The Battle of Biazza Ridge II

[Just Jack]

All,

Following last week’s runout of One Hour Skirmish Wargames, the boys lined it up to give the Battle of Biazza Ridge another go, and it was a helluva fight! It’s July 11, 1943, on the island of Sicily, where American paratroopers are facing off against tanks and troops of the Hermann Goering Panzergrenadier Division. The paratroopers have landed inland to screen the beaches as infantry come ashore, and they’re being put to the test at a place called Biazza Ridge as the Germans mount a counterattack, advancing towards Gela in order to push the Yanks back into the sea.

Last week we played and had a good time, but the scenario (a great scenario, from Steve over at “Sound Officer’s Call!” blog) starts with a very small amount of forces on the table and feeds in quite a bit of reinforcements, but the rules don’t handle reinforcements very well (in my humble opinion, or at least we didn’t handle how the rules handle reinforcements very well). Ultimately there was a fierce firefight and a daring close assault, but the Americans broke when their reinforcements arrived en masse and were caught bunched up by German mortars, which pounded them unmercifully.

So we had a lot of fun, but were convinced the scenario and rules together could give us even more fun if we tweaked a few things, so that’s what we did, and it worked like a champ.

The US paratroopers push towards the South Spur, with their FO managing to get up top (top left).

The FO takes a good look around…

And holy guacamole, look what he (bottom center) sees! He immediately gets on the radio and calls in a fire mission!

Both 75mm pack howitzers go to work!

The Tigers are untouched, but all three squads of the German 2nd Platoon are suppressed!

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! To see how the fight turned out, please check the blog at:
https://hakunamatatawars.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-battle-of-biazza-ridge-ii.html

Wow, what a fight, I’m exhausted. I can’t complain about the action at all. The rules worked much better without having to deal with reinforcements, but the fight still took two and a half hours, which is a bit of a challenge still for the youngsters (I did have to threaten the little one’s life a couple times). I haven’t discussed it with the boys yet, but I’m actually thinking about playing it again, with a different set of rules (something homegrown, super simple), in the hopes of getting the game time down to 60-90 minutes. I don’t really like playing the same fight over and over again, but it has been fun, it’s already set up, and it has proven to be a good test bed, I think. But it is playing the same fight three times…

So, if anyone has a cool, similarly-sized scenario we should try out, let me know and I might just give it a shot, rather than do a ‘Biazza Ridge III.’ But it needs to be mid- to late-war, I don’t have early war stuff in 15mm (yet), hopefully something on the Eastern Front.

More to follow as we look to keep the gaming ball rolling.

V/R,
Jack

[kyoteblue]

You and your butterfly rules !!! Pick a simple stupid one and keep using it!!! I joke.

[Rod Robertson]

Ooh, more! I will read this soon. Keep up the great work Jack.

Cheers and good gaming.

Rod Robertson.

[Just Jack]

John – I’m working on it.

Rod – Thanks buddy!

V/R,
Jack

[kyoteblue]

I’m still using FOW WW2 rules and will for my Guadacanal Campaign game. Stupid simple and I know them by heart.

[Deleted User]

That was kind of a roller-coaster on the hill. So happy the Germans won, and ofcourse the tanks arrived late.

Hollywood would have made a movie about how the FO jeep heroicly faced two tigers delayed it and survived the battle.

If your sons aren’t bored by having to fight the same batle again I’d like to see it run with a differnt rules. Looking forward more is seeing how your sons learn and adapt from this one.

I like how the mat ripples, makes for a nice rolling terrain.

[Rod Robertson]

Jack:

Another very good report describing a hair-raising battle. I was wondering, as I read the Bat. Rep., what the mechanics and effects of suppression were in the modified rules which you were using? I was surprised at just how effective one German 8.0 cm mortar was at shutting down the American infantry it directed its fire at? Same with the US pack-howitzers.

I really enjoyed the report and your references to “discussions” with the lads. It seems you are running them through a very thorough primer for future military careers, assuming you don’t actually kill one or both of them first as you apparently threatened to do. (Said in jest to all who read this!) I really like that you chat with the lads and are getting their critical thinking and analytical skills jump-started and active at an early age. They are very lucky to have a father/teacher who takes the time and makes the effort to give them opportunities to hone their critical thinking skills in such fun ways.

So, “Bravo to you!”, for providing them with lovely miniatures, evocative terrain, “gentle” guidance and mentally stimulating but fun challenges to keep their developing brains working hard.

Next project – 15mm baseball miniatures and several home-field terrains in order to train and perfect your boys’ grasp of the subtle strategies and tactics of that clash of wills! Batter up!

Cheers and good gaming.

Rod Robertson.

[Just Jack]

John – Excellent, now get on with it! 😉

Thomaston – Thanks man, it was lots of fun.  Not sure what we’ll get into this weekend, but I definitely want to keep the ball rolling.  And why are you so happy the Germans won?  Good point about the made in Hollywood story 😉

Rod – Thank you, Sir.  The mechanics are super simple: when you shoot at a unit you either miss or you hit them, and if you hit them they go ‘down,’ which means they can’t do anything.  They stay this way until the end of the turn, at which point you test all ‘down’ units to see if they break (removed from the game) or rally (back to normal).  There is no ‘down’ in close combat, if you’re beaten you’re out of the fight, and units that are ‘down’ are automatically defeated and out of the game if they are attacked by an enemy unit in close combat.  So there’s no use shooting at a unit that is down, but if you can touch them they’re automatically out.

You’re comment about the German mortar and US pack howitzers is interesting; they didn’t feel overpowered to me; they didn’t cause many casualties, but they sure as heck suppressed quite a few units, which the Germans were good about then close assaulting off the table (while the Americans were never in a position to exploit, the Germans being able to rally before the Yanks could reach them).

And you’re absolutely right about the time with the boys, it’s fantastic, and they seem to be learning.  Whether they join the military or not is up to them, but they’re (hopefully) learning how to analyze situations, think about and prioritize goals, think a few steps ahead, and try to forecast what the opposition’s moves might be.  It’s really cool.

And negative, we get plenty of 1:1 scale baseball (both boys play, and my daughter plays softball).

Take care, and thanks everyone!

V/R,
Jack

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