Monday, September 21, 2020

The Battle of the River Mius 1943 with Rommel

 Ken and I played through a full game of Sam Mustafa's "Rommel" over the last 2 x weeks, making this a truly celebratory post as we successfully played through turns 1 through 8 last week and completed 9 through 16 this past weekend.  We played the "River Mius" scenario from the outstanding  Hexes and Miniatures website, which I will link to on the right side of my blog.  This post is part battle report, but mostly a collection of our thoughts on the game.

Soviet HQs/ Supply Source - Made for Rapid Fire as the 307th Infantry Division CP

What Happened?

The Battle takes place in Ukraine, 1943 along the Mius River with the Soviets making post-Kursk drives attempting to take advantage of an off-balance German Army.  Both sides are well-equipped for this titanic showdown and we fielded the better part of 2 x Divisions on the table (Rommel is an operational-level game where stands are companies).  I felt that the OOB lended itself nicely for beginner play (and conveniently I had all of the elements in the OOB painted and ready to rock and roll).  The Germans must hang on to two of their objectives, and capture 2 x Soviet objectives.  The Soviets must hold 4 objectives, and 1 of those objectives must be a German one.  The stage is set!

Germans coming from the right - Soviets the left.  I used flocked pennies to mark the grid - yellow dice are German objectives - Red dice are Soviet

Three units are allowed in a square.  Units of the same "element" such as brigade, must try to fight together or they are penalized.

I sent my units forward very aggressively along non-supporting axes to try and dislodge Soviet battalions (squares with 2 or 3 stands) from their objectives. I found out the hard way that armor should not fight in a city without support, nor should they try to move through forests without accompanying infantry.  Rommel has a really neat combat system that kind of works like a boardgame (the whole game really almost feels like a boardgame).  I have to say infantry really is the centerpiece of the game, as it probably was the war.  Your armor is always sexier, but your infantry have tremendous staying power and attacking power. 

I have to admit that it's easy in a board wargame to overlook the infantry especially when you have armor and mech battalions, but in Rommel you cannot make that mistake.  You're forced to use combined arms attacks if you want to make any dents in enemy positions.  You'll also need to set up 3:1 odds to dislodge an enemy - something a textbook or field manual once told me when i was a cadet.

Armor in a city fights at a disadvantage but this was a first game!  I regret nothing!  ATTACK!

It's easy to be surprised in Rommel at just how good your German armor is, until you end up losing it all if you're not smart about conserving it!  German armor units are incredibly powerful but you'll never have enough of them.  Ken played very smartly with his armor and was able to commit his armor where he could make a breakthrough, which I'd argue he almost did in the center but we reached the end of the game. In this manner, the game forces you to have a plan and to think.  I'm quite sure I've never played a wargame quite like it and I am looking forward to playing again, albeit in 6mm.


One of the really neat things about Rommel though, besides the combat and the scale, is the ability to "buy" tactical options and events.  This, we felt, really imparted nice WWII detail to the game and added to the narrative.  For example, when assaulting in the city, I purchased, for 1 Operations Point, "flamethrowers" which allowed me a +1 column shift when assaulting in an urban environment.  It's things that like that make the game even more fun and add an element of tension/gambling as you don't know if your opponent will spend an op to purchase a defensive tactic.

Look at that massive armored force going into the attack!  This would make an excellent game to fight out a big battle during the Kursk or Bagration offensives

A huge tank battle! 
As the action unfolded, I found myself struggling to capture objectives that were seized by Ken's Soviet infantry - 2 x companies or stands worth of troops holding against 3 stands attacking with modest artillery support.  As I learned throughout the game, if you want to breakthrough and capture an objective, you have to be willing to "pay" for it in terms of spending Operations points to buy subsequent tactical phases and throwing in fresh troops to set up multiple attacks against the objective.  Literally needing almost 3:1  advantage to cause the kinds of hits you need to destroy enemy units, otherwise you'll find yourself in a grinding battle of attrition that a professional army most dreads (and one that the Germans are not suited to winning).

Took me the whole game to take this objective and it took me attacks with almost 9 stands! 

Ken focused his efforts on capturing 2 German objectives - on my left and in my center and his generous use of artillery and fresh reserves earned him a hard-won victory.  As fpr me, I learned what it takes to fight and win as a WWII general on a WWII battlefield.  Rommel gets you that close and puts you in the command post of the Army headquarters, making decisions about where to attack, how to attack, and what your fireplan is to support your attacks.  I cannot say better things about this game!

Desperate German armored attacks going in!

Soviets trying to overrun a German objective!

A Soviet breakthrough effectively surrounds a German objective!

Anyone who reads my posts knows how much I like the narrative or storyline created by a wargame.  Wargames that have clever mechanisms and features easily create that narrative and I think that's something I appreciated so much about Rommel, that and it caters to my megalomania of being able to put an entire battle on a 6 x 4 table!  Just needs 6mm forces or 10mm forces as I think it would look much better.  Both Ken and I really liked and appreciated the game which I think delivers on its goals and promises.  If you enjoy WWII history, you should purchase or borrow this game, read it and play it - you owe it to yourself!


