Rampage on the Rhine- Week 1

Week 1 begins with good weather.

The 2 Roman Legions march towards the closest German villages.

Week Ia

The Usipatti stand and defend their village (they failed any reaction move roll, but would probably have stood their ground anyhow), and are defeated in a battle. Against a full legion, they had little chance. However, they did manage to inflict a 1 Cohort loss on that Legion.

Week Ib

The Germans manage to mobilize the Bructerii and consolidate their forces into more dangerous mobs. The newly arrived Bructerii accept the remanants of the Usipatti in defense of their village. The Tencterii stand by, waiting to either reinforce the Bructerii or attack an isolated Legion.

Week Ic

The Romans continue onward, burning the Usipatti village (gaining VP for the village and destruction of the tribe) and one of the Tencterii villages. The 2 Legions meet in the Bructerii village, and a large battle ensues.
The Germans fight hard, but still lose in the end (always a common theme in this scenario). However, they manage to destroy 2 Cohorts for 2 VP.

Week Id

The Germans regroup and mass all available forces to attack the Legions in the Bructerii village area before they can burn the village to the ground (razing villages occurs at the start of the Roman turn, and its the German turn). The Romans see that this is an opportunity to reduce the German presence in the area, so they stand to and let the Germans  come to them (e.g. they chose to not try any reaction moves).

The battle is large (13 Cohorts, 6 Light Auxillia, 2 Heavy Cavalry versus 28 Warbands, 9 Skirmishers, and 5 Heavy Cavalry). The Germans (being the attackers) have no choice but to attack the Romans. The German Cavalry on the wings causes some consternation, but German valor and anger does not prevail over Roman Discipline and Training.

A disappointing battle from the German perspective, considering the massive casualties (16 warbands, 7 Skirmisher and 4 Heavy Cavalry losses versus 2 Cohorts and 2 Light Auxilia Infantry). The Bructerii are doomed next turn (which is Roman turn IIa).

Victory Totals for the week:
Romans: 3 (with  2 more coming next turn after the Bructerii village is burned)
Germans: 5

Rampage on the Rhine.



I've re-started a Roman mini-campaign of Rampage on the Rhine.  This uses my DSR Ancients rules (units sizes are 1 Cohort, 1 Warband, 1 Heavy Cav, etc) for field battles. Maneuver to battle occurs on the campaign map.



The Situation at Start

The Germans have become frisky and have started raiding into Roman territory again. To punish them, the Romans have assembled 2 Legions with auxillary support and have 1 month (8 bi-weekly turns) to destroy as many villages and enemy tribes as possible without losing too much themselves in the process.

There are seven tribes that have to be conquered. At start, the only 2 tribes mobilized are the Usipatti and Tencterii. Each turn the German player can attempt to mobilize 1 tribe. Its a race to mobilize enough forces to impede the Romans before they burn the villages (and therefore neutralize that tribe).

At Start:
Romans: 2 Legions, each consisting of 8 Cohorts each, 3 Auxillia Light units, and 1 Auxillia Heavy Cavalry unit.
Germans: The mobilized tribes of the Tencterii and the Usipatti (randomly determined, but roughly 8-10 Warbands, 3-5 Skirmish Infantry and 1-2 Heavy Cavalry per village).

The Germans will eventually have more troops, but it will take time to get them all together. The Roman has the advantage of concentration (and of course the fact they are Roman !). The German player has to play for time and inflict as many casualties on the Roman Cohorts/Heavy Cavalry as possible while preventing the destruction of their villages/tribes.

VPs are awarded as follows:
Romans:
+1 per village destroyed.
+1 per tribe destroyed (e.g. all their villages destroyed).

Germans:
+1 per Cohort/Heavy Cavalry unit destroyed.
+1 if they win a field battle.

At the end of the game, compare the VPs to each other.
The side that scores > 6 more than the other side is the decisive winner.
The side that scores > 3 more than the other side is the marginal winner.
Any other result is a draw (and the border wars will continue), but bragging rights go the the higher VP total.

In my experience, the Romans win almost all the field battles but have a hard time garnering enough points for a decisive win as they steadily lose more units to the seemingly inexhaustable Germans. Its good for generating several battles of decent size.

I'll keep you posted on the results from the campaign.

Thoughts on spicing up the pre-battle (setup) sequence for medieval/ancient games

We've all done it many times before (especially in Ancients/Medievals)- both sides setup their army on their side of the board (usually the longest side) and have at it with one another over the course of the battle in a meeting engagement. But, other than specialist scenarios (like an ambush), this is the commonest way to setup a battlefield.

