Alex really enjoyed Crossfire so I thought he might want to try TIGERS AT MINSK (TaM) [
click]
TaM is one of my favorite WWII games and after reading one of Norm's (TaM's Author) posts this week regarding discussion on Board Game Geek [
click], I caught the bug to play them once again. I felt Alex would appreciate their subtlety and the types of decisions the player needs to make so I put on a game Saturday night. Naturally we played the introductory Infantry-only "Follow the Elefants" scenario which vexed me so much in the past!
The one thing I did want to try however, was playing them on a square grid, instead of my 4" hex mat. So I used all of my flocked pennies (my casualty markers for Iron Cross and Command and Colors Napoleonics) and marked out 6" squares with pennies. It's nice and un-obtrusive because the pennies match my flock perfectly on the table.
Okay if you've read my blog at all in the past year, you know the situation with the Elefants, so let's get straight to the action.
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| the pennies don't detract from the table at all IMHO. |
Pretty standard setup. Soviets set up in the buildings and orchards along their second row. The Germans start in the woods along their second row. Alex will play the Germans and I will play the Soviets. The Germans have 6 squads and 1 HMG and must exit 1 off of my edge. The Soviets have 2 squads and 2 x HMG and must stop the Germans. German Morale Breakpoint is 3 squads. Soviet BP is 2 squads.
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| Hauptmann Alex surveying the battlefield. |
For the first game, Alex decides to advance on a broad front and spreads out his squads accordingly. His HMG literally breaks down or runs out of ammo on turn 1 after pinning my HMG section. Of all the luck! Our first game, Alex tries out the various mechanics of the game like smoke, fire and movement, and close combat in the orchard. He runs out of time on game one, which is played in literally less than an hour.
We went on to play another 3 games (1 was over spectacularly fast - the game clock advanced 7 minutes in 2 turns!) but it's the last game that was the best.
Alex accepted some risk with "target rich" hexes and massed his units in what I will call "assault groups" of 2 x squads each. He placed his HMG in the center. He was able to keep pressure on the Soviets along the entire line while making the best use of smoke to advance against the Russian left! I abandoned that course of action games ago thinking it was too open to make it, preferring to slog my way through the orchard under fire.
Anyways our final game was an intense nail-biter which literally came down to the wire with 6 minutes remaining on the clock. It also featured more maneuver than I normally have in my TaM games (this was my first game against a human being which was great fun).
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| Alex's Assault Groups mass for the attack. |
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| At Alex's suggestion, I placed the HMG in the orchard which had a better LOS of the German start line and could offer any German team entering the orchard a blast of HMG fire in the face. |
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| Alex's shooting and massing of his assault groups pays off well this time. |
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| A violent firefight breaks out on the line as the Germans let loose. |
Alex achieves the pins he needs and throws smoke out to advance! His effort on the right begins!
More German shooting gets lucky and I reach my break point of 2 which means any new KIA forces another morale check. When it becomes clear Alex is going to flank the Soviet positions, I have to move! Luckily for me, one of my squads fails its Morale Check and withdraws from the house. They're postured along the back row and facing down the avenue of approach that Alex will have to take to win!
(also, the wheatfield was "variable LOS" like the scrub that it is supposed to be).
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| Note the squad in the center oriented to the left. They're heading there at-speed to fire on the advancing German assault group. |
Alex makes a diagonal move to protect the advancing infantry against being spotted! It's a good move. Now I have to roll to see them.
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| Soviet squad heading to contest the advancing Germans. |
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| The situation. |
we had one question at this point - can units shoot through friendly hexes (squares)? I thought no and we didn't allow it, but behind that Soviet squad to the right is an HMG section that can literally blast the advancing Germans once they reach the Soviet base line of squares.
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| Note the Soviet HMG in lower right in the orchard. I'll re-position him to cover the exits! |
Wanting to keep the pressure on, Alex advances on the left with another assault group! It's curtains for sure!
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| advancing up the German left. |
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| Germans keep the pressure on! |
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| My Soviet squad going from building to building attempts to shoot opportunity fire and BOLO's the shot! Ugh! Things are getting bad! And they're going to have to rot out there in the open until they remove that OF marker! |
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| Alex's assault group on the right making good progress. It's his "main effort" as denoted by the command marker in the top-center of the picture. |
The Germans get some AMAZING shooting and wipe out my Soviet squad in the open going from building to building. Since my morale breakpoint was already at "0", I have to test. Since the HMG is on a back row, he HAS to pass this roll. He fails the roll and the game is over. Alex was already at my baseline hex anyways and about to exit not one but TWO stands off the board! It was a very well played game by the Germans and Alex and I were able to play 4 games in 3.5 hours. That includes plenty of discussion about jeeps, charity events, and good (heck, GREAT) beer. What's not to love?
