More terrain for Calais

I recently rediscovered some old maps that had emerged from the garage of my in-laws' house when it was being sold. It turned out that they were 1/100,000 scale British War Department maps dating back to 1915.  

The one covering the Calais area gives a pretty good idea of the terrain fought over by 10th Panzer Division and 3RTR on 23rd May 1940, which happens to be the subject of my game for Joy of Six next year.

Using a suitably sized paper mask to mark out the table area I came up with this.

I'll probably simplify the terrain somewhat but I did want to have a shot at modelling the area (top right) of fields divided by drainage ditches.

I started off with a suitably sized offcut of PVC board. I chamfered the edges and then painted on the field shapes in Modpodge before scattering on sand. When this was dried I sealed the sand in place with another layer of Modpodge.

When this had dried I painted the ditches black (and varnished them) and did
the fields in a couple of shades of brown.

The fields then got another coat of Modpodge onto which I scattered fine flock, a couple of shades of green on most of the fields but a coarser yellow material on one of them. The whole was then sealed in place by dripping on watered down Modpodge and allowing capillary action to carry it through the flock.

Finally the fields received a fifth and final coat of Modpodge (slightly watered down this time) onto which static grass was added using an applicator. I worked one field at a time so the glue was still wet when the static grass was applied.

And I used two shades of static grass for a bit of variety.

The two brighter green fields are the same static grass on different shades of underlying flock. There's actually a very subtle difference in colour at the end of the process but it's not obvious in the photo.

I have some stand-alone ditches made from strips of Poundland floor tile but I think this integrated module gives a better look.

Homemade TacWWII markers

The TacWWII rules originally came with an A4 sheet of tiny (7mm x 4mm) counters for you to cut out and use with the game. They were printed on bright green thin card and although there were more than you'd ever need of each type, they were fiddly to use and surprisingly visually intrusive in game photos.

I'd always thought these counters could be replaced with something more visually attractive. My return to the rules came at a time when I had a 3D printer. Creating counters was a first chance to learn some basic 3D design skills with Tinkercad. The result was a comprehensive set of markers for the game.

Mode Counters

In TacWWII each company is in a "Mode" that reflects the tactical stance of the company and its component platoons. For example, we can imagine that a platoon within a company in Bold Attack Mode probably has two of its sections advancing while the third is giving covering fire or watching for enemy  reactions.

My Mode counters are in different shapes to help with recognition from a distance. The March Mode marker is column shaped with a puff of cotton wool to represent dust kicked up by the fast-moving units.

The Prepared Defence markers are prism-shaped and painted in brick red. I like to think of them being used by units hunkered down behind the rubble of part-demolished buildings.

Tinkercad doesn't support to use of textures so my markers were painted with Modpodge and sprinkled with sand before being painted and dry-brushed. A little flock helps them blend in with the terrain.

This late war German Pankzerkompanie is advancing in Bold Attack Mode.

My own additions to the rules include some additional functions for recce units. This Soviet tank HQ gets plus one on its Tac rolls this turn as a result of information provided by an armoured car patrol. The singly-based figure reminds us of this.

Marking Casualties

In general with a 6mm scale game where a single unit represents a platoon spread over hundreds of square metres, there's no need to keep knocked-out units on the table. However, in TacWWII it's useful to have a reminder, at the end of the turn, which units' loss triggers a morale check. In addition, units can be Neutralised - they don't fight but can test at the end of the turn to recover. I show these with markers made from paint-dyed cotton wool on small card bases.

The same Panzer IV company is now in Deliberate Attack Mode. They have had one platoon KO'd (marked with fire and smoke) and one Neutralised (marked with kicked-up dust). They will test at -6 (for two-thirds casualties) at the end of the turn at which point the destroyed platoon and its marker will be removed.

Morale Status Markers

This British tank squadron from 11th Armoured Division has lost one of its three Comet troops and had another Neutralised. The resulting morale test has seen them receive a "Halt" result.

Later in the battle (the destroyed troops having been removed) they suffer a "Retire" result. Note that one troop is still Neutralised. In my interpretation of the rules they do withdraw despite the usual prohibition on Neutralised units moving.

Locating the Enemy

Spotting in TacWWII is subject to a Tac roll. Better-trained troops have a better chance of spotting enemy units at distance. Experience shows that it's really helpful to track which units have passed their spotting Tac roll. The "Loc" marker shows that this Panzer IV company is fully alert. Being in Defence Mode they've also been successful in adopting hull-down positions along the ridge line.

