Pulled DIY duty for a couple of weeks & prior to that I have been painting this & that which I keep buying. I wanted to have a predominantly infantry-based game to test some group fire & morale rules although I couldn't resist chucking in a couple of Bren Carriers and an infantry gun. Space considerations dictated that it was going to be another 'armchair skirmish' which for the ranges involved was fine anyway: The view from the East... ...and the West: British dispositions amongst the farmstead and the Belgians on their left in North Wood At the limit of observability, a Bren opens up on enemy seen crossing Crop Field Small arms fire seems ineffectual on the the Tommy MG (it is a Bren Carrier) so the Platoons' light mortars begin lobbing rounds at the wood. Incidentally, you can see how the base colour & flock type differentiates between each platoon To be continued...
How are the rules working out? When will they be ready to share with some of us? Well, they suit me & what I want from a game. Lying awake at night or on the commute I occaisionally think of a tweak or have a bit of a 'Eureka!' moment if I'd been wracking my brain over a major rewrite for a while. I guess next on the hitlist is recreating Comms Effectiveness (or not, in the case of the Allies) because at the moment it is reduced to a dice roll of how long the message takes to get through, creating record-keeping. I try not to leave any 'grey areas' of interpretation in spite of playing both sides (& therefore always being able to resolve things amicably!) but wouldn't be averse to some feedback in the near future!
Hehehe, that last pic of yours looks like a tube station at rush hour. Wot, no artillery? But these mini-games sure are interesting! For hedges I use strips of kitchen scour pads, torn with the fingers, not cut.
A despatch rider arrives with orders for the Bren Carrier on the right flank to advance to the edge of Ploughed Field...(sorry about the driver not being painted yet ) ...but its unclear if the carrier will take position in time Fusilade of small arms fire across the common suppresses a Belgian section Hoping for some full-on firefights tomorrow...
Hehehe, that last pic of yours looks like a tube station at rush hour. Wot, no artillery? As luck would have it, the entry point for all the German platoons was more or less in the same place, although I was hoping for at least one of them to end up on some outflanking type position and no, the French arty was abandoned several hours before For hedges I use strips of kitchen scour pads, torn with the fingers, not cut. Bit of hedge detailing in the pipeline for hedges on terrain boards but most of those visible are just bent green pipecleaners, unpainted in case it flakes off...
Much-needed 75mm IG & mortar arrives as the assault gains momentum 2 Platoon reaches the foot of the slope with 1 Platoon attempting to give covering fire On the German right flank, 4 Platoon nears the treeline The line as it stands The German Company HQ area Having sustained many casualties, 2 Platoon wavers & retreats to a fallback position, an unlucky dice roll, that. 1 Platoon holds well under withering crossfire On the Allied left flank, the Belgians fall back also, but as per the plan Denouement en route...
What round bases are those? I tried using steel washers once but gave up on the idea. 15mm green tiddlywinks from Patriot Games £0:50 for 50 Green Tiddly Winks (50) - Patriot Games Ltd I toyed with the idea of using our 5 pence piece or pennies which were about the right size as well but with the extra weight decided against it coz of slipping down hills. Got them in green in case of losing any base colour & flock. Need to keep flock off underside & edges of base due to snagging on felt in storage boxes & when used as fields. Can get 80mm mortar groups on them as well so that has become my standard infantry & support 'footprint'
Up till now I have been posting this game up stage by stage but now its done & to save duplication of effort (mine) and bandwidth and/or server resources or something, possibly, I am now just posting up some highlights here, the complete game is on Moulin Bruges: infantry playtest - a set on Flickr and there's comment on the rules at Wargaming France 1940: Moulin Bruges: an infantry playtest So, to the action, hope you like it... You can just about see the red kepis of the Belgian Generals. [Not sure if that's what they wore but looks nice & at the time of painting, I had run out of research patience] Allies looking a bit overwhelmed to the North but in the ploughed field the German platoons cannot seem to make headway. Not surprising really tho' somehow they keep making their morale rolls & don't break. As soon as an element bursts through the hedge it is hosed by the Bren Carrier (behind trees lower left) and other British foot groups [Dug-in position is the rear banking of old H&R slit trench cut away. Front banking is similar but with tank traps, so 4 for the price of 2 also you couldn't get a rifle group in the 5mm wide slot of the trench] I love 1940, anti-tank rifles could actually do something, unfortunately on this occaision the northernmost Bren Carrier is snuck up on by a PzB38 team in the wood. [the green 15mm tiddlywinks are reasonably unobtrusive markers for, amongst other things, suppression & its Morale Level, eg: "8/13_71" means each element lost out of 13 reduces the Level by 8% & the current Level is 71% [I do apologise for some of the prone MG34 teams who have only had undercoat. Slapped wrists!!] All is quiet from the farmstead now: the British platoon leader had been plinking away at a distant MG42 so it was not unreasonable for it to single him out, resulting in the platoon falling back Vier Platoon is stuck in North Wood [top right] with a morale level of 06/100! The other three platoons press on. [Because I play solo I often have to have a reminder to tell me whose 'go' it is, hence the signboard] Attracting fire from every German rifle & MG, the Carrier left the relative safety of cover but it was only the MG42 from above in the windmill which brought it to a juddering halt. One more casualty would probably have broken the German left flank. That Bren Carrier crew took out about a whole platoon while stationed overlooking Ploughed Field [top right] and should probably get posthumous VCs Drew a line under the game at the following point. German CO in Kubelwagen crossing saddle of higher ground [upper centre] en route to Platoon Eins [top left] to attempt a rally; 75mm IG & 80mm mortar have destroyed the abandoned farm & windmill; remnants of German Zwei Platoon [lower right] unable to rally; all that is left of German Drei Platoon is 50mm mortar, heading East to the rear. The Allies still have the hill, for what it is worth... New morale rules worked really well, enabling units to 'Keep Calm & Carry On' in spite of heavy casualties but at the same time, adverse morale responses seemed quite plausible. Infantry platoons took up more space than I anticipated on such a small board, it was next to impossible to do any flanking manouvres which would've made the assault more effective (one platoon of infantry would appear to have 3 times the footprint of an armoured troop). I may consider setting objectives or time limits though battles in the real world weren't over until they were over anyway. I don't have to fit a game in one evening so maybe artificial game-terminating-objectives might spoil things. Lack of AFVs may have been unrealistic for the Blitzkrieg era and it did do my head in a bit, just dealing with infantry combat for both adversaries continuously but it was just a playtest on this occaision. Need to clarify house-to-house combat and some HE vs buildings rules and also look into radio usage at platoon level for infantry and draw up some rationale for surrendering. It was a long game (1 week, on and off, 30-40 moves) but worked really well & I am very happy with the game mechanics.
30 moves??? Wow, you've been busy, even if extended along the week. After the solo game was finished, I suppose you packed your figures and went out to the pub and bought two beers, one for yourself, the other for your other side
