Worst Case Scenario #9 - "Sleepwalking in Kurland"

In Kurland, baby....

Hello again to the followers of Curt's Analogue Hobbies blog.  Readers familiar with this space will have noted Curt's ongoing series of "Worst Case Scenarios".  When I was fortunate enough to get to know Curt and the Fawcett Ave gaming crew (way back in DATE REDACTED AS PER IMPERIAL INQUISITION FILE 405.303.2201. SUSPECTED HERETIC) one thing that always impressed me was the depth of thought he would put into a scenario.  From a grand Napoleonic engagement to a skirmish encounter between WW2 platoons, there was always a back story, and an inspiration for that back story, in the game-du-jour (or soiree) that he would share. I think you would agree those games where the players connect, even in a small way, with those story elements behind a scenario tend to be a lot of fun - much more fun than the current, rather sterile, standard of seizing table quarters or whatever. Reading Curt's "Worst Case Scenario" posts always take me back to those times and games.

Of course it is fun to just throw some stuff on to the table and start shooting it, and most of my scenarios I set up tend to be like that.  But I like to aim for some depth now and then.  I recently finished an interesting book about WW2 called "Panzer Warfare on the Eastern Front", a collection of anecdotes and abbreviated memoirs translated into English from a group of German veterans who served in Panzer divisions in that theater.  

I recommend this book!  It is the source of this "Worst Case Scenario".

I won't go into the details of the book here other than to say I highly recommend it.  These kinds of books always inspire different gaming scenarios in my head, and Curt kindly allowed me to share one of these that really grabbed my imagination here on his blog.  And so I present Worst Case Scenario #9 - "Sleepwalking in Kurland", inspired by an account from this book.

BACKGROUND

A map of Soviet advances in the latter period of the war on the Eastern Front. The Kurland/Courland pocket is created up near the Baltic at the top of the map.

It is December 1944 on the Eastern Front. The Soviets' successful summer offensive has obliterated Army Group Centre, and trapped Army Group North elements in the area of the Kurland/Courland peninsula.  These trapped units rely heavily on the few Panzer divisions in their midst to hold back the tides of Soviet armour trying to sweep them into the Baltic.

In the midst of confused and chaotic fighting, the commander of Panzer Regiment 35 is trying to figure out what is happening...

NOTE - I would play this in 15mm, and I have included a few staged photos with models from my 15mm WW2 collection to give a rough idea of how it might look.  In terms of rules you could try this with anything from Flames of War to Force on Force to Chain of Command, but I would probably opt for rules on the more involved, reaction-type rule sets where a nuanced and detailed game can occupy the players with a small number of models involved. 

SLEEP WALKING IN KURLAND

A Panther command vehicle - battalion commander in this photo

"I pressed the binoculars to my tired eyes and observed the foreground. In the approaching darkness, I recognized a group of houses off to the left of us, which were being approached by individual armoured vehicles.  Exhausted as I was, I didn't think about it too long. "Crank it up...direction of march is the farmstead off to the left! 

- Leutnant Hans Schaufler, regimental signals officer of Panzer Regiment 35, 4th Panzer division, December 1944 in the Kurland/Courland area of the Eastern Front.

The panzer division has been fighting continuously for four days and three nights.  The Soviet penetrations are everywhere, and confusion reigns.  The regimental commander has hopped out of his Panther, RN 1, to catch a ride in a half-track back to what he understand to be divisional command post, where a conference of the regimental commanders has been called to try and sort out what is happening.

The Russians think they have parked for the night...

His crew stays behind in RN 1, under the informal command of the regimental signals officer. This is a regimental command tank, crammed with extra radios and, more importantly, code books and other sensitive goodies which, under no circumstances, should fall into enemy hands.  Exhausted from days of fighting, they try not to nod off in the tank. They fail, and are snapped awake by a whistling in the radio headphones.  It is the regimental commander. "Meet to discuss operations at XYZ farmstead!"

One of these things is not like the other....

The crew of RN 1 is still tired, and it is dusk. The signals officer searches quickly and spots a farmstead where the silhouettes of large armoured vehicles are gathering.  The signals officer directs the tank to this farmstead.  They pull up, park the tank, and still tired, fall asleep, assuming the Oberst will be along at any moment to get them moving and brief them as to what is happening.

"Scooby - it's a bunch of Josef Stalins, man!"

The RN 1 crew naps for an hour, still inside the tank (when do you ever leave it at times like these?).  The signals officer suddenly wakes up, and is worried that so much time has passed and there has been no word from the Regimental commander.  The sun is setting now.  Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he hops out of RN 1 and wanders over to the next tank he can see.  It is getting dark and he can only make out the silhouette of a very large tank.  The signals officer hops on to the tank, feeling strange - there are no handles to grab where he is sure they should be...

