Villiage Sweep PBIish. FFL 1952

 Busy summer.  Not much gaming but lots of travel.  Even a stay at the Italian Air Force club in Rome-- The Casa Avatorie.  Most of my gaming time has been spent with History Maker Baseball and my 42 greatest team tournament.  But......

I have continued to tinker with my ideal ruleset for company combat. [ If you scroll back a couple of posts I talked about it.]  I need to stop talking with Jack as after I do I try new things.  I am still set with PBI as my base tactical engine with a couple modifications.  But the activation is too predictable for me and I can't really differentiate stars from duds. [ To be fair PBI does make some differentiation but still not enough for me. ]  I was reflecting that that is the biggest difference from small level to larger level command.  The need to rely on other leaders to accomplish your vision [ or mission if you will].  Thus you need to know their strengths and weaknesses and set them up for success.  This is what successful leaders do and it is hard; I just don't see it reflected in games.  

After a couple of false starts I came back to my PBI with a 12 card Piquet deck.  Neither side ever gets a run of more than 3 cards and that is only on a "6".  There is plenty of tension for me the solo gamer. 

So to run a game I went back to my FFL in Vietnam.  Their last battle I posted in April.  I will wait while you read about it... good you are caught up! I rolled up a scenario from Grunt's Forward and got Village Sweep.   So lets continue our story...

Lt Carville sat down gingerly at his desk.  He had only been back at work for 4 days in his new job as company commander.  Rumors swirled that higher ups had approved the Croix de Guerre for his actions at the enemy battalion HQ but he had dismissed those which only added fuel to them.  " I hear it has been quiet while I was away.  Rene [Dupont], thanks for not selling off all my stuff while I was gone.  Well it is quiet no more.  Intel feels the enemy is moving arms, ammo and medical supplies into the village of Duc Bo II.  That is the one with the nice shrine.  

 

The shrine at Duc Bo

Here is the village

Duc Bo II
.There are two sites near the shrine and two sites at the other end.  Dupont, you will come in from the left hand road and take the near site as well as the building at the top right corner.  Germain, you will come in from the bottom of this picture and search the grounds of the shrine as well as the building bottom right.  Don't enter the shrine or I will have to answer for it.  Fontaine, you will come in from the top right with two crabs and act as a blocking force in case of escaping VM.  Surprise is key so they don't move any supplies. Questions?

The players [ more background given in April post]

CO Lt Carville brilliant leader

1st Platoon Adj Fontaine avg leader   Took over from Carville when he was injured. Experienced soldier but first time leading platoon in action.  Hence Carville gave him the easiest job. Has 1 brilliant SL, Sgt Loc of 3rd squad. 

2nd Platoon  Lt Germaine   Avg Leader     Avg platoon which for the FFL is very good.  3rd squad is weak and not meshing with Sgt Hocher for some reason.  Of his two objectives Germaine feels the shrine will be the tougher nut so he assigns Hocher to the house bottom corner right and hopes he can do it.  He plans to keep an eye on 3rd squad visually since there are no radios at the platoon level in 1952. 

3rd platoon  Lt Dupont  Avg Leader  Avg platoon except for 3rd squad with englishman Sgt Adames who is a good leader with a veteran squad.  Dupont plans to take one squad forward to the close objective, one squad into the jungle to provide covering fire and send Adames wide left to race to the far building.  

Forces for mission

Squads were LMG team with 12 rifles.  So I represent with 1st squad having 4 bases and the other squads having 3 secondary to disease. I forgot the company mortar!

Village sweep for a company game differs from VS for the platoon game.  All enemy forces start on the board but only 2 are active.   The rest are unready.  When the shooting start on the 5th sapper card the VM can remove 1 search location as they have hidden it elsewhere.  They remove an additional location with the draw of each additional sapper card.  To win the french must search 3 locations and find something.  

   

 Lt Dupont and 3rd platoon enters the village.  Sgt Adames and the veteran squad on the left. 

 First platoon and Adj Fontaine enters blocking positions.  Unfortunately, a sniper opens up from a rice paddy far right.  3rd squad takes casualties. 

I forgot to take a picture of 2nd platoon entering but Lt Germaine questions a peasant about caches and enemy.  He learns nothing. 

 

Dispositions after the first turn.  Enemy forces rolled up per Grunts Forward.  Black markers show locations to search.  Sgt Hocher and his less than good squad identified by the yellow marker bottom right.  Each hex 40 yards. 

