[Tactical Painter]

The campaign rolls on and the German pioneers struggle to bridge the River Our so that heavier support can assist the Volksgrenadiers dislodge the Americans. After two bloody repulses in the previous games, can the Germans start to drive the Americans from Skyline Drive? Full AAR of the next game here: https://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2021/03/bloody-bucket-campaign-turns-4-5.html

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Norm S wrote:

Dave, I am not a FB user, so on my visit, the group did not let me in to browse. I am not sure how these things work, but is it possible to change the settings so that none FB users can still do read only?

Norm, FB has ‘private’ groups because some people wish to have their participation kept just to the group and shared with a community that understands their interest rather than publicly for all their contacts and anyone else to see.

One reason is that employers and others often do background checks on potential employees and look at their social media presence to get a better understanding of their personality etc. Not all employers understand miniature gaming while other see an interest in the ‘military’ and ‘weapons’ as a sign of extremist tendencies.

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Darkest Star Games wrote:

I always love these campaigns you do, just great stuff. Rough times for the Germans, if they can get some armor you might have a very tough time of it yourself! Is there a rules that support has to stay at a location once it has been allocated, like minefields, the .30 and .50cals? Or does each fight generate entirely new support?

Thanks. Yes the field defences supports are tied to each table so can’t move. Each platoon is under orders to stand and hold each table, they can be moved but there’s quite a risk that you will lose much of the platoon if you do (assumed they surrender). Supports like the MG teams can be moved at the start of each campaign turn (ie before you know which maps will be attacked), however only between maps that are adjacent or along one stretch of road. The Germans can interdict the roads, so there’s a risk. A 1 in 6 chance they are destroyed. 50% chance they are forced back and 30% chance they make it through. Risky!

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The Germans make their second attack of campaign turn 3. This time they fall on Holzthum Village at Map 3. Can this platoon of Volksgrenadiers have more success than the platoon that attacked Skyline Drive? Full AAR is here: https://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2021/02/bloody-bucket-campaign-turn-3-scenario.html

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After a couple of turns with the Germans infiltrating around the American positions we hit turn 3 of the campaign with two assaults launched. The first is on Map 1 Skyline Drive and so we begin the fighting that will determine the outcome of the campaign. The full AAR is here: http://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2021/02/bloody-bucket-turn-3-scenario-1-skyline.html

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The Japanese make a second attempt to take the Opium Factory, this is probably going to be their last chance. Failure will hand the doughty men of the Malay Regiment a campaign victory so we have everything to play for. The first Japanese attack ended rather badly, can they fare better this time? Full AAR here https://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2020/12/last-stand-on-opium-hill-scenario-4-one.html

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Gillies Sim wrote:

Another brilliant AAR Mark! Really enjoyed cheering on the Brits (apologies!). Interested to see how you decide to crack that nut in the next run at it. I’d be tempted to take an additional squad and try force a route through the jungle to give cover for as long as possible. Alternatively the exact same again could work if there are no well timed turn ends!

Yes, a tricky decision but one that will be influenced by the support roll, which will not only dictate what I can take but also what I might face. Everything was going quite well in this last game, until it wasn’t. Same again could work this time, but this is probably my last shot at campaign victory so I need to think carefully.

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We now reach the final map of the campaign and a last ditch defence around the opium factory that gives the hill its name. While it may be backs-to-the-wall for the Malay Regiment this attack will be no pushover for the Japanese who have a lot to do. Quite a game in the end and you can read the full AAR here https://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2020/11/last-stand-on-opium-hill-scenario-4.html

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Here we go again. The Japanese return to Map 3 after being rebuffed in no uncertain terms by the doughty Malays in that last game. Can they do better this time around? The full AAR is here: https://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2020/11/last-stand-on-opium-hill-scenario-3-one.html

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The Japanese continue their drive on Singapore but now reach a tough defensive position held by the Malay Regiment for scenario 3. Is this where their offensive will stall, or can they push on through? Another gripping game in what is turning into a very enjoyable campaign, the full AAR is here: http://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2020/11/last-stand-on-opium-hill-scenario-3.html

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When I was playing ASL the main issue was that it was all consuming, there simply wasn’t time to learn or explore new systems (and you tend to think, why should you, you are playing the pinnacle of WWII tactical systems, aren’t you??).

While I had grown tired of the system and its limitations it was playing Crossfire when I realised not only the limitations of ASL, but that a good abstraction/game can achieve without hundreds of pages of rules. I still have a lot of time for Crossfire, while it’s not perfect it has a simple elegance that captures much of the issues of tactical command.

I heard Richard Clarke talking about how he approaches rules writing and his starting point is to set up a table and have units from the period and then asks the question, ‘so what happens now?’. I like this approach as my interest in military history stems much from trying to understand how anything actually happens on the battlefield. How do leaders lead units? What makes men stay on the battlefield and fight when every human impulse is to look for safety?

