BATTLEGROUP: REFORGER Attack / Counter-Attack Game

 A rare game and even rarer blog post here at the SOUND OFFICERS CALL Battle Bunker after evening Mass on Saturday night as Dave and I played an old favorite - my own Cold War spin on the popular "Battlegroup" rules which I aptly named "Battlegroup: REFORGER" (Return of Forces to Germany).  

You are probably asking yourself "But Steve - don't you own the *actual* modern version of Battlegroup?"  I do own it - and have played quite a few games of Battlegroup: NORTHAG (Northern Army Group) - but last night we were feeling nostalgic for some good, crunchy Cold War Gone Hot gaming, and for the Battlegroup system in general.  While NORTHAG takes the venerable Battlegroup system in a new and slightly different direction, REFORGER plays much more similarly to the WWII version, and was penned to fill a gap before NORTHAG hit the market.  

We played roughly 750 points each in a meeting engagement.  Drawing randomly for sides, Dave pulled the venerable Bundeswehr while I pulled the Soviets.  German forces on the table were a HQs unit, a mechanized infantry platoon mounted in Marder Infantry Fighting Vehicles, a Leopard I platoon upgraded to the A5 model, heavy mortars, self propelled artillery and of course a recce detachment.  German BP is 42.

The Soviets played with an understrength tank company of 6 T-72s, 3 BMP-1 Infantry Fighting Vehicles, an Anti Tank vehicle, recce, and of course self propelled artillery.  We diced to starting locations and Dave lucked out with a much better side of the table and plenty of cover to mask his movement while his tanks and tracks trundled up to the front!  The Soviet corner was bare.  Most of my movement would be under NATO observation and tank guns and anti tank missiles!  Soviet BP is 35.

The game started with a flurry of chit pulls as I bag 2 x objectives during my recce phase, forcing Dave to draw a chit and "out scout" the Soviets with 2:1 recce vehicles to Dave's.  Dave draws a "Breakdown" chit and plays it naturally on my BRDM-2 scout car holding an objective.  I roll a "6" on the breakdown table and the BRDM catches fire and is promptly abandoned.  Not a good sign for the rest of this battle!

The first Soviet casualty goes to bad maintenance practices and not the enemy!

Dave's rolling is, as usual, pretty good and he gets an avalanche of reinforcements (this is a meeting engagement so we roll for units to come onto the table).  While most of Dave's Leo's come on in the first turn, I get one T-72!

My T-72 moves up the flank and awaits his comrades

German Marders moving up to the treeline to observe and potentially get a good MILAN shot off against my tanks.

Soviet reinforcements start to show up now - note the 2 x Leopards to their front - I think the table looks pretty good!  It's been awhile since I've had a nice, dressed up gaming table.

My reinforcements fight straight from the march and miss ALL of their 4 shots.  Literally all their shots miss.  Not good!  Meanwhile, my other T-72 at the rail line manages to destroy the Luchs vehicle holding one of the the Objectives.

Another T-72 reinforcement moves up to the woods next to the rail line.  Note the burning Luchs 

Dave starts to get more aggressive with his Leopards now as his infantry moves up.  He positions them to control the avenues of approach against the objectives he is holding.  He also puts some on "ambush" orders to fire at me during my turn.  The modern battlefield is a deadly place!

My reinforcement rolls are still pretty bad.  I manage to bring on my AT-5 vehicle with its nasty AT-5 missiles.  

Leo's sneaking up to the rail line near the factory in the center of the battlefield.

With Dave knocking out 2 of my T-72s, I send some on a flanking mission to flank the Objective with the burning BRDM2 that Dave seized in the beginning of the game.  This keeps some of his Leopards busy while I attempt the seize the objective at the rail line.  THe problem is I have no infantry on the table yet.  If they can arrive, I can speed my BMPs up to the rail line and dismount the infantry in the woodline, forcing Dave to recapture it with the fighting on his side of the table.  The tank battle in the center of the board near the burning BRDM2 is an unpleasant distraction that is keeping me from executing my plan!

Note the burning T-72s on my baseline!  And a BMP burning for good measure.  Dave destroyed that from a Leopard I on ambush fire.

One Leopard burns, a victim of my AT-5.  Dave takes it out quickly!!  I have no idea how many chits Dave has pulled by now but I'm 2/3 of my way to breakpoint.  I managed to pull an aircraft chit and roll up an SU-22, but fail to get it to arrive during the next turn.  Bummer!  (and probably good because Dave has a "Flakpanzer Gepard" as part of his battlegroup and if it shoots down an A/C, I will take 2 chits!)

