V for Victory: Tweaking the Rules

 I'll start by saying that I've enjoyed playing V for Victory so far and I think Studio Tomahawk have once again produced an excellent set of rules. The card activation using a set hand of cards each turn works much better for me than the random drawing of cards used in Muskets & Tomahawks. That being said of course as a wargamer I do like to make a tweak to the rules to either make them better fit the theatre being played or to correct some perceived weakness or oversight. 

So having now played a few games and being an 'expert' on the rules I've introduced a few changes and additions to the game.

The first one we tried last week that I liked the outcome of was to the indirect rules. This allows you to draw Line of Sight for your mortars and other indirect weapons not only from the weapon but also from your overall commander. The change we made is to instead allow you to draw the LoS from the 2nd team of your command section. I've modelled up both 2nd teams with a radio operator and it felt natural that these should be the chaps calling in the fire. It also gives this 2nd team a bit more of a role in the game other than just eating bullets for the commander.

As V for Victory is written for later war engagements ('44-'45) it lacks some of the equipment and vehicles used in the desert war which we've chose to model. So until an official supplement comes out I've had to write up some stats for the missing options.

First up we have anti-tank rifles which where widely employed in the early war by all sides. In rules the British and Germans each have a weapon that is better than the norm and for the British this was the PIAT. As this wasn't used in the desert I've given them a slightly better anti-tank rifle by taking note of the fact that the Boys had a magazine that allowed it (presumably) a higher rate of fire than the breech loading Pz. 39 used by Germany.

Weapon	Range	Firepower	AT	Close Combat	Special Rules
Boys A/T Rifle	2L	1d8	E	1d6	Short range firepower, Rapid fire, Penetration
A/T Rifle	2L	1d8	E	1d6	Short range firepower, Penetration

We also have models for a couple of vehicles that aren't in the rules which I've taken a stab at producing stats and costs for. The IPC is a pretty standard APC profile but the M3 Grant may need some further adjustments as it gets some play time in.

Vehicle	Armour	Primary Weapon	Secondary Weapon	Cost	Special Rules
Indian Pattern Carrier	1	A/T Rifle-H	LMG-For P +1 Star	1	Open-topped, Transport (5)
M3 Grant	3	ATG (Light)-T, Co-axial MMG-T	ATG (Medium)-H	7

When we played our first game with a couple of light tanks we noticed that the Sdkfz 222 with it's auto-cannon (Pen. E) was much more of a killer against Armour 1 targets than a Light Anti-tank Gun (Pen. D) due to it's shooting twice. 

One tweak I want to trial for that is to make Rapid Fire weapons take a Burn on the penetration table when rolling to destroy. Our combat example had two Armour 1 targets facing off and the chances of killing become a bit more reasonable when rolling 2D6 rather than 2D8.

Chance to destroy against armour 1 with 1 or 2 hits.

1d6 - 16%
2d6 - 30%
1d8 - 37%
2d8 - 60%

Lastly we have some terrain rule additions mainly to combat the lack of hedges and walls that we find in standard desert operations. A big flat area of open terrain probably isn't going to make for an interesting game so I've added a few terrain types that I had the models for.

Hull Down: Vehicles may make a move action to end up behind the crest of a sand dune / hill. This grants them Light Cover but means they can only fire weapons with the Turret (-T) property. Infantry can take cover along the crest of a sand dune and this counts as Light Cover.

Barbed Wire Entanglements: Impassable to wheeled & ½ tracked vehicles. Infantry can only Advance (not Run) across them and suffer 1 stress per success on 3D6. They provide no cover benefits for blocking LOS or shooting.

Sand Dune: All vehicles move 2R if their activation includes crossing a sand dune. In addition a wheeled vehicle crossing a sand dune that wishes to use a ruler longer than M must roll a D6, on a failure it instead becomes bogged down and stops as soon as its wheels cross the edge of the dune. It cannot move again during the current turn.

Sand Drift: A small drift of sand that's enough to provide light cover for infantry only, count as linear terrain.

