The Battle of Biazza Ridge III

[Just Jack]

All,

Yup, this is the third go on the same table with roughly the same forces. So here’s the scoop: my boys (ages 12 and 7) played the game twice using “One Hour Skirmish Wargames,’ with slightly different force composition and arrival/placement. Then I hatched a plan to play the game again, but using different rules (more on that at the bottom), and a very interesting occurrence happened this past Saturday evening: we had company over to play a wargame!

Action on the South Spur: the German 3rd Platoon pushes up onto the crest, where small arms fire breaks out between them and the American 3rd Platoon (top left), as Tiger 502 (bottom center, with Tiger 501 off camera to far left, closing in on the North Spur) takes a shot at the US FO but misses (top center right). The American paratroopers stymie the German advance…

So the Germans immediately shift their focus to the North Spur, pushing their 1st and 2nd Platoons up the slopes there. Without their supporting Tiger…

To see how the fight went, please check the blog at:
https://hakunamatatawars.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-battle-of-biazza-ridge-iii.html

I’m thinking to play another game on this table, but this time it’s an American counterattack to re-take Biazza Ridge (don’t forget the Americans lost the first two!), using these new rules. Stay tuned!

V/R,
Jack

 

[Rod Robertson]

Jack:

Soon there will be gangs of militant, little-league, baseball-playing youths hanging around your house, just waiting to fight the next major league battle! Well done at perhaps attracting new blood to the table-top minis hobby. But beware the mommies who may have different ideas than the dads. Now your kids and their friends are lucky to have you in their lives.

Artillery is the king of the battlefield while infantry fire is eclipsed by the effect of the bigger guns. So while the infantry may not be performing up to the best level needed for Maximum Game Fun (MGF)*, their weaker impact in terms of fire power on the battlefield is appropriate for this period of military history. But of course you know that! So I’ll just shut up after saying one last thing. Great game and a very good report. The mental image of the forlorn German commander shaking his fists and yelling at the departing Tiger tanks was a nice finish.

Cheers and good gaming.

Rod Robertson.

* Quoting an Aussie gamer named Michael O’Brien for the term “MGF”.

[Deleted User]

Damit, the Germans lost. And tanks didn’t get much action again.

[kyoteblue]

Woot !!!!

[Just Jack]

Rod – Thanks buddy, hope all is well! Yes, my goal is to recruit, indoctrinate, train, task, and deploy my entire 12-man team of eight year olds! All in good time 😉 And no problem with mothers yet; I am in Texas 😉

And you’ve captured my dilemma perfectly: artillery does indeed rule the roost, but it doesn’t make for the most fun on the tabletop. I’ve literally been thinking about taking away artillery’s ability to knock out targets, make it so arty can only suppress them (roll three dice, ‘to hit’ as appropriate, but no saves or kills, any hits simply suppress). And leave small arms fire as is, which can get lucky every now and again. These changes should make it so that supporting fires are used to suppress and infantry are used to close assault.

Thomaston – This game was a by request delivery for you 😉 And whaddaya mean ‘again’? The Germans won the first two! But you do bring up another issue: the Tigers haven’t played a significant role in any of the three fights. I chalk it up to the boys being too impatient to wait, and the tanks were best used in the second game, where a platoon of infantry was left back with them.

John – Yup, lots of fun.

V/R,
Jack

[Deleted User]

The ‘again’ was for the tanks.

Arty, maybe make calling in arty not a guaranteed thing? A roll of 5+ or something like that to account for the guns being busy or radios acting up again.

Or you might want to go the 40K method of making arty scatter randomly and slowly walk back towards aim point on successive shots. Need a scatter dice though.

It just occured to me, maybe the tanks not getting much action is all part of your plan to comply with USMC.

[kyoteblue]

Arty and mortars kill more troops than anything else so nerfing it would not be historical.

[Just Jack]

Thomaston – Ahh, gotcha.   Yes, trust me, I wasn’t happy about the tanks, either.  Trust me, I was hoping to see a bunch of cat and mouse played out between the two Tigers and three bazooka teams, but never saw a single rocket fired…

I have the boys roll to contact arty if they use any unit other than the CO or FO to call for fire, and I think I’ll keep it that way (or maybe even eliminate that as an option, so that only the CO/FO can call for fire) in the interest of speeding things up.  Similarly, I do ‘scatter’ in a lot of my games (typically use a D12 for direction using the ‘clock method,’ and a D10 for distance in inches), but again, want to keep things moving.

“…your plan to comply with USMC.”
I feel quite lucky that I don’t have to comply with that plan.  The thing about tanks is that you really don’t need tanks, until you REALLY need tanks…  They certainly saved my ass a couple times in Fallujah (bringing it up because this past Monday, the 4th, was the 18th anniversary of when we breached through the Soda Factory in the southeast corner of the city, and spent the rest of the month fighting house to house)…

John – “…it would not be historical.”  That is quite interesting, coming from a Flames of War player! 😉  And I’m just joking, to each his own.  And while I agree artillery certainly claims the majority of casualties, that doesn’t make it the, or even a, decisive element on the battlefield.  If it were, you wouldn’t need infantry, and artillery wouldn’t be called a ‘supporting element’ providing ‘supporting fires’ 😉  And I’m not just being a ‘homer’ here; history is replete with poor grunts watching a preparatory environment and saying things like “My God, nothing could survive that,” only to advance and find an enemy that not only survived, but was quite capable (when allowed time to recover).  So, for my games at least, I don’t really mind the idea of allowing arty only the opportunity to suppress, not kill, and I’m looking forward to giving it a shot.

V/R,
Jack

[kyoteblue]

Ok, I just think nerfing arty is eh…

[kyoteblue]

Any new AAR’s Jack???

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