The remaining BMPs from the infantry platoon are hugging the village, too afraid to venture out until the threat from the Leo's is reduced.

A command BRDM2 with the artillery spotter ability - but he doesn't dare move any closer!

Marders in the woods!

German Infantrymen in the woods

Dave's infantry dismount at the train station and a firefight breaks out between the dismounted Soviets in the village and the Germans at the train station

My remaining T-72s on a bold end-run to flank the objective - having a knife fight with a German Leo

It's pretty obvious Dave has the upper hand in this fight.  Right now I feel like I'm fighting solely for my honor.  If Dave kills these T-72s, I'm at risk of having him seize the final objective, and feeling the ignominy of suffering an "All Objectives Secured" victory!  One of my thoughts is to dismount the infantry in the village to overwatch the last objective, which is in a small wooded area next to the village.  Meanwhile, Dave dismounts infantry in the train station and our infantry are staring each other down.

Dave's Leo in the woods takes out one of my T-72s before getting taken out himself.  I dont dare take the objective, though, as Dave's Jaguar and another Leo is overwatching it on "ambush" orders.

Knife fight with the Leo I in the woods

One of the final pictures of the game as Dave's Leos and Marders take up firing positions at the factory.  Note the infantry with the red die that indicates casualties.  I think I ended up pinning them.

THOUGHTS

This was a really fun game (dont think we've ever played a bad game of Battlegroup) - it was great "dressing the table up" with lots of buildings, terrain and cool models.  Dave and I had a blast playing REFORGER a number of years ago.  REFORGER is a different experience as it is fought more at the platoon/company level, unlike BATTLEGROUP: NORTHAG which has a bigger scope to it.  That's ok - some "crunchy" skirmish action was just what the doctor ordered after a stressful few weeks at work and we both had a blast playing.

For this game, I think I was a bit too hasty on committing the Soviet armor and probably should have waited until I had all of my T-72s on the table to launch an attack.  In this case, Dave was able to deal with my tanks one at a time as they came out in dribs and drabs.  The Soviets made good use of battle drills and that tactic would have worked exceptionally well here had I waited.  Dave also had a distinct advantage in gunnery and so his shots would find their target more frequently than mine.  That should have been obvious after he sliced through my first two T-72s along the railroad tracks!

Another thought that occurred to me was that i could have opted to put the infantry on the table earlier and sped them up to dismount in the woods along the rail line.  A big infantry platoon there would have threatened Dave (his other objective was at the factory - so very close by).

With this game behind me now, I am hankering for more Battlegroup action and really wanting to get some smaller battles out on the table.  I also want to try this same game with Battlegroup: NORTHAG and see how it plays.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post!  With some much-needed time off coming up I should have the opportunity to get some more games on the table and time at the workbench.  I'd love to play a Napoleonic game and possibly break out some Ancients for the first time on my table.  Blogging about it would be a bonus!  

Christmas coming up this week so if you celebrate I hope you have have a very Merry Christmas!

Valour and Fortitude Pick-Up Game

A rare blog post and an even rarer solo game as I put the venerable "Valour & Fortitude" through their paces on my tabletop with my newly re-based (again) Napoleonic 10mm troops and I think it's fair to say we finally have a  (basing) winner!  

Taking an idea from the "Steven's Balagan" blog, I decided on "Big Bases" for my 10mm Napoleonics.  You can see conceptually what i'm going for here These units can serve as single based units for hex games like "Commands and Colors Napoleonics" or larger unit games like "Blucher" while also serving more tactical games with 2 x stands comprising 1 unit.  The massed look of the bases, spread out in line or in assault columns, is excellent in my opinion and gives a wonderful sense of mass that does the 10mm justice to my eye (finally).  Even with 6 or 7 units on the table you get the sense of a very large formation of troops.

The only drawback to me is that this is an expensive option.  16 to 18 - almost an entire bag - strips make up a 2 x base unit, but they do look good in my opinion, and will look even better when texture and flocking are applied.  

At some point in the future I will showcase the armies with a splendid parade on the "marchfeld" but today's rare post will chronicle the 100 point Valour & Fortitude "pick up game" I played solo this afternoon to dust off the V&F rules.

