"Defense of Hauptstuhle" Topic

Broke out some micro armor and decided to improve the fog of war of PF by including alternate objectives. First playtest went well. Who knows, maybe this will make it into a Battalion Forward? Found here:
link

Enjoy

Joe

Good share. Loved that.

Looks like a fun game.

Thanks for sharing your battle report.

Thank you both for your kind words. It was enjoyable.
Thresher, have you heard from Jack lately? I have not seen any poorly worded posts from him.

Joe

I'm here, so you can your , right in your dirt of a , you old ;)

Now that we've got that out of the way, I'm here. Another couple weeks of baseball, then I intend on making my glorious return to the wargaming community. Hopefully…

In any case, cool fight, Joe, and I appreciate you posting it (seems very few are gaming much nowadays, or at least they're not posting here if they are). Interesting concept about not knowing the enemy's objective(s) for the fight, and rather a difficult thing to mask in a solo game. I recall reading a number of years ago about a guy that would roll on a table of for his enemy's actions, stating they often wouldn't make sense to him but rationalizing it as him not knowing the enemy's true intentions. I suspect that is very realistic but probably cuts the enemy's ‘commitment to winning the game' down about half, probably resulting in some tabletop actions that aren't particularly interesting (in the same vein as a patrol that traverses the board without discovering any enemy forces). I certainly look forward to seeing how you resolve it, and can't wait for the accompanying batreps.

I can't believe you let the Commies win; it was always going to be tough, but the Red supporting fires were particularly effective, and we all knew NATO couldn't stand a chance without its own. Good looking minis and terrain, particularly the Commies, looks like someone messed the Germans up ;)

V/R,
Jack

Jack, good to see you are alive and kicking; with a suitable NCO introduction as well; nice. :)
Hope baseball goes great . :)
I gave you due credit for the figures and was kind enough not to mention your appalling lack of camo on the Germans. Hope you like what I did. : ) Still not sure what scale to go with though.
Regarding enemy intentions that is a challenge I hope I can Crack. The key will be to not have it random but to have it make sense in an overall plan but still allow some unpredictability. For instance in the last battle the 4 possibilities were true probe, town, hill or bypass everything. You have to key it to what forces come available, where they enter and also not give up the deception too soon or you loose the suspense. A tall order!
Good luck with your sons.

Joe

Joe,

"Jack, good to see you are alive and kicking; with a suitable NCO introduction as well; nice. :)"
I am indeed, and yes, even after all these years it hasn't left me ;)

"Hope baseball goes great . :)"
Any day we get to play baseball is great! ;) It's been a lot of fun, but I'm starting to panic, it's really hitting me how fast my kids are growing up…

"I gave you due credit for the figures and was kind enough not to mention your appalling lack of camo on the Germans."
Not necessary, and they were beautiful.

"Hope you like what I did. : )"
I do, they're looking great man.

"Still not sure what scale to go with though."
Yeah you do, you just did it. You can play skirmishes in 15mm, two rifle platoons supported by a vehicle fighting over a house, summit, or patch of woods, but if you're looking to throw a company vs a battalion's worth of armor in the table, I think your 6mm setup is the way to go. My only objection is, go bigger! Either do your current style games at 1:1 or, if you're looking to continue 1 model = 1 element (currently platoon) then I'd bump it up an echelon and call them companies, then play battalion vs regiment-sized games that are combined arms with everything on the table.

"Regarding enemy intentions that is a challenge I hope I can Crack. The key will be to not have it random but to have it make sense in an overall plan but still allow some unpredictability. For instance in the last battle the 4 possibilities were true probe, town, hill or bypass everything. You have to key it to what forces come available, where they enter and also not give up the deception too soon or you loose the suspense. A tall order!"
Yes, indeed it is. I've played games where I didn't know the enemy's intentions until set up (I placed my forces, then I drew up several different OPlans, requiring different deployments) and rolled to see which one the enemy went with, but I didn't use blinds and I already had the enemy's OOB mapped out. I don't see how you can have unknown objectives (presumably requiring different schemes of maneuver) AND have unknown enemy force composition with distributed deployment (I suppose you could place all the blinds in one spot, but that's defeating the purpose).

I suppose you could set three different objective markers on the table (A, B, and C), deploy the blinds in a distributed manner, play it out until all blinds have been rolled for, then decide what the objective is based on where the preponderance of forces are? And if the enemy force is evenly distributed, call it a general advance or a probe? Very interesting…

"Good luck with your sons."
Thanks buddy, I appreciate it.

V/R,
Jack

Joe

Jack,
Understood with your sons. My little leaguer is 29 and married 2 years.
You are right about 6mm. I just hate to to have to buy all new stuff.
Are you sure you are a marine? You are getting warmer to my ideas.
BTW am planning something cool for capt Moulin of the french armee. Hopefully this week.
Cheers

Joe

Joe,

"Understood with your sons. My little leaguer is 29 and married 2 years."
Raising kids has certainly given me purpose, but I'm not sure my nerves can take it. Getting shot at was far less terrifying then worrying about preparing them for the future…

"You are right about 6mm."
Goes without saying ;)

"I just hate to to have to buy all new stuff."
Regarding buying new stuff we'd have to examine that more thoroughly, but 1) collecting and painting is, or at least can be, a fulfilling part of the hobby; 2) in 6mm you can get away with proxying a whole lot of stuff; and 3) if you're talking Cold War, all you really need to do is grab some Brits and Yanks from HR, which is cheap and quick to paint up.

On a side note, 1) this reminds me that I never got back to you about my 6mm WWII stuff. Still interested?

On a side note, 2) I'm sure you already know this, but I'll refresh your memory: DO NOT sell any of your 15mm stuff!!! As someone that has bought and sold, then bought again several times, I assure you that is the path to ruin…

"Are you sure you are a marine?"
Make me tell you again about not capitalizing Marine!!!

"You are getting warmer to my ideas."
Hell, I've always been warm to your ideas, they're the basis of our entire (internet) friendship/relationship. I just can't help but simultaneously despise you for being a Zero, in both the Army and the Air Force…. You have no idea the (wargaming) power you hold over me; the Platoon Forward concepts have dominated my wargaming ever since I became aware of it, and every time (well, most every time. At least the WWII and modern stuff, just not all your pre-WWII nonsense) you do something new/different, I end up following. I wasn't interested in aerial gaming until you started playing Bag the Hun, wasn't interested in Coastal until you started messing with it, wasn't interested in the Western Desert or Commonwealth fights around Caen until you did it, sure as hell wasn't interested in playing ARVN until you did it (and now I have an ARVN force, though I've yet to play with it), and now this fight has me looking at 6mm Cold War stuff again…

"BTW am planning something cool for capt Moulin of the french armee. Hopefully this week."
Looking forward to it.

V/R,
Jack

Jack,
Sorry about the "Marine" thing; touchy aren't we? Will email you about your WW II micro stuff.
Thanks for the very kind words about my Forward stuff and my blog. Am glad I can inspire since that is the goal. As you know I don't make a dime off of any of it; it all goes to the food bank. Your stuff is very inspiring to me; particularly how you can stick with one project for so long.
Have started writing out my first scenario for Battalion Forward; Defend.
Cheers
Joe