Rückzug campaign: Eastern Front. Game three

 

Game 3 of the East Front Rückzug campaign. After pulling back in relative safety in the first game, and giving the Soviet pursuers a bloody nose in the second, the Germans are prepared for another Soviet assault.

This means an attack and defend scenario which aims at whitling down the enemy force morale. Pathetic rolling on both sides resulted on frce morales of 8, but this mainly benefitted the Germans, because of the voluntary withdrawal option in the campaign rules. Arvid again led the Germans and Jasper the Soviets, with me handling rules queries, social media and occassional tactical advice to Arvid.

Having won the last game the Germans roll 3 D20s to determine their added support. This results in: a roadblock, 4 riflemen and another 50mm mortar (unknown to the Soviets at the start of the game). The extra riflemen are added to the existing squads. Replacement squad leader of first squad still hasn't earned full respect from his team after last game.

The Russian tank driver platoon had been mangled in last game with two weakened squads remaining and a replacement squad leader who needed to show his mettle. On the other hand support was pretty good with 3D6+6 resulting in 17 support points. Jasper decided on a T34/85, a SU-76 and a Dshk, which the Germans were to find out.

 

Both sides tried to flank each other during the patrol phase, with both pushing on their right flanks. 

 

This exposed a German jump off point on their left flank, and this was to be the spot around which most of the battle revolved.

 

First roll of the day by Jasper resulted in 3x6 which meant end of turn. (if only he'd spent support points on pre game barrage!). Then next turn an SU-76 appeared, followed by a Dshk. Just waiting for a German to stick his head out.

More Soviets entered the table and tighten the noose.

They get targeted by two 50mm mortars. So far it's only a nuisance

Well then... Jasper showed his hand as a T 34/85 arrived, plus another squad of tank riders. All encircling the exposed German jump off point on overwatch.

A German MMG appeared (although safely out of view of the Soviet armour) and started a duel with the Dshk. The Dshk got moral support from their Leytenant 

 

Dshk won the duel, killing 3 from the MMG team, which routed. German force morale dropped from 8 to 6

Pushing a scout team onto a German jump off point, they discovered a German squad in hiding. This meant close combat but the Germans were so scary (ie 4 times as many close combat dice as the Soviets) that the scouts routed immediately. Soviet force morale dropped from 8 to 6.

But this exposed the German squad to overwatch fire from almost every Soviet unit on the table. They lost 2 men and suffered 4 shock. Pfew, muttered Arvid under his breath

The German team decided to live another day and pulled back in a hurry.

The Soviets reorganised to stop the fleeing scouts 

 

 

The Soviets pushed up, chasing the withdrawing German squad. 

 

 

Then, the German AT team popped up from the wheat field and discharged 3 Panzerfäuste into the side of the SU-76. One hit and blew up the SU. Soviet force morale dropped from 6 to 4 (for support KO and junior leader killed)

This is why it was vital that the Germans also pushed up their right flank during the patrol phase!

The German LMG team was wiped out, dropping force morale to 5.

And a tank rider squad moved up again towards the jump off point. At this point the Germans withdrew voluntarily (with the Soviet force morale at halfway), cherishing their remaining strength 

 

 

The table as the Germans filtered back into the rear. 

 

 

Arvid couldn't help remind Jasper after the game, that he could have used one of his two precious CoC dice to avert a "bad things happen" test. That would have made a considerable difference, forcing the Germans to hang around longer. I understand Jasper wasn't in the best of moods the rest of the day.

Although they managed to get put most of the force intact, one squad has been badly shot up, and the remaining MMG gunner and the sniper were lost in the retreat. The rookie junior leader has now been accepted by his squad.

Apart from the SU there were no Soviet losses, so they will start next game with a few extra returnees, while here also the replacement squad leader (although not even getting on table) has earned his stripes (or is it bars or stars in the Red Army?).

 

 

The Germans have 3 VPs now, so the pressure is on the Soviets to turn the campaign around. Next game will be a Delaying Action scenario with terrain including a river crossing. A set up for an epic struggle in three weeks time!

