavalry. This is how the game panned out:

This gives you an idea of the layout. The first move was a dream for the Polish player (myself). The cavalry leapt ahead on the right flank (four orders) and there were multiple orders for all formations, except the armour who received only one. Ah well, they would soon catch up, I thought. Wrong! The Germans had their infantry nicely dug in on one flank, with the recce waiting behind the village.

Massed Polish infantry on move 1.

Cavalry race ahead on the opposite Polish flank.

The slower MG carts and 75mm gun have fallen behind a bit.

The CO looks on from the hill.

An unusual encounter on move 2: recce vs. recce. The German armoured

cars provide cover whilst the rest of their formation rushes to redeploy to

the bridge on the German left flank. German FAO in village.

A nice bit of smoke intended to mask any German units in the village

from interfering with the advance of Polish mobile units on the

Polish right flank. This is move 2.

Poland's shame: or, Put that clipboard down and get moving!

Move 3 and the tanks haven't budged. In the distance the cavalry are

desperate for their support to break through to the bridge.

Meanwhile the Germans on the other flank easily hold the attackers.

They had 3 or 4 orders each move after the first, blasting the Poles with

fire and causing heavy casualties as well as numerous suppressions.

And on move 4 they were joined by the Motorcycle Battalion

advancing in fine style. This flank was never threatened: a comparison with the earlier photo will show that the battalion commander has dismissed his command car and broken out the picnic table.

The Polish tanks finally move but too late. The German recce have formed

a blocking position and the Polish cavalry have been stopped.

The Polish recce formation has also been stalemated.

Move 4 and the German tanks arrive and cross the bridge on the

German left flank. No way through here for the Poles either. Game over!

After the battle.

We had an interesting and pleasurable three-and-a-bit hours of gaming with this scenario, but it raised some interesting points for me.

Firstly, although we only had time for 4 moves, it was quite obvious that the Poles couldn't win once the German reinforcements had arrived. And we had had so many multiple orders that 4 moves of BKC was as good as 12 moves of a more traditionally structured set of rules.

Was the scenario properly balanced? It was still a tall order for the Poles. Nevertheless, if the tanks had had the same luck as the cavalry, it could have been a very close game. Perhaps next time I would motorise one of the Polish infantry battalions, and have the Polish start line 30cm in rather than the standard 20cm, to make the task that little bit more achievable. Another 'fix' might be to put back the arrival of the German reinforcements by a move.

My tactics as the Polish player left something to be desired. I used the CO's re-roll ability a couple of times (to little effect), but I should have done the obvious and placed the tanks directly under the CO's command from move 2. The attacking infantry battalions were easily seen off: the one nearest the centre should have moved out wider and attacked the Germans in flank, or gone through the village and straight for the bridge. But there was probably not enough time for an infantry unit on foot to complete such a manouevre. I also have the feeling I didn't make full use of the quite powerful Polish artillery.

I have two possible explanations for my poor performance. One is the bottle of Chilean Chiraz that Paul brought over: shades of last month's Belgian beer! The name on the bottle was Casillero del Diablo: Cellar of the Devil. Yes, quite. But really I think the reason was that after spending about an hour setting up an evening game, maybe following a days work and cooking dinner, I tend to want to sit back and just enjoy watching the game unfold. Actually putting some thought into winning seems to go by the board. Does this happen to any of you? I also find not having a proper wargames room a real pain in the backside: setting up then taking down in the same session can sometimes seem a bit too much like work. Which makes another reason for relaxing and mentally sitting on your hands during the game.

D12 vs 2D6

Most BKC-ers who use the BKC forum will have come across this idea. The problem of how to get the most from low CV armies forms the content of quite a number of posts. One way is to use a D12 for command rolls rather than 2D6. This flattens the probability curve and improves the chances for a low CV army. For example, the chance of throwing 7 or less is the same with a D12 or 2 D6. However, you have a 42% chance of throwing 6 or less with 2D6, but a 50% chance of doing the same with a D12. For 5 or less, the difference is really significant: 28% with 2D6, 42% with a D12. At the other end of the scale, to throw a 9 or less with 2D6 is a probability of 83%, but 75% with a D12. Thus, in this game, the Germans would be penalised slightly and the Poles given a leg up, making things a bit more equal whilst retaining the uncertainty of the dice.

The chances of a 1 or 12 with a D12 (for a bonus or blunder) are higher (by three times) than the chances of a 2 or 12 with 2D6. You can either accept this or add a second throw with a single D6 to decide whether that was a real bonus/blunder or not.

We used a D12 in this game, and have used this technique quite a lot in the past. The effect is quite noticeable after two or three games. For games where the CVs are more equal (like the desert scenarios on this blog) we continue to use 2D6.