2nd squad 2nd plt advances towards the shrine when they take fire from the grounds of the shrine.  They duck into a nearby hut.  Lt Germaine brings up 1st squad and orders then to support 2nd squad.  He looks over at Sgt Hocher...

 

and sees 3rd squad advancing towards the house where they are also taking fire.   No casualties in the platoon; So far so good.  

 1st squad/3rd plt which is trying to ignore the shrine and lay down covering fire for the advance into the village can't because they begin to take accurate fire from the other side of the shrine which promptly pins them down.  Unbeknownst to them, they have found the platoon leader for this half of the board.

The rest of 3rd platoon boldy charges into the town and a firefight erupts.  

 

Meanwhile 1st platoon begins to take HMG fire from the building in the middle of this picture.  The whole platoon minus 3rd squad fires into the building and silences the gun.  Sgt Loc moves into the paddy to silence the sniper but loses 2 more men in doing so.  3rd squad is essentially ineffective now. 

 Situation at the end of turn 2.  Dupont has made good progress on the left.  Germaine is engaging on the bottom.  First sapper card drawn.

With the HMG destroyed the building is open to be searched.  Too bad 1st platoon's orders are to hold as a blocking position. 

 

1st sq/3rd platoon has retreated from the jungle near the shrine.  Lt Carville rallies them.  He then orders the tank to mg the hedges.

 

With the hedges quiet he sends 1st squad up towards the houses.

Lt Dupont enters close combat with 2nd sq/3rd plt. around the souvenir shops. They win without serious casualties!

2nd platoon makes no headway against stiff VM opposition.  Sgt Hocher is now pinned down and taking casualties.  Germain needs to be in two places at once as both attacks are failing.  He decides to stay at the shrine.  

 
This is actually turn 5.  I don't know what happen to the intervening pictures.  Platoon 1 in the upper right corner is staying put.  Platoon at the bottom is struggling.  Sgt Hocher is taking a beating bottom right.  The rest of 2nd platoon is still trying to force an entry into the shrine grounds.  3rd platoon has reached their first target building through close combat [ center left] and have just searched it and found hidden rifles!  Sgt Adames is sprinting for his target house [upper center with blue marker] which is still 80 yards away.  He was held up gallantly by some VM. The next sapper card will allow the VM to declare that marker moved.   

So I start turn 6 nervously and the first card I turn over is... 

 

This card allows me to move either of my brilliant NCOs [ Sgt Adames or Sgt Loc] and their squads!  So as Sgt Adames enters the building the porters scatter!

    

Unfortunately when the sapper card does come up this turn the marker in the shrine grounds is removed.

 

With that the VM leave the shrine grounds.  As the return fire slackens, 2nd platoon rushes the grounds only to find moved earth and blood trails.  

As you might have guessed by now Sgt Hocher makes no progress towards his target and takes three casualties.  So after this occurs...

 the following is noted...

 Not a good day for Lt Germain and 2nd platoon.  

 When Sgt Adames searches the house they find nothing.  Did the porters beat them to it or was there nothing to find?

Great battle that went down to the wire!  I declared it a draw as the FFL searched 2 locations and did find some arms.  Post battle several things occur.  3rd Platoon gets well deserved praise and Lt Dupont makes his leadership role becoming a good leader!  Lt Carville, after discussing the situation with Lt Germaine, decides that Sgt Hocher and 3rd squad is a total mess.  Hocher is quietly transferred to support company and Cpl Sturford is brought in to take his place.  Sturford is an orphaned tough kid from Norway who has shown remarkable leadership.  He will start out as an avg leader.  The squad will still be poor however.  Lastly, Adj Fontaine develops complications from malaria affecting his liver and he is shipped out to Hanoi.  While the company awaits either an officer or SrNCO Sgt Loc will take over 1st platoon.  

Great stuff!   I still really like my mix of PBI and Piquet.  It played much faster this time.  Each turn was about 10+ minutes and the game was 8 turns.  

Enjoy!

 

Joe  

 

 

 

     

Boom and Zoom with the Blue Tails

 Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  I haven't been able to transfer photos off my phone.  Boring blog without photos.

I have been playing primarily SAGA and Boom and Zoom.  Saga age of Chivalry has been a lot of fun.  Am trying to figure out how to incorporate the Ottoman's into it.  They can fight the Venetians and the Holy Roman Empire. 

