Manchuria revisited

We had another game at Colins the other week and refought the amended version of our Manchuria game. Bill Gilchrist and Mr Ray commanded the Russian force while Colin Jack and myself commanded the Japanese. We gave the Russians an extra tank and another rifle squad and reduced the size of the table from an 8x4 to a 6x4 but it meant the Japanese were allowed to deploy up to 5' onto the table.

Russian forces prepare to advance

The first two tanks run into the snipers

Colin as overall Japanese commander deployed the two sniper teams as far forward as possible backed by the Manchuko Militia hidden in woods on the left flank while the rest of the forces and deployed in ambush positions in the main defence line.

Manchuko Militia about to assault the Russian tank

The Russians seemed to get the run of the order dice and quickly managed to take out the active Japanese defenders before the remaining troops in ambush could act.. The Manchuko Militia were quickly wiped out before they could even launch their assault.

This was one of the few Japanese successes assaulting the half track and crew

The final Russian assault

 

The game worked out really well, except for the result and I think the changes we made will make for a more enjoyable game.

Manchuria 1945

Had a game along at Colin's house this week and went back to WW2 but with a slight difference that this battle was between the Russians and Japanese right at the end of the war. All the figures and terrain is from Colin's vast collection. Following the defeat of Nazi Germany the Russians transferred tens of thousands of men to face the Japanese in Manchuria which the Japanese had taken off the Chinese in the 1930's. This game was a playtest of one of the games Colin is putting on at our next League of Gentlemen Wargamers weekend in November which is based around WW2, I hope to add more as the weeks go by.

The Russians commanded by Colin have launched a lightening strike with tanks supported by armoured infantry and tank riders against what seemed at first a very week Japanese force commanded by me. The scenario is that the Japanese have fallen back to defensive positions over the river and could be set up anywhere over the river except for two sniper teams that could be positioned on the Russian half of the table.

Russian armour trundles through the town

Main Japanese defence line

 

I placed the majority of my troops and armour in the main defence line and village except for a unit of Manchurian Militia that were left to defend one of the bridges crossing the river line and the 2 sniper teams were placed in the main town on the Russian side of the table.

Japanese armour in ambush positions in the village

 

At first looking at my force which was strong in infantry I thought the game was going to be a walk over for the Russians as the only anti-tank weapons I had were my two tanks, it was only during the fighting that I discovered how effective my 2 sniper teams could be at taking out tank commanders which added with Colin's terrible dice rolling for orders meant that they spent most of the game going backwards and meanwhile my infantry, especially the grenadier company with their 3 light mortars took out all the Russian infantry facing them.

The initial Russian advance looked so menacing

They quickly took the first bridge

After an initial successful start when they quickly wiped out my Militia unit guarding the bridge things started to go badly for the Russians and soon all their supporting infantry had been wiped out except for a group that was still on the Russian side of the river at the end of the game. The snipers worked a treat at taking out 2 tank commanders just as Colin decided that tanks without commanders had to pass order tests to act. I'm sure he regretted that as they kept failing. That was the main reason his last lot of infantry were stuck on the far bank as they were trying to take out the snipers and he succeeded in taking out one team but that was his only real success of the game.

Last Russian infantry sniper hunting

 

As a playtest the game worked well and the Japanese victory was unexpected so the next time we try it we will add a few more troops and an extra tank for the Russians, especially as they will have a time limit to get their victory. 

Cadzand 1944

This was the next game at Colins and to save him from having to do any work changing the gaming table due to his gammy leg we decided to just use the same layout as the Plucky Belgian game only this time it would be the Germans commanded by Ray doing the defending and the Allies in the form of Free French commanded by me doing the attacking. Gammy legged Colin did the umpiring again.

German ambush positions

Elements of German 15^th army are defending the Scheldt and stopping shipping getting up the river to unload vital supplies at Antwerp. The Allies have planned an amphibious operation to take the Walcheren islands and to aid the landings there elements of the Free French 1^st Armoured Division have been ordered to take the coastal artillery position at Cadzand. As usual the figures are 28mm, the terrain and Germans are all from Colin’s collection and the majority of the French are from my collection and we used Bolt Action rules for the game.