25 comments:

  1. Really enjoyed this post Steve, thank you.
    I think the review on Little Wars TV and their D-Day game has maybe been putting me off Rommel - and me a great fan of Sam Mustafa's 'Maurice'. But I need to go back to it.

    Your report has redressed the balance for me.
    I really must get this one to the table now.
    Love the story elements in there too - and the way it played for you is intriguing. I love it.

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    1. Cheers Darren. It's a very novel game and plays kind of like a boardgame. It is very "gentlemanly" I think and you will be making decisions about schwerpunkt, reinforcing successes, fire plans, and reserves. It's probably not a "go to" WWII game for all needs, but definitely worth your time to play. This would have been an outstanding game to have during our Ponyri Campaign days which seems like ages ago!

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  2. And of course...the obvious question...how do you think a WW3 version might work :)

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    1. Funny you mention that - Ken has charged me with taking a look at a Cold War variant and there is a 1973 Yom Kippur War variant on the Honour facebook page.

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  3. Nice write up and good to hear your enthusiasm for the rules. I think the smaller scales would look very good to give the battalion sense and higher.

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    1. Thanks Norm. They are a very "different" set of rules and the game itself "feels" operational. I was reminded of Vin Mellenthin's classic "Panzer Battles" many times during play. Well worth a read.

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    2. "Von" Mellenthin! That error deaerved a correction!

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  4. I played my first ever game of Rommel yesterday on Vassal. Like Blucher, Rommel definitely has that boargame feel to it but despite my initial reservations, I admit it is a flowing and entertaining game. Challenging too. However - for me at least - I would still classify it as a boardgame even if played by miniatures.

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    1. Mike, I was thinking the same. While Steve’s game looks great, an operational WWII game played with 15mm miniatures seems an odd mix.

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    2. Cheers Mike. You hit it perfectly. A very enjoyable game, with a boardgame feel. If players are looking for more tactical games clearly this is one to avoid.

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    3. Jonathan there are many games out there set at the operational level which use miniatures as playing pieces. Mega blitz, Hexblitz, and 5Core Brigade Commander immediately come to mind. The minis are really just markers but I liken it to all those old WWII movies where at back at HQs staff are pushing model tanks and wooden blocks with shuffle board sticks around a massive 30' map and there is a flurry of activity around. That's what it reminded me of, anyways!

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  5. A nice AAR steve and you obviously enjoyed the game. I think it would look great in 2mm or 3mm, to give you that feel of a very large battle.

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    1. I think you are right about reducing the size of the playing pieces to provide a better sense of scale and scope.

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    2. Thanks Steve I already plan on trying Rommel with 6mm miniatures as I feel that will better capture the sweeping feel of the game. Moving into another scale may be the end of my hobby if my wife catches wind!

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  6. Great looking game, beautiful armies!

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  7. I have off and on considered getting hold of 'Rommel'. Certainly the scenarios I've seen have given me ideas. Back in April I tried the River Mius scenario as Portable Wargame style of action. No doubt it played very differently from the way it would have done with 'Rommel', but it was a finely balanced game all the same.

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    1. Archduke- that's a wonderful idea using the portable wargame with the Rommel scenarios. I'll need to try that with my "simple wargames" experiment! The Portable Wargame is one of the games I'm going to put through its paces.

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    2. BTW the scenario was a good one. I really enjoyed perusing the hexes and minis website and will likely use that for future scenario ideas. Plus I love the hex conversions he did!

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  8. Thanks Steve, this is very interesting and tempting. I've been a fan of Mustafa and have tried all his rules going back to Maurice, but I wasn't keen on Rommel because I thought that it required a gridded tabletop, which I don't have, but you seem to have made it work without one ???

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    1. Thanks Padre. It was a fun game and I appreciated what the author was trying to do here. To construct the grids, I used flocked pennies that match my table. I use those as casualty "hit" markers for Commands and Colors Napoleonics, and so had an abundance laying g around. Enough to produce a 12 x 8 grid anyways!

      I like the look of the flocked pennies, but Ken said it was tough to distinguish where the grids were.

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  9. Nice take on Rommel as a game. I’ve heard nice things everywhere. I know most use smaller scales to play it but one must use what one has. If space was a problem could you increase the table size and grids if able? 😀

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    1. Thanks Stew! It's a novel game and was lots of fun to play. I dont think it would a problem to make the squares smaller if minis were on the small size.

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  10. I didn't know Rommel fought on the Eastern Front - man that dude was everywhere!

    Seems like this would make a great "combat resolution game" for a WWII boardgame. Just a thought. I happen to have some.

    I get that micro armor would give better feel - you could also have a lot more figs on a base if you wanted to. I think the comment that it is still a board game has a lot to do with the feel of operational level games. Sometimes even a Napoleonic miniatures game that has a high level of play leaves me with the feeling that it is really a boardgame. I think we expect more tactical level with miniatures for a variety of reasons.

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  11. Cheers Alex - the combat results in Rommel are very much like a boardgame and the game itself plays like a boardgame with minis.

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