Gepanzerte-Schule!

In an ongoing attempt to find a balanced German mechanised force, with enough options to attack and defend against a variety of opponents, and how well to tactically play, I have begun a learning curve, with a bit of a back to basics approach.

 I have played this force, both in Mid-war and Late-war incarnations for over two years now, with just about a game a week, but with few victories to show for it... but being stubborn and pig headed I have not given up - largely because I have put a shit load of resources, both money for buying the models, and time to paint them up, to give up on them.

So I am going to find a way to make them 'work'. However I admit I have certainly 'spat the dummy' at differing times, or just declared I needed a break to rest my jangled thoughts...

 So, in an attempt to salvage thoughts from the ashes, I suggested to Paul, a chance to play a sort of 'doubles solo game'; we'd play the same arse of a mission for the GPGs; attacking the Brit Paras in a No Retreat scenario - but the difference being we'd both discuss how we thought mission objective placement and deployment should go, and then discuss each turn as we played it, from both sides point of view...

 This would develop a more global view of the game from start to finish...

We also agreed that if something didn't work, during a turns activity, we would try a reset, at that point and try something else...

 This led to a lengthy game, but many lessons were learned from mutual discussion... some from more past experiences being echo-ed, and others from Pauls insights from the defenders point of view, and how he thought an attack should best proceed...

The force I have chosen to use is a Heer force from Grey Wolf;

HQ; 2 x SMG/P'faust + P'Schrek
Full CBT, w/ SMG/P'Faust
Full CBT, w/ SMG/P'Faust
Heavy Platoon; Cmd 251 + 2 x Stummel + 2 x 8cm armoured mortars w/ obs
Recce; 1 x 250/1 + 2 x 250/9
Panzers; 3 x Panther
Artillery; 3 x Hummels w/ PzIII obs.

The thinking being I have two solid Mechanised Infantry platoons to handle the attack, Recce to mitigate ambushes and lift GTG, Heavy Arty to get ranged in and pound targets (I want to kill what I hit!), Panthers - the ubiquitous Tank killer and infantry support, and the Heavy platoon is my 'versatile' option, being able to support the infantry with direct fire and smoke.

On to the game, Paul took his same Para force as last game, chose an end to defend and placed his objective centre rear of his position. The German objective went down in woods to front left of the German position, the idea being an advance to this position would be screened through hedges and woods and much of the defenders defensive fire in this area would be blocked by the wood and building. The other flank was more open and would allow for the potential of a quicker thrust to the rear...

As predicted Paul then deployed the Brits strongly covering the front objective, with a thinner force on the German right, and howitzers at the back. A fairly typical defense. Since Paul had engineers, he also placed 3 sections of barbed wire covering the approach to the front objective.

As I didn't have pioneers, the wire would be a problem. Not insurmountable, but it slows you down, catching teams in the open, so this wasn't the place to attack... So it was decided to attack down the German right flank, the idea being to push into the central wood and right side corn, and then look which way to go from there with potential to push on to the rear objective, or swing left in to the front flank objective, depending on how the game developed.

Deployment as below, with German mascot well placed...

Deployment and overseer.

It was decided to advance the infantry on foot through the terrain... This went against the grain for me somewhat as I can't help the feeling that I have paid the points for the half tracks so I want them on the board doing something... but so often in the past I have found they have invariably got caught up in terrain, either slowed by it or blogging down on it, or simply given away an easy range in point for artillery, that their use often leads to problems before the game gets properly underway, ham-stringing any German attack later... The half tracks would remain available to be called up later at a more opportune time...

The early stages of the game saw the Germans cautiously advancing into position, and being particularly aware of the LOS from the Para Arty observer. This was blocked by smoke from the mortars allowing the infantry to advance unmolested. Recce had already pushed up to throw back any immediate ambush, forcing Paul to hold his 17pdrs till later.

Paul ranged arty fire on the exposed Panther which hit but bounced but this forced the Panther to move, as I didn't fancy the medium arty support getting called in on top of it, subsequently...

As turns continued, the Germans had got in to position to assault the para engineer pickets. A small mistake by Paul had left them just too far from their supporting main line, so they were taken out without any possible reply from the paras. The 17pdrs did however deploy knocking out one Panther. The remaining two hid behind the wood, till these guns were dealt with.

Boom goes a panther, but infantry are pushing up well...

In the face of the German assault, Paul started pulling back towards an 'Alamo-like' line joining the two objectives...