Artillery Fire

I've printed out and laminated some markers in the correct size for one, two or three batteries firing. The explosion marker was made years ago from some kind of modelling clay and hamster bedding!

Digging In

Speaking of defensive positions, I've recently (inspired by Andy Taylor) created some markers for dug-in infantry. 

I printed some parapet shapes (30mm wide to match the frontage of my infantry platoons) and stuck them to thin card (cut from old business cards) before adding sand for texture and painting. This way I don't need dug-in duplicates of each unit type.

During the Approach March

We'll sometimes want to move companies with a single marker before battle is joined. This can speed up the early stages of the game but can also add some useful fog of war. These 3D printed "company blinds" are marked on the rear with a letter that can be keyed to the player's Order of Battle sheet. Here we a see an undetected company approaching some peat cuttings.

Finally, it can also be useful to know which tank platoons are carrying infantry on their rear decks. My "tank rider" markers use the same thin card I used in the "dug-in" markers, suitable figures and the gauge of card I use for unit bases to make a channel into which the tank unit base can sit.

When battle is joined the tank rider markers will be replaced by conventional infantry bases.

On the workbench

I've been fairly busy over the last couple of weeks with a wide variety of modelling projects, fully illustrating my usual magpie-like approach to the hobby.

For Gangs of Rome I decided I'd like some Roman manhole covers. Access points to sewers and underground locations (I'm being careful to avoid spoilers here) appear in at least two of Lyndsey Davies's Marcus Didius Falco books and I wanted the option to include them in games. A little Googling found some images...

I played around with Tinkercad and managed to produce some approximations. I then stuck the prints to thin plasticard and added my usual Milliput crazy paving round them.

Suitably painted I think they're OK but I'll probably ditch the contrasting stone colour.

Also recently printed was this 1/300th scale Hungarian Air Force Me109:

Not brilliant but it'll do the job when my Magyars need fighter support.

Finally, I'm in the process of completing a second unit of Prussian dragoons for the 1812 campaign. Pictures of these when they're finished but I'm also playing with left-over parts to make a Sharp Practice Deployment Point. 

Not sure why the trumpeter is on foot while the rest of them are fighting; maybe his horse was killed?

Another TacWWII marker

I had a play around on Tinkercad yesterday and designed a new marker for TacWWII:

Sized at 75mm x 40mm, these company markers can potentially fill two functions.

Having spent ages advancing infantry companies through the dense forests of Manchuria in a recent game, I thought it would be useful to just have one base to move, specifically when the troops concerned were nowhere near the enemy.

In addition they could act as blinds allowing for limited intelligence as to enemy strength. Each marker carries an identifying letter on the rear.

These letters can be used to identify particular companies on the order of battle sheet. The opposing player will be kept in the dark as to unit type until the company can be detected (though speed of movement may give some clues!)

Kamikaze Tank Destruction Teams

The Approach to Mutanchiang scenario called for the use of special suicide teams of anti-tank troops by the Japanese. 

Here are the rules I drafted for the purpose.

Any company that has an attached Kamikaze Tank Destruction Team may, once per game, launch a "human bullet" (nikuhaku kōgeki) attack subject to a successful Tac roll.

The attack must be declared at the start of any Fire Phase during which the parent company is able to fire. The range of the attack is the movement distance of an infantry element in Bold Attack Mode in the appropriate terrain, measured from any element of the parent company. Note that the parent company can be in any Mode that allows firing (PD, D, DT, DA or BA).

It's not necessary to have figures representing the team but feel free to make some! The path from the parent unit to the target platoon should be indicated and the enemy may fire at them, treating them as a soft target, with any unit able to detect them and fire in the current Fire Phase.

The team ignores Neutralised combat results. If they are not destroyed, they attack the targeted unit counting as Assault Engineers (4/1).

After the attack the team is removed from play without any negative impact on the morale of the parent company. However, if the team is destroyed by enemy fire during the attack, a Company Morale Test is triggered (although the team does not count towards percentage losses).

Note that the TacWWII rules already allow for infantry units making attacks against hard targets with "grenades and heroism". No specific range is given in the rules for these attacks. My proposal is that they may be made if the attackers ended the Movement Phase in contact with the target or if the target passed within 1cm of the attacking unit during the Movement Phase. I'd suggest that these attacks may be made in addition to "human bullet" attacks.

The Approach to Mutanchiang

Over the the last few days I've gradually played through my solo version of Bob Mackenzie's Mutanchiang scenario adapted for TacWWII.