But what if there were pre-battle turns that could influence the setup process or modify some of the command rules (assuming you do use some sort of command and control rules) ? As an extra bonus, this could be a good way to vary campaign battles between 2 armies.

I've used a number of systems to create "friction" in command and control, so maybe it is time to for me to use a system whereby setup "friction" can be modeled after. All of the ideas here are not original, I'm sure, but sometimes the best ideas are almost univeral. So if I am just re-inventing the wheel (or seem to be plagarizing) I am sorry.

I've decided to call the system Pre-Battle Stress. Without getting into the specifics of how it influences my minaiture rules (a home-brew set called "DSR Mass Battle"), I'll try to keep the descriptions as general as possible so you can apply it to your own ruleset.

In general, each army has a pool of 6 Army Initiative Cards. They consist of various amounts of Observe(O), Advance (A), Defend (D), and Flank (F) cards. Each side also has a Re-Organize (R) card.

A Byzantine army, for example might consist of 2 Observe, 1 Advance, 1 Defend and 1 Flank Card. A Seljuk Turkish army might consist of 2 Observe, 1 Advance, 0 Defend and 3 Flank Cards.

At the start of the campaign turn (or turn where 2 armies are fighting for an area) they each secretly pick one card and reveal it. Based on what they have chosen, the result may be no battle, one side with a setup advantage, command advantage, terrain advantage or some combination of these three.

If after 3 "No Battle" results, the campaign turn ends as both sides have successfully growled at each other but never came to blows. This may allow a side that was awaiting reinforcement to be able to recieve them.

Once a card is played, it cannot be used again. A Reorganize(R) card returns all the cards to a player's hand after the current battle (if any) is fought. This can result in something VERY bad if the other side elects to do something other than Reorganize (R) or Observe (O).. Or, in other words the more cards that are played without an (R), the less flexibility a side has.

Here's the chart that applies to my rules and includes all the armies I have:


The Chart (click to enlarge)

 The end result is create some interesting "at start" and setup conditions outside the normal. It also works well to vary up quick area campaign games (Armies fight over an area or zone, and if the winner gains that zone).

Of course, you will have to modify the results based on the ruleset you use. I'm thinking of expanding upon this more to include even more options.

As always, let me know what you think  !

My new way of After Action Reporting

I'm trying an experiment in AAR (After Action Reporting) for my Ancients. I've come up with a different way of doing it with a simple Visio template and some elbow grease.

The Scenario is a Byzantine vs Seljuk rading force that has been brought to bay, using my DSR Mass Battle rules.

The Byzantines:
1 x Cataphract Cavalry (12 cavalry)
2 x Kaveleroi (24 cavalry)
2 x Spear Infantry (32 infantry)
4 x Skirmish Javelin (32 infantry in 8 subunits)

Seljuk Turks:
3 x Cavalry (36 cavalry)
2 x Sword Infantry (24 infantry)
2 x Spear Infantry (24 infantry)
3 x Skirmish Cavalry (24 figs in 6 subunits)

The Seljuk loot is just off the board to the North (top) of the map and is the reason they just can't run away.

Of course, each side has an army leader that is attached to a unit of that side's choice for the battle (indicated on the map by the name followed by an asterix).


Initial Dispositions

The Byzantine plan is to base its infantry on woods H6 and try to use missile fire to discomfit the Seljuk infantry (they are weaker than the Byzantine in armor and in numbers per unit). The cavalry is to stay alert for opportunities to counter the Seljuk Cavalry. The leader is present with the Cataphracts.

The Seljuk plan is try to overwhelm the Byzantine Left by taking 2 cavalry units around woods H6. The Cataphracts are better cavalry, and the Kaveleroi are equivalent to the Seljuk cavalry. The leader is positioned with the 3rd cavalry unit able to intervene on either flank as needed.

Both sides sent forth their skirmishers to little effect as the Seljuks swung around woods H6 and positioned themselves to start raining arrows down upon the cataphracts (who would reply in kind). The Byzantines managed to anchor their line on the woods, and the Seljuk infantry slogged forward.

The first clash

By turn 3, both sides came together. The Cataphracts shrug off the arrow storm (as expected) but do little damage to the Seljuks. The skirmisher screens set to on each other, neither side gaining the upper hand.

The Byzantines bend

The Seljuks close with the Cataphracts and he is forced to bring over one of the Kaveleroi for support. The plan is now to defeat the Seljuk cavalry flank attack as quick as possible. The Byzantine right flank is moved back. Meanwhile, the infantry comes into contact with each other, with the lighter Seljuks coming off the worse, but passing their morale checks with flying colors.