With Boom and Zoom I think the basic rules are done.  All that is left are the bomber rules and bomber scenario.  I set up a playtest of B&Z at Waterloo games 28 July because I knew it would push me to finish the rules.  Originally I thought I would do a bomber scenario there to test those rules.  Here is the scenario with my Blue tails from Squadron Forward inserted to add some flavor.

Maj Franklin spoke to the pilots gathered, " The Colonel is flying with you men today. I trust you will show him how we do things.  Protect those bombers."

Element 1

Col MacDonough   West pointer    2 kills     Veteran

               1Lt Turlock                      1 Kill      Average       liked by MacD

Element 2

Capt Pudge Storch                          3 kills        Veteran

               2Lt McKennon                                Average         Mercurical

Element 3

2Lt Thornel                                      1 Kill       Veteran

                2Lt  Gray                                           Average

 The meet up goes well.  10 minutes later "bandits" are called out.  The Jerrys get the drop on the Blue tails. 

Blue Tails upper right.  Bomber stream in the middle.  4 ME- 109Gs lower right and 3 FW 190A8s lower left.

The ME 109s go after the mustangs while the FW 190s go after the B-17s.  Up at high altitude the P-51s have a definite advantage but the ME 109s don't need to win, just tie up the american fighters. 

 

A furball quickly develops between four elements of fighters.  Both Col MacD and Pudge gain the edge over their foes but can't damage them.  [ in B&Z most aircraft move in pairs and fight more effectively that way.}

The FW 190s, unmolested, attack the bomber stream and actually shoot down a bomber.  This is helped because these are 30mm cannon armed FWs. [ The FW 190A8/R2 if you are keeping score at home.]

 Thornel, free from the furball, dives on an offending FW and knocks it out of the sky!  He has enough power to climb back up afterwards.  A true Boom and Zoom!

 The other two FW 190s make another pass at the bombers sustaining some damage in the process.  

Meanwhile, 2Lt McKennon, ever mercurial, "loses" Pudges' tail so dives down on a FW 190.  He damages the wing. 

 Pudge, trying to line up his 4th kill, is rudely interrupted by the german's wingman who drives him off his victim's tail.  Pudge looks around and realizes his own tail is uncovered.  "Where the hell is McKennon?"

 

 The bombers drone on and the 2 FW 190s continue to attack from the front as it is the safest.  Both FW190s have been damaged by P51 boom and zoom attacks but continue their primary mission.  

 Col MacD has had his hands full in the dogfight.  Unbeknownst to him, he is fighting a german ace.  Turlock has cleared his tail once but a second time the german lines up and this time smoke starts to pour from MacDs engine.  

 Turlock tries to clear MacDs tail but fails.  Col MacD dives away to escape.  Fortunately the mustang is great in a dive. 

4 minutes into the battle.  [ Each turn is about a minute and bomber scenarios last 4 turns.]  Col MacD is right, leaving the battle with a damaged engine.  McKennon has rejoined Pudge center over the bombers center.  2 ME 109s have snuck up on Thornel and have just damaged his plane lower right. The 2 remaining FW 190s have left secondary to damage.  The ace Me 109 is upper left.  

The Germans call it a day.  With the FW 190s gone they have traded 1 FW 190 for 1 B-17; a good day. The ace finds himself alone with his wingman so ...   

decides to make a pass at the bombers on his way home.  For the Reich!!!!!!!

 

and is rewarded when smoke starts to stream from engine #1 of the big bomber!   

 

Great battle.   Lots of planes on the board.  I ran out of stands.  The wingman rules are done.   The rest of the rules worked very well and I am closing in on the sweat spot for damage regarding bombers.  I want a system where I am not keeping track of a bunch of hits but frankly, it is very hard to bring down a B-17. How to show that in a system?  

Regarding the Blue Tails, three more stories need to play out.  First, Col MacD set a course for home with a damaged engine.  He makes it to England.  Now he has to land in front of the whole base.  There is a reason he is a Colonel and the wing commander, he nails the landing!   

Second, Thornel actually had a fuel tank puncture that he didn't know about.  Over the English Channel he runs out of gas and has to bail out.  His chute is good and his wingman radios his location to air sea rescue.  The water was rough however and he was not found.  His body washed up 3 days later, RIP.  His final tally was 2 kills.