The scenario has a Soviet combined-arms force attacking along a valley with the aim of capturing the village of Ssutaoling and clearing Japanese forces from the valley. 

We begin with most of the attacking Soviet rifle regiment deployed in the woods with a tank brigade arriving on their right flank. A somewhat reinforced Japanese infantry battalion opposes them.

A fierce firefight erupted in the woods as the Soviet infantry (green ovals) needed only to make a single move for their lead companies to close with their Japanese opposite numbers (red ovals) in the woods. These particular Japanese were dug in but had failed the Tac roll to start the game in Prepared Defence Mode. The result was both sides losing one platoon and the Japanese company and one of the two Soviet companies getting Halt morale results. Because the other Soviet company remained in Bold Attack, a Neutralised Japanese platoon surrendered.

On their extreme left flank, the Japanese regimental HQ's 75mm gun engaged the ongoing Soviet armour (green arrow) but to no effect. Return fire from an ISU-122 platoon destroyed the gun and the resulting morale check saw the Japanese RHQ forced to retire.

The second game turn began with the arrival of air support for both sides. First a flight of Soviet Il-2s attempted to bomb the Japanese company on the extreme right flank. The bombs missed but by chance they hit and neutralised the rightmost platoon of the neighbouring company in the woods.

Meanwhile a kamikaze attack by a Mitsubishi Zero occurred on the opposite flank. Tasked with taking out an ISU-122 platoon, the Japanese pilot failed badly! The Japanese regimental HQ was retreating down the road in the face of the Soviet armour and our pilot, though imbued with the spirit of Bushido, mistook the limbered gun platoon for tanks. 

I don't have a Japanese horse team so a generic wagon
model had to stand in. 

On game turn 3 the Soviet armour closed with and destroyed the Japanese company on the left flank. The Japanese had failed their rolls to deploy kamikaze tank killer teams.

By this stage the Japanese battalion's morale was such that all of its component companies had "Halt" morale results but this was no great problem as they were happy in their entrenchments.

Game turn 5 saw the Soviet armour swing round to fire upon Ssutaoling while the infantry continued slogging through the woods.

With two companies now lost (one to the tanks and the other in the woods) the Japanese battalion now received a "Retire" morale test result. At this point I thought the game was over but it was not to be.

Two game turns later (the soonest it could possibly have occurred) the Japanese regimental commander managed to transmit new orders to his remaining companies. "Retake Ssutaoling or die trying!" was the instruction.

On game turn 8 the 479th Guards SU Regiment (two ISU-122 platoons; Soviet self-propelled gun regiments were company-sized units at this point in the war) entered Ssutaoling at the same time as elements of both of the two remaining Japanese companies. 

The resulting exchange of grenades and HE shells saw one SU platoon destroyed and the other Neutralised and both Japanese units pinned down ("Halt" morale results). I'd have expected the remaining SU crews to surrender but because Halted companies go into Confused Mode, there were no suitable infantry to capture them and they remained somewhat incongruously parked in the built-up area.

On game turn 9 the Japanese 126th Raiding battalion arrived on the road alongside the railway line.

The situation in Ssutaoling remained unchanged with neither side's morale status allowing for the moves that might resolve matters.

Two Soviet tank companies were in a position to fire on the village but boggy ground to their front prevented them advancing while lack of space and Japanese fire made it difficult for the accompanying SMG troops to assault the position.

By game turn 12 the newly arrived raiding battalion (accompanied by a mixed tank company - one platoon each of Chi-Ha and Ha-Go) had fanned out to attack the right flank of the Soviets. The tanks were no match for T-34/85sthough and both platoons were quickly lost. Japanese morale held on this occasion.

With a whole Japanese battalion converging on them, the Soviet SMG companies were looking exposed. Sure enough they took sufficient casualties to trigger a cascade of morale tests that saw the whole tank battalion forced to retire.

With the tanks in retreat and Japanese heavy artillery interdicting the only route into the village that didn't require wading though flooded fields, I decided there was no chance of the Soviets achieving their objectives in the remaining five turns. The Battle of Ssutaoling was a Japanese victory on this occasion!

The end:
A - 126th Raiding Battalion advancing towards Ssutaoling
B - Japanese heavy guns interdict the road junction
C - Japanese infantry reoccupy Ssutaoling
D - A Soviet rifle company is checked by the artillery
while behind them ISUs and tank riders retire

In retrospect, the amount of woods and boggy ground on the valley floor makes it a bit of a slog for the Soviets to get their forces into position. This is not helped by the fact that in TacWWII MMG platoons move more slowly than their rifle-armed buddies and all of the Soviet rifle companies have a mixture of both. With the woods counting as Heavy Going, an MMG platoon in the woods moves 2.5cm per turn even in March Mode out of sight of the enemy.