Wadi: All vehicles and units with the Cumbersome or Carriage keywords count the steep edge of a wadi as impassable. Other units can only Advance across the edge, not Run. Units manning the edge of a wadi count as being in heavy cover for fire that crosses that edge first (ie. they do not count cover from being shot from behind).

The rules also mention briefly that units on higher terrain can fire over units on lower terrain without specifying what that is so I've of course had to codify that somewhat.

Terrain                                                                  Height

Low area eg. rocks or bushes                                   1               
Low walls, sandbags or other linear obstacles         1
Average person                                                         2
Vehicles, High walls, bocage etc                              3
Buildings (per floor), Sand dunes / hillocks             4
Woods / Forests / Hills                                              5

Units on objects higher than intervening terrain can see over that terrain and also be seen by those on the other side of the intervening terrain (following normal spotting rules).

Being on the first floor of a building counts as being at height 2 and the second floor as being at height 5.

If a unit wishes to fire over an intervening friendly unit at an enemy then the enemy unit must be at least M away from the intervening friendly unit's leader model.

And that's all we have so far, I have seen at least one picture of a game involving the authors set in the desert so I'm hopeful a supplement is on the way. But they are a small team and have SAGA to write for as well so it may take a while.

WW2: First Encounters

With the dust settling from the final confrontation in the Ill Tides campaign we've been kicking up dust in the north African desert instead with some learning games for V for Victory. We had played one game just after Christmas but this was a chance to play three in quick succession with Stu popping over on the Saturday between regular Friday games.

The pictures are from last nights game where I went lighter on the number of terrain pieces on the table and this led to more units being shot at without the benefit of cover, limiting heavy cover in particular  meant more casualties than we'd had in previous games. 

This game centred around capturing and holding two buildings with a lively recon skirmish also occurring on my right flank. The Commonwealth recon jeep comes with an extra LMG when compared to the DAK one so they had the firepower edge, fortunately my recon chaps had some cover and also some supporting fire from nearby units.

The main fight was over the buildings and both sides occupied one each early on but with the DAK forces getting a full section into theirs whilst the Sikh's only had a 1/2 section in residence. Both sides opted to prep the infantry assault with a couple of turns of mortar fire but the number of units in the building had a influence on how effective this was. When firing an indirect weapon at a building you roll to cause stress and then split this between the units in the building. So whilst my three units could spread the stress out the single unit in the other building had to take all the stress.

It also turns out that HE rounds fired at units close to your Commander model are also rather nasty as he's a single model he needs to save all the hits otherwise your Commander is dead, which is a big blow to your activation options.

We did notice something interesting around building assaults in that when a unit assaults a building then all the defending units get to fight (you can activate multiple attacking units to assault as well) and all the units are then marked as activated after the assault ends. So a good way to clear a building could be to sacrifice one unit to activate all the defenders and then combo-charge a couple more units in.

WW2 Airfield

Having had the last week off I've been able to crack on with the Sarissa Precision MDF kits I bought before I purchased the 3D printer. The kits go together easily enough apart from the two hangers which really require three or more hands to get properly into position. I had to make do with two hands and lots of glue and swearing. 

As I hope to get some 02 Hundred Hours games in as well I got a selection of buildings that wouldn't look out of place on an airfield and printed off a couple of Stuka's to act as targets. 

Along with some sandbag emplacements and random barrels and box's I should have enough for an interesting table setup.

I also printed up some parts to add onto the cardboard spool you get in the middle of every roll of printer filament. It was easy enough to knock together and certainly isn't a detailed or complicated build but does enough to give the impression of an oil or water tank.

Lastly I also painted up what is likely to be the last of the vehicles for the game with an armoured car being added to each sides roster. 

Being of a certain age I was of course a fan of 'Allo 'Allo! so it seems only natural to add a 'Little Tank' to the German forces, I hope Lt Gruber would be pleased with the paint job, at least he'd not been sent to the dreaded Eastern Front!

I've also added a Humber armoured car to the Commonwealth forces, apparently it was one of the most produced British armoured cars of the war so presumably would have been a reasonably common sight in many theatres. 

Both are now ready to zip about the battlefield and nip at the enemies exposed flanks.