The starting point is the training manuals of the period. This is what commanders wanted their men to do. All well and good but that’s the theory. The next step is to look at first hand accounts, unit diaries etc to see what actually happened. So we have on one hand, this is what men were trained to do, and on the other, this is what men actually did and how it happened. Any rule set must work at finding some sort of balance between the two. Armies did try to fight as trained but friction, the unknown, bad luck and the enemy all worked to make that as difficult as possible.

I don’t have an answer but I do think the starting point is not so much, what rules mechanics work best for the period? As, what happened in the period and how do I find or create rules that best reflect it.

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The campaign continues and the Japanese push on towards Singapore. We reach the small village of Buena Vista where the Malay Regiment will conduct a delaying action to try to stall the advance. Here is the full AAR: https://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2020/11/last-stand-on-opium-hill-scenario-2.html

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I started playing TAHC games when I was 11 years old and my father and I played  Stalingrad. A few years later we progressed to Panzerblitz and thought it was the greatest thing ever devised, flaws and all.

I eventually graduated to Squad Leader before becoming engrossed with ASL for far longer than was healthy or wise. ASL left the elegant simplicity of Panzerblitz behind for endless detail, making the commitment to master ASL a lifestyle option. Sadly it required such a commitment I lost sight of all other developments in WWII tactical gaming for twenty years (surely I was playing the pinnacle of WWII tactical gaming, why should I need to look elsewhere?).

I was asked to design some new scenarios for an official ASL publication and while researching eventually saw the light. I’ve written a longer piece on exactly why ASL lost me that you can read here http://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2020/07/farewell-advanced-squad-leader.html

 

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Mark Luther wrote:

Very nice. I too am looking forward to doing some (more) CoC in Burma. Have you tried the Pyawbwe campaign? Mark

Thanks Mark. No, I haven’t tried that yet although I think I have a copy somewhere. Next I think we might try the Opium Hill campaign that Mark Backhouse wrote for WSS magazine. It’s set in Singapore so for that I would actually use my early war figures in shorts and khaki drill.

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MartinR wrote:

Arty Conliffe has pretty much retired from wargaming although I gather he is still tinkering with one of his Ancients rule sets (or he was a couple of years ago).

Maybe, but he was never particularly supportive even years ago. The rules have no official online presence and any online rules enquiries needed to go via a third party (assuming you knew who this third party was). This is not an attack on anyone, just my experience, but a major reason why I stopped playing Crossfire. It seemed like it had a lot of potential but that was never explored fully, as it stands now it feels more like a work in progress than a finished piece.

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ian pillay wrote:

Excellent blog post. I really like the wavy edges to the bases. It brakes up the unnatural straight edges and blends them well with the table. Not played CoC but the basing you have chosen looks good for Crossfire so you might have unintentionally doubled your use for the figures. lovely brush work, I enjoyed looking at those photos.

Thanks. Interestingly enough it was Crossfire that got me back into playing WWII miniatures after decades of playing board games. That was one reason my senior leaders were on those larger bases, as I had my Crossfire squads with three figures on a 40×40 base and the PC on a 20×40. I still have a Russian, German and British force for Crossfire, but I don’t play it much these days.

There’s much to like about Crossfire but I’ve always thought it is under developed, it feels like a beta version. I admire the lack of traditional turn structure and no measurements. The game is very playable and easy to teach, but it could really benefit from further refinement. It doesn’t help that the game receives no support from Arty Cunliffe or the publisher (one and the same, I suspect) and has to rely on a very small, but enthusiastic community.

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Darkest Star Games wrote:

Oh man, that is a tough defeat. You just didn’t have the luck with those rolls despite the hard cover. The Americans really do seem to have quite the advantage in firepower despite the Germans having all of those MG42s. That panzershrek team deserve a medal though, great shot there. Seems like you enjoyed the campaign. I certainly enjoyed reading about it! Thank you very much for all the great AARs, and please do get another campaign running soon.

Thanks for following the campaign, glad you enjoyed it. I certainly enjoyed it and one of the joys of writing up the AARs is becoming even more immersed in the unfolding narrative. I don’t like losing, who does? But what is so great about a campaign is that there’s so much to get out of being part of the overall story that I feel as though I’ve contributed to the overall outcome regardless of winning or losing.

We will get another campaign up and running in a few weeks. In the meantime, while we try to decide what we do play next, we will play a couple of other periods and rule sets for a change of pace and subject.

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So we reach the final map with the campaign in the balance. Can the Germans stall the Americans for one more game and snatch a campaign victory or will the American steamroller prove unstoppable? The full AAR is here: http://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2020/07/29-lets-go-scenario-5-home-run-at.html

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I love the way you achieve that look of the empty battlefield, looks terrific. Although it makes me wonder if you ever ‘lose’ units?

