"Brits and Germans, Somewhere in Italy, Late '43 Game1" Topic

All,

Of course I didn't get any gaming in on Thanksgiving, but I also didn't get any in on "Black Friday." So I made up for it by getting three games in on Saturday! I'd been playing my FFL with No End In Sight, but I'd gotten a wild hair to mess with Ivan's 'other' rules, Five Men In Normandy, and so I set out to playtest it. Long story short, I like it a lot. Really all I did was substitute teams in for individual men (rifle squads, machine gun and mortar teams), and mess with the vehicle rules a little bit. A great time, with quick battles (1 hour, 45 minutes, and 1 hour 35 minutes, respectively).

About the forces I chose: I wanted to use troops I hadn't used before, but was limited as, of the guys I haven't used before, many times they haven't been used is because I haven't finished them. I wanted to go with 'blitzkrieg' era Germans, but hadn't done anything but prime the vehicles, same with my early Barbarossa Soviets. Then my mind drifted to my Indo-China forces, which are finished, but I wanted to use vehicles, so that didn't work. Then I thought about my forces for North Africa, but there was still a problem: my Afrika Korps forces are finished, but I hadn't finished up my 8th Army vehicles and guns… So I said hell with it, and used my Afrika Korps forces against 8th Army forces set in Italy, with some vehicles borrowed form my Late War NW Europe troops. So, it may look a bit strange having troops with desert bases and the odd vehicle with green basing, on a green mat, but kiss my butt 'cause I had fun ;) And someday I'll finish up my 8 million different projects…

As a preview, the five-game Operation started out with a Brit Hasty Attack, followed by a successful German Counterattack, which led to an Encirclement/Breakout in which the Brits escaped the noose, followed by a successful Brit Counterattack that culminated in a successful Brit attack on prepared defenses (Prepared Attack) which broke the German line! Every fight was close, and most of them came down to a single decision point/event.

So, let's get to it! Again, somewhere in Italy in late 1943, the Brits are on the move north, with a British rifle company launching a hasty attack on German positions.

Overview, north is up, German baseline at top, Brit baseline at bottom. The Brit goal is to take the hills in the NE and NW corners, the Germans must deny this. I didn't put a time (turn) limit on any of the games, just expected to keep them going so long as both sides could reasonably accomplish their objectives.

The Brits on the attack: the Company Commander, a Vickers MG, a 'Honey' light tank, and seven rifle squads.

The German defenders: a Command stand, a PaK-38 anti-tank gun (ATG), and five rifle squads.

Brits looking to close with and destroy the enemy.

Check the full report at:
link

I've got four more batreps to write up and get posted, so stay tuned!

V/R,
Jack

First up: I have to say I love the minis…really really nice! Very enjoyable report overall…

So you used Ivan's "5 Men In Normandy" great rules alright. And you switched the individuals for teams…hmmm interesting…maybe Ivan will have to follow it up with a sequel Six Squads in Sicily

Excellent stuff but no pigs

I had worked on notes for 1 stand instead of 1 figure but I had changed the rules pretty significantly (though keeping the principles). It seems Jack kept the mechanics pretty much the same which intrigues me a LOT.

Thanks fellas! And Jack did keep the mechanics pretty much the same, so you should be intrigued. But they're your rules, so don't worry, I'll share what I've done.

On a side note, I hope I'm not driving you (Ivan) insane with all my rules tinkering. I apologize, I mean no disrespect, I just can't help myself. I wasn't going to mess with 5MIN (I'd previously messed with your 'Flinch' and 'Flee/Hunker' stuff, but have since seen the error of my ways and returned to how you wrote them), it's just that my FFL games were taking too long and didn't feel right.

Don't misunderstand, NEIS are great rules, it was just taking me a long time to finish a game with all the stuff I was throwing on the table, and I'm not really a platoon-level guy. I like smaller (a single team or squad skirmish, like 5MIN), or bigger (company to battalion). And so I was trying to play company-level with NEIS, then started thinking about 5MIN and how it might work (I love both sets of rules' activation mechanisms).

I've also been thinking about playing NEIS with stands, i.e, a platoon of three rifle squads (3 stands) with a platoon leader that rolls for activation points to use on his three stands. Might make it a bit quicker I think (I was counting each squad/team/vehicle as having its own leader and rolling for its own activation points).

On another side note, I've been thinking about my 5MIN campaign, "The Last Fifty Yards," and why it didn't go anywhere. I realize now that I was too ambitious, trying to set up a whole company instead of playing it the way it's supposed to be, simply following a single squad. I want to get to that too, at some point ;)

In any case, these rules (which I'm calling "5MIN Teams;" very creative, right?) are definitely quick and dirty, but I've played five games and I'm happy so far. I don't know that I'll stay with the scenarios as I have them right now (I can see they'll get to feel a bit 'samey,' need more options, and probably more tactical problems).

I tell ya what; I'll e-mail what I've got to both of you tomorrow. All the big stuff is there, though there are probably a couple little things that are only in my head, such as, each side has one command stand, and it gets a free move each turn. It can't shoot or be shot at, but can rally/recover a unit (same mechanism as them doing it themselves, only if it's successful the hunkered/pinned/ knocked down unit can act in the same turn), and it can give a +1 in brawling, but if the squad loses, the CO gets killed too, and you can't replace a CO stand during the game.

Probably not until tomorrow evening after work; I'd do it now but they're on the computer upstairs and I need to hit the rack!

"Excellent stuff but no pigs" And I see you're still fishing, Panda. It's okay if that's your thing, I just want you to know you're barking up the wrong tree ;)

V/R,
Jack

Never apologize :-)
Tinkering is good and while I may agree or disagree with any given rule, I love seeing what people do, especially as people always push things out in directions I never expected.

I'd love to see what you've come up with, with the usual caveat that I may steal anything you send my way :)

As an aside, it sounds like you've done a lot of thinking about your gaming, which is always a good thing.
I think a lot of people end up being vaguely unhappy with their gaming because they've never stepped back and looked at what they ACTUALLY want out of their gaming.

As an aside, I had tossed around ideas for a FiveCore option where you can move a "cluster" of soldiers, allowing fire teams and such but I never came up with something that seemed quite satisfactory.

Ivan,

I just e-mailed you my modifications; sent it to you and two other miscreants who lurk hereabouts, both confirmed 5MIN purchasers ;)

"I'd love to see what you've come up with, with the usual caveat that I may steal anything you send my way…"
No need to steal, anything you deem worthy of using is yours. You started it, it's yours; consider this 'after the fact" and "furthering the concept for future use" playtesting ;)

"As an aside, it sounds like you've done a lot of thinking about your gaming…"
I know exactly what I want, now get off your butt and design some rules that meet my needs, damn it!

V/R,
Jack

hah! Well, if you like scifi gaming, there'll be something for you very shortly ;)

I saw the email, thanks. I'll need a few beers to think about this but I think there's something neat here.

"Very Interestink!", Says the Nazi behind the bush! Nice Bat. Rep. Just Jack.
Cheers.
Rod Robertson.