"So, what company is this?"

 "What company is this?" I yelled into the turret.  A completely foreign face looked up at me. On top of that, the face was framed by a Russian tanker's cap.  I felt a massive turret with coarsely welded seams under my groping hands. A gun as big as a tree jutted out of the turret.  

- Leutnant Hans Schaufler.

The signals officer is horrified to see he has parked RN 1 right in the middle of a company of Josef Stalin tanks! He dives head first into the darkness, off the Russian turret, already yelling to his crew "Crank it up!"  Will the command tank escape? Or will the crew and code books fall into Russian hands? A confused dusk engagement beckons, with a group of grizzled panzer veterans trying to save themselves and their Panther from the claws of a Soviet heavy tank regiment!

"Crank it up!" the Panther crew reverses like he!! to get out of that terrible parking spot...

HOW I MIGHT SET UP THE GAME...

In Schauffler's memoir, RN 1 is a command tank with a dummy main gun. There are ultimately 20 or so tanks involved from the Soviet side, while an unknown number of Panthers from Regiment 35 arrive to help.  Trying something with that many tanks would make this more of a Flames-of-War type game designed to roll a lot of armour in one game (and to be clear, I love games with lots of tanks), but for this I would prefer to keep it smaller and focused on the fate of the crew in RN 1, as opposed to two armoured forces blowing each other away.

The game would start like this - the German player would select on IS-2, and replace it with Panther RN 1

In the game, the German forces would be comprised of RN 1, and a platoon of three late-model Panthers which can arrive as a rescue/reserve force.  RN 1 would be armed with a real gun, but only have a small load of ammo (because of all the radios on board) and this would be even further depleted because the tank has been fighting for days. The crew quality of the Germans would be high, with the crew in the RN 1 being total rock stars. The adrenaline of the situation wipes out their fatigue for the timeframe of the game.

The German objective is for RN 1 to escape.  The crew and code books absolutely cannot fall into enemy hands! 

The crew of RN 1

The Soviets would have a company of IS-2s - five models would do it. The crew quality is mixed - they are gung-ho, ready to stomp the German vipers, but still raw compared to the German Panzer vets.  It is dusk, they are confused and surprised and this will hinder their effectiveness. They have one objective - knock out the fascist interloper!

A Panther platoon would arrive in reserve to try and help the Regimental command tank

The table would be large, even with a small number of tanks.  The ground would be rough - lots of bog checks - should be a lot rougher than it looks in these photos (I need to improve my terrain collection).  The game would start with the IS-2s clustered in one corner around a farmstead.  The German player would then "switch" out one of the models, replacing it with Panther RN 1, and the race would be on! 

This table is nine feet long and five feet wide - comfy for 15mm armoured fighting.  RN 1 would have to cover about six feet of table to escape.

The Panther platoon would come on a later turn as a reserve.  Night fighting rules of some sort would be in effect, and both sides would have the chance to use parachute flares, or fires, to silhouette targets. Inspired by some great suggestions from Curt, I am working on some rules bodges where RN 1 and the German players would have to keep track of their ammo load - it would be somewhat random, to better reflect the role of tank commander (the gunner fires until the target is gone - might take one round, might take four...).

It would be even cooler to try a version of this game where the players each take a role within RN 1, and the Russians and supporting German elements are run game master style.  How far can you drive? In the dark? In the mud? In reverse? Will you stop to fire? How many rounds will you use up? Can you see the target? Can the Russians see you?  Did you raise the battalion on the radio? I would love to run a game where the players have to connect with those sorts of critical issues facing tank crews that rules must often gloss over or abstract in order to preserve the flow of the game.  This is more possible in a smaller, more detailed game.

And of course, to be truly loyal to the memoir in question, this should all be in winter terrain and painting.  It's December near the Baltic sea - the ground is a mix of snow, of mud, of clay - it sucks, no matter any "wide tracks" rules...but I don't want to give anything away on, shall we say, "a related project" Curt and I are working on. Let's just say "stay tuned".

So that's my "Worst Case Scenario".  I hope you enjoy it - I'm looking forward to trying this game on the table very soon!

New Terrain for the Table from 'Architects of War'

I had a bizarrely uncharacteristic, freakishly blazing desire to get some terrain pieces done - so I ran with the urge before I came to my senses.