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| Moving the Soviet HMG to get grazing fire down the back row was a good call. But risky - if they fail a MC they exit and the Soviets lose the game! (this is exactly what happened) |
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| Final turn - Alex's assault group ready to exit the board and link up with the Elefants. |
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| Game ends at 11:44am. 6 minutes before the clock ran out. What a nail biter! |
Wow what a game! (series of games). The final game saw plenty of maneuver and action with dramatic reversals of fortune for both sides. Alex immediately grasped the importance of the decisions he was making and their effect on the overall plan. Tigers at Minsk has you thinking about fire and maneuver but also gambling with things like target rich areas, moving under fire, leaving cover, and smoke to conceal your movements. I'm hoping we will play more games in the near future.
I am wondering if you're reading this, Norm, how did you handle using squares for TaM? I know some of your earlier iterations of the rules were played using squares? We did not have too many problems with them and when LOS, however so briefly, cut across a square with terrain in it, we either diced for LOS or eliminated the possibility altogether.
Alex and I both also felt the One Hour Wargames scenarios would work nicely using these rules as well and that's something we will look into in the future.
A great set of games and lots of fun for a Saturday night. And we found the "official" beer of Sound Officers Call. Thanks Alex for bringing me a cold one!
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| The world knows no finer! |
Steve, I really enjoyed that and your game board looks magnificent.
ReplyDeleteAs for shooting through units (page 10, a one liner), I think I added this when the Caen module was done, anyway, friendly units block LOS EXCEPT to artillery spotters and anything that fires a shell- so I am think A/T gun and tank guns here.
My most recent tinkering with squares is - Those things that have to face a hex vertex, now have to face a Square SIDE. The front of the vehicle is Everything in front of it, so imagine a line running right across that front edge of the square and continue it in both directions until you meet the edge of the table, everything in front is in front. The rear is a mirror image of that and the flanks are obviously the flanks.
Things with a facing have a fire arc that is 45 degrees to each side out in front. Turret can fire in any direction. Fire will still go from centre to centre, so a line of fire can NEVER travel down / along one of the gridlines, it will always be somewhere within a square.
Note these are just some amending notes that I added to TaM at the start of the year. I originally (in the squares game) had a formula for flank shots that required two vehicles firing if the shot came in through the front perspective, it was something like, the first shot engages the front, the second shot can claim flank if it is so many squares away from the first shooter and the target (I can't remember exactly, would need to dig them out0. But this is a subject that might get my near future attention and the niceness of your board encourages me to do that. Cheers Norm.
Thanks for commenting so promptly, Norm. The game was very much fun and a visual treat on the table. I'm so glad the pennies worked out! This means I can play more games of TAM seeing as how I don't have to break out my hex mat. (also going to try Eagles at QB and TFON on the squared surface as well).
DeleteYes I found that part about firing through friendly-occupied hexes.
Thank you for the clarification re the flanks/front. I am wondering also about what "blocks" line of sight. The hexes have a very neat and convenient way of determining what is blocked and what is allowed. With squares there seems to be the possibility for LOS to exist in circumstances where the LOS ever-so-briefly passes through the corner of a square. The spirit of your rules seems to suggest that LOS should be blocked but I wanted to know your thoughts on this matter?
The PBI rules from Peter Pig, which use squares, do not allow LOS to exist for either touched-corners or when the los goes through a hex, even slightly. That was going to be my default in absence of anything written.
In any case, the rules were a HUGE hit. Much fun and excitement so expect to see more TaM games in the future.
Steve, I had not got that far in my most recent conversion notes, anyway I du out a hard copy of my old square rules and there are some interesting things. Basically for LOS. Run a straight edge from ANY part within a square to ANY part within the target square. If any other square crossed on that line contains blocking terrain, then LOS is blocked. The square is considered FILLED by the terrain, so the smallest crossing of such a square would block. Hedges are obvioulsy linear and don’t fill the hex. LOS NEVER travels down a grid line and may only cross a corner if the corner is NOT part of a square that contains blocking terrain .... except LOS can go over a corner point only if firer and target are on oposite sides of the smae corner (i.e. adjacent diagonally).
