"Breakthrough! Assault – July 2019 HAWKs Retiree Game" Topic

Hi all,

On Thursday we played the July game in the HAWKs retiree game series. This was our second go at Breakthrough.

The Game, Intro
Since the guys still learning the rules I again set the scenario up to let each player control a formation, all starting on the table on turn one. I also introduced the air power and counterbattery rules. There's a stream meandering down the center of the table, defended by two German infantry divisions and attacked by two American Infantry divisions and a Combat Command. Geoff Graff and I played the Germans. The Chuck Frascatti and the Schlegel brothers played the Americans. Bruce wasn't there because his battery died – or maybe his car's battery died, not sure.

Game Play

The table set up. Germans are entrenched along the left side of the stream, Americans attack from the right.

In Game Pictures
Again I got caught up playing and GMing to get many pictures. I'll try to do better next time, promise.

This is the situation during the afternoon turn. Eric's division on the American left has been kept at bay by my Germans. Meanwhile, Geoff's line has had some bad dice and is scrambling to form a new line.

This is a closer view of my German division in the foreground and Eric's Americans beyond.

This is Geoff's division trying to keep Kurt's infantry and Chuck's armor at bay until reinforcements arrive.

In the German night turn a Panzer regiment has arrived in Geoff's threatened sector. Both Panzer battalions attacked an American infantry at the crossroad in the center of the picture – a gamble, but the situation was desperate. Here the Panzers, the attacked infantry and the command reserve Wolverine have had to fall back. Geoff failed both cohesion rolls, and also lost a fight with his recon battalion left to the town. All are disrupted and the regiment's cohesion is down by three.

At this point the collapse of the German line was apparent – Eric had finally cracked the German right – and we were near the end of our time, so we ended.

Observations
By the end the guys were really getting the hang of the system and enjoying it. I'm working on a Mortain scenario for August.

Duncan

Interesting scenario! What rules are you using?

Thanks

John

John,

The rules are Breakthrough!, currently under development by Frank Chadwick. Here's a summary:

A base represents a battalion or equivalent and each player controls a division.

Each turn represents 1/3 of a day – every third turn is at night.

1 Inch =  500 meters (1 km = 2 inches)

A base is 2 inches square and has a 2" zone of control with some exceptions. All direct fire takes place within the ZoC.

Duncan

I've had the opportunity to play this a few times and ran an Arab-Israeli Sinai 1973 game at HMGS Little Wars last spring. I've looked at Mortain and it seems too small of a battle for these rules. Let us know how it turns out.

Nice post – interesting indeed

A base represents a battalion or equivalent and each player controls a division.

Each turn represents 1/3 of a day – every third turn is at night.

1 Inch = 500 meters (1 km = 2 inches)

A base is 2 inches square and has a 2" zone of control…

Sounds like a boardgame played with miniatures…