The Seljuk flank attack defeated

By turn 6, the Seljuk cavalry flank attack has been repulsed (albeit at a higher cost to the Cataphracts and Kaverleroi than desired) and they have to clean up the last Seljuk cavalry unit there before swinging back to the sagging Byzantine right flank. The Byzantine Spears are holding their own, but taking losses nonetheless as they are forced slowly back. The cavalry on the right flank holds back as the skirmishers go to work on each other.

End game approaching

The Seljuk cavalry on the flank and the Kaveleroi manage to run each other off, leaving the reduced Cataphracts to hurry off to help the Byzantine flank. And just in time, as the Seljuk cavalry (with the leader) have pressed the Kaveleroi on that flank and routed them. At this moment, fate intervenes, and a stray arrow catches the Byantine leader (with the Cataphracts) through his facemask, killing him. The Cataphracts scatter, taking with them the hard-pressed Kaveleroi. With this, the Byzantines reach their Army break point and lose.

All in all, it was an interesting game that came down to near the end (the Seljuks rolled well on their morale checks while the Byzantines rolled average otherwise the Byzantines should have won). The skirmisher screens were a wash until the end, when the Seljuks got lucky killing the Byzantine leader.

If there was one thing the Seljuks should've done was to put their leader with the flanking movement (he increases melee and morale checks). Byzantine Cataphracts can be a beast to bring down. Getting into a shooting match with them should've been a losing propostion, but was neccesary to allow the infantry time to close with the Byzantines. 

It took almost as long to create this post as it was to play the game (a little over an hour), as the upload time on blogger was very slow. I like reading AARs myself, and the clearer they are, the better.

Let me know what you think of the style !

Counters for the dead

Back



Front



When I was a kid, when I'd wargame, I'd knock the (plastic) figures down to indicate it had become a casualty. Of course, knocking down 15mm painted metal figures (on bases no less) is not an option, and I  always felt something was missing from my skirmish battles.

The thing that was missing was body markers.



I mount all my figures on individual metal bases, so I can group them on larger magnet movement trays as needed for whatever rule-set I want to use. This also allows me to remove figures as casualties. This system is flexible enough to fit all my needs.

I used 3/4" magnet strips (magnetized on only 1 side) cut to the size of 1 figure. On the magnet side is a color (for which side the figure belongs to) and unit ID (to seperate the unit). The side color is important because a lot of figures (especially 15mm) look alot alike when all massed up and fighting one another. On the backside is a depiction of a  horse or man (dead of course).

 

With the small movement bases the figures stand up (the metal base is pretty small- I wanted as small a footprint as possible to allow maximum flexibility on my movement trays) easily, and the figure clings to the base. When the figure dies, I remove the figure and flip the base. Voila ! Instant casualty marker. 

After the battle, you can see the course of the action by the trail of casualty markers. It kind of adds a conversational centerpiece when cleaning up for the next battle !

Geomorphic Hex Maps

I've been working on hex-shaped geomorphic hex maps for some of my games (from PB/PL/AIW to a larger hex size for my ancient and ww2 stuff).

Here is a sample of a wooded hill (it will fit on a 8.5" x 11" full sheet label so I can mount it on cardboard). It appears dark printed as is so I lighten up all but the grid 20% before printing. .

This is a 1.25" hex grid

The roads can be made to go at the halfway down the hex flat while streams will originate off the vertexes.

I'll post some more examples when do a few roads and streams......


[LATER POST]

Here's the same hex with a road added and the outline for the hilltop added in:

The overhanging road will be cut off after print

I'll see what I can do to add a stream to the hex....

Slow posting at the moment....

Sorry to have been a little behind on new posts of late, but I'm working on a geomorphic map system for the boardgame version of my miniature rules.....

I've also started a Roman/Barbarian "Rampage on the Rhine" campaign- we've fought through the 1st  2 battles. I'll try to post some pictures and descriptions this week.

As always Stay Tuned !

The War to End All Wars....

A few years ago, a friend of mine came up with some fantastic 3" trench hexes and barbed wire for 15mm World War I games. I made some simple rules (2 pages of rules) and they appeared to be fun (from input from the players), as well as fast (games play usually in under an hour).

The current board and pre-set up. A typical "squad" is at the bottom of the picture.