 

Rückzug campaign: Eastern Front. Game two

Text and photos provided by Jasper, as I could not be at the game. I did provide some moral support through the interwebs, though.

 

The scene is set

The second game of the campaign, after the Germans got away very luckily last time, was a delaying action in a village.

The village from the viewpoint of the Soviet scouts

Arvid again took control of the Germans and rolled to find that a sniper team had also made it into the village the night before, and for a force morale of 11.

René joined the campaign for the first time and took command of the Soviets. He rolled for a force morale of 9 and 11 points of support, which they spent on a shiny new SU122, a pre game barrage (no-brainer!), and a satchel charge.

René managed to drive up the Soviet jump off points to the edge of the village.

With Arvid placing the German front line halfway the village, and his main jump off point (and Soviet objective!) behind it.

The game's afoot!

First turn. Red Army SU122 appears and nothing else.

A few phases pass without anything happening other than some chain of command points being collected. Then an SMG squad appears behind the pig farm on the Soviet right flank. 

The Soviets advance on the nearest house (and a German JOP) only to find a German squad deploying through the barrage. Their fire is not as effective as it could be, but the Soviet junior leader is wounded (Soviet force moral drops to 8). 

Next phase, the junior leader nevertheless makes an aggressive move and advances past the house the German squad is in.

On the Soviet left flank, a new squad deploys 

 and the SU122 races forward.

The Germans are seriously hampered by the Pre-Game barrage, allowing the Soviet squad on the right to advance even further, unmolested.

On the left flank, the Soviet infantry advances as well.

The barrage let up just enough to allow another German squad to deploy to defend their rearmost JOP. They shred the right flank Red Army squad. The leader is killed and the squad breaks. 

Red Army morale drops to 5 (one away from 50% which will allow a German voluntary withdrawal). On the left flank a Soviet squad blocks (but doesn’t capture) a German JOP. The German player manages to deploy his MMG, and uses a CoC die to end the turn and stop the barrage. 

The SU crushes some fences and open fires on the Germans around the rear JOP, killing three. 

That back German JOP is becoming a bit of a citadel. 

Another SU122 shot crashes down, killing much of the German squad. The leader is only wounded and force morale is not affected. 

The German sniper deploys and causes two shock on the Soviet squad on the left flank. The 50mm mortar causes another two.

 

The SU fires again and the German squad at the rear is routed. German force morale tumbles to 6. The left Soviet squad captures a German JOP when the turn is ended. German force morale drops to 4.

 

The Germans make a Hail Mary move and deploy a squad with the sniper. The LMG team fires at the Soviet squad, killing two, and the panzerfaust takes a shot at the SU but misses.

Next phase, the SU returns fire but isn’t very effective. The Germans then get a double phase. In the first phase, the MG42 team pins the Soviet squad. Next phase, the sniper shoots, but misses. A full CoC dice allows an ambush with the panzerfaust team. One hit. The SU explodes!
 

Continuing a horrible phase for the Soviets, the German LMG rout the Soviet team. They don’t go off the table, but the 50mm mortar strikes the final blow. An unlikely German victory, in another nail-biter of a game!

The dust settles

The Red Army incurred heavy casualties, considering its small squads. A junior leader out of action and 10 men. Because force morale dropped to 0, this results in: 5 never return, 3 miss next game, 2 return. That's one squad out of business for now.

On the German side: 8 out of action, no leaders
Final result (because force morale ended at 4, 4 losses are ignored): 2 never return, 1 misses next game, 1 returns. (Three wounded Landser from last game will also return).

As the Germans won the fight, all their units get away. Despite slightly better odds, one car breaks down and stays behind. Because of the win, this doesn't affect troops getting away, but transport after next game is getting sparse: two trucks and one car.

The win also earned the Germans another precious victory point, extending the lead to two. Still everything to play for with at least 3 games to go!

