One scene – two battles – thats efficiency for you.
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Category: world war two
Peter Pig (PP) have a history of promoting rules which are a little bit different in an engaging way. For the gamer there is an enrichment with pregame activity and this also helps the soloist. For those who like total control and the key variable simply to be them – the general’s actions, then these rules may seem too restricting.
Poor Bloody Infantry (PBI) is PP’s WW2 game. And I say game advisedly. Although PP makes clear that the rules have been well researched to enable necessary compromise for game play, the purpose is an enjoyable game between well matched forces.
The key differences I guess are the prebattle steps, then the use of large control grids (no tape measures please) and what once used to be novel – unit activation.
The success of PP over the decades has seen many other rules writers copy the pregame idea and certainly utilise the activation sequences. PP has a long history of rules development and making a real effort to “design in” their research while retaining game play.
I wanted to get my latest painted figures on the board again, so opted for a PBI game as it had been a few years since I played it. In fact I had to rebuy the ruleset as I had got rid of my original copy in a massive clear out of all wargame things post 1735! Silly me.
Narrative Background
The Vossackians had surprised the Azorians who had over extended their advance and were forced to retreat. The resulting chaos with only a single main route caused the Azorians many problems. The Vossackians failed though, to fully capitalise on the situation. As a result of being well forward, Senior Lieutenant Saray was ordered to advance on a road junction which appeared to be of value to the Azorians in their retreat.
As it happened Captain Turner had orders to secure the same road junction to protect other nearby routes of Azorian retreat.
Both commanders were advised that supporting troops would soon be provided.
As dark clouds gathered overhead the two forces unwittingly collided.
The Forces
Vossackia – Senior Lieutenant Saray had 3 platoons of rifleman, SMG’s and LMG’s. Junior Lieutenant Zhelezo and Junior Sergeant Stali led a platoon each. The platoons were slightly mixed up owing to allocation of replacements and issues with logistics.
Azoria – Captain Turner had Garand armed rifle platoons supported with BAR LMG’s. The Azorians had suffered in some previous actions so were not up to strength. Lieutenants Bacon and Bean led a platoon each.
A Map is to be found at the end of this post.
Note the tough hedgerows! they make a grid harder to leave in PBI. Cover affects movement in an abstract but logical way.
Activation is about mobilising possibly reluctant movement by soldeirs under direct fire. As you will see lack of movement and even pinning the opposition is key to allowing your own freedom of movement.
Game Over!
This battle narrative came from the actual game. It was most enjoyable seeing the encounter fluctuate before ending. PBI tells you that “ebb and flow” is part of the game design.
Some more PBI rules came into play during the game.
First was the arrivals of troops. In the pregame journey on the equivalent of a snakes and ladders board the Vossackians with the advantage failed to get a clear superiority in numbers and prevent the Azorians gathering sufficient forces for the action.
The Vossackians posture under the rules was agressive while the Azorians was only responsive.
I think the rules are good at covering troops on the board at game start and those being fed in. Another variable to add flavour.
Three objectives had to be taken by the Vossackians for game victory.
- The East Strongpoint
- the Road Junction
- The West Strongpoint
A countdown tracker starting at 23, and reducing, using 1d6 per turn meant game length was unknown.
The battle started well for Vossackia as the Azorians advanced allowing early contact and then finding the dice rolling for them. The Azorians quickly lost any parity on forces.
But later the rules around activiation started to work against the Vossackians at the critical moment. Things also slowed at the wrong moment.
To cap it all the countdown dice rolled for the Azorians with too many 6’s including the last one when the tracker was at 5. So the game ended early.
Cue – mega thunderstorm.
The positives are you get a fairly quick game – no measuring movement or ranges helps.
The abstraction that allows close proximity of opposing forces requires a bit of getting used to. I used the 6″ grid for 15mm with 20/25mm or 1/72 size figures. Maybe an 8″ (for 28mm figure) grid would give a better look.
What looks like contact isn’t. Contact is a process called assault and requires a lot of momentum to achieve.
The abstraction includes the proximity of the figures who spend some time in adjacent grid squares waiting to build momentum for an assault or simply erode the enemy through fire. The latter requires a decent advantage in numbers but the former is risky without overwhelming force.
The Vossackians lacked any heavy weapons or support which kind of reflected the “encounter” nature of this Scenario. And probably meant the Azorian victory was the right outcome.
