"Conflict Donbas game prep coming along! (1/144th scale)" Topic

Gents,

At long last, I'm getting this Ukrainian War project to a point of having a first game, since the battle board has enough terrain granularity to it now, to make some interesting matchups possible.

The 1/144th scale collection was built for the 2014-15 fighting, but I'm thinking a handful of the Western-built IFVs would allow me to do scenarios for the current conflict too.

What I wanted to construct on the board mat, was a way to reflect the tree lines in-game, and the hedge lines seen in the pics will be used to denote these – they'll obstruct LOS beyond the tree lines, but not into, and any dug-in positions placed within (next) to these features will be "known", though opposing game players won't know if the enemy positions are occupied at the commencement of battle.

Hoping to run a first game of this in a few weeks.

P.S. Also posting this to the 10mm WW2 board, since the terrain board is very Eastern Front-ish too.

Hard to show how bad the Russians are.
Perhaps have them stick to the road. Have to spot even units that move or fire.
Have fun!

Looks excellent. I've been gaming battles of 2014 conflict in 1/300 using the Pz28 quick play rules.

I'm thinking of making vehicle cards to aid in gameplay and event cards to add some additional theatre specific "flavor" (e.g. maybe a Rasputitsa card that makes any units off-road roll on movement to see if they get stuck).

Excellent layout and vehicles, FlyXwire! What did you use for your vehicle antennas and flags?

I like how it is all scaled correctly and has a great aerial view.

Wolfhag

Thanks JMcCarroll.

This 1st game will be testing a lot of things, so I hope the guys have fun in between the glitch discovery. :)))

Prince Alberts, you got me searching for the Pz8 rules you mentioned……interesting.

PDF link

So many eras enabled with the same basic game system. I had gravitated towards Richard Borg's Command & Colors board games (but done up in 3D), maybe for similar reasons – that the same basic rules could be used for a lot of periods, which the local game group could easily play then at our monthly game days.

Capt. Pete, thanks bud.

I use the plastic bristles cut off of a dog brush for my antennas. The flags were made in my graphics program (both sides of each printed paper flag as a single, connected image – one side reversed if needed), so after cutting each flag out, they're creased at the center, and then white glue is applied to one side. The trick is to close up each side of the flag onto itself, and around the antenna shaft at the crease point, to join the sides precisely together (if it's a bigger flag, the wave-folding is now done while the glue is still wet).

Wolfhag, thanks for your comment on the fleece mat's look.

This board will get set up pretty quickly, as all the hedge foliage is glued onto the mat, and only the trees, trenches, or any buildings need to be added. I imagine Prince Alberts Revenge could use this one for playing Micro-Armor on, by removing the larger tree clumps, and/if with proper buildings for that scale.

Like one of your previous forum postings – it'll be interesting to see how the guys utilize tactics on this, and from some of that Close Combat PC game literature you mentioned awhile back –

"Long unsupported assaults are deadly. Assault for short distances, against a lightly armed or well-suppressed position. A single enemy soldier can destroy a squad across 100 meters of open ground."

The advice above close to Phase Line oriented maneuver…..(don't get overextended in attacking more than a force might tackle at once).

Gamers can tend to look at a game board, and think how can they get from their end to the other side as quickly as possible, but not more deliberately at those "parts in between"……. (but with modern opposition artillery response making deliberate advance a lot more 'exciting' these days).

Last thought – a scenario (and its designer too), should allow for what is practical for the forces involved to achieve. Many years ago, our local group of gamers would recognize when the "bolt was shot", and using self-discipline, stop their effort when they felt their force would be jeopardized if they attempted to fight the scenario further (actual use of force preservation – rather than dying to the last man gamin').

The flip side of this, a scenario's design, or it's GM should allow for this course of thought, and contemplative gamer conduct too.

"Hard to show how bad the Russians are.
Perhaps have them stick to the road. Have to spot even units that move or fire.
Have fun!"

Might I suggest that every time the Russian player rolls a one he has to drink two fingers of Vodka. :-)

Midlander65 :)))

(that could be the perfect Beer & Pretzels game format for playin' this conflict)

Very impressed with the terrain – like looking at an aerial photo.

I am a bit supprised only 6 men in the BMP 2, typically it woiuld be 7. What made you go for 6?

Personnel rosters of Russian Battalions in Ukraine are rarely at full-strength, and the fighting dismounts usually don't include the BMP operators.

On top of this, DPR and LPR (Separatist) forces are far from conforming to Russian TOE ideals.

From a linked article below -

"The new motorized rifle platoon has three squads of seven soldiers without a platoon headquarters. Only the platoon commander isn't part of one of the squads, and the first squad is led by the deputy platoon commander. A seven-man squad would mean that each BMP or BTR vehicle would have four available dismounts not including the crew of three. But many of these squads only have five or six soldiers. In practice, this means that many Russian motorized rifle squads only have enough soldiers to operate their vehicles, but not to dismount and fight on foot. Indeed, there have been cases where Russian BTR and BMPs only had a crew of three, without any dismounts."

link

Lack of dismount infantry can and does affect tactical doctrine flexibility, and has during the fighting in Ukraine – IFVs performing as "tanks", w/o a deployable infantry component.

The 2015-15 period, as well as the current fighting offers up many possibilities for scenario crafting. My upcoming crossroads game may have multiple force commands involved – AFU vs. DPR…..more……?

TMP link

FlyXwire Thankyou and excellent read and link.

Glad you liked it UshCha.

Got some eye candy for you here – and completed this WIP up today for this next scenario (close as I can get it to fit my game mat's layout) -

Do you have special troops to fit in those narow trench models? How do you depict where the Sections are with overhead cover, e.g. where they have built a section off the trench to hide in during artillery fire.

I'm interested as we have a very specialise approach to trench fighting but it would be interesting to see how other do it at this scale.

What fire arcs do you assume from the trenches, and the protection outside of those fire arcs?

No special troop models – the stands are placed on top of the pieces to show they occupy a section.

There's a defensive value for occupying entrenchments (at this game level), and no arc of fire limitations for attacking out of the positions, other than if blocked by other troop stands/models and any intervening terrain.

This game falls into the middle ground here (middle example from the pic below) of how I manage terrain and miniature scale – so with my 1/144th scale kit, entrenchments function as local features, and if stands are touching or placed on top or within the terrain, they gain from any benefits from the area. (linking this illustration from that thread of yours "On the nature of Terrain" discussion) -

TMP link

I do ask while moderating scenarios, if a player is attempting to gain cover benefit, or attempting to maintain blocked, or unblocked LOS as they move around the game terrain – (so getting their stated intentions 'in real time', so later there's no ambiguity to what their unit positioning was attempting to gain with cover/LOS).

If playing at the skirmish-level, with individually-mounted and individually-attritted figures, then I've made terrain for this gaming level also (this game level shown above as the bottom illustration……using higher fidelity terrain that figures and models can each directly interact with) -

This is what I was expressing in your terrain thread, about terrain scaling with the command-level being played – so figure scale used, formation level modeled and the unit basing all influence the terrain needed – game projects become more 'compartmentalized' to work as an integrated system – with rules > miniatures > terrain.

To me ukraine combats are very small often sun a company so detail is needed or else its so bland as to not offer a tactical challenge. An artillery barrage causes troops to seek shelter that delays them deploying. You either need to depict this or have a VERY crude delay after the artillery lifts imposed. Each to their own.

Lots of opportunity for interesting encounters in the Ukraine Conflict circa 2014-15 and Hybrid Warfare, which the local group will be playing, so they're the audience that gets the final say, actually.