Summer Solo Project - Operation Battleaxe

I'm finally getting around to posting the initial battle reports from my Summer Solo Project.

Just to recap, my choice was to play tank actions from the World War 2 Western Desert Campaign using the Hell Hath No Fury (HHNF) rules from Two Hour Wargames. Because the HHNF rules only cover the European Western Front, I had to come up with stats for the tanks and force availability tables for the missions.

I will do a full review of the HHNF rules in a different post, but as a quick overview the rules are similar to a lot of Two Hour Wargames rules in that they are quick-play, use d6s, and units (tanks in this case) are rated for Reputation which determines how well they take actions during the game. The game system is fairly interactive, giving each side a chance to keep in the action. The rules are also very solitaire friendly, with tables for determining enemy actions and forces.

I decided to use Operation Battleaxe as my starting point and got all the tanks ready to go for a mini-campaign. The recommended play area for HHNF is a 3 foot by 3 foot space divided into 9 squares. I have an old DBA desert board, which is 2 foot x 2 foot. and decided to use that as my play area (I reduced the movement ratings appropriately for the smaller space).

Operation Battleaxe:
This operation was launched to relieve the forces in Tobruk and open up the coast road by retaking Halfaya Pass (aka Hellfire Pass). Historically the battle was fought over three days. The area around the pass was heavily contested, while away from the pass British forces made some headway on the first day, then were forced on the defensive on the second day, and narrowly avoiding encirclement on the third day.

I decided to cover the tank battles away from the pass using 3 missions that essentially each covered a day of the historical operation (I had the option for a fourth mission if things went really well or really bad).

My core unit for the campaign is a troop (platoon) of three Crusader I tanks. I used a Rep 5 for my troop leader/tank commander (higher Rep is better) and randomly rolled for the Reps of the other two tanks in the troop and for the crew of my tank. Everybody ended up a 3, except for the loader on my tank, who came up Rep 4 which really helped out during the fighting.

Mission 1 - Breakthrough
In this mission my troop was on the attack, with support from another troop of Crusader I tanks. I put out some terrain, randomly determined my entry side and moved my tanks onto the board. Then the PEFs (Possible Enemy Forces) were placed.

Overview of the battlefield for the first mission. My tanks are on the left with the PEF dust clouds in the center and right

My troop was trying to move up the center to get to the big ridge, but there were a couple PEFs nearby. You don't know what the PEFs are until you make visual contact.

Dust clouds on the horizon as see by my tanks.

The Germans won initiative on the first turn and the center PEF moved up to the narrow ridge in front of my tanks. The PEF turned out to be a Panzer IVE (Rep 4). I diced off the sighting test, narrowly wining the first shot. I hit the Panzer IV, but unfortunately, I couldn't get a good penetration roll.

In HHNF, most attempts to do an action (other than basic movement) are rolled against your Rep. Usually you roll two dice and check the number of passes (dice equal to or less than your Rep) to determine the result. But when checking to see if you destroy an enemy tank, you take the difference between gun penetration and armor value to check for successes. My gun's penetration was a 4 while the German armor was 3. I needed to roll two 1's to destroy the Panzer IV or one to disable it.

The Germans did a reaction check, passed and fired back, but also couldn't get penetration. we kept firing on reactions, until our loaders failed their reload checks.

My Crusaders face off against the lone Panzer IV

On my turn I activate my troop, moved to get around the side of the German and let my other tanks fire.I was able to get a disabling roll that put the German out of action.

I was a little worried at this point, because the second PEF was moving up on my right. But when the PEF came into sight, it turned out to be a false alarm.

On the left, my supporting troop moved up to a hill and saw that the third PEF was four Panzer IIIFs (Rep 4, 4, 3, and 3). 

This doesn't look good.

The supporting troop was able to draw the attention of the Panzer IIIs, while I moved my troop around the flank.

In the end, I was able to flank the Germans and catch them in a crossfire to successfully complete this mission. I only had one of my troop's tanks get disabled, while the supporting troop had two disabled tanks. I was able to recover my tank and return it to service after the mission (Yes there are tables for checking on that). I also checked for any Rep improvement and got my gunner to up his Rep to 4, which would be a definite help. With the offensive starting out well, it is was on to mission 2.