Well, that's all for now. Comments on all the above would be very welcome. I think there's still half a glass of that Chiraz about somewhere. Cheers!

Four by Four

Well, painting has commenced again for my SYW forces. I have found a new method which prevents me from being overfaced by trying to paint too many figures at once: I just do 4 at a time. This means I can chip away at creating a unit in any spare twenty minutes or so, just doing one or two colours. I can usually do one group of 4 in a week with this method. Slow, but sure, and I find by doing a little but (fairly) often I can maintain my enthusiasm. As you can see, no advance on the usual basic style!

The unit being created is a battalion of the Bavarian Leib Regiment, to join my Austrian forces. This will give me the excuse to have a unit rated 'D' (for Minden Rose) or 'poor' (if using my own rules), so that I will be able to use a part of the rule sets I have not exploited before. This might be a bit unfair to the Bavarians, who may well have performed better if they had not been subjected to a textboook example of Frederick's oblique order at Leuthen, and also not had the retreat of the Wurttembergers as an example.

As you can see they are painted in the early war uniform, before black facings were adopted. I have also used the option of brown leather cross belts. Some sources indicate white for these, but brown makes a change amongst all that white. The standard bearer is a converted Spencer Smith advancing musketeer: the musket has been cut away and the hands drilled for a piano wire flag standard. The excellent flag is by Body's Banners, which are sold through Redoubt Enterprises.

I must say I find these Spencer Smiths a real problem. The castings are so poor, even basic detail such as where the coat ends and the trousers begin is difficult to establish. And check out those boxing glove hands! I salute those like Henry Hyde who have the skill and dedication to really make something of these figures - see the Spencer Smith website for photos of Henry's work. No black lining for me I'm afraid: I don't have the skill or the patience to create detail that isn't already there. It is only fair to remember that these figures are from the 1960s: actually it's great that they are still available for those who (rightly) value nostalgia and a certain elegance, especially en masse. Nevertheless, thank heavens I went for RSM figures for my armies!

Once a twenty figure unit of these is finished, a similar size unit of Freikorps will be painted, to provide the Prussian army with a battalion of similarly low grade troops.

Hafid Ridge

A10s of C Squadron, 2nd RTR, who would be the first British regiment

to attack at Hafid Ridge. Photo taken in April 1941, reproduced in
Tank Combat in North Africa, by Thomas Jentz.

Having chosen 'Swanning About' as the next Benghazi Handicap scenario to refight, I wanted to do the write up a bit differently. So I'm starting with some photos and explanation that might get you into the mood for the wargame. An overview of Operation Battleaxe and the Hafid Ridge action, which took place in June 1941, can easily be summoned online, or through any decent book on the campaign. Such an overview is not the purpose of this little introduction. Rather, I wanted to briefly explore some aspects of the battle which might illuminate the wargames scenario.

If you have already read my earlier post, 'Wargaming 2008', you will know that I do not really believe miniature wargames are capable of 'simulating' warfare in any meaningful way: I believe what we are doing is playing with toy soldiers. But that doesn't prevent us from doing some research into our period, especially when we are considering a refight of an historical battle.

Hafid Ridge is often cited as an example of the poor tactics of British armour during this period: a gung-ho charge against a well concealed line of German anti-tank guns. However, Frank Chadwick, author of Benghazi Handicap, makes it clear that this was not the whole story. Military historian Paddy Griffith has described the problems the British had in his book, World War II Desert Tactics.

'On Hafid Ridge the British would encounter a phenomenon that would become almost typical in subsequent battles. This was the allure of an enemy position that appeared to be only lightly defended, or occupied only by vulnerable soft-skinned vehicles. The temptation would be strong for British armour to charge in piecemeal and without careful preparation, leading to disastrous results when the enemy's 'vulnerable' trucks turned out to be accompanied by towed guns, some of which turned out to be very dangerous indeed to attacking tanks. On Hafid Ridge this problem was made worse by the complexities of the terrain, which turned out to consist of three successive ridges rather than just one; the Axis forces lurking behind the second and third caused all sorts of unexpected difficulties to the British armour that had successfully cleared the first.

This battle therefore stands as a classic early example of all those difficulties of reconnaissance, navigation and terrain analysis that proved such pitfalls for tacticians throughout the whole desert war.'

That there were problems with British tactics can hardly be disputed: the reference in the 6th RTR war diary to carrying out 'a good broadside shoot ... at speed' has been much quoted, and is hardly indicative of modern tactics. However, the British of 2nd RTR and 6th RTR did have a confusing and difficult situation to deal with, and were facing a well laid out defence. These factors should be borne in mind.

