"Some more KGN AARs..." Topic

Just to provide some more eye candy for the TMP Natives…

This was another in the continuing grudge match between my British and Skip's Germans! This was out third and largest battle so far with 600 points aside. This time we got 'Defence-in-Depth' and Skip elected to defend, making the British have to attack for a change…

600 Point British Infantry (with 6 x 3" Mortars off-table)

600 Point German SS (with 2 x 105mm Howitzers off-table and a single RTP)

We started slow and for once we elected to wait for our to arrive before moving out. This threw Jerry and he threw a few Panthers towards us. In a rather dissapointing gun battle, they did little, our heavy supporting guns (from two high priority requests) did even less and my 17 Pounder A/T gun, on its first outing, found itself out of ammo on turn 3 after Skip pulled an out of ammo chit… But then a gaggle of Churchills turned up and put a round through the side armour of one of the Panthers and the remaining two withdrew to indulge in some long range fire.

Once our troops had arrived we began our attack. I elected to push forward Gary on the left flank in an attempt to force a breakthrough, but it stalled in the face of the Panthers fire and German artillery fire. It seemed a bit of a stalemate until we drew an aircraft chit and a Typhoon zoomed in and planted a few bombs along the road, one of which scored a direct hit on a Panther. Although the Typhoon was promptly shot down by German AA fire, he gave us the break we needed. By eliminating the Panther, he gave my platoon on the right the chance to advance in the blindspot of both German FAOs. In a fusilade of fire from infantry, Churchills, a Wasp and the mortars my troops killed off the farm defenders and advanced to the walls.

With the farm secured, we swung over to the left flank, and although taking some artillery fire, we despatched the two Panthers in a close range duel, the armour on my Churchills standing up to the Panthers rounds. The Wasp then darted for a gap in the bocage and toasted a German MG team. With the Churchill Crocodile following, the rest of the German infantry fell back. The British mortars now redirected onto the enemy held church and after a few misses, managed to score a clutch of hits that left several units, including the remaining German FAO, suppressed.

With their centre occupied, many of their remaining units suppressed and only one effective Panther, the Germans conceeded victory to the British. With only 5 morale points left out of 42, lots of units suppressed and the British easily able to knock-out several units in their next turn, the Jerries threw in the towel. Remarkably, we still had 12 morale points left out of our total of 35. Sadly we cant blame Skip's dice totally this time as both he and Cyril playing the Germans did pretty ok on the dice, especially for artillery and activations (plus Skip scoring a six to shoot the Typhoon down). What really lost the game for them was choosing at the start to have the Panthers all ontable and most of their infantry as the reserve off-table till turn 4. When it finally came on (staggered over several turns) it had to walk on from their table edge as they didnt buy any trucks. By the time they got near the church, the front had collapsed and the Panthers were burning wrecks. Had they left the Panthers off to act as reserves, their high speed could have allowed them to charge into action down the road from the table edge and given a far stronger defensive line. Also a number of the Germans units (the Pak43 and the 88) did very little and they would have been better served with more artillery support in defence. I think if they had used the infantry to form a stronger frontline, things would have been rather different for us.

This game was the second test of the 1940 army lists that we have written for Kampfgruppe Normandy and turned out to be a very exiting!

We played a 500 point 'Escalation' scenario between French Mechanised and the German Panzer lists. I stepped aside to allow Thomas and Gary to play the Germans and to see how guys found the lists. Cyril and Sean took the French and this gave me time to view the proceedings.

500 Point German 'Panzer' Force

500 Point French 'Mechanised' Force

The game started with Recce forces arriving and screeching into action, with the Germans moving into place alot faster as the Vanguard forces arrived. With all but one of the four objectives in a diagonal line across the centre of the table, both sides rushed for them. As the main forces arrived, the French seemed to be gaining the upper hand as more troops arrived but they failed to move quickly and terrain hampered their deployment. As the French got into place to start attacking the Germans had already captured two of the objectives – The church and road junction.