Third, Pudge is quite upset with McKennon for running out on him during the battle.  He brings it to Maj Franklin and McKennon is put on notice.  They don't mention it to Col MacD but once more and they will ask that he be moved out of the squadron.  

So the squadrons cool does not change.  Fr Priddle is introduced as the base chaplain. Pudge talks to him as he comes to grip with his anger over McKennon.  Priddle blesses his St Christopher medal so now Pudge gets 1 re roll ever mission.  

So great game and a great story with my squadron.  

Enjoy

 

Joe  

    

Company Attack; Indochina 1951

 So after my successful experiment with PBI combat with a Piquetesque sequence deck I decided to roll up a FFL company and try out a company attack to see how everything worked.  I kept the 1st platoon from the ambush from the previous post and rolled up the rest of the company per Platoon Forward.  

We have:

Capt Doucet the CO.  Obnoxiously brilliant.   Comes from wealth.  

SNCO Adj Fontaine   Average ldr.  Belgian businessman  who embezzled money.  

1st Platoon    Lt Carville   Also Brilliant.    Haughty so not popular at base but respected for his leadership during a battle.   Joined the army then legion to tick off his liberal parents.

1st Sq  Sgt Anderson  US

2nd Sq Sgt Dietz   Ger

3rd sq Sgt Loc  Viet   good leader

2nd Platoon  Lt Germain    Avg leader

3rd sq Sgt Hocher   German who father's was in the legion.  Avg leader

3rd Platoon  Lt Dupont.  Avg Leader

3rd sq  Sgt Adames English orphan avg leader but squad is veteran. 

Rather than roll up a mission I chose "Hammer Dawn" from Grunts Forward.  It is a surprise attack on a VM compound.  

Capt Doucet briefed his platoon leaders, "Intelligence thinks they have finally found something. A HQ is based in this small hamlet here. 

                                                      Small Hamlet

The three blue markers are where intel thinks the HQ comms/paperwork is located.  Tomorrow at dawn we are going to move in and capture as much as we can to disrupt these b*s*t*rds.  Speed is important.

We have got two medium tanks and one light tank as well.  Dupont, wake up!  You will take your platoon down the road from the north and search the two northern sites.  Don't stop!

Germain, you will come up from the south and drive into the village and search it.  Don't stop!  Carville, you will be in reserve since you had a brush up on the road several days ago.  You will be with me southwest with the mortars to provide support.  

Questions?  Don't stop!
 

French forces

 Battlefield with the enemy markers laid down per GF.  Even for company actions each represents a potential squad/ heavy weapon.  

From the north.  Lt Dupont starts to move.  1st squad up front.  [4 stand squad secondary to size of legion squads. see discussion previous post.]  We roll for opfor...

 Not good!

And a Chinese bazooka up the road!

 

1st squad quickly becomes pinned down.  Meanwhile down south with Lt Germain...

no infantry but a recoiless rifle in the jungle which misses!      Now we can start our sequence deck.

 

Your kidding!    First roll is tied even.  That means unexpected event.  This could be bad...

                                                                               It is!  

Now all that flat area down southwest that didn't have any VM?  Suddenly a hidden bunker opens up on Lt Germain.   Both attacks stalling first turn.

Lt Dupont takes stock of the situation and gets going.  He orders 2nd squad to the right to flank the VM.  He orders Sgt Adames to go down the left side of the road to clear it and get to the village and report back.  Adames will be unsupported but he needs legionaries in the village and 3rd squad is his best. 

2nd squad quickly takes the VM position with no casualties!  Meanwhile down south...

Lt Germain is pinned down.  The VM have moved a squad into the jungle to further flank the column.  Sgt Hocher moves the lead squad forward into the rice paddies.  He leaves the MMG to fire at the bunker.  The tank is slow to respond.  Capt Doucet may be obnoxious but doesn't want to see a rout.  He moves to the back of the column and orders 1st squad into the jungle to clear it.  

1st squad is ejected with heavy casualties.  Lt Germain rallies and remembers "Dont stop".  He has the tank suppress the bunker and moves forward to the patties.  

Up north 3rd platoon is rolling.  Sgt Adames has cleared his side of the road.  2nd squad is ready to search the first area.  Capt. Doucet isn't aware as Dupont doesn't have a radio.  

As second squad starts to search they disturb a hornets nest! [ 2 squads of VM plus an officer.]

