V for Victory: British Bulldog

Actually the third scenario is called A Question of Balance, but it really should have been called Bulldog or Run Across. The aim is to get as many of you infantry across to the opposite table edge as possible (2 VP's per man) whilst stopping the enemy from doing the same, you also get VP's for units killed.

We went for 6 Stars of reinforcements for our base 2 sections with the Sikh's adding a MMG, Humber, and 2 Stars of infantry reinforcements to their roster. The DAK added a light AT gun, SDKFZ 222, recon Kubelwagon and 1 Star of infantry reinforcements. Both sides took a free truck with capacity 10 in order to boost their mobility.

As both sides had recon units we both pushed them forwards on the DAK's left flank but keeping out of LOS using the buildings on that side of the field.

Both sides then pushed forwards towards the buildings and the Sikh Humber committing itself to the fight early on. The 222 tried and failed to take out the Humber missing with both it shots, however the AT gun hit and scored a kill on it's first try so the Germans raced into an early VP lead.

The euphoria however was short lived as four brave Sikh's dashed out of cover armed only with rifles and grenades to tackle the 222. Somehow surviving a hail of bullets from a DAK LMG team they dispatched the 222 at close quarters and then took cover behind a nearby sand-bank.

Part of the Sikh command section had also mounted their truck and raced across the table outside the arc of the AT gun.

This proved to be the high point for the Sikh's as the Germans started to pile the pressure on in the village with stress mounting. The DAK recon team had also decamped from their building, into the Kubelwagon and raced across the table to the opposite edge.

The light ATG also scored a second hit and kill, taking out the truck and causing it's occupants to fling themselves out onto the desert floor. The Sikh's did gain some pay back as their MMG poured accurate fire into the gun's crew and cut them all down.

In the last turn it all went wrong for the Sikh's as in the village a lone DAK team stormed the opposite building killing 5 of the defenders and forcing them to flee. The remaining DAK where in turn attacked by a Sikh team from the wadi but one lone German managed to survive and fall back. The fleeing Sikh's where in turn cut down by fire from the recon team and the survivors fled into the desert. Further misery was heaped on the Commonwealth forces as the command section that had reached the table edge was itself cut down by accurate LMG fire.

So the DAK ran out clear winners, it had been fairly close throughout most of the game but a strong last turn allowed the Germans to run away with it in the end.

Under the Sea

Last year at a Deadzone event I purchased a few models with a view to using them in the wargames room which was just about coming to fruition. 

These Crooked Dice miniatures are part of range intended to be used with their own rules to recreate the sort of TV show people of my age watched back in the old days. 

I finally got the models out of their boxes and washed the Piranha ship (as it's resin) and got busy with the painting.

I did opt to glue the side fins on the 'wrong' way up so the ship would lie flat on it's stomach rather than being perched on it's fins. Other than that is was very easy to put together. The Atlanteans are metal so required only a light file and sticking into their slot bases.

I do need to work out a spot for them to live but for the moment they've joined the Carnevale fight that is going on under the stairs up to the loft.

V for Victory: Every Objective Counts

 As we continue learning the VfV rules we played the second scenario this week at 10 stars. This time we both picked out our own forces from the options available. The scenario see's 5 objectives placed on the table that need to be held with their VP value not revealed unless you hold the objective. VP's are also gained for destroying enemy units / vehicles.

In addition to the command section and 2 infantry sections which are the base of your force the Sikh's opted to add mortar and sniper teams along with an M3 Honey and a 6pdr (medium ATG) towed by a truck. 

The Germans opted to add an extra infantry section, MMG team, PAK 38 (medium ATG) with truck and a Panzer II. They also purchased 3 extra riflemen to add to across their three infantry sections.

The initial deployment had somewhat favoured the Sikh's as they massed their AT weapons against the Panzer II which immediately looked to take cover behind the oasis. It survived a reaction shot from the 6pdr and another shot from the rear from the Honey which charged forwards. The Honey also started to cause casualties with it's hull mounted MMG which it could fire at the infantry in the shrubbery.

To counter the bold advance of the Honey I moved my towed ATG to a position in which could engage it.

On the left flank both sets of infantry moved forwards to occupy their respective ridge lines. The decision of the Sikh's to bring along a mortar paid off here as they could hit multiple units with splash damage by targeting the central one.

