"All Americans, Part 11 (Near Naples, 6 October 1943)" Topic

All,

This time on the correct board (WWII Batreps vs. Modern Batreps)!

A couple days later and it's October 6, 1943, with the regiment having just forced the Villa Literno river. On its march towards the (fictional) village of Alfredo Ravioli, the regiment once again finds itself squaring off against a dug-in German defensive line. 1st Battalion is thrown at the first of a series of hills, Hill 125. Able Company is again in the lead, following Baker Company's unsuccessful attempt at cracking the German line. More air and artillery is called up, and once again the paratroopers prepare to cross the line of departure.

Once again, heavy fire pours into the company almost from the start of its advance, and platoon movement quickly breaks down into squad rushes urged on by battle-wise officers and NCOs. As the moment for the final push arises, we find Lt Shepherd at the head of Sgt Bettis' 1st Squad.

The board, 2' x 2', German position atop Hill 125 at top center, Americans coming on the table from the bottom. North is up. Once again there are craters from arty and air strikes.

The opposing forces: US, from right to left: Lt Shepherd (with only a pistol after being chastised by his battalion commander for acting too much like a 'damned rifleman'), Sgt Bettis, Cpl Fox (with BAR), Pvt Ivers, Pvt Chisholm, Pvt Calhoun, and Pvt Swenson. Germans have a Lieutenant (I rolled up a German officer for all three games), a MMG gunner and A-gunner, and a LMG gunner and A-gunner (interesting, eh? But that's what I rolled up).

Setup. Tripod MG-42 is in dug-in position with German Lt, LMG is to the left, though it will displace once spotted. The US force is split into a base of fire element, led by Sgt Bettis on right, and a maneuver element, led by Lt Shepherd, on left.

German MG position, the objective, with the German Lieutenant having a cup of Joe and smoke, 'supervising' the machine gun crew.

On US left, Lt Shepherd leading, followed by Calhoun, Chisholm, and Swenson. That's the Lt with the white vertical stripe painted on the back of his helmet.

The fight starts off great, with the BAR (off camera to right) firing on the German machine gun position, pinning the gunner (I forgot to apply extra dice to the A-gunner and Lt!), then Pvt Chisholm (bottom center) moving up and firing, causing the MG gunner to flee! I had the German A-gunner move over and handle the gun, though it would be less capable without an A-gunner (and the German Lt wasn't going to lower himself to do that).

Fire is exchanged between the two sides to little effect, while Lt Shepherd charged past the knoll, screaming like a demon and firing his .45 pistol, to no effect.

Swenson (bottom left) rushed forward and fired, killing the LMG gunner. While the A-gunner was moving over to take over the gun, Lt Shepherd rushed forward, still blasting away with his pistol, causing the A-gunner to run! The German MG position is off camera at top right.

The German Lieutenant moves over and exchanges fire with Lt Shepherd. A good, old-fashioned pistol duel!

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Such a tease, I know ;) Hope you enjoyed it, it was a quick bit of fun (probably took about 45 minutes to set up, play through, and tear down).

I've got another write-up coming some time this week, and hope to pop out another two or three games this weekend.

V/R,
Jack

Oh man, I just realized you were running "Five Men" :)

Thanks for sharing. You mention a changed morale system. Mind sharing your changes?

Any questions that came to mind?

also nice, 10mm for skirmishing seems really cool. They're really quite detailed for the little blighters.

Weasel,

I really like the rules, so please don't take any changes I make as a problem with the rules; I'm just one that can't help but tinker with rules. The two games I've posted so far don't have any changes, but the third game (which I'll post as soon as I can) I did play with the below changes.

The rules are quick and fun, which is just what the doctor ordered. I did modify the 'morale' system a bit, making it a bit 'crunchier' (for me), but I offset this by speeding up the activation process a bit:
1: Scurry
2-5: Activate as many men as the die roll score
6: Firefight

This speeds things up, but also makes it easier to shake off knockdowns and morale effects (maybe a little to easy, but I don't want to mess with the 'things happen on a 1 and 6' concept, which I really like, and that seems like the only way to make it harder to rally), which I changed to:
On a 2-5, there is no effect on the soldier being shot at (as normal in the rules).
On a 1, he 'falls' down one morale level.
On a 6, he 'falls' down three morale levels.
The morale levels are:
-Normal (i.e., no problems, he can do whatever he wants)
-Hit the deck (soldier drops prone, must spend an action to get back in the fight, i.e., stand up, but okay otherwise)
-Pinned (soldier drops prone, can't move until rallied* but can shoot)
-Suppressed (soldier drops prone, can't move or shoot until rallied*)
-Fall back (soldier runs away from enemy to nearest cover which blocks LOS, if there is none he runs off map. Then he's treated as prone and suppressed)
-Fall back twice, three times, etc…

*When you rally a soldier you are simply rolling a D6, as above (1-drop one level, 2 to 5-okay, 6-drop three levels), so he'll probably be okay, but he could get worse. Even when he rallies, he can't otherwise act that turn.

As an example, if a guy is already pinned, and he rolls a '6' on the rally, he drops three more level, so suppress, fall back once, fall back twice. If he rolled a '1,' he's drop only from pinned to suppressed. I find it useful because there have been several times when I've rolled multiple shock dice and gotten double 1s or double 6s.

Like I said, what I've done does make it a bit too easy to shake off negative morale affects. In my third game an American Sgt with a Thompson moved up and sprayed two Germans next to each other, suppressing ('hunker') both. The Germans had 4 men on the board, and for their activation roll they rolled a 4, so they didn't have to make any hard decisions on what to do. Both suppressed Germans were able to shake off the suppressions (rolling 2-5) and get right back in the fight (not that turn, but with either Guard or Snap fire during the US turn).

I can't think of any questions off the top of my head. I had a couple the first game, but that was just unfamiliarity with the rules. By the second I was smoking right along, then the third went off in about 20 minutes (including setup time). I'm having a great time, and I'm planning a rather ambitious campaign with them.

My plan is to have a campaign with a British rifle company in Normandy, 1944, but I won't be playing a 'normal' campaign, i.e., not following a single squad. My intent is to follow the whole company, giving names to all the leaders: Company Commander, the 2nd in Command, each of the Lieutenant platoon leaders, each of the platoon sergeants, and each of the Corporal squad leaders. I'll write a quick synopsis of the overall company situation (like I did for the lead-up in the previous batrep), then 'zoom-in' on the action, rolling up a force for each side, assigning a leader or two (most likely always a Corporal squad leader, then a senior leader, such as the platoon or company commander (who's come up front to lead the final push), if a 'pistol' is rolled, then fight it out on my 2' x 2' table.

Glad you saw this and decided to comment, thanks. Did you see me doing anything wrong? I do recall now wondering what to do when I rolled double 1s on the shock dice (I treated it as rolling only a single 1), and a couple times I forgot to roll extra shock dice when firing with an automatic rifle (my BAR in this fight).

V/R,
Jack

Yeah, no ill feeling at all :) I don't think many people ever play a game "as written".
I'm still astounded when people tell me they had a good time with something I wrote :)

I don't think anything stood out as "wrong". For the double 1's, no extra effect, as you figured. The benefit of rolling extra dice is just an increased chance of getting any effect.

I like the extra morale option though it's probably more "chunky" than I'd include as a main rule. Let me know how it works though.
For some reason, it reminds me a lot of Face of Battle, though a lot clearer.

One possible change to the Bail result you may also want to try is to make the distance 6-12". The figure will take cover at least 6" back, potentially up to 12".