Mission 2 - Seize and Hold
I randomly rolled for my next mission based on the success of my first mission (I made up my own mission flow charts for this mini-campaign. For the base rules you just roll randomly). In this mission my troop and another supporting troop were supposed to take and hold a small oasis on the map.

My supporting troop moved up one side of the map and quickly ran into a group of three Panzer IVEs (all Rep 4).

Not a good position for the Crusader tanks

The Germans made short work of the supporting troop as my troop tried to move up the middle to the objective. 

I sighted the other PEFs. The first group turned out to be three Panzer IIIFs (Rep 4, 4, and 3) and the second was four Panzer IIIFs (Rep 4, 4, 3, and 3). Badly out numbered, I decided that it would be better to make a hasty retreat. 

I was able to retreated with my command tank, leaving behind one destroyed and one disabled tank from my troop and three disabled tanks from the supporting troop. Needless to say, this mission was not successful. However, I was lucky enough to get my troop back up to full strength for the next mission. I also checked for improvement on my tank, but no one moved up in Rep this time.

Mission 3 - Defend
For mission 3 I was on the defensive. I had another supporting troop, but they would not arrive until the 4th turn.

I watched the PEFs advance across the map and moved to try to engage them one at a time. The first PEF turned out to be a false alarm. The second turned out to be four Panzer IIFs (Rep 4, 4, 3, and 3). But because I was on their flank, I was able to take them out fairly quickly.

Flanking the Panzer IIs

The supporting troop showed up to help block the final PEF, which turned out to be two more Panzer IIFs (both Rep 4). Between my troop and the supporting troop we took out the remaining Germans with no losses.



Luckily I was only facing a recon unit this time and was able to stop the German advance.

Mini-Campaign Outcome:
Because I didn't win or lose all three missions, there was no fourth mission. 
With two successful missions, I considered the overall operation a success from my standpoint. That said, it looked pretty historical in the results.

Overall it was a pretty fun mini-campaign. Each battle took two hours or less (so the rules really lived up to the company's name). With a couple more weeks until the traditional end of summer, I expect to get in a few more battles with the rules and tanks.

Summer Solo Project - Update 1: The Tanks

As mention in my previous post, I’m working on a Summer Solo Project this year. In the summertime I typically don’t have a lot of extra time for gaming or projects (my wife keeps me busy on the yard!). But I usually have a few hours to myself on the weekends, which is enough for some quick games. Since that time isn’t consistent, it is difficult to get together with anyone else. So I decided to try a solo project.

My project choice was to play tank actions from the World War 2 Western Desert Campaign using the Hell Hath No Fury rules from Two Hour Wargames. I chose the rules because they play well solitaire and because I wanted to keep the project fairly small and cheap, I decided to go with 1/285th scale tanks.

The Western Desert Campaign has always interested me for many reasons - there are lots of back and forth battles with opportunities for each side to be on the offensive and defensive, there are a number of different tanks used (especially on the British side), and it takes place in a relatively short period of time. From a gaming aspect, it is rife with possibilities (unless you want to play urban assaults). With that in mind, I pulled out a few references to figure out what tanks to include in my first stab at the project. I wanted to make sure that the tanks I got would cover a large part of the campaign and check with what was available in my chosen scale.

For the Germans, the choices were pretty easy. I started off with Panzer IIIs. These are GHQ Panzer III F/Gs, but will work for the E and H model too. The German tanks were all done up in German Green Brown (Grun Braun) with a dark wash and highlighting.

Panzer III F/G

Next I went with a Panzer II F for the recon/light tank.

Panzer II Fs, something early-war British tanks can easily take on

Finally, I chose the Panzer IV E/F1 to round out the Germans. At this scale the E model and F1 look pretty much the same.

GHQ Panzer IV F1

That should give me pretty good coverage of German tanks for the campaign.

