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.
Here is the village
.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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