The premise is simple- you and up to 2 other players are German night trench raiders. You are in a race to garner more points than the other players. The players are to take their squads (10 men and 2 leaders) to kill as many of the enemy (in this case it was French) and take bunkers before they reach less than 50% strength (after which they are considered to have withdrawn). In addition, each player has 6 grenades and 2 medical packs to help accomplish their task.

Why are the attackers German ? Simply because I have lots more painted French and British and only a few Germans painted up. It also let me call the rules "Stahlgewittern" (Storm of Steel)- named after the book by Ernst Jünger as it seemed appropriate.
 
The trench consists of MG positions (4 in front), regular trench line, and bunkers (from where large amounts of enemies may come). The lighter ? markers are potential spots where enemies can be activated (usually 1-3 riflemen). The red ? markers are bunkers (usually 9-12 figures) and MG nests (usually MG, but may be composed of 3 riflemen).

The attackers each take a set of 3 consecutive shell holes and setup in these on the other side of the wire. After setup, I roll to see if there are gaps in the wire, which can influence the paths the attackers have to take to get into the trench.

The defenders (the French) are controlled by die rolls and a simple logic tree. They are activated by being in range of the attackers or a grenade attack. Their actions range from firing at a target (it is nighttime, so the range is limited to visibility), charging down the trench, to throwing grenades.

There are events in the game that can happen. It consists of things like "starshell", which increases the visibility to the length of the board and "returning enemy patrol", which appears on a particular player's shellholes as they work themselves back to their lines.

As the game progresses, the player's troops take wounds that can be healed by medical packs. Of course, there is also the chance of instant death instead of wounding. Leaders help in getting players to charge enemies and to be able to fire at enemies charging at them as the defender will charge a lot when you are in his trench. This tends to create wild melee's that are always exciting to resolve.

As soon as a player reaches less than 50% active troops, he is out of the game. The other players keep going until they also reach 50%. After all player's have been eliminated, all points are totaled up (kills, bunkers uncovered, MGs destroyed). The highest scorer wins !

Its a fun, fast and furious game and has a small footprint to carry to a convention. Maybe someday I'll get more Germans painted up and be able to use the French or British for the raid....

Conclusion AAR to "Stalingrad Interlude"

Where the Iron Crosses Grow

New AAR in Where the Iron Crosses Grow

Where the Iron Crosses Grow

Some rubbled buildings....

I've been re-reading Island of Fire from Leaping Horseman Books about the battle around the Red Barricades factory (they have some of the best books on the subject in the business), so I figured I needed to make some buildings (out of cardstock) so I can do some 15mm Stalingrad battles.

I've got about 1/2 of the number of buildings I need.

Not quite enough buildings yet....

I've got the templates down so that I can easily create inner-outer walls and the process down on how to print them on a single side and fold them over to create inner and outer walls easily. For mere pennies I can create rubbled buildings in any configuration I choose to (they have to fit my 3 inch hex grid).

Now I have to just make about 15-20 more......

Creating Hex Grids

I've received a few emails asking how I generate my grids I use for my wargame maps, so I figured I'd show you. I use a small program I wrote in VBA (for Visio).

The parameters

I made a 1" hex shape in Visio and saved it as my base shape. It is this shape, along with the hexdot and label that is the basis for all the grids.

All I have to do is scale the hex based on what size I need (1 = 1 inch, 1.5 = 1.5 inch etc) and the math takes care of itself as it generates the grid.

I can input a page size and it will automatically calculate how many hexes will fit completely on that page at that page size.

The hexes themselves can be with or without label, hex dot, or hex outline as desired.

The grid itself can oriented normally or 90 degrees and I can make the odd (1st row) higher than the 2nd or vice versa. It also centers the whole grid on the page and automatically generates the proper layers for the shapes (layers help when adding things later, like terrain, etc and allows a quick change to all items on that layer).

All in all, it is a simple and decently fast program (although it will take awhile to make a grid of 1/2" hexes on a 40" x 40" sheet though) and allows me to create grids of any size I need, along with their labels.

New After Action Report is up

I've completed the AAR for scenario 3 at Where the Iron Crosses Grow.

Enjoy !

Endgame posted in "WtICG"

I've posted the endgame (anti-climatic as it was) in "Where the Iron Crosses Grow" here WtICG

Part II of Solo Scenario 2 at "Where the Iron Crosses Grow"

Part 2 AAR is up.

New post in "Where the Iron Crosses Grow"

I've put the 1st part the next solo scenario up in my AAR page.

Enjoy !

Computer Crash !

Sorry for lack of posting (I've got another AAR for "Where the Iron Crosses Grow") but my laptop dumped on me.