Panzer forces organized and ready for action

On the British side, I decided to start my focus on the battles of Operation Battleaxe and later. So, for the most part really early war tanks were out and, since I’m focusing on tank vs. tank action, I left out the Matildas and Valentines. My first choice was the Crusader tank, since it fits right in with that period. GHQ makes a Crusader I and Crusader III. I opted for the Crusader I and expect it to do double duty as a Crusader II. The Crusader was painted up in nice tan color with brown and black washes.

GHQ Crusader Is

Next up was the M3 General Stuart, AKA ‘Honey’ tank. I always liked this tank and always thought the nickname was interesting. Although I recently heard a talk from the Flying Heritage Museum where the presenter said that the British never nicknamed the M3 ‘Honey’, which would seem to contradict just about every book I’ve ever read on these tanks. You can see the whole talk on YouTube. For the paint job, I went with a Caunter paint scheme I’ve seen in several places on the internet. It is a tan base, with a stone/blue, and green for the top layer. It turned out okay, but these (or any of my other tanks) won’t win any painting awards.

M3 'Honey' (or maybe just the General Stuart)

For my final batch of British tanks I went with the M3 General Grant. It was sort of a late-comer to the desert battles, but I got it to cover the Gazala and later battles. The paint job on these is a fairly simple tan with some green disruptive colors and a wash.

The large multi-gunned General Grant tanks

I could have selected several other British tank types, but these are good to get me started.

British armour ready to roll

If the playing turns out well, I will probably expand my groups to include some Italians, along with some tank destroyers/anti-tank guns. I might even get some Matilda and Valentine tanks. Next up though is actually playing a game. I also need to put up a post about the rules and my work to come up with ratings for the tanks.

Summertime Update

After taking a little time off after Enfilade and with my usual gaming slow-down for summer yardwork, I’m looking at getting back to some gaming stuff.

Early in June I had an unexpected windfall from a side editing project and I decided to put it into my long-term (meaning I haven’t do a lot of work on it) 15mm Age of Sail project. The main thrust of that project has been the American fight against the Barbary pirates and small gunboat actions. With that in mind I decided to order some 15mm ships from Old Glory Shipyard Buccaneer – Napoleonic Wars line.

Looking through the website, there were several ships I was interested in, but not too many photos of the models. I decided to take a chance on a couple un-photographed kits and ordered the Sloop-of-War Vixon and two Gunboat 5 kits.

There is no description of what the Vixon (which should probably be spelled Vixen) represents, since there were ships with that name in both the American and Royal Navy. Even the fact that they sell the same model in 1/300 scale didn’t help me know what ship it really represented. But I’m guessing that it would work for either ship. The American version was a 14 gun schooner (later changed to a brig rig) that took part in the First Barbary War, which is the ship I’m really looking for. The Royal Navy version was a 14 gun brig from the same timeframe.

When the kit arrived, it didn’t really have any information to clear up the question of what it represented, but it definitely was a brig rig. The ship will work fine for my project, so I guess it doesn’t really matter which ship it is representing. Here are a couple photos of the kit.

All the parts in the Vixon kit (each square on the mat is 2 inches by 2 inches)

A closer view of the hull (click the photo to see a larger version)

As you can see, the resin hull has some nice detail (although the gun ports are all filled and will take a little time to clean out). Overall it looks like a good addition to the fleet.

The Gunboat 5 kit definitely represents the American single-gun Gunboat 5 that crossed the Atlantic and served in the Mediterranean in 1805. It is a nice looking kit.

All the parts for the Gunboat 5 kit

Close-up of the Gunboat 5 hull

My only issue with the model is that it is relatively small, although the measurements seems to match those given in Chapelle’s The History of the American Sailing Navy book. My problem will be fitting many figures on the model.

These kits will get some work a little later this year. But for the rest of summer I have a couple other plans.

First up is my Summer Solo Project, which will be an adaptation of Two Hour Wargames Hell Hath No Fury rules to the Western Desert Campaign.

I had heard about the rules before Enfilade and had a chance to play them there. I like how quick they play and how easy they work for solitaire games. Unfortunately, they only have stats for a handful of American and German late-war tanks. So, I need to spend a little time coming up with stats for the Desert War tanks. I’m also trying to do this on a small (and somewhat cheap) scale, so my plan is to use 1/285 tanks. I’ll have more posts on this project later.