I tried the "Set Piece Attack" scenario from the rules and strictly went through the selection and setup sequences.  The armies selected were:

French:

1st Brigade - General de Brigade Perrier

2 x Infantry Regiments

2nd Brigade - General de Brigade Badoit

1 x Line Infantry Regiment

1 x Field Artillery Battery

1 x Dragoon Regiment

Division Commander: General de Division Saint Yorre

Austrians:

1st Brigade - Oberst Küfferle

2 x Line Infantry Regiments

2nd Brigade - Oberst Zotter

1 x Grenzer Detachment

1 x Line Infantry Regiment

1 x Field Artillery Battery

3rd (Cavalry) Brigade* - Oberst Manner

1 x Cuirassier Regiment

1 x Hussar Regiment

*held in reserve

Division Commander: Generalmajor (GM) Soletti

The French were the defenders based on the dice-off and began placing their troops.  Objectives picked were pretty standard.  A hilltop, a village or 2, and the edge of a field overlooking the valley.  The French are defending the town on the left and the edge of the green field on the right.

Both sides are set up and ready for action.  Lower right you can see my "big base" French unit watching over its objective.  Units consist of 2 x 4"x2" bases abutted.  Once they're flocked they're going to look excellent!  But you do get the sense of battalions in columns or lines.  The table looks good for only 6 units on each side in this game.

Closeup of a completed "Regiment"  General Perier in the background!

I used Commands and Colors "victory banners" for objective markers.  One thing about V&F is it needs a few markers for statuses.

GdB Perrier

GdB Badoit preparing the defense of the town

The white wall of troops descends from the hill to engage the French!

The V&F rules came back to me pretty quickly and were very enjoyable and simple-enough.  I appreciate the subtle changes in the more recent version.

The 2 x Regiments staring each other down before the firing starts (note one of the French units is flocked and textured in the foreground)

Gdb Badoit's area of responsibility on the French left 

The Austrians are eying up the French right objective and want to over-run it in the field.  Unfortunately the bulk of their infantry are on their left arrayed against the large town.

Austrian Line unit in line formation (2 x stands side by side).  I made the helmeted Austrians in line and the Austrians in Shakos in a more dense column-looking array on the base.

The Austrians have pushed their infantry guarding their right-most objective forward and the French Dragoons move out to capture it.  The Austrian Cuirassier who have recently arrived charge the dragoons in the vicinity of the farmhouse on the Austrian right and a bitter battle ensues!

French Dragoons at the farm.  Their day is about to get much, much worse.  Note the Cuirassier unit to their front.

This game I made sure to remember to actually use the fate cards and they really spiced the game up.  The French drew "stubborn" and just at the right time as trading shots with a huge Austrian unit with a tenacity of "5" and they were able to remove their first hit on the right in the green field.

Death-Ride of the Dragoons!  Austrian Cuirassier score a whopping 5 (!!) hits on the dragoons, who only score 3 in return.  The Dragoons must pass a Valor test and are vaporized but since they are "Heavy Cavalry" also, they can reroll 2 x "1s" that they rolled.  The Austrian heavy horse gets another hit at 4.

drawing "stubborn" card and removing the hit from this infantry regiment - note the Austrians in column to their front - I wonder what they're up to...

The Austrians charge in column against the French regiment holding "the green field" and lose the ensuing melee, marking the first routed unit for the Austrian Division this day.  The French Division Commander has suffered 1 x "defeat" from the loss of the Dragoons.  The Austrians - feeling that the moment is right decide to redeploy their cavalry brigade to take advantage of the opening in the French line.  I guess you would call this a breakthrough!  The sweeping movement values in V&F allow you to make dramatic movements like this (and it certainly doesn't hurt that the Austrians drew the "Surprise attack" card in their fate phase - which means the Cuirassiers will move 36 total inches this turn with a free move during the fate phase).

GdD Saint Yorre loses his "water" (...) at the sight of a massed cavalry assault coming over the hill to his right!  This is really bad!  Meanwhile GM Soletti is savoring the "sweet" (...) taste of victory.

The Austrians easily capture the French objective in the "Green Field" and the Austrian Cavalry turn to face the remaining French.  Meanwhile the Austrian line Regiment on the right retrogrades from contact with the French in the woods and their sister unit prepares to assault the woods.  Before the game is called, the Austrians in column begin moving towards the French town when the game ends at the prescribed time.