Germans
HQ Captain, 3 men + medic, veteran
3 x 10 regular infantry inc; smg and lmg
1 x regular Medium mortar
1 x regular Mmg
2 x regular AT teams - Pzschreck
1 x regular AT gun PAK 40
1 x Panther tank, Super heavy AT
1 x Jagdpanther, Super heavy AT
1 x Marder III, Heavy AT
1 x Sdkfz 7 Flak, 4xLight Auto cannon

 

Free French
HQ Captain, 3 men + medic, in M20 command car, veteran
1 x FOO in Utility van, can call in artillery strike
1 x 10 Veteran Moroccan Tiraileurs, inc; smg and lmg, in M3 half track
2 x 10 regular Moroccan Tiraileurs, inc; smg and lmg, in M3 half track
1 x regular Mmg
1 x regular Mortar, both in M3 half track
A troop 4^th Cuirassiers (inexperienced)
3 x Shermans, Medium AT
1 x M10 tank destroyer, Heavy AT
B troop 4^th Cuirassiers (inexperienced)
3 x Shermans, Medium AT
1 x M10 tank destroyer, Heavy AT

The battle started well for the French which advanced in mixed combat groups with infantry supporting the armour and quickly uncovered the first two German ambush units marked at 1 and 2  and the infantry took out the two Pzschreck units without any loss to themselves, but that was as good as it got. 

The Marder soon opened up and took out one of the M10's but was in turn taken out by a Sherman and as the advancing combat groups advanced through the woods to their front the other German units in ambush opened up and on after another Sherman ended up as blazing hulks and the supporting infantry were also taking a bit of a pasting.

For once the supporting artillery actually landed where it was intended but unfortunately didn’t cause many casualties and only a few pins but it did give the remaining French another chance to advance but every shot from my Shermans failed to hit a single German tank which wasn’t surprising since I was needing double 6’s to hit the dug in armour, my luck from the previous two games had obviously run out. The German ambush points 3, 4, 5 and 6 were eventually overrun but this was the high tide of the French attack and with only 1 Sherman, an M10 and very few infantry left they were forced to fall back.

French armoured grave yard

Plucky Belgians

This was another game we had along at Colins which was fought between myself as the Plucky Belgians and Mr Ray as the nasty Nazis, poor Colin is in crutches from a gardening accident so sat at the end of the table and umpired. The game was fought with 28mm figures using Bolt Action rules. All the figures and terrain was supplied by Colin.
The general scenario was that the Germans were to advance along the road and destroy the large naval defence gun which is set in a military compound which would then allow German reinforcements to arrive by sea.

Coastal field gun made by a company called Astra

German orbat
HQ, captain +2 men + medic + FOO
3 x 10 man Regular infantry sections inc. Smg and Lmg in Opel Blitz trucks.
1 x Regular Mmg
1 x Regular Med mortar
1 x Regular Med A/T gun
3 x Pz 38t tanks with armour 8, Medium A/T gun and Mmg
1 x Sdkfz222 Armoured car
1 x Kfz 13 Scout car
Belgian orbat
HQ, captain + 2 men
8 x Veteran Chasseurs d’Ardennes inc. Smg and BAR
Chasseurs d’Ardennes Veteran Med A/T gun and 3 crew
Chasseurs d’Ardennes Veteran A/T rifle and 2 crew
9 x Regular Belgian infantry inc. Smg and BAR
9 x Inexperienced Belgian infantry inc. Smg and BAR
1 x Regular Mmg
1 x Regular Light Howitzer
2 x T15 Tankettes armour 7, Mmg
1 x British 40mm Oerlikon A/A gun
Despite having all these troops the Belgian infantry never even got into action, only the A/T weapons, the Light Howitzer and the two Tankettes were actually used the rest were in defensive positions in the town.