Verdict is I will play PBI again.
I use a 2006 edition of PBI – easily picked up at show bring and buys (when they return) and on ebay. Of course Peter Pig will sell you the latest edition with improvements from over a decade more of game play. And PP also offers a fantastic 15mm range of figures and vehicles which, if I was not hooked up to 1/72, would suit my needs.
Roll on the Vossackian advance in Fauxterre 1930+……
Categories
Gifted
John at “just add varnish” blog was having a clear out and thought I might like some between the wars armour. That is ww1 to ww2 so 1920/30’s era.
Thank you John. These were most welcome and have allowed me to dabble in some tank or tankette gaming while I paint up my infantry.
So here they are. A wopping 15 items! Generous John or what.
The John@justaddvarnish inventory
First Column
- French AMR33 or AMR35 reconnaissance tank by Early War Miniatures
- French Renault NC27 by Shapeways
- 2 x Soviet FT17 – based on Hat kit
- Italian L6/40 by Frontline Wargaming
Second Column
- Mexican Revolution armoured truck by Shellhole Scenics
- Vickers Light Dragon gun tractor maybe by Early War Miniatures
- Laffly W15T gun tractor Paint & Glue Miniatures
- 1930’s sedan by Frontline Wargaming
Third Column
- Morris C8 gun tractor ex Matchbox
- 6 wheeled Crossley armoured car by FRontline Wargaming
- 4 wheeled Marmon Herrington armoured car may be by Wespe Models
- Japanese type 95 Kurogane Scout Car unknown manufacture
- Austin Putilov armoured car (in kit form)
Here are some of them in close up. They show the excellent artwork by John@justaddvarnish
Thanks John these will definitely be appearing again in my “between the wars” games I have entitled Fauxterre 1930 and Fauxterre 1930+.
My current preoccupation with a sideline project about the inter war years (between ww1 and ww2) has led to the acquisition of “armour”. To be specific, armoured vehicles and not some renaissance suit!
As it happened I was a bit slow on this aspect of 20th century warfare having focused on the infantry who appeared in my scenario Observer.
The idea was also that infantry heavy weapons would follow. And then finally the armour. The heavy weapons are still in the painting queue. The armour is on the factory production line………or maybe in the repair shop.
And of course the next problem is how do you fight armoured vehicles using infantry with no heavy weapons or anti tank kit either?
Use “What a Tanker” of course!
What a Tanker (WAT) by Too Fat Lardies is a game that only uses tanks and in my case some armoured cars – or rather thats all you need and actually you only need a 4-6 to play a game.
I have suddenly thought you could probably play 1 tank a side if the scenario was sufficiently rigged to stop one tank simply moving off table to end the game prematurely.
Maybe you could play a really powerful tank which is unable to move versus a much less powerful/armoured tank which has to try and manoeuvre to get in its killer shot before it is picked off.
In my next post I will explain the armour on show which is a story in itself. Suffice to say it is not what WAT is aimed at. WAT lovers I suspect lean towards the back end of the war with greater variety and dare I say it the more impressive bigger tanks.
I have got into WW2 only because of my interest in inter war era mechanisation and some various blogs that promote the Spanish and Russian Civil Wars plus 1941 Vichy middle east etc. In other words, variously considered marginal theatres in the journey from the WW1 tank invention to the great tank battles of WW2.
First up I am using armoured cars which don’t even feature in the ruleset.
I simply took a look at the values and had a punt. So this game was in a way a test of the rules to cope with weak kit. Would the game even work. Actually the secret is in the Japan tank table where some really weak options can be chosen. And I think TFL(Too Fat Lardies) really test their rules hard.
The Reds had three Renaults
- 2 Renault FT17’s – they got armour of 2 and strike of 3
- leading this pack was a Renault NC29 apparently exported to Japan by a France that straight after world war 1 had the largest tank army in the world and led tank development. Armour 4 and a whopping strike value of 5 was given.
The Blues had
- One Crossley 6 wheeled Armoured Car armour 2 and strike 3
- One Marmon Herrington 4 wheeled Armoured Car armour 2 and strike 4
- The Blue force was led by an M3 Stuart or maybe its a Honey Armour 4 strike 4
As WAT abstracts heavily WYSIWYG does not have to apply and I was the only one looking so that was fine. Apologies to the purists.