This was not as bad as it seemed for the French. One of their artillery RTPs (Registered Target Point) was on the T-junction outside the church. Soon French artillery rounds slammed into the troops around the church suppressing several. This was the first point of action and a squad of Dragons Portes made a dash through the woods to the Church, only to run into one of the Panzer Pioneer sections already dug into the ruins. The French attack soon found itself pinned down with casualties mounting until a passing Char-B started shelling the Germans with its HE rounds. This succeeded in pinning down the Germans. Focus now shifted to a running fight down the road with various vehicles involved ina running battle down the road in a race for the third objective in a farm. Although the French captured it first, they were soon followed by another group of German Panzer Pioneers who charged into the farm courtyard only to have their half-track shot out from under them. Forced to bail out they too were pinned down behind the farm wall.

Things seemed fairly even at this point. But then the Germans got into gear. The pioneers at the farm rallied and stormed forward, setting alight a stationary Panhard armoured car with their flamethrower and taking the objective. They promptly dug-in among the ruins setting up their MMG in the buildings top floor to deter any French infantry from attacking over the open ground around the farm. Then the pioneer commander the road junction objective and three of the four objectives were in german hands. The fourth and uncaptured objective was way behind German lines near their deployment zone. As the German 88mm rolled onto the table and some 210mm shells rained onto the French, the Germans felt rather smug as their newly arrived infantry sauntered towards the final objective ready to secure it to win the game.

But a Frenchman on a mission had other ideas…

First a huge hurricane of artillery fire crashed onto the church RTP. By fluke, four of the rounds scored direct hits, destroying two armoured cars, one of the pioneer half-tracks and crucially the German commander in his Panzer IV! As his tank burned the Germans didnt look so smug. Then the French threw themselves in a frontal attack to recapture the road junction objective and stop the Germans winning in the next turn. With the last unit able to fire they managed to wipe out the German defenders and reclaimed the objective.

Now the Germans got to attack back, and holding the other three objectives all the action focussed on the road junction as its occupation was key to both sides. However both sides had mounting casualties. With the way the KGN morale system works, neither side knew exactly how bad the other side was… But both sides knew it was getting close. As umpire I had a quick look at both sides morale counts and its was very close…

A furious final stage erupted with both sides trying to knock-out anything the enemy had to force themt o take morale chits. For the Germans they were also desperately trying to take the fourth objective before their morale collapsed. 38ts tried to tackle Char-Bs at long range, only to watch as their rounds harmlessly bounced off. Char-Bs returned fire and soon several 38ts were burning. Once again French artillery fire prove effective. It turned out that the second French RTP was actually under the 88! A brace of direct hits put paid to the 88 crew. But now the Germans drove hard for the centre with tanks followed by infantry pooring fire into those defending the road junction. After a viscious firefight the last French defender fell dead… With the objective unoccupied a pioneer half-track raced forward to disgourge its human cargo onto the objective and claim a win for the Germans by holding all four points.

Altough they had stole victory the game was amazingly close. The French had 4 morale points left at the end, and the Germans 6. Both sides had battered the other and the result could have easily gone any way at any point. It was a classic of a game, and the Luftwaffe was certainly around as Gery managed to draw three aircraft chits (though not one arrived to help).

Finally for today (dont want to bore you with too many pictures) a 600 point battle using the Escalation scenario and the Kampfgruppe Kursk supplement that Warwick is writing. We pitted the German Panzer list against one from the Soviet Tank Corps list to see how the supplement played out with larger forces than we have previously used (and an excuse to use all my T-34s!).

600 point Soviet force not showing the Radio Truck and Supply Truck.

600 point German force supported by one battery of 81mm Mortars and one battery of 120mm Mortars, both off-table.

We set up a fairly simple table layout and placed objectives, then rolled off to see who picked which end. The Soviets choose ends, and as I hadnt managed to fit any recce in, got the first turn, and secured a number of objectives before I had even got on the table and I had to take two morale chits! Luckily one of them was an aircraft, though it failed to arrive!

Looking towards the German Lines…

Looking towards the Soviet Lines…

The scenario has a staggered arrival of forces from Turn 2 onwards. The Soviets got the better of this with far more arriving than the Germans each turn, but the first few German units were the Tigers and Panzer IVs. As Russian tanks arrived a bit of long range gunnery started (in KGK some German guns, such as the Tigers '88' have an extended range band allowing extreme range shots) but it proved ineffective and the Tigers elected to move up to the fence line and remain on Covering Fire. In the village a marauding T-70 took yet another objective, for which I drew a Mechanical Breakdown chit that immobilised a T-34, before it was despatched by the German commander who had just arrived in his Panzer IV.

