an introduction to Jagdpanzer

There ;were five games being played at the south bay game club on May 5th.  Two naval games, the wooden soldier project, the battle of Puebla (Cimco de Mayo), and Jagdpanzer.   Due to restrictions on their release I cannot post any pictures of the wooden soldier game.  The game is designed for younger players and has some well painted handmade wooden soldiers.  The following are some pictures of one of the naval games and the start of the battle of Puebla.

one of the naval games

battle of Puebla

James Poli was running the Jagdpanzer game.  The forces involved were the Romanian guards and the Russians.   The Russians had 3 t28s 10 t26s four infantry platoons, a machine gun platoon, some anti-tank guns, some mortars, and  4 armored cars.   The Romanians had a similar sized force of infantry and tanks.   I commanded the Russians and James commanded the Romanians.  My objective was to secure the bridges across the river.  My forces started about the middle of the table.   After accessing the situation, I decided to set up a kill zone along the main road, secure the church on the hill with a couple of platoons of infantry, and use the rest of my force to sweep the right flank.

I set up the T28s on the road, moved three of the T26s up on the hill above the road, and placed the anti-tank guns supported by a platoon of infantry in the woods on the left side of the road.  As the Romanians advanced up the road my troops opened fire taking out a couple of their tanks.  Over the next few turns my forces along the road took out more of the Romanian tanks and forced them to withdraw.  I ended up losing one of the T28s.

On the hill my infantry secured the church and the woods, but came under bombardment from artillery.  Fortunately none of my forces were lost.  The Romanians had sent three tanks and a couple of platoons of infantry to capture the church and hill.  James had also placed his anti-tank guns in the field on the back side of the hill.  It had taken a few turns for the Romanians to get in position to assault the church.  Their tanks had been firing on my infantry in an attempt to kill or pin them.  At this point my artillery came down on the Romanian forces on the hill, landing with no deviation, and causing devastation to the Romanians.  One tank was lost along with four infantry.  The machine gun platoon also managed to kill another couple of stands of Romanian infantry.  The Romanians failed their morale and retreated.

On my right flank the remaining seven T26s and two platoons of infantry had advanced on the small village, which was held by a platoon of Romanian infantry.  The combined fire from the tanks and barrages by my mortars and light artillery killed one infantry stand and pinned the remainder.   James was sending his remaining armor to help on that flank.

At this point we had to call the game due to time restraints.  Due to unforeseen circumstance the game had started over two hours late.  The Russians were in position to capture the bridge on the main road, had control of the central hill, and had more forces available on their right flank than the Romanians had available to counter them.  Total Russian losses were one T28 and a couple of stands of infantry.  Romanian losses were seven stands of infantry and seven tanks.

I had been lucky with my artillery die rolls, getting most of it to land on target.   A post game analysis of the scenario indicated that the Russians should probably start the scenario arriving on the roads instead of starting at the middle of the table.  By starting near the middle, I had been able to gain a tactical advantage with the Russians.  The Russian armored cars were very slow, not being able to keep up with the infantry when moving cross country.

                                               Initial starting positions of the Russians

                                                view from the Romanian side of the table

                                              Kill zone established and first victems

                                             Russian artillery strikes on the central hill

                                          The advance on the Russian right against the village.      
                                   
                                           Remains of Romanian tanks caught in the kill zone.

Utah Beach Part Two

The second part of Utah beach was fought at Greg's house. The game had remained as it was at the end of turn 3 while Greg was traveling. Dan and I continued our assault on the German beach defenses. We concentrated our re-enforcements on the flanks and started rolling up the defenders.

 Additional re-enforcements were also arriving for the Germans. These were arriving in various locations on the table edge. The Germans sent most of the armored units around the eastern side of the battlefield. Four PzIV's took up a position guarding the eastern causeway, while Panzergrenadiers prepared to assault the eastern village. On the western side of the battle the fallschirmjaegers were having a difficult time making any progress against the 101st's defenses. On the southern edge the German panzer commander and the fallschirmjaeger weapons arrived. The infantry dug in and the panzers advanced. A bazooka team took out the commander's tank, but he was able to escape and take command of his second tank.

On the seventh turn our aircraft finally destroyed the last German 105 that had been bothering us all game long. We had been lucky on the first turn when our aircraft took out three of the four guns, but they were unable to do any further damage for the next five turns.

When the game ended I was ready to advance across the causeway with most of my armor. Dan had cleared the defenders on his side and took up a position to prevent the German PzIV's from interdicting my advance. The German defensive position at the other end of the causeway still suppressed and had been that way since the beginning of the game.

This game had been a very large one for Flames of War. The Americans had landed most of two infantry battalions and a tank battalion along with the battalion of paratroopers holding the villages. The Germans appeared to have about a company sized Kampfgruppe of panzers and panzergrenadiers and a company of fallschirmjaegers arriving as re-enforcements (maybe more) along with their initial defensive positions.

 I would estimate that the game would need about 10 turns at the minimum for the Americans to link up with the paratroops. We had some good luck initially with the aircraft and some bad luck with sinking tanks so the overall effect was about average for our side. The Germans also seemed to have average luck.

