Outskirts of Kharkiv

 I participated today in a game depicting part of the 4th Battle of Kharkov in August 1943. This was a Soviet offensive, but the scenario was a German counterattack. It was run by Mark, one of the "satellite" members of South Florida Miniature Gamers who came from a county and a half away to show off his own 1:1 skirmish rules. They are 15mm, roughly company scale, and work down to light-and-serious wounds and damage to guns or engines on vehicles. The rules are named Tactical Combat, fit on a single page and have been worked on and played at conventions for decades. They seem suitable for just about anything in the 20th century, though trench warfare would be more complex at 1:1.

Scenario

We had four players, though as we played it became clear that it could accommodate six. Luckily we also had the writer to GM; if you've read much of this blog you know rules make my eyes glaze over, so it helps to have someone tell me what to roll! That said, it was not that difficult; like The Sword and the Flame, shooting is roll-under on a D20. I was getting the hang of it by the end.

Basically, the Soviets (on which side I played) held a factory complex and, behind it, a pretty village of Flames of War buildings. The largest residence and the six rooms of the factory were the objectives - whoever held four of these after ten turns would win.

The Russians started with a couple platoons of infantry and two guns (a 57mm AT gun and a short-barreled 76mm howitzer). The Germans had plenty of infantry to start. Both sides had some anti-tank materiel, mostly AT rifles on my side and a demolition platoon for the Germans. My partner took the infantry up front, while I held the back line and handled guns and armor.

6x6 table from the Soviet side, with village in front,
and factory in center. Vehicles arrived on the roads.

Typical tokens and unit cards. Movement is simultaneous,
so we would place green markers for movement and purple for
reaction (overwatch, basically, though this also denoted firing
at the start of turn before anything else happened). Movement is
in cm, while the armor facings cross-reference with firepower.

Some of the Red Army before deployment.

Side view of the field.

We placed nearly all our starting infantry in the first row of factories, excepting a couple AT Rifle teams in useful spots for when the German vehicles turned up. I placed the AT gun in the "v" of the fence to the village right, pointing down the road, with the 76mm on the opposite side in a railway building. (We could hide units until they fired, at which point we either tilted the roofs or removed them entirely).

Infantry in the factory.

Left side of table (from Russian perspective).

German machine-gun team facing the factory.

The Germans brought in a few StuGs on their right - the wrong side for my 57 to shoot at them, though the 76mm exchanged fire for a few turns until it was knocked out. Russian AT teams firing from doorways did hurt them a bit, though - unable to destroy them, but able to disable their guns. These turned out to be the earliest mak of StuG, with no machine-gun mounts, which meant without their hull armament they were out of the game. But then the rest of the German armor turned up.

All we had at this stage to challenge them was a few SU-76s:

And a few tiny T-70 light tanks with ingeniously-cut tank-rider bases:

As an example of the exhaustive pluses-and-minuses
to shooting rolls, these had negatives for one-man turrets.

This lovely Henschel HS129 ...

...had an equally lovely target in my road-bound guns.
Luckily he had to roll scatter for his line of flight
and it only covered one vehicle, though it also blew up
that wooden building to the left.

My partner, more intelligently,
went off-road with the T-70s.
You can also see where I positioned the
57mm, which will be relevant shortly.

Three T-34s with tank riders also turned up.
Nice shot of the objective mansion and its courtyard.

Then two Tigers turned up in the sights of the 76mm and started taking apart the T70s. My 57mm crew earned Heroes of the Soviet Union by killing both Tigers in three turns and, a couple turns later, disabled a Panzer III on the other side of the building they'd been sheltering by.

I also had a machine-gun crew in the top-story of the mansion, and shot up one of the German infantry units in their only visible target - a second-story ruin on the far side of the factory. They shot back, but I had better cover.

Meanwhile, the six tank-borne infantry teams were racing to reinforce the factory while my SU-76s got their butts kicked trying to challenge full-fledged Panzers. One of which turned out to be a Flammpanzer which methodically destroyed the factory while German pioneers assaulted it with demolition charges.

Vicious combat in the factory. Red pom-poms denote
structural damage to the buildings. Like vehicles, they could
take progressive damage or (on a low-enough damage
roll) fail entirely.

After nine turns, the Red Army still held the mansion and (barely) two of the factory sections, while the Fascists held the other four. Their infantry was more numerous than ours (who had been shot up on their way in), and my partner and I felt there was no point in trying to take another room against twice our number of better-equipped defenders. Even manhandling the 57mm gun to a position where it could fire on the Panzers didn't help, as my firing dice failed me. So the game ended a German victory.

But it remained a good test of the rules, because it was touch-and-go much of the way. Our tactics weren't that bad (except where I'd stuck my machine gun in what turned out to be a blind spot). My dice-rolling on the left was particularly bad, and with average rolls I might have taken out half the opposing panzers and evened the odds for the T-34s. Strangely, we rolled at least four 1s for hits, (good) but consistently rolled high for penetration (bad) - once I had four out of five dice with 17s and 18s!

So it still could have gone either way, and we weren't disappointed with the game at all. It was quite enjoyable, and clearly a well-tested work of love for its writer. I'd be happy to play it again - though given current events, perhaps a different period!

TSATF Inspiration

After my last confused solo game, I went back and looked at a couple "simpler" variants of The Sword and the Flame. I picked out the Maxwellian Variant, from the old Major General's site, as my next ruleset. It's cut-down and simplified, particularly morale checks and shooting (for one thing, it only uses D6 dice). This is in theory to enable larger games, but should just as easily make smaller games quicker to play. It fits on four printed pages, easier to read than the QRS sheets from the rulebook.