I hope to get it back and running soon.....

Some Trenches...

I figured that since I'm on a roll making terrain, I needed some trench parts. Presto ! Its amazing what you can get done when you put your head to it.....

Now I can make that 15mm "Bunker Busting" scenario.....

Some new terrain to use

I made some railroad tracks so I can incorporate that kind of terrain into my ww2 game.

Maybe I can create an event where a train actually pulls up (as a reinforcement event :D).

I hope to get to use it soon....

A not so peaceful interlude....

I've completed solo campaign scenario #2, but for a quick interlude I have jumped in the time machine to 1944 to test my rules with some later war armor. These are using my rules described in "Where Iron Cross Grow" narrative section.

I devised a simple scenario to see how some later war German and US armor plays out.

The situation is somewhere in France after the breakout from the beaches. An experienced platoon of 4 Shermans is heading down a road and is ambushed by a Tiger and a Pz IV. The Germans are suffering from scarce ammo, so there is a better than normal chance they may run out of AP rounds ! I won't detail the shot by shot basis but give the action in general.

The situation at the start.

The 1st two Shermans have just forded a shallow stream while the other 2 provide overwatch. The Germans have a hull down Pz IV on the hill and a Tiger in the woods to the top of the map.

German initial shots are good and manage to penetrate both Shermans on their side of the stream, but their penetration rolls are not so good. The Shermans are not destroyed, but immobilized and shocked (I forgot to apply the "brew up" rules to these guys and it might have made a difference- so much for being the rules writer !).

The cards favor the Americans, and they manage to recover enough to throw some Willie Pete (White Phosphorous) on the Tiger, causing him to button up and partially blinding it. They also manage to get their other Shermans across the river and heading south of the hill thanks to a generous Initiative Card pull.

The German reaction is sluggish (they didn't get much reaction time) and the US response has been top notch (The WP vs the Tiger is a great move and something with the American preponderance in that area should use a LOT). The Pz IV vacates the hill and retreats toward the Tiger, while the Tiger fails to do anything meaningful (they failed their MC to rally the shock) as it sorts itself out from the shock of being WPed with the turret open.

The Pz IV retreats while the Tiger tries to get its stuff together.

The Tiger finally gets a shot off and kills one of the immobile Shermans near the stream. The Pz IV and Shermans moving through the village trade a few shots with it as it retreats north through the town. The Pz IV (and German) luck runs out (bad initiative cards again) and its destroyed scuttling away.

Meanwhile the Tiger finally puts paid to the other Sherman immobilized near the stream, but the Shermans approaching from the now-vacated town (oh for some hidden infantry with Panzerfausts !) manage to immobilize it in return. The crew panics and abandons it. The US has won.

All in all, an enjoyable little fracas that played out in about 10 game time minutes.

I figure I'd show an example of AFV cards I use for this game (they are laminated so I can note things on them such as Armor Leader, ammo loss, armor degradation due to extra damage, etc).

As noted I forgot to apply the brew up rules for the Shermans, and it might have made a difference, but the Germans never seemed to get the cards. Unrealistic ? Maybe. Fun ? Definitely......

Finished with scenario 1

Scenario 1 of my 15mm ww2 campaign is done and written up in 3 parts over in my narratives over in the "Where the Iron Crosses Grow" blog.

Changes...

Ive resurrected my after action report and added a (temporary) Products and Services page.

Some changes to my blog...

As you can see, I've made a few changes to my blog. More are coming, so stay tuned !

Road and Stream templates

I've created some more templates for my base map I posted yesterday.

First, the roads (this is a small portion at about 50% size because the bitmap is so large):












Second, I have the 1st stream templates (they follow the hex spine and spill into the adjacent hexes in my rules) at about 50% size.

Now I have to come up with some fields !

A new hex grid base map

I use hexes a lot for my miniature games, as they speed the games up a lot- not having to measure things with a tapemeasure or yardstick is a definite speed increase !


As such, I've been experimenting on creating a new base map for my 3" hex games. This is a small part of the whole piece (I print it on 36" x 50" or so) that I can lay out with any other map of that type so I can get field size I want in any hex-grain direction.








I've also been working on some hills templates for these which I can cut out (I've cut this image down 25% so it wouldn't make as big a file) :











And while I was at it, I figured I'd try to see if I could make some decent tree templates as well:







I'm not sure about the tree template yet, but I will use some of the hills for my WW2 15mm ruleset. I hope to post some pictures soon, so stay tuned.