Although the beach defenses were stronger than they were historically, this was a fictional what-if scenario and overall the game was well balanced.

The Americans should land a combination of tanks and infantry along the whole beach on the first turn in order to avoid having too many units within the blast area of indirect fire. They should seek to take out the flanks of the German beach defenses so that they can gain a superiority of force and start rolling up the flanks of the defenses. The second turns landings may also need to be spread along the beach in order to avoid the German indirect fire. Depending on the situation from the third turn on the Americans may be able to concentrate their landings on the flanks.  Although Teddy Roosevelt Jr. provides a landing bonus bringing him in too early would expose him to German fire.

The Germans are somewhat limited as their beach defenders have few places to move to. Their re-enforcements arrive randomly and they will have to make the best of this. If there are enough experienced players then they should be able to get more turns in and take less time doing so than we did. Greg was an excellent umpire and had to do almost all the calculations for the die rolls as most of us had not played FOW before. The two sessions took about nine hours of game play to complete seven turns. At the end Greg determined that the Americans had a slight edge in the victory conditions.

Thanks to Greg for hosting and umpiring the game and thanks to all those who participated.

                                          western end of the beach

                                         eastern end of the beach

                                         German armored forces, southeast corner

                                         fallschirmjaeges and paratroops western edge

                                        beach defenses crumbling at end of game western edge

                                                      aircraft destroy last 105

                                                 Panzer commander's tank ambushed

                                          panzergrenadiers prepare to assault town

             Dan cleans out eastern beach defenses and takes up position to counter German panzers.

150th Anniversary Battle of Shiloh ACW

In April of 1862 Grant was caught by surprise when Johnston attacked his army in the early morning hours. Grant's army had camped in a position where they were boxed in by the Tennessee River to the rear with marshy creeks on both flanks. To reflect this each division in Grant's army had to roll to see if they had formed up and were ready for battle. Many of the troops on both sides were also inexperienced and would have to roll to determine if they were poor or average quality.

The rules used for the game were "From Manassas to Apomatox". All figures are Heroics and Ros. Buildings are from the Paperterrain North Russian Village set, most of the tents were from the Roman Seas Fortification set six, and most of the trees were from Everest Models. Dan Rygasewicz provided the Tennessee River, Fields, creek, gunboats, made most of the tents, and some of the trees. There were six participants, four confederate and two union, with Dan commanding the Union Army and Manny Granillo commanding the Confederate army. The game took place at the South Bay Game Club's April 14th meeting.

Grant started with five of his six divisions - Sherman, Pentris, McClernand, Wallace, and Hurlbut. Two additional divisions and the gunboats would arrive later in the day. The Confederates had six divisions organized into four corps. Units are normally activated by a random card draw, but for the first turn all Confederate formations moved first and then the Union would attempt to activate Sherman, Hurlbut, and Wallace. Pentris and McClearnand were automatically activated by the initial Confederate attack.

The pictures can be viewed in a larger format by first left clicking on one of them, then right clicking on the picture and selecting view image.

8:00AM initial Confederate attack has been repulsed. The yellow discs were used for morale markers. Each marker would have a negative effect on the unit's morale when it activated.

9:00 AM Union army has been forced back. Wallace is marching to the front. Hurlbut's and Sherman's divisions are in total disarray.

9:30AM Confederates re-organize their formations. Breckinridge's Corps is marching to the far right of the Confederate line, Bragg is moving Ruggle's and Wither's division to the right center, Polk in the rear is moving his divisions to the Confederate left flank, and Hardee's division is front.

Photo op for the gunboats. Not actually there as they are due to arrive about 5:00PM

Late morning. Cheatham's division from Polk's corps is attacking Sherman's division, McClearnand's division has taken a position in the woods, Wallace and Hardee are engaged in combat in the center, Pentriss is holding the Hornets nest, and Hurlbut is marching to the Union left flank. The red markers on Wither's division of Bragg's corps are there to help identify which command they belong to.

View of the Eastern edge of the battle at the same time as above. Breckinridge is preparing to attack Pentriss' division.

Early afternoon. Breckinridge is now facing Hurlbut's division. Pentriss has been forced out of the Hornet's nestby Ruggles. Hardee has been driven back by Wallace, but Wither's then drove Wallace back and captured his guns.

view from the other flank. Cheatham has routed Sherman, but is now exhausted.

2:00PM Union left flank in serious trouble. Pentriss' division would have six morale markers when it took its next morale test. Hurlbut has been pushed back by Breckinridge. Wallace is under pressure from Hardee and Withers, and McClearnand has fallen back.

Sherman has been rallied by Grant. Forrest's cavalry has arrived on the Confederate left flank.

Pentriss has routed. Hurlbut's division is exhausted.

3:00PM final positions at end of game. Due to time restrictions for the meeting place the game was called at 4:00PM. Confederate casualties were 7500. Union casualties were 13000. The Confederates were awarded the victory for doing better than historically. Two additional Union divisions were due to arrive later along with the gunboats.