Ironically, while I was browsing the 'net today searching for other thoughts on TSATF, I came across this...

Found at Sword And The Flame | Miniature Addiction

... which would really have come in handy in that last game! The author points out that any given turn has about six points where a morale test must be taken, which makes it a more important mechanic than I'd remembered. The chart above is a useful reminder of when and which to take.

Also while browsing, I was reminded of Mike Snook, a popular author in colonial circles but one I'd not yet read. I idly punched his name into Amazon and came across this one:

Get this: the Kindle version, as I write, is on sale for $0.99 USD!

How could I resist?

So I know what I'll be reading this weekend. What else, anyway, as you'll know if you keep tabs on that list of books to the upper left.

Happy reading.

Guns From Far Places

I visited a gun shop this morning, looking for a padded container for my new Mutiny figures, and bought a rifle case which should be able to hold most of them. It'll be heavy once loaded down with pewter, but beats the alternative. 

Beyond that, I had a diverting talk with the proprietor, who specializes in historical collectibles and shares some of my interests. He kindly showed off two of his pieces: an 18th century Japanese matchlock and an 1893 Mauser.

The matchlock in my new case.

The hexagonal barrel and decoration.

More decoration, including the Imperial chrysanthemum.
The slowmatch passes through the hole in front of the trigger...

... and through the hole above the flower in the lock,
thence to the hammer and into the pan when the trigger is pressed.

Sadly, my photos of the Mauser were crap, but the maker's mark was curious - a Jewish maker with a Star of David for the mark. The Mauser was for sale for $500 USD; that sounds surprisingly affordable for a century-old weapon! I will try to get better shots of it another time.

A profitable morning out!

More Mutiny figures

When I call myself a hobby butterfly, I'm not just easily sidetracked - I'm scatterbrained. I didn't realize I hadn't got the entire shipment of Mutiny figures, and found a box in my mail just today that's probably been sitting there a few days because I missed the notice. 

Eleven rebel sepoys in white.

Twenty-four sepoys in red coats (could be either rebel or loyal).

Sixteen sepoys in shakos and shoulder wings (flank companies?).

A dozen assorted officers and artillery crew.

A handful of casualty figures.

There are no cavalry, but given the small unit sizes these will mostly be for skirmishing anyway. A nice surprise, even if I should have seen it coming. This brings the total of figures to about 250 assorted infantry and a couple guns, plus some incidental character types. Worth what I paid, especially for these paint jobs!

Still uncertain how to play them, but The Sword and the Flame should work. I'm still iffy on The Men Who Would Be Kings, though its smaller units would suit. Sharp Practice might do, if I can figure out how it works.

Cardboard Mountains

My first exposure to colonial gaming was the classic Tremorden Rederring's Wargames Page. The breadth of imagination and creativity in that site remains inspiring. Having gotten hold of some Northwest Frontier figures, I decided to build some cardboard mountains, as described on the site here: Mountains for Colonial-era Wargames. 

One thing that appeals to me about this method is that it reminds me of building simple ruins, using similar methods, for Warhammer 40,000 back when I first started gaming. Another is that it's so easy and relaxing that I can do it in an odd few minutes even whilst watching TV or reading a book online. 

The first "profile" hill.

I added a small "cave" for a sniper.

Construction visible here.

The Pathans are next to have their edges brushed with
Agrax Earthshade.

Good scale for the 18mms.

More of these, at a few different heights, will make ridges. Two or three ridges to a table will, artfully placed, effectively increase the size of my tiny table. This might be a useful craft project for work as well.

My Colonial Collection, Part Six: The Mutiny

How do I get myself into these things?

More sidetracking on the hobbyist's road, bought on the spur of the moment from a fellow on Facebook's Colonial Wargaming group. This time, the Indian Mutiny of 1857 - though with a little fiddling I suppose I might get an 1840s Sikh skirmish in there too. These are mixed 28mms and painted. Very nice figures and paintjob, with only a few minor repairs to make so far.

Not sure how I'll store them. My method with soft plastics - just bunging them into toolboxes - won't work. Will lay them in bubble wrap until I find some foam packing.

Two Indian officers - possibly mutineer commanders

Twenty-three Sikhs, including two officers, musician and two colours

Sixteen Gurkhas

Sixteen 64th Regiment (Second Staffordshire)

Fifteen 84th Regt (York and Lancaster, including two standards.

Sixteen First Madras Fusiliers, including two standards.

Sixteen 93rd Highlanders, including two cased colours.

Three dozen assorted Company European troops.

Twelve 92nd Highlanders, officer and gun.

Fourteen Pathans. I was just writing the other day that
I haven't got any Pathans yet...

Elephant on scenic base. The umbrella has come off.

Thirty rebel sepoys, in the later lack of uniform.
Also a gun crew and Scottish piper.

Assorted civilians. The two at front right could be Kim
and his lama.

Two wagons with bullocks to pull them.

Most units, like the previous lot, are too small for standard The Sword and the Flame, but I'll figure something out. There's one collector of this period already in the local club - perhaps we can get together and run a game. There's a little damage from shipping - in particular, I'll have to reattach standard bearers to their standards - but overall a nice haul. Not enough mutineers for a real battle, but some of the uniformed loyal Sepoys could stand in. A skirmish campaign might also work.