Rules wise, I came away with a couple of additions:

I was happy with my draft Kamikaze Tank Killer rules (I'll post them here later). 

I'm going to make it a house rule that companies with mixed-speed platoons (e.g. fast and medium tanks, or rifle- and MMG platoons) can comply with the Modes' minimum move distances by electing to move at the speed of the slower elements. This will avoid having companies increasingly spread out as they advance.

Manchuria 1945

I'm planning on another game of TacWWII this weekend with a solo play-though of Bob Mackenzie's Approach to Mutanchiang scenario. Here's the setup.

Conversion from Bob's Command Decision scenario to TacWWII reduces the table size from 8'x4' to 4'x2'; small enough to fit on the plan chest in my workshop.

The village of Ssutaoling is the only built-up area on the map. I decided to represent it with a little homemade village module:

It's one of three I made from modelling clay when one of Mark Bevis's articles in the SOTCW Journal required some Korean villages. That must be about thirty years ago!

Battle of Mokre, August 1944

On Saturday, Phil and Andy came over to Stately Counterpane Manor to play the latest of my TacWWII adaptations of Bob Mackenzie's Great Patriotic War scenarios. The Battle of Mokre is a brigade-sized action during the August 1944 fighting in southern Poland.

The battlefield (at TacWWII's 1cm = 40m ground scale) is just 4 feet by 2.5 feet so the game fit very comfortably on the kitchen table.

The terrain is, I think, largely self-evident in the picture above with the possible exceptions that the pale linear features are ridge lines blocking line of sight (mostly - in some case there is line of sight across a ridge line from one that is deemed to be higher) and the beige-coloured rectangles bottom right are flooded meadows.

Our German player (Phil) began with a battalion (I/64 Panzergrenadier Regiment) holding Jablonice and an armoured battlegroup (KG Collin) advancing either side of the major ridge to the right of Mokre. 

Andy, as the Soviet commander, had 52nd Guards Tank Brigade in and around Mokre, 53rd Brigade on the left-hand side of the table below the woods, and 289th Rifle Regiment coming on behind them. Additional Soviet forces would arrive as determined by a die roll each turn. 

Contrary to what the designations above might suggest, in reality none of these Soviet formations was above what most armies would consider peacetime battalion strength. For example, here's 53rd Guards Tank Brigade advancing towards Jablonice:

There's the Brigade HQ, a platoon of T-34s with tank riders, and a platoon of IS-2s. They are approaching some outlying elements of I/64 Panzergrenadier Regiment:

Kampfgruppe Collin was forced by the scenario to deploy astride the ridgeline near Mokre. This would leave half of their tank platoons in a position where they could be fired upon by the ambushing 52nd Guards Tank Brigade. Phil decided to put his under-strength Panzer IV battalion in the "shop window".

Unfortunately for Andy the component units of 62nd Guards Tank Brigade were not properly alert as the Panzers passed in front of them. Only one of their company-sized battalions managed to spot the enemy and fire at the first opportunity. Although one Panzer IV platoon was knocked out, Phil elected not to return fire. This avoided keeping the transiting Panzers hidden from the sleepy Soviet tank gunners throughout the first turn.

The action had previously begun with the arrival of a flight of Il-2 Sturmovik. Andy's Bf-109s were able to intercept them and shoot them down. Subsequently, a flight of La-5FN fighters showed up. They engaged some SdKfz 251s but to no effect.

On the second game turn the Soviets again received the maximum in air support while the Luftwaffe was conspicuous by its absence. One of KG Collin's Panzergrenadier platoons was put out of action.

A light SU Regiment with SU-85s appeared alongside 52nd Tank Brigade. Although they didn't contribute any effective hits, their arrival seemed to wake up the nearby tankers. The German Panzer IV battalion was wiped out but the Kampfgruppe's overall morale held despite the losses.

One turn three 51st Tank Brigade arrived through Kurozweki...

... whilst their compatriots of the 52nd and 53rd Brigades engaged the enemy armour. 

The centre of the board saw an increasingly complex melée between converging armoured units. By the end of game turn 6 KG Collin had been broken and 52nd Tank Brigade was reduced to the strength of two platoons, albeit one of them was a powerful IS-2 unit. 