This allowed the Recce, Heavy platoon stummels and by now the called up half tracks to start swinging round the flank, and MGing Pauls reserves as they were coming on to the board. The paras were admittedly now feeling under pressure.. The hummels had ranged in and taken out two 17 pdrs by this point.. allowing the Panthers to get back into the game with main gun and MG fire, at the paras, keeping the ones on the front objective tied up in place, whilst the rest of the German force were gradually pushing back and compressing the paras onto the rear objective. This was in turn providing groups of targets under templates for the Hummels and Mortars to keep chipping away at, and with more direct fire from the Stummels and Recce too.

The Germans had at one point, tried an assault through the middle, as there was a chance to capture the 17pdrs and deal to more paras... we weighed it up, checked the Def fire, and went for it. Def fire just got 5 hits, but we played on as if only 4 had occurred, took the saves and attacked. I didn't get the best round dice and the Paras motivated and had enough teams to destroy the attacking platoon. So we reset and instead had the German platoon mount up their half tracks and drive back out the way of the ranged in Arty (that had triggered their assault; a 'do or die' moment), thus preserving the platoon. This just reinforced that you can only really hope to attack a weakened position and win, otherwise you are going to get beaten off taking severe losses..., especially where a defense is in depth...

This was about how we called it, through time more than anything. Paul had lost his small platoon of mortars that had come on from reserve, and got shot up, his 17pdrs were down to one gun, the engineers were severely battered,  and the CO had got MG-ed, but Paul still had his 2iC and Urquart, and the rest of his troops bunch up, waiting to get pounded... it was just a matter of time...

The Germans had lost a couple of infantry teams and one panther...

So the lessons learned in the main were...

1. Let the game develop, don't rush in
2. Preserve the infantry, moving through terrain and smoke cover. Watch for observer lines of sight.
3. Leave half tracks off until needed, when they can be effective, then call them up (as per Ambush deployment rules), but bear in mind the turn the arrive they cannot shoot or assault so you need to be thinking a turn ahead...
4. Get artillery ranged in and keep pounding targets that can hurt you; AT guns, howitzers etc...
5. Wait till the opportune moment to attack and do so against weakened positions, with greater force than the defender can withstand.

It all sounds straight forward, but keeping a cool calm head and sticking to the plan, during the game, will be the key to future successes...

Many thanks to Paul for his patience and working though this scenario, is has giving some hope to my mechanised cause!

A Time to Die... how long should a game take?

I have enjoyed two games of FoW this week, which could not have been more different...

The first against Brett, was the tank on tank battle featured in the previous blog post, and the next game the following night against Paul; the 3rd game in our Breville Gap campaign, the Germans having another go at breaking through in a Hold the Line after their 'diversionary attack' in the previous game.

 Normally our 'policy' here at 'KFoW', is that the victor writes the battle report... but that last game against Paul became quite a serious (though still good natured) affair, and I think I gave Paul enough concern, and thus caused him to concentrate on the game a little more than normal, that he stopped taking pictures part way in...

It was a seriously gutsy game, death and mayhem on each side, and I eventually broke through and had a toe hold on the objective with other troops poised to follow up, and with Paul's remaining forces being quite battered and getting to the point they were hanging on as best they could, but at the point we called it, Paul was still contesting the objective, and thus the game was a 4-3 to Paul.

The reason we called it was that the game started at about 7pm and we called 'time' at 11.30pm... four and half hours later... Poor Paul is an early riser and he was just about asleep by the end of the game, whilst me being a bit more of a night owl, was still happy playing on...

 I will admit freely, I am not the best player in the world (but hopefully improving), and it takes me quite a while to ponder my tactics for the game and in turn, turn to turn as the game progresses...

With the tank battle previously, there is little to really consider; no artillery, no decision between bombard or smoke, no worrying about moving infantry around, being gone to ground or dug in, or whatever... it just about boils down to, can I roll a 6 to hit, and if so, can I follow it up with a successful FP test... hence the game was probably over in 60-90 mins or there abouts...

But with infantry on infantry, in a defensive battle, there is far more going on...

The game for the defender, once they have cunningly constructed their defense, becomes a game of mostly keeping their heads down gone to ground and waiting to unleash their ambush at the most opportune time, and hope they get reserves in time...

The game for a the attacker is more complex, having had a brief chance to study the defenders defense he has to come up with a plan of attack; which objective to strike for, how to go about it, how to mitigate any ambush, which artillery to use against which targets, and to try and fire smoke to conceal, or a bombardment to kill... and then how best to set up a possible game winning assault such that I can capture an objective and be in such a position to hold on to it against any likely counter attack...

There's an awful lot going on in such a game... so how long is fair amount of time to resolve such a game?

This question crops up in the forums from time to time, especially concerning tournament play, where time management is crucial for the conduct of the tournament in a timely manner. Most tournaments appear to allow 2.5hrs  for each game. And yet it can cause concerns about deliberate slow play, as several missions go in the defenders favour if the attacker fails to grab an objective, or break the defender...