Reminds me a bit of when we played our Malaya 42 campaign, I was forever finding ‘lost’ Japanese and Australians in my jungle terrain after the game.

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kyoteblue wrote:

The Americans did a great job slowly advancing with mortar fire pinning the Germans. I’m surprised the Germans had no mortars.

The Germans could have had mortars but with only 5 support points for this one it was tough to decide. Mortars are 4 support points and a sudden turn end or the demise of the forward observer and they are gone. I decided to entrench instead. The forward observer can be very vulnerable and countered by the Americans (which is what their sniper was there to do). Perhaps I should have taken the risk.

Interesting what people choose and use. The Americans had to take at least one Sherman but Dave decided armour was too vulnerable in that close terrain and so he never even brought it into play.

 

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Having beat off the German counterattack the Americans now return to clear their right flank near Cardonville. They were mauled badly by the Germans at the first attempt, could they do a better job at the second attempt? The full AAR is here: http://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2020/07/29-lets-go-radar-station-at-cardonville.html

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Darkest Star Games wrote:

Nicely done, really look great! For a second I thought you had put a cigarette in the mouth of one of the Germans in the 2 man foxhole but then realized it was the shoulder pipping I was seeing. And dang dude, shoulder pipping at this scale?!?! Fantastic!

It’s tragic, I can’t help myself, it’s the modeller in me. That said, most gamers don’t see their figures up close but I’ve found that doing the photos for the AARs on the blog makes me see my figures from much closer than you would normally. That’s when those small details can make a difference, so in that sense it’s worth the effort.

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Darkest Star Games wrote:

Good moves on your part. I couldn’t have done it, I would have been too tempted to have the right side squad do some shooting, probably resulting in their destruction.

Let me tell you, I was very tempted to do so. However when I thought about it, the best case was I cause a few casualties and some shock, worse case the US roll a double phase and do me real harm. Neither will help me win the game or campaign, but the latter would really damage my chances. It didn’t make for the most exciting game but it keeps my platoon viable for the next game, which was the key.

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This is excellent stuff. I’m a follower of Tank Archives who also supply some great information. They, like you, use Russian primary sources and quote them (Tank Archive often reproduce the entire original document too). Zaloga remains a very reliable source in English. As always the information is only as good as the source. I’d suggest a writer with no track record in this area who doesn’t supply evidence of primary source material is quite literally worthless.

Wikipedia can be a very flakey source (I note that high school students here in Australia are told that Wikipedia does not qualify as a valid source to quote for any assignments). Forums are full of opinions posted as fact. If they have any basis it is so often in outdated secondary sources, which is why these posts here are so good and informative.

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After German success in the last game they have the opportunity to mount a counterattack. While there’s little chance they have the force to push the Americans back, what they can do is disrupt their drive forward. The full AAR is here http://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2020/07/29-lets-go-counterattack-at-arthenay.html

 

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deephorse wrote:

If you want something different then go and look at some other rule sets.

I see. It’s your ball and you’re taking it home. Great discussion.

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MartinR wrote:

The comments above reinforce the point I made earlier. Keep it as simple as you possibly can, unless you fancy writing a set of rules the size of an encyclopaedia….

The two are not mutually exclusive. The premise may be complex but the skill of the rules writer is to distill the key elements and abstract it into a simple rule mechanic. However simple shouldn’t be the objective of the exercise. Historical plausibility is the key, simple is the solution. In order to get the abstraction right you need to delve into what the abstraction represents. Hence the discussion.

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I don’t think it’s a problem to factor some of those things into the type of fire permitted. There are a couple of things to consider. Firstly, is a unit most likely to respond to the nearest threat? I think it would be wrong to assume they ignore it completely, as self-preservation has to come into play at some stage. It’s a reason AT gun crews carried personal weapons. It could be as simple as a modifier that makes it slightly harder to hit a target that is farther away than the nearest enemy unit (this factors in a range of things from assuming the crew are focussed on the nearest threats to limiting the all-seeing eye of the player).

The other issue talks to training, leadership and fire discipline. Better quality and more experienced troops are more likely to be able to select their target than those who are poorly trained and inexperienced.

A player who has left an AT gun in a position where it is unsupported and exposed to attack by enemy infantry doesn’t deserve to have that weapon operating at full effect and engaging enemy armour. The crew have been hung out to dry and who would blame them if self preservation overcame other considerations?

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You need to find a way to limit the high level of awareness that the player has, as opposed to what might occupy the attention of the unit. Do you allow fire at a target when there are other targets closer? It’s too gamey if I’m busy engaging an enemy unit and then suddenly fire at a target much further away which I as a player can see has become a very good target.

An Overwatch rule can cover some of this (which is the effect of the Rapid Fire rule of no fire or movement in your previous turn). In order to take the “opportunity”, you need to have made yourself available for it and be alert to it.

