"KG Klink, Poland, Game 2" Topic

All,

Yes, this is what I did on New Year's Eve after the kids went to bed…

It's 0630, 1 Sept 1930. Following the way being opened by the infantry, the Kampfgruppe's reconnaissance elements rushed through the hole, followed by the Panzers, with motorized infantry elements mixed in as they were able to get on the road or catch up following mop-up duties. Attached to 4th Panzer Division, the Kampfgruppe has been told to dash for Warsaw and forgo all else, that everything to their right will be handled by the Slovaks, and everything to their left will be handled by Guderian's panzertroops swooping down from the north. This is a great concept, but immediately goes out the window when the recce element is ambushed by the Polish 19th Uhlan Regiment, dug-in on the northwest side of a small town (actually a string of three villages all) called Mokra.

The Poles have their CO, three 37mm anti-tank guns (ATGs), two .30-cal MGs, an 82mm mortar, and five rifle squads.
The German force, with their CO (the Reconnaissance Company commander, 1st Lt Unger), 2nd Lt Wehner's Armored Reconnaissance Platoon )1 Sdkfz 231 and two 221s), two Panzer Mk IIIs of 3rd Panzer Plt (Lt Gerhart and Sgt Friessler's vehicles happened to be near the head of the column when the fight broke out), the bulk of 1st Motorcycle Plt (4th Squad had fallen out with mechanical problems), and then some cats and dogs from the infantry (2nd Grenadier Platoon's Lt Klugmann and his 1st and 2nd Squads, led by Sgt Aust and Sgt Hasselbach; Klugmann was very angry about missing the fight at the frontier, and so he grabbed his 1st and 2nd Squads, who had fought at the frontier, and hopped in the first transport available, determined to be at the forefront of the action. Once again his 4th Squad was left behind, presumably still guarding the left flank).

The Polish line, with both MGs in the trench at top, the mortar in the trench at bottom, flanked by infantry, and with the three ATGs in the bunkers.
The German order of march: the Armored Reconnaissance Platoon interspersed with 1st Motorcycle Platoon, followed by the Recon Co CO, followed by Lt Gerhart's panzers, with Lt Klugmann's 2nd Platoon having just dismounted on the right.

The fight was a nailbiter, literally the balance hung by a thread, saved only by the miraculous. Please check the blog, it's crazy:
link

Notes:
-REDACTED so as not to give up the game ;)
-3rd Panzer Platoon's Sgt Friessler wounded in action, received Wound Badge, will return after Polish campaign.
-Lost ~20 KIA/WIA and 1 Panzer Mk III destroyed. 1 Sdkfz 221 was damaged, but recovered and put back into action.
-Caused ~45 KIA/WIA, captured ~35 EPW and 2 anti-tank guns.

So, the mission was accomplished, albeit by the skin of my teeth. Truth be told, this was better than the Germans did in real life, being beaten severely in real life. In any case, in the overall scheme of things, the KG and 4th Panzer Division pulled back to allow air and artillery to pound Mokra, and immediately preparing to launch a mechanized attack.

The fights have been very exciting, but too close for my taste ;) For all those out there that like to see the Germans get their butts kicked, stay tuned, there's a few of those to be written up.

V/R,
Jack

Rough fight! And yeah, that guy deserves a medal or two. I wonder if he'll get swords and stuff.

Just curious Jack. Which system do you prefer, No End or Five Core Company? I'm still wrapping my head around No End's movement/over watch. Five Core Company seems to play smoother from what I've seen in your games. I haven't tried them yet and I'm hesitant to go with group basing because I mostly play with individually based figures.

At the risk of butting in, if you have questions about "No ENd" I'll be happy to answer them. :)

TGunner,

Indeed it was a rough fight, and without Klugmann it would certainly have been a loss. So far I've played seven games, and haven't had a 'bad' fight yet (even though I've lost a few). I'm sure Klugmann will get Swords/Oak Leaves, etc…, if he survives ;)

Don't worry, we won't let Ivan butt in, though you could do worse than have the author helping out ;)

So, I've got 5 Men in Normandy, No End in Sight, and 5Core Company Command, and here's what I'll say:
1) I like 5MIN, but squad level is hard for me to commit to for any length of time (see my abortive "The Last Fifty Yards" campaign). So I like them as an 'every now and then' game/set of rules.

2) I think, from a purely 'rules design' standpoint, NEIS is probably Ivan's best set; I love the mechanisms, truly innovative command system that's just cool (not that 5Core's isn't obviously). I had two problems though: first, platoon level isn't really my thing either, except for 'every now and again.' And second, I'm a simple man that likes to play campaigns, which means lots of games, so I need rules that really move. My NEIS games found me putting too much stuff on the table (due to #1), which really drug the games out (problem for #2). Which brings us to…

Regarding the movement/overwatch, I really like the mechanic, but I ended up largely not using it because I played the 'random activation' (forgive me, that's probably not the correct nomenclature. Instead of one side activating all its leaders, then the other, I used a deck of cards, and when a red card came out I activated a 'red' leader, black-black).

3) Company Command is right up my alley. Great activation and combat mechanics that are quick, simple, easy to remember, and allow me to fight company-sized actions in about an hour.

Regarding individually based figures, I'm figuring out that's it not my thing, AFTER I based/rebased a bunch of my stuff individually… So I'm now re- or re-re-basing a lot of my stuff.

As always, rules come down to each of our persona preferences, but I think both systems are solid enough that they withstand tinkering very well. Along those lines, I've been thinking of using NEIS with squad bases, with platoon commanders rolling for activation; each squad can get up to two actions per turn (if the PC rolls a 6, each squad could carry out two actions). ou could keep the 'diminishing actions' rolls, or hold each activating leader to one roll per turn to simplify/streamline the mechanism (though I must admit that the diminishing rolls aspect is part of what makes it so great, in my opinion).

V/R,
Jack