Eastern Front using Blitzkrieg Commander

Had a game at Dan's house recently.   Dan and Jim commanded the Germans while I commanded the Russians.  The German forces were two infantry battalions supported by a company of Tiger tanks.   The Russians had an infantry regiment with three understrength infantry battalions and a Tank brigade with two battalions of T34/76 tanks, a battalion of T70 tanks and an understrength battalion of tank riders.   Forces were selected by randomly drawing from previously made battle groups.

The Germans were defending with a battalion of 5 infantry, 5 machine gun teams, and supporting mortars on their left and the other battalion with 8 infantry, three machine gun teams, mortars, two tigers and an STGIII on their right.

The Russians infantry arrived on the first turn.   The battalion in the center only getting one move, the one on the right getting two, and the one on the left getting five activations.  The Russian tank brigade arrived on the second turn.  One T34 battalion followed the infantry on the far left, while the other T34 battalion and the T70's advanced up the middle.
On the Russian right the two infantry battalions were able to get the upper hand against the opposing German battalion taking out several machine gun teams and some of the infantry.  Both sides on this flank rolled a blunder during the game.  One of the Russian infantry battalions fell back while the German commander did the same.

In the center the Russian tanks (commanded by Nicolai Hardwoodov) also had a blunder that was to their advantage as they had to advance.  The T70 battalion received the worst of a duel with one of the Tigers and the STG, loosing most of their vehicles.   We removed all destroyed stands during the game instead of marking the destroyed tanks.   If we had marked them there would have been quite a few burning hulks in the middle of the battlefield.

On the Russian left the infantry and the T34 battalion were able to eliminate the Tiger along with some ot the German infantry and advance on the village. At this point Jim had to leave for an appointment and Dan conceded the game.

Dan provided most of the terrain for the game. I provided the villages and the miniatures. The buildings are from the Paperterrain North Russian village set.

German defenders

End of second turn. Russian tanks advancing in the center.

Russian right flank after several turns. Germans have lost half their forces.

Other half of the battlefield. Russians have gained control of the hill on the left.

Pegasus Bridge

Played a PanzerKorps game of the June 7th battle for Pegasus Bridge. The game was umpired by the rules author, Manny Granillo. The British were deployed in the central part of the table. I deployed two battalions on the West side of the canals, three battalions in towns on the East side, one battalion in reserve near the North edge, and the artillery battalion near the center. An FO was placed with the battalion in the Southern town with the church. The Germans attacked with three different Kampfgruppes. One from the West, one from the South, and one from the North. Each KG had four combat battalions and an artillery battalion. KG1 attacking from the West ran into heavy defensive fire and was thrown back. One battalion fled the battlefield.
KG2 arrived a couple of turns later on the Easternmost road on the South edge. After advancing for a few turns, they came under bombardment from the artillery battalion and naval gunfire. The naval gunfire was the result of a random event die roll. Fortunately for the British the forward observer, who was the only one who could direct the fire had a clear view of KG2. All the artillery was on target. Due to each targeted battalion rolling a 1 while being fired upon, resulting, in maximum damage, and then rolling a 2 for morale, all three battalions broke.
Both KG1 and KG2 eventually recovered and advanced again. KG1 was reinforced by an additional battalion. KG3 finally arrived on the Northern edge and the lead battalion of the British forces from the beach also arrived. KG1 again came under heavy fire, with the British re-enforcements attacking them from their rear, and were thrown back a second time. KG3 made slow progress, pounding the Northern village. This finally resulted in the British battalion occupying the town surrendering. Fortunately, the battalion that we had kept in reserve happened to be deployed in the patch of woods next to the town and was able to re-occupy it while the Germans were rounding up the prisoners.
The game ended with a British victory as the Germans were not able to secure control of the bridges before the British relief columns would arrive. Both sub-ordinate commanders on the British side had extremely good luck with the die rolls. Our forces only took minimal damage from the German attacks and were able to regain full effectiveness each turn. The only time luck deserted us was the surrender of the one battalion on the North. This occurred after coming under fire from artillery and three German battalions.
In some ways the game reminded me of the battle of Antietam. Due to random arrival rolls the German KGs attacked one at a time instead of together. This allowed us to direct our artillery on each in turn and drive them back before the next KG was able to attack. Only KG3 was able to avoid receiving enough damage to be driven back
Manny provided the gliders, figures, and much of the scenery. I provided most of the villages, roads, woods and hills. James Poli brought the canals.

Utah Beach Flames of War

Finally participated in a game of Flames of War. This was a what if situation for Utah Beach, where the 12ss Panzer Division was committed early at Utah Beach. So far only three turns have been played and the game is set to resume in the later part of April. At this point the Americans have taken out several of the bunkers and other beach defenses and will be landing additional troops. The 101st Airborne has secured the two inland towns and only a platoon of PZIV's has shown up from the 12th SS. The Americans had one bit of good luck when their airstrike took out three of the four German 105 guns in the center of the table.
The game is being hosted by Greg and the groups website is
http://www.meetup.com/South-Bay-War-Games/

Roman City and Village

I put together a Roman City and a rural village with fields using the Roman Seas buildings. These are only available in 1/300 scale. http://www.romanseas.com/