Rückzug campaign: Eastern Front. Game one

Started on a pint sized campaign for Chain of Command by Too Fat Lardies yesterday. The Rúckzug campaign rules were written by David Hiscocks and published in the 2021 Lard Magazine and are intended to recreate the difficulties for German units in the great retreat from Normandy to the Albert Canal in August and September 1944. It's not so much about holding ground, as about holding it together, because the Germans are always on the run. Even if they win a battle, the retreat continues. 

Although written for the Western Front the concepts are easily transferable to the Eastern Front and the events following on the great Soviet summer offensive of 1944 (thanks to Adam David Warne for the idea!). Instead of a British infantry platoon, it's now a Tank Rider platoon giving chase across Belarus.

The basic Tank Rider Platoon

 

Arvid and I handle the German forces and Jasper the Soviets (hopefully assisted by René in future games).

The basic depleted German platoon

 

German support is determined by random rolls rather than choosing from the list. This reflects the haphazard composition of battlegroups during the retreat. This being the start of the campaign, three supports were rolled, resultingin an extra infantry squad, a 50mm mortar and 5 riflemen, which we used to bring our depleted squads up to strength. 

The Soviet jump off points

 

The pursuing allies roll 2D6+6. Jasper used his 18 points of support well (see list below). German force morale started out at 10 but Soviet morale only at 8.

The German jump off points

 

There was the obligatory pre game barrage (with added effect because of Soviet artillery) that continued for the whole game because the first turn never ended. This hampered German deployment and forced us to commit earlier than we otherwise would have liked.

Feint

 

The Soviets start with a feint towards the most forward German JOP with a scout team and force the Germans to deploy a squad.

 

Then Jasper deploys the rest of his scout squad from their forward JOP and force the deployment of German squad in the center of the table and on the rear JOP (which is the Soviet objective in this scenario). Because of the scouts' elite status and cover German fire is largely desultory, but fate strikes and the squad leader is killed. [Soviet force morale drops to 7]

 

More worries for Jasper as his SU 76 is ambushed by the Panzerfaust team. [Soviet force morale drops to 6]

 

Oh no! (picture by Jasper)

But then the battle swings around: the scout squad moves up further, and Jasper expertly uses his two COC dice to first move up his JOP to just behind the squad, and then launch an ambush from it with a flamethrower team. This grills the German squad defending the objective. Two tank rider squads are deployed as well and rankle the squad to the brink and wounding the Obergefreiter.

Although the Germans desperately and unsuccessfully try to bring support to the table, their only hope is to force down Soviet force morale to half, so they can make a voluntary withdrawal. The squad defending the objective therefor is sacrificed, shortly beefed up by the platoon leader. This slowly whittles away at the Soviet squads. But the German squad breaks the next turn, taking the platoon leader with them. Suddenly German force morale is at 3 (the wounded squad leader gets killed as well).

The situation so dire, luck favours the Germans again as they are able to bring the MMG team to the table that riddles the Soviet scout squad and sends them running. More importantly, this brings their force morale to 4, which will allow the Germans to withdraw voluntarily next turn if they survive.

The MMG team receives retribution from the Soviets, including the redeployed flame thrower and breaks, dropping German force morale to 1, but that is *just enough*.

Hugely relieved, the Germans scamper off to their trucks and cars, which miraculously all drive off without trouble. However, there isn't enough room for the 50mm mortar team and the much reduced squad. Somehow, they must have been able to requisition bikes, because when the platoon leader does a head count next day, most have turned up to fight in the next battle.

The post combat table

This means the Germans have scored 1 VP and will be able to fight in reasonable shape for the next game.

As far as I can tell Russian support on the table was: 

• pre-game barrage
• DSHK
• SU 76
• Scout squad
• Flame thrower team

 

For a western front Rückzug campaign running at this time, see the Tactical Painter blog.

Colonial wargaming and inclusiveness

So, many wargamers are coming round to the idea that having a more diverse group of players is good for the hobby. Good. But when inclusiveness is dicussed, my impression is that wargamers mostly think about having more women and young people playing. But an important group that feels distanced from wargaming as a hobby are those that don't have a white background. And for them inclusion is harder because they don't share the historical background that white women and young white men have in common with the middle aged white wargamers.