I put the two big tanks in the centre opposite each other.
No scenery was provided so it was a straight knock out.
I belatedly got the camera into action so what follows is a truncated record of the action.
I have only played WAT a few times properly and spaced out over time – end result was I could not remember the rules. I played the “long ball” set up – with three vehicles per side – set up opposite each other. Points were not the priority so absolute balance did not matter..
The Renault NC27 succumbed but so did the Marmon which seeking to support the M3 left the FT17 behind only for the dice to roll very kindly for the FT17. The FT 17 simply took the Marmon in the rear.
Meanwhile the other FT17 eventually destroyed the Crossley and returned to the remaining action just in time.
Luck was running out for the M3 Stuart and so it did. It failed to quickly destroy the FT17 by the Marmon and so the two FT17’s were able to slowly kill it with some good dice throwing.
So the M3 Stuart was first deprived of its weak armoured car supports and then finished off by the FT17’s. Thats Fauxterre 1930+ for you – what a tanker style.
I will post about the vehicles separately.
Categories
An Unexpected Surprise
For the soloist, looking into the eyes of an opponent and not via a screen is a surprise – a nice surprise.
In this case it was a “live” wargame for a soloist. What to play? Time of the essence – it had to be quick. Although Neil Thomas is invariably a draw, it was “What a Tanker” (WaT) by Too Fat Lardies that won the decision.
I set up a congested scene after a recent solo run out of WaT had proven to be a bit too much of a target practice event.
Points tally was dictated by wanting at least 3 tanks a side playing wide across a 6’x4′ or 1.8m x 1.2m board. And with one gamer wanting big German tanks to figure, we ended up as follows.
Germans (43pts)
1 Pz VI Tiger I 21pts – armour 10 and strike value 10 with slow moving turret and heavy armour
2 PzIV E-F1 9pts – armour 5 and strike value 4
3 PzIV H-J 13pts – armour 6 and strike value 7
they were up against
British (45pts)
1 M3 Honey 9pts – armour 4 and strike value 4 Fast
2 M3 Grant 10pts – armour 4 and strike value 6
3 M4 Sherman 12pts – armour 6 and strike value 6
4 Sherman Firefly 14pts – armour 6 and strike value 9 slow mover
The British were so short of tanks the Honey had to be sent into action in bare metal (ok plastic) and some white primer!
The scene was near a destroyed bridge with a village of sorts clustered around a crossroads.
What a Tanker requires scenery classification.
The starting points were random. The tiger was in one corner. The M4 Sherman was opposite. The weaker PzIV EF and Grant were at the other flank. In middle the Honey and Firefly faced off the other PzIV HJ.
Everything was a minor obstacle except for some tough hedgerows which being MAJOR obstacles required extra effort to cross. These were my recently completed “sponge hedges”.
Victory conditions for this game were destuction of all enemy armour.
The Germans were a bit sluggish yet the Tiger took out the fast M3 Honey even before it moved. Things were not looking good for the British. The M4 Sherman (in the wide open) and opposite the Tiger had maxed out on moving (getting lots of drive dice to use in its first turn) and also rolled high (you roll dice for inches of movement). It promptly raced for the relative shelter of the village.
The Firefly was soon engaged with the PzIV HJ and stayed on the west road exchanging light damage.
The Tiger struck again and the Firefly was no more.
The odds were still stacked against the British. Fortunately the Tiger failed to get “drive” dice and the remaining M4 set about the PzIV EF1. Meanwhile the M3 Grant which had struggled to do anything useful managed to get on the north road despite halting in line of sight of the Tiger which this time failed to “acquire” dice for an easy target ( the tiger was at one end of the board, the Grant at the other – 72 inches away).
The Grant then scurried into south east wood before heading north!
Finally some better luck for the British as the M4 took out the PzIV HJ – striking at its weaker flank. Yet the Tiger was now hunting in the village.
Now the Tiger was really on the move and almost caught the tail of the M3 Grant. Random movement allowed the Tiger to then reverse back onto north bridge road to confront the M4 Sherman that had carelessly decided to chase the action.
The M3 Grant continued to skirt the east side of the village arriving at the north end of the village at exactly the right moment – what a journey!
The Tiger dice were thrown and they were “drive” dice and no “fire” dice. The Tiger simply drove straight into the M4 Sherman and then – nothing – it failed to crush the M4.