Austrians in assault column (right) passing by their sister regiment in line (left) who withdrew to regroup and try to rally off some hits.

                             

Final positions at game's end with the Austrian cavalry brigade in the green field.  The French pulled another card that allowed movement and the remaining regiment from Perrier's Brigade moves out of the woods also to rally off some hits.

The French now have 2 defeats suffered - 1 from the Dragoons and 1 from the infantry regiment that routed from the green field after a murderous firefight with the Austrians and their supporting artillery.

The Austrians suffered 1 unit routed and have a total of 3 objectives.  The French maintained control of their town but withdrew under the cover of night.  The battle has ended.

General Saint Yorre will have to lug these 2 x defeats around with him for the rest of the game!

General Badoit still holds the town at game's end

One of my favorite pictures of the game!  The Austrian Cavalry thundering over the hill!

Well with bigger units you need more tablespace.  This battle was a bit crowded which was fine for the limited amount of units and teh "set piece attack" scenario but I'd like to give the rules a run-out with the whole 6 x 4 table instead of just 3 feet of the width and introduce more units as well.  100 points was good for a practice game, but I'd like for the brigades to be a bit bigger than 2 or 3 units.

This solo game was great fun and I really like the Valour & Fortitude rules which are perfectly nuanced and simple enough for my tastes while still giving an excellent Napoleonic game.  I really like the look of the "big base" units too.  I will need to create some "defeat" markers, and some markers to show wavering brigades.  I was thinking about making casualty markers for my 10mm Napoleonics.

It's certainly been awhile since I've posted and I'm frankly not sure how much more posting I'll be doing, but it was a lazy Sunday and I had a blast so I figured I would write up a quick account of today's game 😁.  

Day of Days (Brecourt Manor) with CROSSFIRE

 I've been keen to get some WWII action on the table and what better way to celebrate a belated 80th anniversary of D-Day than with a game of Crossfire featuring my 15mm US Paratroopers and newly re-based Germans.

I used the scenario from the "Fireball Forward" rules which, as it turns out, needed a little bit of tweaking before making itself into a Crossfire scenario.  

The famously shaped hedgerow containing the German HMG position is upper-left.  Some of you may remember the trenchline from the Ulianovo scenario.  I used it and added some modifications to support the Brecourt Manor assault.

German guns firing on Utah Beach!  Each German gun represents its own "position" that is outside of the trench-line and susceptible to reactive fire.

Battery defense platoon!  Georgians?  Regulars?  Fallschirmjaegers?  Nothing fancy in this game.  I just made them regulars.

The Americans are rated as "Veteran" in Crossfire, which makes them about as good as you can get.  

The machine gun platoon sets up along the hedgerow!

The action begins immediately against the Battery Defense Platoon in the "V Shaped Hedgerow" and the Screaming Eagles of Easy Company as the American .30 cals open up and start suppressing everybody!

German suppressed HMGs!  The squad in the foreground is still unsuppressed - all of the firing at this point is coming from the hedgerow in the upper right of the picture.

While the HMGs are suppressed, LT Compton and LT Winters move their men up to the hedgerow, preparing to assault.

The paratroopers make their way over or through the hedges and into the trench!

And the rest of Easy Company follows their lead.  So far, so good.  Solid base of fire element and all of the maneuver elements are in play!

The German defense platoon has an HMG in the trenchline along with 2 other sections.  The firing has them alerted, but their commander holds them back, fearing more Americans will come from a different direction.

V-Shaped Hedgerow to the left, bristling with firepower.

With the HMGs in the "V Shaped Hedgerow" suppressed, Winters decides it's time to assault the first gun position.  Winters is my Company Command stand in this battle, and so by the Crossfire rules he is authorized to initiate close combat.  I gave both him and LT Compton "+2" modifiers wich is the best you can get as a leader in Crossfire.

Winters and his accompanying rifle squad dash into the gun position, only to be react-fired by remaining un-suppressed squad in the "V-Shaped Hedgerow".  Winters is suppressed and his rifle squad is pinned at the gun emplacement for Gun #1!  The initiative switches to the Germans, who promptly and very successfully rally both of their HMGs, one of which has a bee-line to the first gun position now occupied by Winters and his rifle squad.  Winters is already suppressed and of course the HMG kills him and then trains its fire on the rifle squad, eventually eliminating it as well.  

Winters is killed in action!  Command goes to LT Compton now.  Can he take out the gun position?