Note that I am not saying Paul plays slowly, far from it, it would be me the attacker taking a while to ponder my tactics, I can't help it...

Here's a quick look at the issues from that last game. I am not going to do a full ARR, but give you a few of the points of the game...

So the Game is Hold the Line, with Brit Paras defending against an attack by German Grenadiers.
Objectives go down in typical fashion, Paul places his at the back, I place mine more or less diagonally opposite as near to my front as possible...

The Brits deploy two Para platoons and an Engineer platoon, spanning the front of the board with 3 barbed wire sections down covering approach to front objective. This is tough enough to get through, But Paul also has 4 x HMG and 4 x 6pdrs in ambush. One can shred an infantry platoon, the other can wreck a tank platoon, in one round of fire... Not nice...

The rest of Pauls force is in delayed reserve; artillery, 2 more 6pdrs, trained infantry, recce jeeps with MGs, and mortars...

I am attacking this with 2 x grenadier platoons, 1 pioneer platoon with flamethrowers, 4 x HMG, 4 x Mortars, 4 x 105 howitzers, 4 x StuHs, 1 x Scout platoon.

My plan is relatively straight forward - Get scouts up as far as possible early to push back any ambush and then start lifting GTG on the Paras. GTG Paras in foxholes are 6s to hit at short range and impossible at long range... Lifting GTG can make all the difference.

Also, my infantry start 16" back from the Defenders zone, so its going to take me 3 turns to get there, unless I am lucky with some storm trooper moves, then I have to get to the wire, and then start the next turn NOT pinned down with my pioneers to Gap it to allow my troops through, then I still have to get into suitable position to assault...

All the while I am conscious of Pauls ambush and where they could strike from, and thus where do I need to try and drop smoke to cover my approach, but I also want to kills some Paras with my Howitzers...

Here are the general deployment pics...

My pioneers are still a WIP, hence the card bases...

Now, things go wrong for me in first turn, I push my scouts up as far as possible, getting a good position to view Pauls platoons from cover and also forcing back an ambush from the area I intend to assault.
Paul realises he has nothing to lose, as he'll be lifted GTG next turn anyway, fires everything he can at the scouts, he kills two teams, despite needing 6s to hit, but I have 2 left so I am still OK, just. Then he remembers one last possible shot, from an observer team; one shot on a 6, gets it and I fail the save, typical... scouts fail morale and are gone. F*ck!

So now my chances to lift GTG are gone and I cant push back any ambush... And Paul now settles back into his foxholes, gone to ground...

Red dots mark the dead scouts

This forces my approach to be far more cautious...

So I eventually get into position to shift the wire, but then Paul ambushes with his HMGs killing some pioneers and Pinning the platoon... so I cant shift the wire next turn and must wait for another turn and on it goes... All during this time I am slowly doing some damage with the howitzers which luckily ranged in on first throw of game and the StuHs are picking off the odd team thanks to their breakthrough guns...Opposing sniper teams are also enjoying some activity...

Eventually I am through the wire, but by which time Paul has decided to withdraw slightly, not wishing get all crispy from my flamethrowers. So I manage to get to and take the building adjacent the objective, but Paul still has a few teams left from a platoon, dug in near it contesting. I can eventually kill them once I reposition the StuHs but that's at least another 2 turns...

So we call the game, Paul has took a battering, 3 platoons down, CO - rang away with engineers, 2ic just been killed, two para platoons badly mauled, the 6drs have had two guns knocked out (one to the pioneers goliath), only his mortars left to come on. My only concern now really is if his artillery ranges in on me on the objective and starts to do some damage before I can remove his last contesting teams...

So all of that took 4.5hrs. We did have a few rules queries along the way which always takes a few minutes to resolve too, looking stuff up.. And it could go on longer to get to conclusion... so when do you stop?

If this game had had a time limit from the start, then I may as well have packed up and gone home once the scouts died on turn one - I'd certainly have scored more brownie points with the Mrs for an early Friday finish and get to have a glass of vino with her...  but I was conscious of throwing away the second game early, and not playing on for VPs for the campaign... hence my determination here...

As it happens, Paul is now 14 points to 7 up in the campign after 3 games, so I have no chance of getting back into it... So I'll declare Paul the winner.

We have planned another Hold the Line for next game; 3rd times a charm(!?) to see if its possible to crack this nut as the attacker, I can be a determined stubborn bugger sometimes... see if I can keep the scouts alive this time and what difference it makes, maybe consider other ways to play the mission...

So what do you think; a defensive battle between infantry companies, each knowing beforehand the opponent and mission thus the best chance to pick the best troops for the job. And a game involving field fortifications - How Long Should The Game Last to get to a fair conclusion?