"More Lessons Learnt on tactics" Topic

So unfortunately out last big game ended. Not how I would have chosen. I now understand better about minefields. The manuals note that they can hinder both sides. Until now that did not provide me with any understanding. Now I understand; unfortunately the enemy did not attack where I expected and went another way. That meant I had to launch a counter attack through my own minefield. With only 1 clear lane and no clearing vehicles it took too long to get through and deploy to line of battle. I got caught in the act and was dismissed piecemeal. Has this happens to you?

On the other hand if I had done better and in hind sight there were ways, my opponent would have been in trouble as though he had broken through really well, he had allocated minimal forces to secure his flanks and so soon would be in trouble as follow on forces could not relieve him as he would be cut off and out of fuel in a few hours. It makes you realise even a company in attack probably needs at least a battalions worth of troops or more to allow for rearming and securing the flanks of the breakthrough. What level of forces would you use?

There's a mighty strong echo in here …

What system were you using?

Our own Maneouver Group rules with a complex, "virtual board" which is a 6f by 16 ft board of which at any one time we can create only an 6 by 8 ft section. By use of scene dividers the board in places, has more than one route. It's played at 10 mm scale to give lots of playing area and over a number of evenings.

I'd be interested to hear more details about how the "virtual board" system works?

The virtual board is a 'map' of a board which is 6 ft by 16 ft. We use hex terrain but you just need to map carefully all the features of the board for whatever terrain you use. We can only ever set up 8 ft of the entire 16 ft of the "virtual" board on any one evening as we don't have enough space or terrain to set out the full 6 ft by 16 ft board in one go.

You do have to make sure that any 8 ft does not have more terrain than you can use, it's not that hard.

The virtual and actual bits set up has dividers down bits of it that have a backdrop painted both sides. This splits the board into to different ŕoutes in places. Effectively these are impassible board edges. I am on holiday so can't post pictures till next week. So you then play the game, keep a record of what is hidden and the camera to show the current position of the visible units on the board and their status for the next evening.

We have found that you allocate forces to be a tive, in our case each force can only be on table and active for a maximum of 7 hours game time. After that it has to retreat off table and rearm. Artillery has ammunition limited by the normal allocation (most of the kit is Self propelled so only has what is onboard before it too has to be re supplied. Some kit like mortars need to be at least on the virtual board as the board is bigger than its effective range.

In reality a hard fight can result in a unit needing replacement after only about 4 hours. As both sides have limits to the forces available and typically defender forces have a time delay, there is a great story to be told. You may have a battalion or more but not all can fight at once or you end up with forces with no fuel or ammo and a counter attack is then disastrous. We try and get the forces such that the attacker can with good generalship, get to the other end. However if you get the forces wrong or play poorly, both applied in this case, the game finishes early. This was a shame as every inch of the fight was fun.

Hope this helps.