If you're not familiar with it already, the concept of the stutzpunkt is central to this action: a defensive position prepared for all-round defence which was intended to hold out even if outflanked, and consisting of anti-tank guns supported by infantry with (ideally) some artillery support in range as well. The literal translation of stutzpunkt is (I have found) a little awkward; but 'strongpoint' makes a good one word summary. Stutzpunkt 208 was one of 4 main stutzpunkte which anchored the German/Italian defence during Operation Battleaxe (the others were Stutzpunkte Halfaya, 206, and Qalala). There were 3 other supporting stutzpunkte in rearward 'backstop' positions. The idea of these positions was to delay and damage attacking forces whilst a panzer counter attack was prepared and launched. Some aspects of these positions are shown in the photos below:

This 88mm is dug in at Halfaya pass, but indicates what one of the 88mm positions on Hafid Ridge may well have looked like. The caption is well worth reading. The photo is taken from Thomas Jentz's invaluable Tank Combat in North Africa.

This is a pair of German gunpits, including one which seems to contain a 20mm flak gun as employed at Hafid Ridge. Once again, not actually Hafid Ridge (as far as I know) but indicative of how hard to spot such positions could be, even in open desert terrain. The image is from a New Zealand website, 'The Desert War'.

This photo (from lonesentry.com) is captioned as being of a 'dummy Axis gun position near Halfaya Pass'. If so, this shows how convincing such a position could be. The British concluded they had encountered dummy positions during the Hafid Ridge action, as the map below (once again from Jentz's book) shows. It is interesting to note how hard it is to work out the lie of the land from this map. Working out where the various ridges and dips were must have been a real problem for the British.


Jentz's book presents most of the primary evidence from both sides regarding Hafid Ridge. The extent to which there were dummy positions, or the extent to which the German defence was in any way 'mobile', is not really clear. It would seem survivors of the first line of positions may have fallen back behind the second ridge to join their comrades, which tempted the British on. The position was certainly arranged in depth, with many, possibly most, of the guns in dead ground between the ridges rather than actually on the ridges.

It is worth noting that both British tank regiments believed they were shelled by artillery at various times, and that the Hafid position contained a number of field guns. However, the order of battle for Stutzpunkt 208 did not include any artillery, just 20mm, 37mm, 50mm and 88mm AT guns. Probably fire from the 88s and the 75mm guns of German Panzer IVs was mistaken for artillery. Benghazi Handicap gives the Germans no on- or off-table artillery for this scenario. German reports indicate the British may have suffered some artillery fire from guns supporting Stutzpunkt 206 during their approach to contact.

I hope this introduction has given you a bit more feel for the circumstances of the battle, whether or not you possess Benghazi Handicap. Without further ado, this was my adaption of the scenario for BKC, using a 4' x 4' table with 6mm size models.

'Swanning About'

Hafid Ridge, June 15th 1941

British

Initial troops: 2nd RTR:

HQ (CV8), 3xA13, 2xA10, 2xA9

Reinforcements: 7th Armoured Brigade

Brigade HQ: CO (CV9)

6th RTR: HQ (CV8), 9xCrusader I

JAXO Column: HQ (CV8), FAO (CV7), 1xcarrier (recce), 3xinfantry units in 3 trucks, 1x2pdr portee, 1x25pdr unit (on or off table), 2 assets

Breakpoint: 11

German

Initial Troops: Stutzpunkt 208 Garrison

HQ (CV9), 1x88mm+tow, 1xSP20mm AA, 1x37mm+tow, 2xm/c(mg) units, 1xm/c unit

Reinforcements: 8th Panzer Regiment

A maximum of 3 battlegroups, formed at the player's discretion from:
CO(CV10), 2xHQ(CV9), 3xPzIII, 3xPzII, 2xPzIV, 3xm/c units, 1x50mm+tow, 1x37mm+tow

Breakpoint: 10

All German command units have a 25cm command distance increment.


Deployment
British initial troops deploy first up to 15cm from baseline. Then German initial forces deploy anywhere up to the centre of the table. All may be dug-in. They may also use hidden deployment, and are allowed 3 fighting units plus one command unit as dummies.
British reinforcements deploy up to 15cm from baseline during the command phase of move 3.
German reinforcements deploy up to 15cm from baseline during the command phase of move 5. Any German reinforcing battlegroup may also use flank deployment on either flank, in the first two thirds of the table.

Victory conditions
Both sides seek to break the opposing force, in order to control the area. Minor objective is to inflict 25% casualties, the major objective is to break the opposing battlegroup. No turn limit.