 

Ill Tides: Ragnarök

Kings of War: 3000 points of Control
Armada: 300 point fleets

Arlantrix grimaced, this was it, she'd managed to entice the short-arses into a pitched battle and now all she had to do was emerge victorious. In months of skirmishing on land and at sea neither side had managed to gain the upper hand (or paw in the case of the Dwarves) but with their last victory on land her forces where on the ascendancy. Now she had complete victory within her grasp and was determined to take it. Triumph here would make her foremost among the Crones of the Conclave.

Her grand army was arrayed against the enemy who had been forced into deploying units of Human slaves only recently taken prisoner and off shore she could see her reinforcing fleet arriving with even more units. The short-arses also had a fleet but Arlantrix had ordered Zor'damos and her Heartseeker to make sure they did not interfere with the land battle. 

Over to her left Arlantrix could see the fleets getting closer, most of her fleet headed towards the stinking-smoking Dwarven ships on an intercept course whilst the troops transports headed straight for the beaches. The Dwarves seemed to have decided on a similar plan and a clash seemed inevitable. 

Looking back to her front Arlantrix could sense that Sycorax had hesitated at this most vital junction so giving the signal to advance she urged her forces onwards towards the enemy lines hoping to force them onto the back foot. 

At sea her ships had miss-timed their approach to the enemy and allowed them to concentrate fire on the end Butcher, Arlantrix could see smoke pouring from it's gun ports and starting to lick the ends of the sails. She'd been in enough naval battles by now to know that the ship had but moments to avert disaster. But with both fleets heavily engaged their respective transports made full sail towards the coast, only the Heartseeker looked to have the speed to try and stop a transport.

But Arlantrix did not have the time to watch the naval engagement unfold her attention was now focued entirely on the land battle as the first units started to engage. Her Phantoms floated forwards with deceptive speed and caught first one then another unit of foul Gargoyles at the halt, allowing her slower infantry to push onwards into striking range. The advance was not without it's casualties however as concentrated Dwarven fire evaporated a entire regiment of Corsairs holding the right flank.

Arlantrix heard and felt the explosion of the Butcher but did not have time to look and see it's fiery death (*I seem to have forgotten to take the Armada photos*) but she could well imagine the pieces of the former ship being thrown high into the air in a massive fireball.

She could make out the first of the reinforcements coming ashore just as the main battle lines started to clash. As she had hoped her army still had the initiative and all the fighting was taking place with the short-arses well and truly on the back foot. Even the earlier loss of the Corsairs had not stopped her armies advance as the mighty Gordrake had launched itself into the gap left by their deaths.

Looking to her left Arlantrix could see more and more units pouring ashore on both sides of the port, including Zor'damos who should have been onboard the Heartseeker but who instead had been on one of the transports. No wonder the fleet was performing so badly and hadn't even managed to stop one enemy ship. Arlantrix promised to make her pay if she emerged victorious. 

Thanks to her leadership the land battle was going much better than the one at sea, after the initial clash of lines her forces had slowly started to break down the Dwarven lines with gaps now appearing all along the battle front as the cowardly short-arses broke and ran or where totally annihilated. 

The gaps in the enemy lines started to grow larger and larger as her units doubled up on the enemy and totally broke their formations. At last Arlantrix could start to relax with victory seeming to be totally within her grasp. Most of the enemy units where by now broken with just a single winged halfbreed left to cause a serious threat, best not to be eaten at the very moment of her triumph.

From atop a hill Arlantrix paused to gaze out to sea and surveyed the remains of the fleet. The second butcher had gone the way of the first at some point and a smoking hull was all that was left of the fearsome fighting vessel. The Dwarves had certainly gained the upper hand at sea but not without a few losses and their flag-ship was beached in easy reach of her land forces.

On land the victory was complete with hardly any Dwarves left standing, Sycorax looked like he was about to be taken prisoner and the winged halfbreed still flitted about but otherwise victory was total. Nothing would now stop her from ravaging what was left of the human lands and then returning in total triumph to her home lands. The campaign had been a success and she would return back with many slaves and large quantities of valuable materials to continue the reconstruction of Ileureleith, one day it would rise again and all of Panithor would bow to the Twilight Kin, and hopefully Arlantrix.