By the seventh turn of the game the Soviets had received all of their expected reinforcements. Perhaps key were the headquarters units of two off-table artillery regiments. With these manoeuvered into position, the Soviets would be able at leisure to bombard Jablonice. 

With our available time used up, the opinion was that the eventual result would be a victory to the Soviets but a pretty Pyrrhic one; certainly not the easy triumph they achieved in history.

My thanks are due to Andy and Phil for an enjoyable battle, hard-fought in the best spirit. We need to build on our increasing experience with TacWWII and get some more games in soon.

Do you know the way to St Omer?

Late on Christmas Eve, while the rest of the family were glued to Strictly or some such TV entertainment, I decided to try out one of my new battle-mats. 

In my workshop there's an old plan-chest  that provides a small gaming space if I remove the crap usually covering it and if I don't mind getting a sore back whilst playing. The "Grassy" mat folded in two covered it nicely.

I fancied a little TacWWII and went with the smallest scenario from this venerable volume. 

The Road to St Omer sees the British 3rd Battalion the Royal Tank Regiment (3RTR) clash with lead elements of the German 1st Panzer Division just south of Calais in May 1940.

This was one of my contributions to the book and I hadn't played it since play-testing in 2000 but I knew that I had all of the models and could whip up an approximation to the terrain with mostly things I had to hand. I'm quite pleased with how it looked.

Near the centre of the table is a sunken road that I marked with some clump foliage but then I thought, "I could do better than that".

A quick scrabble through the terrain material stores (in the same plan-chest) provided off-cuts of PVC board and foam core. Cut, chamfer, glue, apply quick-drying Polyfilla, paint, PVA, apply mix of flock and static grass and you have a couple of "sunken road markers". Probably took me less than an hour including time for the Polyfilla to set and the paint to dry.

While waiting for the rest of the family to get up on Christmas Morning I made a start on playing the scenario solo. It's an odd one, with armoured companies (in this case a German armoured car company and a British tank squadron) blundering into each other, in column of route, at point-blank range.

It's challenging for the British, in their first action of the war, to shake themselves out into a decent fighting formation against fully worked-up recon troops of 1st Panzer Division who have already fought their way across Belgium and France. I rated 3RTR as Tac 7 whereas the Germans are Tac 5. This means the Brits have a 40% chance of changing Mode while the Germans are on 60%. 

In between domestic duties I managed to get through five of the scheduled eight game turns. The close encounter range made for a bloody opening with one of the German armoured car companies losing three platoons straight away for the loss of one British tank troop.

When researching the scenario I knew it would play oddly in that both sides have mostly (or in the British case entirely) armoured elements but also a number of units with little or no anti-armour capability. This made for some interesting tactical choices.

3RTR's two cruiser tank squadrons clashed with German companies with a mix of armoured car types. The British 2-pounder is superior to the 20mm cannon carried by the SdKfz 222s and 231s but the German companies are larger (six models to three) and so tend to be a little more robust when it comes to morale tests.

As the scenario proceeds, additional German companies arrive, the first being a heavy company with three Panzer IV troops.

As the Brits advanced across the railway line they were met by stiffening German power. By the time of the pic below, 3RTR's A Squadron had driven off their German opposite numbers but been forced to flee themselves. Here we see B Squadron with all three troops neutralised and with C Squadron's Light Tanks Mk VI advancing on their flank.

At this point A Squadron badly failed its test to rally and entirely lost cohesion, the remnants being seen to flee through Cocquelles. This triggered a Battalion Morale Test with resulted in a "Halt" result.

Turn five saw a light tank company (Panzers II and III) arrive on the German left and although their heavy company was forced to retire, this was not before it had wiped to 3RTR's B Squadron. With a second light company arriving on game turn six and the British reduced to two squadrons of light tanks, I decided that Brigadier Nicholson had arrived and ordered the British force to withdraw into the Calais perimeter.

If you've seen the film Darkest Hour, you'll know that the Calais garrison will be sacrificed to delay the German advance on Dunkirk. Most of 3RTR's tanks will end up being pushed into the harbour to prevent their capture by the Germans.

As always I was delighted by the way TacWWII makes for an engaging narrative. I could readily envisage the British CO's frustration in trying to put together a battle line in the face of an aggressive enemy, particularly when a Tac roll revealed that (as happened historically) the HE rounds for his close support tanks' guns had been left behind on Southampton Dock.

More TacWWII must follow in 2025!