The Germans started the battle by racing up the road and promptly spotted the A/T rifle crew at ambush position 1 and reversed back down the road before a shot could be fired at it then they brought on their scout car and sent it into the fields on their right and started spotting for the enemy. On move 2 the German A/C decided to swing round to the left behind the church and promptly ran into the T15’s in ambush at position 3. It fell back from fire from the first tank but was still in range from the second one which promptly pinned it.

The Germans then decided to bring on their big guns and two of the 38t’s advanced up the road and tried to take out the A/T rifle without any luck so in turn 3 they advanced to close range and promptly ran into ambush 2 which hit the lead tank and knocked it out but the second one managed to pin the A/T rifle but no casualties. The rest of the move was taken up with the Germans bringing on their lorry borne infantry.

 

The Belgians keep getting run of the movement dice and promptly launched their Tankettes against the unsupported trucks and pinned A/C causing further hits and chaos and the light howitzer at the red dot behind ambush 4 joined in the fun and the Plucky Belgians turned into lucky Belgians as virtually every round they fired landed on target.

The Germans eventually managed to get their other 38t on to protect their trucks and knocked out one of the Tankettes as the other one still advanced causing panic all along the German line. By this time the other 38t had also been knocked out alongside the lead tank and things were starting to look difficult for the Germans until a good run of the movement dice allowed them to race some of their lorry borne infantry up to the area of their knocked out tanks then called in the Luftwaffe to take out the ambushing Belgian A/T guns. In virtually every game we have played using Bolt Action air and artillery support has been a disaster and this wasn’t going to be different as Ray rolled a 1 which then allowed me to redirect the air assault right on top of his debussed infantry causing multiple pins and casualties and the rest being destroyed by the light howitzer.

 

With the German attack having ground to a halt Colin felt sorry for them and gave them a Panzer IV as reinforcements but by the time it had gotten up to the area of fighting the Belgian A/T rifle crew had rallied off all their pin markers and had advanced into the ruined church and sent round after round into the new tank which then failed every command test to get them off.

At this point the Germans realised this wasn’t going to be their night and gave up the attack without even meeting the main defence line.  The rules had worked really well except that we forgot a couple of points, single crew turret tanks have to take a test to advance every move and vehicles that fail their rally tests fall back but the way we had both been rolling dice i doubt it would have made much difference to the outcome.    

Mr Hitler takes a ride

Our friend Bill Miller was back up from London and Mr Ray was back from the States last week so we had a get together for an interesting and unusual WW2 game at Colin Jack's, but anyone who knows Colin would realise that unusual is normal for most of his games.  Bill and Ray took the German role while Colin and myself were the Poles. We used Bolt Action rules for the game and Colin supplied all the terrain, 28mm figures and vehicles.

German briefing
It is September 1939 and the war has been going well for the Germans and Adolf Hitler is flying to Warsaw to take part in victory celebrations, unfortunately his plane has developed engine trouble and has had to make an unscheduled landing in an airfield outside of the Polish capital so the rest of the journey will have to be made by road.

Apart from the Fuhrer there are also two important staff officers
who will also have to be transported safely

To escort the VIP's you have an SS squad of 6 riflemen and the driver of the staff car also has an smg. The commander of the airfield has also sent an escort of a squad of Luftwaffe troops, an officer and 6 men armed with rifles or smg's. For transport you have the staff car already mentioned as well as a Kubel Wagon and truck for the Luftwaffe infantry. The crew of the downed plane can also act as a reserve if needed and are armed with pistols and an Lmg.

Polish briefing
It is September 1939 and the war has been going well for the Germans and the Polish army is all but destroyed and you and a group of 6 soldiers have been separated from your unit during the retreat and have been sheltered by some local villagers.  Word has reached you that a German plane has been forced to land at the nearby airfield and that a convoy is being set up so perhaps someone important is on board and this could be your last chance to do something for your country before the war ends. The local villagers are also keen to help so the village elder and 6 men have volunteered, it's just a pity that they have no military training so not much can be expected of them.