Since Sgt Hocher can see the village from the rice paddies I roll up the other two sites.  The larger building on the north end has a squad plus HMG.  The smaller building contains a Battalion HQ.  

 

A closer look at HQ.  Note the 3 porters on the left.  Per the scenario guidelines the french now have 3 turns to capture this site before all the comms/documents/cadre  have been evacuated. 

   Now Capt Doucet has a dilemma.  Lt Dupont has sent word that the HQ is not in the jungle.  He can extricate 1 maybe 2 squads to move on the village.  Lt Germain has two squads across from the village but they are beat up.  They will have to cross open ground.  He does have a sherman but the RCL is still around.  He can fire smoke but the VM will continue to run.   Time to bring in Lt Carville!

He orders Lt Carville to go through the jungle south and enter the village.

1st platoon on the move!

 From the north 1st and 3rd squad try to enter the village.  3rd squad is pinned down by a sniper.  [ The main building has been demolished by the southern sherman.]

At the end of the turn the first porter leaves.   1st Platoon is moving through the jungle. [ a change to PBI each hex costs 2 to enter for white star forces] 2nd platoon is pinned down in the rice patties.  Mortars can't seem to find the range of the HMG.

 

 As time ticks by 3rd platoon makes inroads into the village.  3rd squad still pinned down by a sniper.  Lt Dupont comes over to help. 

The VM reposition the RCL as the sherman refuses to come up into view.  1st platoon battles into the high grass near the village.  Lt Germain manages to advance with 1 squad across the open ground.  Sgt Hocher can't get his men up against the HMG.  

The second porter manages to leave the HQ...

At the north end of town 1st platoon still fighting their way into the village.

At the south end Lt Carville moves adjacent to the HQ on his own card.  The french movement phase is still in the deck as are both sides fire phase.  But the next card up is french melee...   It's now or never!

Lt Carville sees the HQ and equipment being loaded on bikes.  He orders Sgt Dietz' squad to charge! 

[ it is an even match- 1 french squad vrs 1 VM squad plus an officer each.] 

The french take fire as they enter the village and 3 french go down!  [ PBI has very good "final fire" rules for assaults.  You really want the enemy pinned before you charge.  We didn't have time here.  Two bases were wiped out but I used my Tactical initiative card to restore one base.  Carville/Dietz were able to use cover effectively entering the village.  Now the battle swirls around as the french are outnumbered.  It ended up 16 dice vrs 12 dice for the VM.  Close combat is very deadly in PBI.  

As Sgt Anderson huffs into the village to help Lt Carville all the shooting dies down...

The dead, dying and wounded lay all over the HQ complex.  Lt Carville is surrounded by VM bodies but is alive and tells Anderson to report to Capt Doucet that the HQ complex is secure.  

Wow!  What an ending to the battle.  An exciting win for my french.

Obviously Lt Carville lived but Sgt Dietz wasn't so fortunate.  2 VM officers were present still but only one was captured.  

Post battle a great deal happened per PF/GF.  First, thanks to Brian Weathersby, medals were added to our campaign system through Grunts Forward.  If anyone deserved a medal it would be Lt Carville.  Capt Doucet put him in for a Croix de Guerre with a silver palm.   He was awarded the medal but it was downgraded to a bronze palm.  Still quite an honor.  

Second, Capt Doucet is pulled up to battalion.  Lt Carville is put in charge of the company after he recovers.  Adjutant Fontaine is placed in charge of 1st platoon.  

Third, Sgt Hocher's squad drops to poor.  [ He is the one that couldn't get them moving off the patty in the face of the HMG.]  I don't think the legion would promote someone who would be a poor combat leader but for some reason the men aren't responding to him.  Will be something Germain will need to keep an eye on.

Fourth, Sgt Adames makes his leadership roll and become a great leader. [ One who took his veteran squad and cleared the road north to the village for Lt Dupont.]  

This battle and my mixed system was a lot of fun.  It did take a lot longer to play with a company on the board.  There were really two games going on; one north and one south but I was having so much fun I didn't notice the time.  Each turn took close to 30 minutes and there were 5 turns in the game. 

For those of you that want to try this the system generated:

2 platoons + 1 squad of VM with 2 average officers.

1 RCL, 2 Bazookas, 1 Lt Mortar, 1 HMG

1 bunker with LMG

 Enjoy

 

Joe