My other summer project will be finishing up and polishing my modern submarine rules. I’ve been working on these for a little while and I think I’m getting close to having something that I want to share with others.

So far summer is looking pretty busy.

Enfilade 2015 Recap: Part 2 - My Games

At Enfilade 2015 I ran two games - Channel Clash, on Saturday afternoon, and The Raid on St Nazaire, on Sunday morning. Both games had a full roster of players and it seemed like everyone enjoyed the games.
Note, you can see more pictures from the other events at this blog post. 

Channel Clash
This game was a later WWII coastal forces action. The Germans had a pair of S-boats that were returning from a convoy attack and a pair of M40 minesweepers that were on a mine-laying mission. The British had a group of stragglers (a merchant, tug, and HDML) from the convoy that had passed through the area and two groups of Motor Gun Boats - two Fairmile Ds (no torpedoes) and two BPB MGBs. This was my first time using the Action Stations 4.0 rules (I've been using Action Stations for coastal actions since version 1) and I wanted to use the hidden movement and spotting rules as much as possible for this game.

All the ships started out hidden and even the players on the same side weren't sure which markers were friend and which were foe.

Contact markers with a couple rain squalls

All the players moved their contact markers until the felt like they needed to spot (in the 4.0 rules, only ships that are placed on the board can spot and shoot). So slowly the markers came off and the ships appeared and started spotting each other. There was one interesting result where a British MGB sighted the convoy stragglers, revealing them to everyone.

The Fairmile D MGBs reveal themselves to spot the nearby markers

Once the ships started spotting each other, the guns came to life. The game turned into two separate battles, with the Fairmile D MGBs trying to take on the German M40 minesweepers while the other MGBs and convoy stragglers took on the two S-boats.

Illuminated 'Dog' Boats and Minesweepers blasting away

The MGBs attack the S-boats while the convoy stragglers try to get away

The die rolls for the Fairmile D MGBs started out good and they were able to do some damage to one minesweeper. But then their dice went cold and things went from bad too worse. One 'Dog' boat took a large number of hull hits, then lost steering control, and was rammed by a minesweeper (neither ship could avoid it), which sank the MGB.

A 'Dog' boat becomes a ram boat and then a sinking boat

The other Fairmile D also had bad luck as a fire started onboard and both minesweepers concentrated fire on it. The 'Dog' boat eventually succumbed to the fire losing all its hull boxes and sinking. One German minesweeper was able to continue on with its mission, while the other turned for home after losing 1/3 of its total hull boxes.

Fire bad for 'Dog' boats

In the other engagement, the S-boats were able to line up their torpedoes for a shot on the straggling merchant and score a hit that sent it to the bottom.

Torpedoes loose!

The MGBs pursued the S-boats, but could never strike a decisive blow. Both S-boats were battered, but were able to escape.

MGB and S-boat dueling

All the players seemed to have a good time and the game was rated a German victory. The hidden markers rules worked out pretty well and I'm sure I will use them in future games. The Action Stations 4.0 rules played well and I expect to put my 3.0 version into the old rules box. I think I even talked a couple of the players into buying the newer rules off Wargame Vault.

The Raid on St. Nazaire
This was the game that Kevin and I have been working on for some time. We had the idea to do it years ago, and considering the convention theme of "Raids," it seemed like the right time to do it. If you were following my blog, you saw photos of the work in progress and playtest to get the game to this point. Now it was show time.

In our game, the players were all part of the British forces and the game system ran the Germans. A lot of the game system rules were borrowed from the old Avalon Hill Raid on St Nazaire game, so if you've played that some things will seem familiar. I also used Action Stations 4.0 for the ship movement and most of the gunfire.

Once the terrain was set up, we briefed the players on their boats and targets, along with how to land troops and set demolition charges. With the briefing done, we let the players assign ships, confer on the plan, and make any changes as needed.

A view of the Normandie dry dock and the rest of St Nazaire

A different angle on the set up

With plans made or adjusted, the players were ready to start the game. the first step was the run into the landing zones. 