Victory conditions
The Germans get 1vp for every Polish village taken out and 1vps for every Polish regular and 5vps for every staff officer you get off table.
The Poles get 1vp for every Luftwaffe person taken out, 2vps for every SS man and 5vps for every staff officer. If they kill Hitler they will win the game whatever the other outcome is.

The game
The Poles started in ambush anywhere they wanted as long as they were more than 12" away from the airfield and we weren't sure if the Germans would just stick to the road for the extra speed bonus or go across country. As commander of the Polish troops I took the regulars and set up ambush 1 in the large ditch alongside the road which covered the road as well as the gap opposite and the open ground behind should the Germans try to sneak off that way. Knowing of the poor quality of the villagers I set them up as a last resort in the village at ambush 2. Knowing Bill I guessed he would hide Hitler away in another vehicle instead of the staff car and probably disguise him as an ordinary soldier even though I doubt Hitler would ever have agreed to that in real life.

The game started with the German truck moving out of the airfield and down the road followed by the two Polish ambushers passing on their move, then next came the Kubel wagon and the end of turn followed so the staff car was still in the airfield. Move two saw the truck move gingerly down the road but still no ambush followed and the staff car joined at the back of the queue and the end of turn.

At the start of turn three Ray was starting to get a bit jittery especially when he kept getting asked to test and failing to see if he could spot any Poles, so he promptly debussed his men and slowly crept down the road. Bill commanding the other two vehicles made sure he kept well back allowing Ray to trigger any ambushers but still no fire came. By move four the German truck was about to enter the village so Colin opened up with his men but failed to hit anything and it was at this point that the Kubel wagon turned off road to the left so my ambushers let them have it.

Not only did my fire bring the vehicle to a halt with a shot to bits engine I also hit one of the passengers who had more than one wound, was this Hitler?

The SS also got out of the following staff car and also ran into a hail of lead losing two of their number and the driver pinned in the car unable to use his smg. It was around this time that Bill started cursing my dice rolling as it is normally rubbish but this night I wasn't rolling anything less than a 5 or 6 for shooting. I just know it will all go horribly wrong in the next game.
In the next few moves my riflemen joined Colin in shooting up the Luftwaffe while my BAR gunner kept hitting the Kubel wagon and my officer dealt with the SS himself.

The remaining troops from the wrecked car fled from the scene so it was obvious that it wasn't Hitler in there but I was determined to take him out as the others were too far away and behind cover to get a shot. Perhaps one of them was Mr H? all would be revealed at the end of the game.

Back in the village the Luftwaffe were coming of the worst being caught in a crossfire so the officer and driver in the truck decided to leg it leaving his men to their fate, that is until Colin's men shot the driver leader ran out and lobbed a Molotov cocktail at the truck and destroyed it. For the next couple of moves Colin's and the Luftwaffe leader had a ding dong fist fight going on which neither seemed to be able to win and as Bill's remaining figures crept off the table we called an end to the game and to discover the fate of Hitler.

The German shooting was horrendous in this game and they only took out 1 Polish regular and 3 villagers and got one staff officer off the table scoring 10 points. The Poles on the other hand because of my great dice rolling took out 5 SS men 5 Luftwaffe men and a staff officer scoring 20 points.

What of Hitler I hear you ask! Bill being devious as ever decided not to even risk the Fuhrer's life and left him back at the airfield, he argued unconvincingly that all his men had just been sent off to get more reinforcements to escort their leader safely to Warsaw which wasn't the idea of the scenario so the Poles were awarded an overwhelming victory.

Vietnam - The Big Push

The photo above shows the layout for the large 30'x8' Sunday game devised by Peter Nicolson.

The basic scenario was that the Americans were to demolish the firebase at the base of the photo and set up in a new location which had been started on high ground at the top end of the table. 

They also had a military hospital set up in the middle left hand side which they had to defend as well as recover some Special Forces troops that had been captured by the VC and discover and destroy a VC arms dump.  The VC victory conditions were basically to stop the Americans obtaining their objectives and to cause as many casualties as possible.