At that point the M3 Grant had completed its own circumnavigation of the village and acquired the weaker armoured rear of the Tiger 1.
At last the dice really went with the British and another lucky shot destroyed the Tiger 1.
Game over!
This game had all the twists and turns WaT offers. After the early dice rolled well for the Germans, luck ran out later on as the British crucially threw two sets of “tank destroyed” dice.
Great fun and we even gave the “oldhammer” measuring sticks a run out.
My current preoccupation with 20th century warfare has scooped up two random purchases that were “I might read that one day” plus a rebuy for the third time – this time I read it cover to cover!
“The Murder of Admiral Darlan” does not leap into most peoples mind as a book worthy of a second look unless maybe it was a Napoleonic era study. Quite simply Admiral Darlan led on the wrong side for too long before switching sides only to be murdered. So no need to read the book then. Wait – it is written by an american and is not really about the murder at all. It details just how close the allies came to mess up Operation Torch before they landed! And there is still plenty of action. If you want ideas for gaming its worth a look.
The General de Gaulle memoirs were published by Collins in London in 1955 the year after Dien Bien Phu (1954) definitively signalled the end of French Indochina. The first part 1940-42 is all about defeat and survival. And de Gaulle emphasises the Empire as his sustaining source in a way english speakers might not appreciate, not least as the British Empire had its own story to wrestle with. The brief Northern France actions and the sheer chaos of an uncertain France as belief fell away offers yet more ideas for the wargamer. I still think a country defeated in 1815, conquered in 1870 and nearly overrun again in 1914 and finally part annexed by its neighbour in 1940 always has an interesting story to tell.
Charles Whiting has been a prolific author of war stories. Many are written under nom de plumes such was his rate of production.
His book about Operation Torch feels different to the other two books. He was not there but he went to war at 16 (illegally) and marched across northern europe in an armoured reconnaissance unit ending up in Germany. So I think you can say his writing is very observational with concern for the moment. Perhaps though you can match that in de Gaulle when he talks about french tank attacks in northern France and Tompkins relaying details of the “uprising which failed”.
As a trilogy these three books are complimentary and work. In my view you read de Gaulle and get suitably downhearted and deeply suspicious of everything Vichy as well as Britain and the USA! There is some action but mostly positioning. Then you read Peter Tompkins and the upbeat Americans just about holding together the idea they should be in Europe via North Africa and that Vichy could still be a good angle: More action and some spectacular moments not least in Algiers. Finally the action really kicks off with Whiting and ends with Von Arnim, Rommel followed by Montgomery and Kesselring all pitching up in Tunisia with an already frustrated Patton, Clark, Fredenhall and of course Eisenhower. Even Alexander gets a look in.
The 1942/43 battles involved German, Italian, Vichy, Free French, US and British Empire and Home forces on land, at sea and in the air. With lots of confusion, poor weather and both out of date and brand new technology these stories lack for nothing.
The three books cover the period well, in a way I don’t think any one book can.
De Gaulle starts us off in 1940 and provides the approach including some useful Africa maps to show context – North Africa was not simply below Spain and Italy.
Then Admiral Darlan fleshes out the North African situation and the US interest building to the uprising and invasion events in detail. The murder provides the context.
Finally kasserine provides in effect what follows and how armies of five major countries and their allies end up facing off in hills west of Tunis.
In each case the overlapping narratives compliment each taking different lines amongst the same information. That means repetition is not noticeable.
Oh I did not mention on Kasserine Pass – the first moment in WW2 the US troops went head to head with the Germans and came up short.
So if you want a diversion from the perrenial Normandy Landings, El Alamein, Stalingrad or indeed Blitzkrieg then read these three books and get caught up in a veritable confusion of events and participants!
I have restarted my WW2 era interests through painting some of the Plastic Soldier Companies 1/72 figures. I have painted Russian and US troops so far. As my interests are solo and mythical, matching historic countries and or uniforms is not essential.
If I ever play a live opponent, I will probably be ok as there seems no shortage of modelled german armies……..
Having painted these figures I do like some poses a lot while others seem a bit odd. The Russian hand grenade thrower and SMG handler makes sense if you stand him against a wall though. So I think PSC did a good job here. The US set has some excellent “moving forward” troops, yet too many kneelers?
