Take That Hill - A Simple WW2 Wargame

Looking through old conference material from Connections UK I came across this little gem of a game from the Phil Sabin stable called "Take That Hill". A chronological forerunner to his later Fire and Movement game in his Simulating War book (often called Fire-Move in abbreviation by me) it captures the dilemmas a Modern British Army section attack on an entrenched position on a hill has, whether to emphasise the Fire and suppress element of the doctrine or the Move element of the doctrine. Thus the choice between Fire and Move is done on a turn by turn basis dependant on context. There are three phases: Move Fire and then Rally. A unit moves from "fresh" to "spent" after using a Fire or Move action, returning to "fresh" if it "Rallies". The chance of rallying is dependant on the distance from the commander [not a separate counter but a counter assigned to a unit] and an un-rallied "spent" unit cannot do anything. The defender is assumed to stay put and pour fire down on the advancing troops (in a two hex fire spread) if left un-suppressed (aka "fresh"). There are no indirect fire missions available as it a job for the PBI (see below, the initial set-up, three British ("blue") Sections concealed in the woods, with a "red" defender on the hilltop, but what strategy should the attacker adopt? "Blue" goes first!):

Victory Point Trackers, or rather "How to win the game". Of mild interest is "how fast" (as in the number of turns the hill can be taken), but more importantly is how many casualties are inflicted on "Blue" by "Red" in the process. The 'Hill' will always be taken as no "Blue" forces are ever removed. If Blue takes nine or less hits then Blue has won. Between ten and fourteen the battle is considered a 'bloody draw', but casualties of fifteen and over are considered "Phyric" and "Red" wins (see below, a game in progress with the advancing Brits suppressed [but about to rally] in their attempt to "Take the Hill" needing a good dose of "rallying" [anything but a one as the troops are adjacent to their leader]):

End game, the Blue team are about to assault the Red trenches with guts, grenades and cold steel. The final close combat is considered an automatic win for Blue (See below, note the white counter denotes the position of the Blue Commander, in this case on the rearmost Blue unit, he has successfully suppressed the defender with withering fire from two sections so that the third can go in):

Movement: The only thing you really now need to know is that movement is limited to "one hex" forward, backwards or side ways [the Red player not being able to move] and stacking was allowed up to three units (handy as that was the maximum number of units Blue had. Note: The Commander "stacks" for free and was deemed 'indestructible'.

Firing: The "to hit" on a d6 is the range to the target plus one. That means being adjacent to the target is "anything but a one" (those dreaded wargame words) and the maximum shooting distance is five hexes away needing six, aka the Blue tree to the hill defence. Note: When we played the Red player was not allowed to shoot anything in the woods.

Casualties: all units in the hex(es) [up to two adjacent hexes remember] were possible casualties and rolled for separately. When we played we counted a hit on the Blue Commander as counting to the VP tracker. Therefore the worse roll could be all three units and Commander were hit causing four casualties.

Rallying: Units stacked with the Commander "auto-rally", other must make a rally roll akin to the Firing rule. Adjacent units rally on anything but a one, then an increasing chance of failure for every additional hex away. (Keep It Simple [KIS])!

Although it didn't matter in the context of game VPs we liked counting the number of hits on Red too and the number of turns it took to "take the hill"! Last "notes" the Blue Commander could not "move on his own" but had to be attached to a unit, but he could slip between adjacent units (technically potentially moving two hexes in one go - this may have been a bit of a "house rule" we made up).

Despite its simplicity the game is eminently playable and places emphasis on the development of a strategy as opposed to "winging it turn by turn". It is frustratingly good at making you want to tease out a "perfect assault" [zero Blue casualties] which remains depressingly illusive.

Please see these links for the original game details:
http://www.professionalwargaming.co.uk/TakeThatHill-Sabin.pdf

A colour Map version with embedded rules (recommended):
http://professionalwargaming.co.uk/TakeThatHill(RMASVersion).pdf

Please also see the "Introduction to Wargaming" material at:
http://www.professionalwargaming.co.uk/ITW.html

Connections 2014 Retrospective: The Quick 1914 Game

I know the lucky ones have gone to Connections UK 2018 but as part of a retrospective look at Connections UK 2014 I managed to sit down with a friend and finally play the mini-1914 game Phil Sabin did. He had about 50 games going in parallel as part of a mini practical gaming session in 2014. I had not attended so I was keen to "wet my feet" (see below, both sides gets eight playing pieces [I used deluxe Risk counters] a side, each in theory representing an army XXXX, aka three XXXs aka six XX. A hex is 100km across so we are talking a large operation scale - the map is duplicated for each player and played "double-blind". You can move one hex per turn and the game lasts five turns): 

It played so quick (approximately 20 minutes) we repeated each taking the other side on the second go. Note I am not in gloat mode, but I managed a slightly better than history German result (5 VP - Historical was 4 VP) but a smashing French victory (0 VP which is four better than the historical event - managing to rout three German armies). The double blind game certainly made it fun, however it did feel lacking 'user satisfaction' in the depth of complexity offered. It was however stated as an "introductory" level taster which I think it did well.

Phil Sabin's slides and the original game stuff can be found at:
http://www.professionalwargaming.co.uk/2014.html
http://www.professionalwargaming.co.uk/Schlieffen.pdf

A larger variant (including another strip of hexes, the Belgians and twelve XXXX units a side) which is the natural progression in complexity can be found at:
http://www.professionalwargaming.co.uk/Kriegsspiel1914-Sabin.pdf

However I have an eye on playing the Connections UK 2014 Mega Game set-up:
http://www.professionalwargaming.co.uk/Wargaming101fPractical.pdf
http://www.professionalwargaming.co.uk/OpeningGambitComplete.pdf

But you do need a few more bodies for this one!