The tank/anti-tank battle around the oasis was a stalemate for many rounds of fire as both sides failed to land any hits and it they did then failed to convert the hit into a kill.

Meanwhile the Sikh's continued to wear away at the DAK but couldn't wipe any units out.

Then on turn 3 a decisive moment at the PAK 38 hit for the first time (following a dice change) and immediately killed the Honey, giving the DAK 3 VP's.

Despite this the DAK forces where still very much under the cosh with stress and casualties mounting up. I did opt to retire the central infantry team to help recover it's morale and this took the obvious mortar target away from the action. 

On the last turn the DAK finally made a move for two objectives which both came up as 1 VP, giving me 5 VP's in total.

The 8th Army held two 2 VP objectives so came away with 4 VP's. So a narrow victory for the DAK was gained due to the destruction of the Honey.

The Kursk of the Desert

Well not quite on that scale but the best we could manage between us. As we are still in the learning phase for V for Victory I thought it would fun and useful to zero in on the vehicle rules and have a game with all our tanks out and add some troop transports in as well. This did mean that the Commonwealth had a slight advantage in points (not making excuses for my performance!) but it also meant that we would be playing the with all the vehicle rules in a concentrated manner.

We set up with each side fielding all it's tanks, their platoon command in an APC and a infantry section in a truck. The objective was to secure and if possible drive off an abandoned truck laden with fuel. VfV isn't really designed with this sort of game in mind I think but the rules played well and didn't fall over at any point.

As we both had truck borne infantry the central objective was within easy reach of both sides so by the middle of turn one we both had it within touching distance. On my right the two heavy tanks settled into a long range shooting match which lasted the entire game. The Grant was firing twice as many guns but this was negated by the cover I'd managed to take with the Panzer III. In the end neither of us managed to get the roll to knock the other out.

On my left it was a bit more lively as the light tanks and armoured cars of each side faced off against each other. Both sides pushed forwards with the DAK letting off some reaction shots which had little effect.

At the end of turn 1 I moved one of my infantry teams into the fuel truck ready to drive it off at the start of the next round. We had agreed that the truck could be assaulted like a building in order to give each side a chance to wrestle control of the vehicle. It was a bit of a surprise then when the Indians opened fire on the truck from the Indian Pattern Carrier and destroyed it. This meant neither side could win but we could still kill the enemy. My Panzer II rushed forwards to try and kill the IPC but failed (only immobilizing it) and was itself killed by the Honey as it swept forwards.

The Honey also went on to kill the 222 whilst the infantry on both sides shot each other up.

The Indians certainly came out on top with the most kills so presumably could claim a morale victory as they walked back to camp having run out of fuel. A/T fire is reasonably binary with out much chipping away at health points, so vehicles tend to go from all ok to dead in one leap. I think adding in more granularity could be done but then you'd be adding time onto the game and it's probably better to be able to complete a game than have that extra detail slowing things down.

My Little Tank & other Hobby

 Shameless plagiarism on my part referencing 'Allo Allo' and the well worn phrase of Lieutenant (or I guess that should be Leutnant) Hubert Gruber.

All this waffle is a long winded way of me introducing my recently finished M3 Stuart - British 8th army variant for our run of 'V for Victory'.

This is the first 'little' or any tank I've built since the halcyon days of Tamiya 1/35th scale circa 1982 but it was remarkably enjoyable.  The kit is the Warlord Games iteration of an Italeri model and I had to go to YouTube for some tips on assembling it - but this is all part of the experience I guess.

I opted for the caunter camouflage scheme albeit I suspect my colour scheme is not historically accurate which I accept but which I think Herr Gruber might approve of.

                                                     

The other bit of Hobby referred to is an updated KoW Lesser Obsidian Golem regiment.  I was obsessing a little too much over PMC (preferred model count) and my gaming buddy (and originator of this great blog) made the very sensible suggestion to have the two Golems which I'd painted (I'm very slow at painting!) and fill the base out with some 'fluff',  What a great idea and something I should've been all over myself.

It's all very basic - some pillar type pieces from the KoW Nightstalker Butchers kit (part of a 'medium' term project for Firefight Nightstalkers) and a little mutant rat which I had lying about never really thinking I'd be using him.  I've got enough models for an additional horde of LOG so will be utilising something very similar for those when I eventually get round to painting them.

For the present though it's all about stopping Rommel!

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.