DeleteThe rules say most terrain features will block LOS - see terrain chart for exceptions ..... now I need to find the terrain chart !!! I am quite interested in all that, I may try and do something with these ‘square’ rules. Looking at them, the now heftier TaM Hex rules would convert over to these slightly lighter Square rules quite readily on the surface of it .... watch this space :-)
Oh and there is no facing! But there is a formula for flank fire, based on two firers as described in the above reply (firers are at least 3 suqares apart (i.e. 2 spaces) from each other AND all firers are within 4 squares of the target. I will have to sit down with that one and work out why I went down that road.
Thank you for your comments, Norm, and for checking on the square rules for me. It's funny, ive read so much of your work now that i pretty much guessed the LOS rules :)
DeleteIm looking forward to playing more TaM on the square board, especially with armor and infantry working together.
Also, im looking at using your Eagles at Quatre Bras rules for a Talavera historical refight soon. Re reading them now.
I will watch your blog with marked interest, sir!
Steven, this is exactly the type of BatRep I enjoy reading and pondering. Given a tactical puzzle, the scenario is replayed a number of times as strategies and tactics develop in attempts to solve the challenge.
ReplyDeleteYou mention that one of your squads got lucky and failed a MC at an opportune point and fell back out of the cover of the house. I wonder if a squad failing a MC would be more likely to remain in cover than to give pu that cover and run into the open? Also, where did you place the wire in the games and did its placement have any effect on the outcomes?
Great stuff, Steven!
Jonathan, these morale checks happen to every unit in a force each time a base is lost, once the force has hit its morale break point (usually around 50% casualties). Think of it as bugging out if you fail. The purpose is that it rewards the successful side by prising out a breaking defender from key positions or may stop a breaking attacker dead in its tracks and cause an attack to lose momentum.
DeleteJonathan, I did not use the wire this time around (and also because i havent modeled it yet!!). Im glad you liked the post! We had a blast gaming this battle.
DeleteSuperb stuff - and great looking game.
ReplyDeleteI must try these - I have the hexes set up for a Khe Sanh game with FoB, so I must get some TaM action in before I take them down again.
Cheers Darren. We were commenting last night that it would work well for Vietnam games.
DeleteOoooh...now there's a thing...
DeleteI've made some subtle hints to Norm to do an Arab Israeli version but there are still many theaters of WWII I'm sure he has to cover!
DeleteYeah, like early war.
DeleteAnd North Africa!
DeleteThis was a very enjoyable series of games - I doff my hat 'hat-> to Norm for writing [what I consider] the real successor to Squad Leader AND the real One-Hour Wargame WWII rules!
ReplyDelete;)
OK, I haven't read the rules yet, but...workin' on it.
I feel like it delivers the OHW approach by presenting the player with uncluttered and clear, distinct decisions. They also felt like reasonable and realistic decisions that gave the info a platoon leader would need without giving him too much info - as in wargamer info v. reality info. Thus one is able to decide between tactical choices and come up with a best course of action, alternative, etc. This is also shaped by the opposition, of course. Overall, very much like OHW and what I like about OHW.
Looking over the rules, and considering the level of play [platoon per player, perhaps a company] Steve and I immediately saw the possibility of using our SL scenarios for this game.
We discussed a lot, and offered each other advice and thoughts as we banged out game after game. Some were a true slugfest, some were over in a hot minute, and others required lots of careful planning and a bit of luck. In short, all the things that we like in a game. True, there isn't much emotional security [it is possible to get pretty crushed by someone's lucky streak] but most games are a bit like that. I like that this isn't a bell curve game - I think that's what short sharp skirmishes are more like. The bell curve is for farther up the command levels, say battalion and regiment.
So thanks to Steve for being the local games dealer, but this one is certainly the right price [thanks Norm...still you may want to put this up for sale at some point??].
Will be reading, and playing some of this soon as schedule opens up!
Until then, "Union Made"
;)
Cheers, Alex. A very good set of games. Lots of fun and tense. Norm's rules are all like that, and are very good. As you can tell, I'm a fan as I like the decisions you must make and the narrative that the rules produce on the table. It "feels" like a book you read about WWII or the Napoleonic Wars (speaking of his Eagles at QB rules).
DeleteI think getting quick, fun, and tense games on the table is what it's all about these days.
I'll gladly play Tigers at Minsk anytime. And speaking of OHW, I'm taking a hard look at the rest of the periods now.