Needless to say the good guys, VC won the game by stopping the Americans setting up the new firebase plus we captured the old one, held onto four of the six prisoners we had and retained our arms dump which is just as well as we would need resupplied after destroying so many American boats and armour as well as wiping out loads of their troops.

 

There's no point in me posting any of my pics as Bill Gilchrist and Angus Konstam have already published loads plus reports on their blogs and Bill also has loads of pics on his Flickr account, the link to which can be found on his blog.

http://blenheimtoberlin.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/vietnam-28mm-bolt-action-big-game.html

 

http://www.edinburghwargames.com/Journal%2083.htm

Vietnam - Leave No One Behind

This was the 6th scenario I had devised for our LOGW weekend and was really just produced as an extra because we were unsure if one of our members was actually going to able to make it or not.

As things turned out he couldn't get to the weekend so this game wasn't fought on the Saturday but Peter Nicolson who was arranging the big Sunday game liked the scenario so much that he included it in his huge game.  I have really only added it here for completeness.

US Marines – Veteran Troops
Command section in command chopper
1 Lieutenant armed with pistol
3 men armed with M16 assault rifles

Two platoons of 10 men transported in choppers
8 men armed with M16 assault rifles
1 armed with M79 grenade launcher and pistol
1 armed with M60 Lmg

Armed Support
1 Huey Cobra

2 spare transport choppers are available for rescued prisoners or replacement transport.

Local VC Militia - InexperiencedHQ squad
1 leader armed with pistol
3 men armed with rifles

2 infantry squads each with
8 men armed with rifles

1 Lmg in each tower each with 2 men

Vietnam - Bridge at Tou Fahr

 

This scenario was one of six that I arranged for our League of Gentlemen Wargamers weekends and what a scenario it turned out to be with 5 games played and 4 different results varying from complete failure to overwhelming success.  All the details such as map, scenario, special rules and a few photos will be appearing in Charles Grants latest Wargames Annual which will be out later in the year.

Vietnam - Take the High Ground

The 4th game in the list of scenarios was the VC storming an American firebase.

This game was a bit of work in progress as I wasn't sure how it would work until it had been tried a few times but all the guys were happy to play along.

US Army – Regular Troops
Platoon command
1 Lieutenant with M16 assault rifle
3 runners armed with M16 assault rifles
1 medic

2 Platoons of 10 men
9 men armed with M16 assault rifles
1 armed with M60 Lmg

Company support
1 Mmg team
1 Medium mortar team

Artillery Support
2 Light Howitzers

Local VC Militia – Inexperienced
HQ squad
1 leader armed with pistol
3 men armed with rifles

As many infantry squads as we can put out
each with
10 men armed with rifles

 

In the first game the Americans had 3 platoons and the VC started with just 3 squads on table with reinforcements coming on as usual but they struggled to even get up to the wire so in the next game I reduced the Americans to only 2 platoons and the VC started with 5 squads.  This improved the game dramatically and the VC even got over the wire.

 

 

For the next three games I boosted them up to 7 squads and they even managed to assault a few positions and in the final game they finally captured the firebase.

 

 

Vietnam - Foot Patrol

This was the third scenario from the six I organised for the Saturday games.

My original plan had been for Angus Konstam with his Aussies to start off this battle but as he couldn't make it until after lunch I took his place using Americans instead.

The Americans advanced onto the table from the right hand side and had to clear the village of VC forces.  This was one action where depending what happened both sides could claim a victory if the US forces cleared out the village and the VC caused 25% casualties on the enemy.