The battle moved onto the German left flank in the main, with the prescence of the Tigers forcing all Russian armour to deploy over that side. With the Germans in the village in force, comprising tanks and infantry, the Russians attacked with a number of T-34s carrying SMG equipped Tank Riders. German tank fire, which failed to penetrate the T-34s at long range did however force the Tank Riders to throw themselves off and they fell to the ground suppressed with light casualties. This direct fire was followed by a mortar stonk that suppressed a couple more T-34s…

This battle on the left raged for most of the game with the Russians trying to close the distance to make up for their poorer chances to hit. This was supported by a huge mortar salvo that managed out of 8 shots to score 6 direct hits on the German tanks! Sadly all failed to do any damage at all… However after a couple of turns of fighting an accurate Russian Katyusha barrage hit the German armour in the town dead on. This again caused several direct hits and these knocked-out a Tiger (already immobilised by a lucky shot from a T-34) and more importantly the German Commanders Panzer IV. With these two destroyed the remaining T-34s rushed the town, and although taking losses, knocked out two more Panzer IVs, including the German Forward Signals unit. The last Panzer IV quickly withdrew and the remaining infantry hunkered down in the buildings.

By chance, one of the morale chits from this devastation brought the Germans another aircraft chit and this time a Stuka arrived sporting under wing 37mm cannons. It swooped over the attacking T-34s and with its cannons spitting fire, one T-34 erupted in flames. The arrival of more German infantry and the final two Panzer IVs allowed a counter-attack on the village to take place, destroying a further T-34, and allow troops to move into a position to attack Russian troops holding an objective on the German right flank.

A rather confused engagement took place. The Russians having suffered heavy losses found themselves with little armour left and had to bring forward their mass of infantry. This, having been neglected at the back, had some distance to travel. German mortar fire cleared one objective of enemy troops and the Russian morale looked in a serious situation. However a heroic T-34 managed to storm forward and with the luck of the devil, took out the Tiger commanders tank. His victory was shortlived as the remaining Tigers turned his tank into a charred hulk. The Stuka, after doing very little once more dived in for the attack and in two turns took out the Russian Battlegroup Commanders tank and the T-34 Company Commanders vehicle. With German infantry still clinging on in the village, the German troops attacked the Russians on the hill on the right flank. Concentrated gunfire wiped them out, causing the Russians to take two chits as they also lost possession of an objective. The rest of the Russian infantry, all SMG armed, lacked the range to provide any support. As German gunfire knocked-out the last remaining T-34 and another unit of infantry was forced to withdraw due to casualties from mortar fire, this pushed the Russians over the morale limit and the Germans took victory.

The Russians took 46 morale points in total (their breakpoint was 45) to the Germans taking 27 (out of a total of 40). What really plagued the Russians was the use of their activations and the fact they had chosen to take so few command units. With so much artillery, they were using up to 7 activations a turn to use all their artillery and mortars. While effective, this did not allow them to capitalise on the effects as they lacked enough activations to move forward, and the dispersal of the T-34s meant that they only had one opportunity to use their Steel! Steel! Steel! special rule. Even so, it was still a close game despite the morale tallies and as the German commander I certainly felt hard pushed until the Stuka turned up. Once again the Kursk supplement gave a very exciting and tense game for both sides and played very differently to the usual Normandy fare.

Excellent AARs, along with the usual scrumptious eye candy.

I enjoy these AARs a lot, do you know where I can find a run-down of the KGN basic rules mechanics (aside from the book of course) so I can understand the ins and outs of whats transpiring?

Try the Warhammer Historical website, they have a 'Primer'.

Another place is our forum 'The Guild';

link

We have an area dedicated to KGN and Warwick is an active participant.

Finally Warwicks blog gives some insight into his mechanics and ideas;

warwickkinrade.blogspot.com

KGN looks intriguing but expensive to try-out. Do they have any demo rules etc. that are acceesible for getting a taste for the game?

OBTW, the pictures are lovely!

Lost Pict

Yeah, Piers games are consistently outstanding! I agree about the price. I guess I should have picked it up when it was on sale.

Thanks,

John

Are these available in the US? Usually use Arc of Fire but like to collect and try different sets -this one looks like a lot of fun! Like the morale system for determining victory idea.
Seems to reward good combined arms play too.