Battlegroup has been our go-to rule system for 2018, replacing Flames of War and Bolt Action as our platoon to company level WWII game, having scheduled it for multiple game nights. We'll play it one final time in December, but in September Rob hosted another scenario from the Market-Garden campaign book.
Rob contributed the following after-action to go with our photos below. We had a large crowd for the September Beer & Pretzel Game Night. In honor of the 74th anniversary of Operation Market Garden this month I ran Battlegroup WWII rules and a scenario from the Market Garden Campaign of the 2nd South Staffordshire Para Glider Regiment fighting through the western suburbs of Arnhem trying to reach the bridge on September 19, 1944. Opposing them were recently arrived 10th SS troops led by Maj Sepp Kraftt. Some players knew the BG system so we divided them up and got straight into the action. The SS pushed west along the north side of the Utrechtsweg road, with one squad on the south side. The British evenly divided their platoon occupying buildings north (houses) and south (museum) of the road and waited for the German advance. The player soon learned the value of pinning as the Para light mortar team and rifle squad started to score against the German rifle squad and MG team advancing in the south toward the museum. We made one small error here and were treating the rifle + MG team as one unit but soon fixed that after the first pin and morale test. The AAA fire into the rear houses and the British 6pdr gun offboard both seemed to invoke more caution than actual results. The StuGs hung back and were not inclined to cross into the LOS of the British ATG. Instead, we all learned the ‘shooting at buildings’ rule as the StuGs consumed their HE rounds shooting into the houses on the north side of the street. One structure took 2 of the 3 possible structural damage points but was able to out-last the German HE ammo supply. The British teams inside vacated regardless due to the implied threat. The museum was assaulted once by a German rifle squad from the reinforcing platoon but was repelled. After both PIAT teams were knocked out by a very well placed German MG-34 team on the NE corner house from the museum, a very brave Para rifle team attempted to assault a StuG with anti-tank grenades but was not successful. German mortar strikes inflicted a few casualties and we applied a building damage opportunity when the mortar bombs struck a house. I actually cannot remember which side hit their battle rating first, but it was close [I believe the Germans hit their battle rating first, giving the British the win. - ed.]. The players all enjoyed learning the rules better, I don’t think we made any major mistakes after the first small error w/ a rifle team and MG team. I enjoyed getting my Dutch terrain out and seeing the small soldiers do what they do best, bring enjoyment to our gang of players and honoring the many soldiers and civilians who were lost fighting in Arnhem 74 years ago. On April 5th we had a great Battlegroup game at Coral Sword. Good pizza and BYOB made for a fun evening.
Rob hosted as Barry, Paul, Andy, Will, and Rob played the Sons of Son game in the Market Garden book. Two platoons of 101st Airborne w/ some anti-tank and mortar support is defending a Bailey Bridge over the Willemsvaart Canal in Son which is under a German counter-attack by some Panther tanks and two infantry platoons. It was only our second game of Battlegroup this year and this scenario was good to introduce armor and indirect fire into the game. We jumped right in and learned a few things, and still have some rules to fully grasp and master. We'll end this w/ a lessons learned to reference for our next game. In this game, the Germans have to commit four timed artillery strikes of harassment fire after the Americans deploy. The US Paras took a beating in some woods that got hit twice by these timed barrages. Cover saves in woods (soft) isn't as good as a building hard cover. The Panzers led the attack and moved a little bit toward the bridge and stopped, preferring a long range duel w/ a 57mm ATG. Due to intervening terrain, it was really a 1 on 1 duel between a single Panther and the concealed gun as the two supporting Panthers couldn't see the ATG. Not short of targets, the other Panthers shot up the infantry platoon on the objective and in some nearby woods and started piling battle rating chits onto the Americans. Luckily for the Americans, the British supply trucks arrived on T1 and scooted up the road to the bridge right away. The nearby village buildings offered enough room to hide from the guns of the Panthers which allowed them to all escape off the North edge on T2 and T3 (two trucks got pinned by an artillery strike on the bridge T2). This gave four more battle rating chits to the Germans. The German infantry advanced aggressively in the South, and were pinned for their efforts by the effective US 81mm mortar battery firing off-table w/ two US commanders able to