 

US Army – Regular Troops
Platoon command
1 Lieutenant with M16 assault rifle
3 runners armed with M16 assault rifles
1 medic

3 Platoons of 10 men
8 men armed with M16 assault rifles
1 armed with M79 grenade launcher and pistol
1 armed with M60 Lmg

Company Support
1 Mmg team
1 Medium mortar team

 Local VC Militia – Inexperienced
HQ squad
1 leader armed with pistol
3 men armed with rifles

2 infantry squads each with
9 men armed with rifles
1 armed with Lmg

Support squad
1 Mmg team

 

Before we started this game Bill Gilchrist our Bolt Action expert said that with the VC being classed as inexperienced it was going to be a turkey shoot, and that's how it ended up

but unfortunately it was my Americans getting shot to bits with Charles Grant inflicting 50% casualties on my troops. To be fair I was facing an ex-army Brigadier General so he should know what he was doing and it also didn't help that I forgot that my troops were armed with assault rifles and shouldn't have had a minus for moving and shooting and my support company failed to live up to their name and cause a single casualty. Apart from that it was a great game and although I managed to wipe out a VC squad and their support Mmg I never got close to the village in the timescale.

Following American players managed much better and scored four victories against the VC, in one game the American player only suffered 4 casualties.

Vietnam - Charlie don't Surf

This was the second scenario that I came up with for the NAM weekend with the League of Gentlemen Wargamers.  The basic idea was that all these scenarios were to be very quick lasting no more than an hour to force the attackers to push for victory otherwise the defenders got the victory, there would be no draws except in one scenario where it was possible for both sides to gain their objectives.

 

 

 

US Air Cavalry – Regular TroopsCommand section in command chopper
1 Lieutenant armed with pistol
3 men armed with M16 assault rifles
1 unarmed surfer

Two platoons of 10 men transported in choppers
each chopper is armed with Hmg
8 men armed with M16 assault rifles
1 armed with M79 grenade launcher
1 armed with M60 Lmg

Armed Support
1 Huey Cobra

 

Local VC Militia - InexperiencedHQ squad
1 leader armed with pistol
3 men armed with rifles

3 infantry squads each with
10 men armed with rifles

Heavy Support
1 Hmg on AA mount set up in hard cover

Like the other scenarios this game changed enormously from the first game where the Americans lost but the VC player learnt lessons and when it was his turn to be American he had an easy victory and this continued for the next four games. It would appear that all the American players moved their choppers into 6" range which under the rules meant that they could spot the enemy, they then pulled back and blasted the enemy, especially the VC Hmg which was the only weapon that could threaten them in the air. If I was going to run this scenario again I wouldn't allow the Americans to spot the enemy unless they opened fire.

Vietnam Highway 19

The League of Gentlemen Wargamers had one of their regular get togethers at Kirriemuir at the weekend and I had offered to produce the small scenarios for the Saturday gaming so I made up a variety of 6 differing scenarios but due to shortage of numbers we only managed to fight 5 of them but I will post all of them here incase anyone wishes to try them out. The way I set up the scenarios was that each player would fight each scenario from both sides so that any imbalance of forces would be evened out.  All the figures and terrain was from the collections of Colin Jack, Peter Nicolson, Angus Konstam and myself with a few more guys adding jungle terrain.

The 8x4 table, the Americans enter from the right hand side

 

US Army – Regular TroopsPlatoon command transported in M113 APC
1 Lieutenant with M16 assault rifle
3 runners armed with M16 assault rifles
1 medic

2 Platoons of 10 men transported in M113 APC
8 men armed with M16 assault rifles
1 armed with M16 + M79 grenade launcher
1 armed with M60 Lmg

Armoured support
2 half tracks
2 M48 tanks
2 Gun trucks

VC Forces - regularHQ squad
1 leader armed with pistol
3 men armed with rifles

3 infantry squads each with
8 men armed with AK47 assault rifles
1 armed with AK47 + RPG
1 armed with Lmg

Company support
1 Hmg team
1 Medium mortar team

Anti-Tank support
2 75mm RCL teams

This battle was fought 5 times with different results each time.

In the first battle the Americans never even got past the village and were destroyed by the ambushers but each following player seemed to learn and improved each time but it was only on the fifth game that the Americans finally managed to get off the table.

If you fight any of these actions I would be interested to hear how they go.

 

We used a variation of Bolt Action rules written by Bill Gilchrist for these games which everyone seemed to pick up very quickly and really enjoyed.