Another relates to movement rates. Just how much movement can a unit make in their turn while in the line of sight of the enemy before that enemy can fire? This is what looks so wrong in many games, when a unit traverses a good distance and is immune from fire. If you can find a way to abstract that into the rules then you may not need opportunity fire. For example if you can only move 1” in your turn then the enemy will have time to undertake that opportunity fire in their turn without the need for a special rule. Naturally I’m not advocating 1” movement rates but you get my point.

This also relates to the length of turns. What time span do they represent? Much like micro movements, so a turn of only a few seconds limits what’s possible. I need to feel that what is possible in that time frame is plausible. The longer the time period represented by the turn and the greater the movement distance permitted the more I feel entitled to have my units make a response during an enemy turn.

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Darkest Star Games wrote:

Wow that was a good one! Like you, I had figured it would be a repeat with all of those double moves, but what a comeback! I do hope you do try the counter attack. Is there a set number of battles that sees the US shutdown, or is it only a moral/Colonel’s decision?

Thanks! The longer the Germans hold the more units escape across the bridge at Isigny. Best possible outcome is they hold map 5 at the end of the ninth game, that also allows my platoons to evacuate. Given the run of the campaign so far I have to counterattack to stall the Americans as it gains me one game, in fact winning the most recent game gains me a minimum two games if I counterattack – one for the counter and another to refight map 4. It’s looking tough but it’s not impossible.

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We now reach scenario 4 and after three defeats the Germans are in dire need of a victory to have any hope of stalling the American advance. Luck certainly hasn’t been on their side, but could it change this time? The full AAR is here:

http://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2020/06/29-lets-go-scenario-4-radar-station-at.html

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The US 175th Infantry Regiment have to clear a village on their flank and the site of ‘mobile 88mm guns’. So far the Germans have been unsuccessful in stalling the US advance, will they be any more successful here? Full AAR is here http://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2020/06/29-lets-go-scenario-3-flanking-st.html

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Mike wrote:

That is excellent. I always think of MDF kits as a basic frame on which to add stuff. You did a lovely job there. (Is that a razor blade chopper I see?)

Thanks. Yes, the chopper is a great terrain making tool. That and my Dremel are probably my most used tools when it comes to making terrain.

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With the easing of restrictions here in Australia it’s been great to get back to some face to face gaming and more importantly get our 29, Let’s Go! campaign for Chain of Command back up and running. The Americans cut through the Germans like a knife through butter in the last game, so can my Germans put up a stiffer fight this time around? The full AAR is here http://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2020/05/29-lets-go-scenario-2-delaying-action_30.html

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The problem with allowing these things in a set of rules is there’s a danger you allow the unusual to become normal. If a gamer can send a crew back into a tank why wouldn’t he/she? Not saying it never happened, but doctrine and self preservation alone meant once abandoned crews did not return to a tank in an action. Gamers need to be saved from themselves otherwise games can drift more towards Hollywood than history.

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Darkest Star Games wrote:

That was a quick one. Not a good trade in casualties, nor ground. Counts as a Total Allied Victory?

Initial campaign probe scenarios like this can often be fairly brief. Those casualties meant there was no reason for the Germans to hang around. The scenario is a US victory and so we move on to the next map in the campaign. There are no degrees of ‘victory’ just win, loss or losing draw (where loser inflicts a high level of casualties on the winner).

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Deleted User wrote:

I love the flame thrower marker. Where did you get the tracks from?

The tracks were out of the spares box, so they must have come as part of plastic kits that I’ve acquired over time. I have a feeling several came from Plastic Soldier Company kits (keep in mind these are all 1/72, which is well catered for when it comes to kits in this scale).

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Crossfire was the rule set that brought me back into playing miniatures after a 30 year hiatus playing board (war)games. I loved the innovation, the command and control and the unpredictability of the sequence of play. It wasn’t perfect but really tried to do things differently, I’ve always thought it was like a Beta version and with more play testing and refinement could have turned into a really solid system.

By the way, you cannot copyright game rules or mechanics. The only thing you can copyright is the exact wording in your rules. You can take an entire set of game mechanics from someone else, give it a new name and rewrite them in your own style and you’re good to go. You might not be being very original but you’re not doing anything illegal. Think about it, who owns the rights to using dice to resolve outcomes in a game? Who owns the rights to have three dimensional game pieces that you move across a defined playing surface? Using rulers to determine movement and range?

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Very nice and good to see the ‘correct’ caunter colours. I don’t know who is responsible for introducing that sky blue, but they have a lot to answer for!

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So, the campaign comes down to the wire. If the French can win this next game then they earn a narrow campaign victory. This has been a tough slog for my Germans but can they deny the French that victory right at the final game? It’s all to play for. The full AAR is here https://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2020/02/gembloux-gap-game-ten-get-guns-round-two.html

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