Compton and his 2 x rifle squads hold their position in the trenchline while the American MMGs try to suppress the German HMGs in the V Shaped hedgerow.  The American shooting is good and it actually suppresses both of the German MGs... again!  What is with my dice rolling today!!

Compton's assault goes in against Gun #1.  Remember that German rifle squad in the V-Shaped Hedgerow, the ones who were previously unsuppressed who suppressed Winters and his Rifle Squad?  They now open fire on Compton and his men and score the exact same score as they did against LT Winters - COmpton is suppressed and one of his Rifle Squads is pinned in place as they go in to assault Gun #1.  Initiative switches to the Germans again.  They successfully rally both HMGs again, which both successfully open fire on Compton's men - with disastrous results.

I decided to tweak the scenario a bit at this point.  Units have way more staying power in "Fireball Forward" than they do in "Crossfire".  Perhaps 3 HMGs for the Germans was a bit too much?  I remove one HMG but nothing else.  Re-running the scenario 

This cursed squad made the Americans miserable in both games!  Iron Crosses all around for these Landsers.

LT Compton is also killed on his way to assault Gun #1 in Game 1.

Game 2 sees a shuffling around a bit and a tighter American deployment so they can form more "Firegroups".  The MMGs work over the German HMG and eventually knock it out with excellent shooting and incredibly the German squad in the V-Shaped Hedge goes "NO FIRE" meaning they attempted a reaction fire and missed completely.  The Americans have the run of the field as the remaining Battery Defense Platoon cannot shoot through any gun positions and so have the wait until the Americans close with them.

The Americans knock out the Gun in close combat.  and I should hope so because by Crossfire standards, the gun crew gets a -3 to their roll (-2 for Crew and -1 for "Green).

Compton leap-frogs over Winters and takes out Gun #2.  The German squad is still "NO FIRE" and I'm thinking the good guys are going to win this thing.

Approaching Gun #3 Winters' men are pinned by the German HMG.  A couple rounds of inconclusive shooting later, and the German HMG goes "NO FIRE" - Winters and his squad assault it immediately and destroy it.

Winters rallies his squad at Gun 3 and prepares to assault the German HMG while Compton and his men will assault Gun 3.

The White Bead is a NO FIRE marker as I was too lazy to fish out my actual NO FIRE Markers...

The Screaming Eagles promptly dispatch the HMG crew in the trenchline while Compton eliminates Gun #3.

As soon as the US PAratroopers lose the initiative, this white bead comes off of the German squad in the V Shaped Hedgerow and they're back in the war.

and they immediately start shooting up Winters and his men, suppressing the rifle squad.

With a huge advantage in quality and numbers, the Americans still manage to lose this close combat by rolling a 1.  Guess what that means?  Yes - Winters is killed again!  In Crossfire, when a side loses close combat, all participating squads in the close combat are eliminated.

Once again, LT Compton is in command of Easy Company.  He goes on to suppress the Squad in the V Shaped Hedgerow, and eliminates the remaining German squad in close combat.  The destruction of Gun #4 is a foregone conclusion and I call the game.

LESSONS LEARNED

Like so many other battles before it, I think the lessons learned here probably have more to do with coming up with a scenario than any tactical lessons learned.  Everyone knows how much I love Crossfire as a game, but it is very unforgiving.  I think the Germans could have kept their other HMG if I would have given the American paratroopers smoke but I wanted to go with what was in the scenario in Fireball Forward.  

Anyways, reducing it to a single HMG in the V Shaped Hedgerow was a good move as it allowed the American attack to develop (and for me to reacquaint myself with the rules again).  I also forgot LT Spiers' reinforcing rifle squad as well in both games, which may have turned the tide here with the introduction of another Veteran-rated American squad and another +2 leader.

One thing I'll say, though, is that I think small games of Crossfire with a handful of platoons on the table is definitely the way to go and this approach supports solo games very well.  6 squads per side and an HMG or 2 still can give a heck of a tactical challenge.  I think I am going to take a crack at re-writing this scenario for Crossfire and possibly putting in a few more bells and whistles for both sides.

Anyways, it was great returning to battling in NW Europe in 1944 and I have not played any good Normandy battles in awhile.  I think I'll peruse the Fireball Forward rules for additional scenarios to play with my US Paratroopers.  Stay tuned for more battles with the US (and British) Airborne, and Crossfire.

CURRAHEE!