call fire (usually one was pinned so having two was a good redundancy). Eventually the 57mm ATG w/ extra loader team (higher ROF) won the duel w/ the Panther and more battle chits went to the Germans. This gun eventually succumbed to a Panther that advanced to it's position, but inspired some fierce anti-tank grenade attacks by supporting Paras which ultimately failed, but were epic. We finally had to call the game at 11pm as we were tired. The Germans won a narrow tactical victory on battle ratings. The Americans were closer to the break point then the German side. We all enjoyed the game and learning it's finer points. Pinning w/ suppressing fire and HE is key to taking units out of the game until rally in the following turn (which costs battle rating chits to do). We got some rules wrong, but I've worked out all the lessons learned below and we'll improve our play next time. All in all, we really enjoy Battlegroup as our current goto game for 15mm WWII. We plan to see more Battlegroup Market-Garden action in September and Battlegroup Wacht Am Rhein action in December, as our 2018 focus on the Battlegroup rules continues. Lessons Learned 1a. Artillery Fire Sequence - need to resolve direct hits according to the HE dice and hit value of each gun. We allocated direct hits but did not resolve them correctly. 81mm mortar and Panther 75mm are both HE 4/4+ for scoring hits that require saves. 1b. Artillery Fire Sequence - need to resolve pinning hits according to the Suppressing Fire Effect table according to the gun type. 81mm mortar are light HE, Panther 75mm are light HE. 1c. Artillery number of shots = tubes x2. Panthers roll 6 dice for x3 tubes. US 81mm mortors roll 4 dice for x2 tubes 2. US Infantry have M1 Garands which do suppressing fire as one band higher on table. ex: 6 man Rifle team does suppressing fire as ROF 9+ 3. Hits on Soft Skin Vehicles - need to consult the chart for vehicle. SdKfz 7 takes 4 hits before knocked out. Morale Check required for EACH hit (not just on casualty). 4a. Deployed Guns - any rolls of '6' on HE to hit are applied against the gun, not the crew. Gun makes same Cover Save Roll and if failed, crew abandons the now destroyed gun. 4b. Loader team requires a 5+ check to give the extra ROF dice. ROF 3 only if the loader team passes this check during the Open Fire order. 5. 60mm mortar - min/max range is 5"/30". Treat as aimed fire HE Shell weapon. Roll HE 3/5+ for aimed fire effect. Treat as HE from very light gun for Supressing Fire. Rob hosted our January game night and re-introduced Battlegroup rules for 15mm WWII to Houston. We enjoyed two great games from the Market Garden scenario book, at squad level which is good for an introduction to the rules.
It's set on Sept. 17, 1944 right after the British landings at Wolfhezen. The Brit Para Recon Jeeps are driving down the Johannahoeveweg by a railroad embankment to reach Arnhem when they are ambushed by platoon from KG Kraftt. This is a very challenging game for the British. We switched sides for game #2 and discussed lessons learned and still could not win as British. It's a very good learning game as it’s all small arms and jeeps and really a fun challenge. Looking forward to our next game of Battlegroup at the canal bridge in Son with the 101st US Airborne. This will introduce artillery and tanks to us at a larger platoon level. We had a great time on August 3rd at the King's Head pub in the Westchase area of Houston. Stephen hosted and ran through another play test of his Guadalcanal campaign rules for Axis & Allies War at Sea.
Please go here to see his full report, and more photos. ![]() The April 2017 game night offered me a chance to run a Check Your 6! scenario I wrote several years ago and never got the chance to play test. It stars Roald Dahl, author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and many other classic childrens' books. Roald was a RAF fighter ace, scoring five confirmed victories over Vichy French and German aircraft in the Greek and Levant theaters in the Middle East in 1941. The Gremlins is a book he wrote in cooperation with Walt Disney in 1943. ![]() January game night was held at Black Labrador and featured The Marianas Turkey Shoot, the greatest air battle in history. Scenario was based on the morning intercepts of the first raid sent by Ozawa to the Saipan invasion fleet. New guest Gunnar and Andy played US naval aviation with Matthew who faced his father Larry, and Barry who flew for the Japanese. The Sons of Nippon were on a bomber escort mission, guarding a flight of four Judys with their four Zekes. TF58 fighter direction vectored three sections of Navy Hellcats and the fight was on! Scenario specific rules were a favorable tail wind for the Japanese bombers which gave them a free first move, and some of the US Navy planes had been in action prior to the scenario start and already had their First Fire box checked. |
Please ParticipatePlease feel free to comment on what interests you. Archives
September 2023
Categories
All
|