The British Commando force with some MGBs and HMS Campbeltown leading the way

The players held fire as long as they felt the could safely do so, but the Germans weren't fooled for long, as searchlights came on and the 75mm guns on the other side of the river opened fire. The players sped up to avoid the shells and to get to their targets, but the Germans drew first blood early as an escorting Motor Launch (ML) took a direct hit from a 75mm gun (note: I made the players roll for all the attacks on their ships and troops, so they could only blame themselves for the bad luck).

Ml 160 falls out of line, on fire and sinking

Campbeltown and MGB 314 increased speed and headed for the dry dock. MTB 74 was trailing behind, just in case something happened to Campbeltown before it reached the dry dock. The only MLs were trying to make their way to the landing points and battling it out with the German shore guns.

Campbeltown and MGB 314 pass the Old Mole and head for the dry dock

MLs head for the landing zone near the Old Entrance while others line up near the Old Mole

The British had some luck in knocking out a couple German guns near the Old Mole landing zone, but they were still paying a heavy price.

Meanwhile, Campbeltown successfully rammed the south caisson. The troops on board started the delayed action fuses that would blow up the ship, then jumped off and headed for the land targets. Since Campbeltown had made it to the caisson, MTB 74 decided to fire its delayed action fused torpedoes at the Old Entrance locks (you can see the torpedoes running in the photo below).

Campbeltown rams the caisson

Demo and Assault Teams from Campbeltown head for other targets.

At the Old Mole landing zone, the British were able to land troops, but the remaining German gun emplacement was inflicting heavy casualties on the Commandos as they ran up the mole.

Battle at the Old Mole

The remaining MLs continued to fire their 20mm guns at the gun emplacement. It proved to be a tough target, but would eventually be knocked out.

Heavy fighting at the Old Mole

German infantry reinforcements started showing up shortly after the Commandos began landing. The Assault Teams were able to drive off several German groups, but the numbers were starting to turn against the British.

Over the the Old Port Entrance, the teams were just starting to land. As they hit the shore they took heavy casualties from the gun emplacements on the tops of the pumphouse.

Commandos landing at the Old Port Entrance

The Demo Teams from Campbeltown were able to blow up the dry dock pump house and one of the caisson winding stations before the German infantry could set up the defenses that would hold back the Commandos.

Over at the Old Mole, the Commandos were able to advance into the Old Town and make their way to the Power Station to rig it for demolition. As more and more German infantry appeared, it was becoming clear that going any further would be difficult at best.

Time for the game period was running short, so we checked with the British players to see if they were ready to call it a game. We counted up the damage they had done, estimated what more damage they would do and how many troops they could possibly get out. The amount of damage done was pretty historical. However, the British lost a bunch of ships and Commandos and after adding up the victory points, we rated this as an overall loss, which was essentially the historical results.

The players all seemed to enjoy themselves (even ad they were getting shot up) and they had lots of suggestions for making the game easier for the Commandos. I did take notes on several of the suggestions and will probably add them in as options when we pull the game out again.

The convention game judges also seemed to like the game and awarded us with the Best of Period award for Sunday morning and the overall best theme game for the convention.

Best Theme Game Award for the Raid on St. Nazaire

Overall, it was a lot of work to put the game together. But I was really happy to see everyone have such a good time, even when they were getting shot up.

Enfilade 2015 Recap: Part 1 - Other People's Games

Another Enfilade is history. 2015 was another fun convention with high attendance (well over 300) and the gaming tables were full for the Friday night and most of Saturday sessions. I saw a lot of new people, including several that ran games, and younger gamers this year. I didn't hear of any major complaints or problems, so overall I would say it was another good year.

The theme for 2015 was Raids, so there are a lot of games with "raid" in the title and on the table.

As per my usual Enfilade recap, I’m doing two Enfilade posts; one on the general convention and other people's games and a second covering the games I ran. This post will cover the general convention stuff and games I played in. As always, just click on a photo to get a closer view.
Friday Games 
I spent a lot of time talking with old friends and catching up, so I mostly watched (and took pictures) of the games on Friday. There were a lot of interesting games on Friday, including the big 28mm Ligny game by the Canadians. It seems like more gamers are showing up early on Friday to get the gaming started.