 

Your chest may swell with 'Men of Harlech' when you see Zulu. But how does a non-white person view such a movie other than as a massacre of dark skinned people? And this is Zulu, which apparently stands out positively for portraying the Zulu as 'worthy opponents', whatever that may mean. Most Western and colonial movies (or popular books like Tarzan and King Solomon's Mines) don't have much time for the faceless opponents of Europe's benevolent harbingers of civilization.

And wargame rules very much copy the frames that are to be seen in the movies and history books from our youths. Titles referring to a 'dark continent', rules with individual white heroes. Their opponents may be mostly cardboard character with wornout colonial stereotypes. And often the stats for white characters will be superior for no other reason than that, well... er....

While I still love the basic idea behind the 'Science vs Pluck' rules of the Sudan wars, it highlights exactly what the problem is with 'colonial' wargaming. The imbalance in violent means is so great that only a significant cock up amongst the Europeans can offer the Mahdist opponents a chance of defeating them. But having this game with only the British side played, it also removes the choices and agency from those opponents. They have become no more than NPC zombies that charge unto their doom against the Maxim guns and Martini Henries.

Would you want to play that as if your roots lay in the Sudan? How are those of Pakistani heritage to enjoy a game about the Northwestern Frontier when the rules take the white men as the point of reference? Likewise, how would an Indian feel about a ruleset on the First Indian War of Independence rather than one about the Indian Mutiny? What is a Maori to think when all the New Zealand tribes are lumped together generically in the painting guide while the facings of each British regiment are specified in detail?

Should we not delve deeper into the question what motivated the Zulu warriors in opposing the British invasion? Why did some Native American tribes or Indian kings side with the French, others with the British, others with the Spanish, and why do they fight each other? And should we maybe seek out conflicts which aren't so one-sided?

The history of colonialism and imperialism has shown that violence was part and parcel on all levels of European expansion. Not only during conquest, but also afterwards. These actions have been rebranded as pacifications, police actions or punitive expeditions, against 'bandits', 'fanatics' and 'restive tribes'. This resulted in genocide more often than just the Bandanese, the Herero, the Tasmanians and Native Americans

If we don't look critically at how we approach these subjects on and around the table (and on social media), we will find that all talk of inclusivity will sound empty to those that we would like to reach out to.

Secret Satan

First gift

Second gift

OOOOH nice

Gaming goals - November update

After October's nadir, thing are looking better in wargaming terms.

In terms of playing, I got off the second game in our Chain of Command 29 Let's Go! campaign. The American platoon managed to take the enemy rearguard post with some difficulty as the attack was not very well planned or executed. Good thing the Germans were still hurting from their previous engagement.

Again many useful things were learned and maybe at some point in this campaign I get a feel for marshalling my resources. Until then, firepower will gave to provide the solutions.

And a game of What a Tanker, introducing three young ladies to the rules (one of whom who has helped to build some of the tanks earlier this year). By the second game they were quite good against their dads.

I played a few board games but nothing on the list.

Painting wise, this was a good month. Made a solid start on the 1672 project, with four foot units near completion, and a dragoon unit in the works. Those are planned to be finished this year. But there's still some decisions to be made about painting technique.

So far just basic colours and decided against a generic wash (ie Army Painter). Not sure I actually want to do shading/highlighting. I also experimented with painting horses in GW contrast paint, which I'm okay with. All that to save time and improve chances that I actually finish this project.

Also painted up a few Italian bunkers with French Renault turrets that a friend printed in 3D.

I finished my Yankee reinforcements for Chain of Command: extra BARs and a gun team.

In terms of projects: 1672 is on, with the painting started, but haven't done much reading or terrain building yet. The other participants are off the mark as well.

To keep you up to date on my mad scheme to cycle 4000 kms this year: I managed to get beyond 3800 kms. That means I'm in a realistic distance of making it!