I opted for block painting with a wash. I used a proprietary matt varnish which worked in the odd place but generally came out satin: Answers on a postcard.
I had some fun picking the shade in the end opting for “seraphim sepia” on everything except the odd helmet
Lieutenant Kuznets replayed his orders – ascend the valley side to the small wooded hill south west of the 3rd companies position, securing it and then reporting on any activity observed to the west.
It seems there was concern about the presence of the enemy. So far the loose talk was that the Azorians were to the south east, so who or what else could be to the west? Rugians?
Meanwhile Lieutenant Grabern looked at his watch, then the sky and finally signalled Sergeant White forward. Grabern thought about his objective – escort the observer to hill 91, wait and protect him/them until they pull out.
Straightforward orders though. The whispers were that the enemy were in the valley beyond and that the hill was probably occupied already. It felt like trouble.
Lieutenant Grabern continued his retreat back to Hill 90 protecting his charge – the Observer. His platoon had suffered many casualties yet performed well under fire.
Later Lieutenant Kuznets crept amongst his men praising them and checking their condition. He was still wary of what the Azorian intentions were. He had already sent back a runner to report his success at clearing Hill 91. Also he had seen firsthand that these Azorians were well armed and disciplined under fire. Unlike in some of their previous encounters.
Categories
Vossakia and Azoria
Fauxterre 1930+ Rugia is wracked by civil war and Azoria and Vossakia cannot resist getting involved. Their forces initially support the Rugian factions before eventually colliding and then embarking on an unofficial war of their own!
Neither Vossakia or Azoria want to annexe Rugia yet they want to influence the area which is rich in resources. Both sides treat the conflict as a sideshow with consequences for logistics, resources and planning.
One of my latest side projects is World War Two, like most projects I soon reach for the online supply chain. Lockdown has driven this approach even more.
And to start me off my first purchases were from Hannants and Models Hobbies. These companies have given me great value especially for projects where I buy all I need in one go.
But hang on I was/would be buying mainstream stuff, not obscure or discontinued lines. And this was to be a side track slow burn project. So bulk buys would not be the order of the day.
Then it occurred to me that I could go out of my way, with lockdown easing, to visit real hobby shops.
I also decided my interest would be more early war, ideally more inter war era. Just to make life difficult again, this is not the popular end of WW2. Yet this was a fantasy ww2 happening on Fauxterre so anything goes and flexibility is the watchword.
Ok so far, but hobby shops tend to stock the popular, as in, that’s loads of late war armour with a preponderance of German kit.
And then I had another brainwave. After going through online availability I realised I had a massive choice. I would just buy the cheapest stock available in dribs and drabs.
This random approach really started to appeal. It would also make this project different again.
Such an approach interestingly is increasingly not online (and certainly not ebay) + white van man, despite Amazons best endeavours. Don’t get me wrong, online has been fantastic for choice and it still offers great value and even ebay can give you amazing bargains (the effort required though has changed).
So I decided – cut out the postal costs. I would buy piecemeal and when other activities had paid for my journey.
Then if a shop turned up I would go in and see what was available.
This actually fed my Fauxterre ideas. The opponents are both struggling to resource their forces. The parallel for WW2 is the Russians. They took various kit from the USA, France and Britain before getting their own plants working to meet demand. And the Germans reused thousands of captured kit. Probably the most useful panzer they had early on was actually the Czech built 38T? The Russians also benefited from the US inventions of Christie that ultimately led them to the T34 as I understand it.
So a bit of history bashing and Fauxterre sees two protaganists poorly armed going to war with essentially inter war/early war kit and with inter war mentalities.
Next up was – which forces to use – given I had decided no german kit.
I chose the Russians simply because this whole sidetrack project was started by Charles Grant and his Battle Gaming book from 1977 – a charity shop surprise discovery.
Airfix came up often as the low cost option online and seeing as they had made Russians, the very ones in Charles Grant’s book, so that was it. Only they don’t make them any more and old sets are now online and vintage and with a price to match!
In the shops its allied west or german it seems.
After some wrangling I decided I would stick with the Russians and that led me to The Plastic Soldier Company and their good value sets. The Russians kit would be opposed by American kit with splashes of any other kit I liked, while playing that “buy cheap in a real shop” game.
I have made some progress and here are my first kit builds.
Lets see how I get on with this slow burn side track project.
The Wargaming Erratic 