Notes
This battle was a natural for the optional 'Hidden Deployment' rules from the first edition of BKC. However, with such a small initial force, and considering the circumstances of the battle, I decided to allow dummy units for 50% of the force, plus a command unit as well. This should keep the British guessing for a couple of moves. Making 2nd RTR deploy first, before the German defence is positioned, is another attempt to give the defenders an edge. The 25cm command distance for the Germans was a small experiment to help them with both initial deployment and the mobile battle to follow. Perhaps this would help to represent their greater tactical flexibilty.

Both sides have the option of a separate brigade level CO operating solo and therefore able to intervene around the battlefield, rather than having the CO allocated to a fighting formation as in my Mechilli refight.

I also decided to go for simple victory conditions without objectives, as if this was a BKC 'encounter' battle.

The Wargame

I wasn't entirely happy with the look of the terrain. I had ordered 2 custom ridges from TSS but had asked for them to be too squared off at the ends. Silly me. The colour of flock used by the company has also subtly changed since I acquired my tiles, although the photo accentuates the colour difference. These two problems together resulted in the rather unconvincing rectangles you see above.
German baseline on the left (this direction is north), British on the right (south). The wadis in this game are 'shallow' in CDTOB terms, so they only count as dense terrain for BKC. The edge of a wadi will break LOS to units within the wadi.

This is the end of move 1. The A13 squadron of 2nd RTR have positioned themselves on the crest of the first ridge, and two tanks have been knocked out. This has meant that the real 20mm flak and 88mm gun have been revealed (if they were dummies they wouldn't have been able to fire), and the dummies removed.

Move 3, and 6th RTR and Jaxo column have arrived, deployed on the British right flank. 2nd RTR see no advantage in taking on the German gun line and so fall back and manoeuvre around the east end of the ridge as well. In this movement they were covered by smoke fired in move 2.

Next move finds the British huddling uncertainly in dead ground. Where will the German reserves arrive?

Half the German tanks with an HQ, plus the anti-tank guns and infantry under the CO, arrive on the German baseline to oppose the British tanks. A Crusader is knocked out. The other half of the German tanks were unfortunately ordered to arrive on the German right flank, well away from the action. Even more unfortunately, they will fail to arrive until move 8.

Move 6, and the high point of German success. The British fall back from the fire of German tanks and supporting anti-tank guns. 2nd RTR, however, start to sneak up on the Germans behind a rise on the east flank.

Moves 7 and 8 and the British start to use their advantage in tank numbers. 2nd RTR breast the rise and mince up the German tanks, supported by long range fire from the Crusaders. They are also in mg range of the German anti-tank guns and the 50mm is lost, whilst one 37mm is suppressed and the other knocked out. The infantry also make an impact, despite their small numbers, advancing forward and helping to engage the 37mm. German motorcyclists respond by moving forward to screen the German line. The 25pdr of Jaxo Column manages to suppress the 88mm during move 8. The Germans get some satisfaction with the destruction of 2 tanks from 2nd RTR, from a mixture of infantry anti-tank rifles, 20mm flak and 37mm fire.

The final positions. During move 9 the rest of the German tanks finally move across to help their comrades who are under severe pressure. 6th RTR wheels across the ridge and decisively defeats them in a flurry of opportunity fire, although half their number end up suppressed (indicated by the brown lichen placed behind them). A tactical mistake here: the Germans should have halted outside half 2pdr range, but within half 50mm/75mm range, which is possible with the ranges in BKC. This they failed to do, the German commander rashly advancing too far under the influence of Hoegaarden (Belgian white beer) provided by the British commander! 

Although 2nd RTR are nearly wiped out, mainly by fire from the 88mm, move 10 sees the Germans lose their next to last tank and go over their breakpoint by one. They need to roll 9 to continue, but an 11 sees them abandon the field. Probably a wise decision - they have lost 7 out of 8 tanks, as well as the 50mm, one 37mm and two of the motorcycle stands. British losses were 6 tanks from 2nd RTR and 1 from 6th RTR, with no loss amongst supporting arms. These losses mean the victory counts only as minor one.

Conclusion. 

A fun game, taking 3 hours to complete. Use of command re-rolls by the British CO, operating as a brigade commander (a house rule) were prominent in keeping the British moving. If the second German tank group had arrived on time and on the German left flank, it might all have been different. Although history was reversed, it was interesting that many features of the real battle manifested themselves. For example, 2nd RTR advanced, then backed off after initial casualties. There was also much skulking around behind and around rises and dead ground by both sides. The need for British tanks to close to mg range when attacking soft targets was a real problem for them. 

This has turned out to be a long post, but I hope you have enjoyed having something to get your teeth into!