Actium galley battle using a system based on Hail Caesar

Agincourt

Get the Monkey - King Kong scenario using Wings of War

Ligny using several large tables and the Shako rules

A wider view of the Ligny table

Martian airship fight with 28mm airships and figures

The Rat Patrol attacks a German desert airfield

Waterloo - A Better Plan 28mm Brigade level Napoleonics

A Wounded Raider had Graf Spee trying to leave port and escape the Royal Navy (I have it on good authority that Graf Spee did not escape)

The perennial Friday afternoon favorite Viking Run game

Friday Evening included some Circus Maximus chariot racing

A British attack on an Italian fort in North Africa

The Klingons and Federation square off

The Battle of Kolin

Iroquois and Huron fight out a raid battle

The new Heroes of the Colosseum game

Headshot Z zombie vs. survivor game

Another view of the 28mm Ligny game

A smaller version of Ligny using the Blucher rules

Night Witches using the Bag the Hun rules

A pre-dreadnought action that was a last minute addition to the list

The raid on Agen with English, French, and serfs all facing off against each other (the serfs won by 1 point)

The Retreat from Moscow

The Curse of the Mummy layout (the figures are still off map), this uses the Osprey In Her Majesty's Name rules

Over the Top WWI tank attack

Attack on the Stalingrad airfield

Saturday Morning
Friday set the tone for the convention, with some really great looking games. In the morning I played in an armor game using Two Hour Wargames "Hell Hath No Fury" tank rules. It is a quick and fun set of rules that has the ability to be played solitaire, so I picked up a copy. Unfortunately, only one photo from that game turned out. Here it is, along with pictures from the other games in the period.

My Shermans crossing a river to get into contact with the Germans (which turned out to be a bad idea)

CY6 - Jet Age battle over Korea with F-84s taking on MiG-15s

The Battle of Aachen with some nice terrain

Raid on Dong Hoi with MiG-17s attacking a U.S. bombardment force off North Vietnam

Galactic Knights - Raid on Midway Station

The Games for Young Warriors event ran several game with toy soldiers for the younger attendees (it seemed quite popular)

The 7th Cavalry from the Killing Custer game

Learning to Row and Ram galley game

A large WWII Russian tank attack

Salems Church American Civil War battle

The 28mm Waterloo game from the White Rock Gamers

Hougoumont from the 28mm Waterloo game

One more view of the Waterloo game

The Battle of Zama using Fields of Glory

Saturday Afternoon
I ran my Channel Clash game in the afternoon (covered in this post), but did manage to get around to snap a few pictures of the other games.

A Napoleonic battle from the 100 Days

Raid in the Congo

Panzer Lehr attacks using the Fireball Forward rules

Napoleon in Egypt

A Sails of Glory game to prep players for the big Sunday battle

Space 1889 battle for the pyramids on Venus

John McEwan's Terrors of the Deep Steam Punk submarine game

Saturday Evening
After finishing up my Channel Clash game, I went to get a little dinner and missed the start of the evening game period (and a chance to get into a game), but I did get the photos.

A large (10 player) All Quiet on the Martian Front river crossing game

Battle at the Galaxy Star Casino game, just before the real action started

A quick and easy Gladiator game

Plotting and planning during a Persian Gulf Harpoon game

He-Man and the Battle of Grayskull Castle

A large scale Samurai battle

Sharpe's Raid using the Two Fat Lardies rules

Smoked Boulogne - 100 Years War English raid on a French port game

Sioux Raids - attacking a wagon train

Sioux Raids - cavalry protecting the stagecoach

A Napoleonic battle in Germany using the new Two Hour Wargames Morale Napoleon rules

The War of the Worlds

Sunday Games
On Sunday Kevin and I were running our big Raid on St Nazaire game (see my other post for details) and I only managed to get a few pictures of the other games.

CY6 Floatplane Hell air game

The setup for The Glorious First of June battle using Sails of Glory, they even have the frigates on the outside of the main battleline

Raid on a Harbor galley warfare game

That is all the pictures for this year. Again I thought it was a really good convention with lots of interesting and visually appealing games. The gamers here really go all out for Enfilade and the games show it.