I'm a big fan of the products from Architects of War. Their stuff is durable, characterful and very robust. I realize the cost of their kits are often at a premium, but I reason that good quality terrain is like 'a gift that keeps on giving' - once it's done it's always a treat to put on the table. So here are five items from their stock-list that I've managed to bash out over the past few weeks: 

a tobacco field,

'Wait, dude, is that, like, cannabis?' Now, talk about a terrain objective...

the water well,

I really wanted to put a tiny teddy bear laying on the lip of the well but Sarah said that was too dark, even for me.

a Dark Age stone hut,

'Don't get put off by the whole 'hut' thing. Rather, think of it as a minimalist starter home...'

two pink pigs in their poke,

Orville and Wilbur daydreaming of a world that hates bacon. 

and finally, a machine-gun emplacement.

From the pages of 'Better Holes & Trenches': the self composting MG nest.

This piece will come in handy for WWII skirmish games like 'Bolt Action', 'Chain of Command', etc.

Remove the top of the emplacement and you get a rather grisly knocked-out version. Yeesh!

To be frank I'm not completely cured of the terrain-making bug (well, it's more just assembling/painting), so I may have a few more items rolling off the table over the next little while. 

General Vo Nguyen Giap, 1911-2013

Giap as a young officer.

This past weekend saw the death of General Vo Nguyen Giap, communist Vietnam's chief military commander from 1941 to 1980, at the age of 102. 

Early in World War Two, Ho Chi Mihn appointed Giap to command the military wing of the Vietnamese Independence League, now commonly known as the Viet Mihn. Giap spent the next 34 years leading his forces in a long campaign to release Vietnam from foreign occupation and control. He defeated the French in 1954, turned back the Americans in 1973 and oversaw the reunification of his country in 1975. 

The cost of Vietnamese independence was staggering to all those involved. The French lost close to 90,000 killed in the First Indochina War, the United States suffered 58,000 dead during their involvement in Southeast Asia and it is believed that approximately 3 million Vietnamese lost their lives (out of a population of 33 million) during what has been called The Ten Thousand Day War.

As a military leader, Giap knew the Vietnamese people were willing to suffer huge casualties in order to prevail. Conversely, he was convinced that the western powers would ultimately recoil if the cost to them was perceived as too high. To Giap the road to independence was a sheer test of will.

In retirement, Giap tempered his notorious hard-line stance. He acknowledged that Vietnam needed to westernize its economy in order to provide opportunities for its citizens, that rapprochement had to be established with the United States and that the country's growing industrialization should not come at the expense of its environment.

While it can be understood that some may not mourn his passing, I believe that respect is due to a man who, in addition to being a gifted military strategist, also placed his people's independence above any other concern. Former US Republican presidential candidate John McCain, a former navy pilot who was shot down and famously held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, posted his respects on Twitter:

Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap has passed away - brilliant military strategist who once told me that we were an "honorable enemy"

Perhaps with Giap's passing another door can quietly be closed on that terrible, costly war.

Worst Case Scenario #8: 'The Brothers Kalashnikov' - A 'Chain of Command' AAR

This scenario is based on a short passage I came across while reading the post-apocalyptic novel 'Metro 2033' (a book I had posted on a few months ago). To recap, the premise of 'Metro 2033' is that in 2013 a nuclear/biological war devastates most of the world - twenty years later, the survivors of Moscow exist in the city's subway system, struggling to survive within a new dark age. 

In the book, the hero, Artyom, visits with an 'old timer' who, as a young man, served as a Russian army radio operator before 'the vodka hit the candle'. Over a campfire, the old vet tells Artyom about a T-90 tank crew, who having survived the initial nuclear strikes, decides to take their tank and slowly (and with many adventures) make their way east, into the less damaged interior of Russia. Here, along with other survivors, the tank crew digs-in their T-90 to serve as a defensive pillbox and begins a small community. The old timer says he lost contact with the group years ago but hopes that they've fared well.

This little side-story really captured my imagination and I thought it would provide a great setting for a small scenario. 

For rules I decided to use the new(ish) 'Chain of Command' with the addition of a couple modifications for a bit of post-apoc colour (more on that below).

The scenario's premise is that a few weeks prior to the events of the game, a local band of nasty 'Zone Raiders', commanded by four brothers ('The Brothers Kalashnikov'), overran a group of survivors from which they found a cache of priceless diesel fuel and a few crates of 125mm tank ammunition. The leader of the raiders knows of the dug-in T-90 (in fact he's obsessed with it) and schemes that if they can seize the tank from the settlers, refuel and rearm it, his band of mutated reprobates will be able to dominate the entire region.

I ran this game twice. Once for the lads from the Fawcett Ave Conscripts and again for our group here at home. For this AAR I describe what happened to the players in Regina, though the final outcome was very similar to that experienced by the lads in Winnipeg.

Below is an 'aerial' photo of the battlefield. The edge of the settlers' village is at the bottom of the image with their T-90 tank dug in, hull down, facing out from the hillside.   They also have a series of entrenchments arrayed in front of the hill with a bit of dead ground to their front (though this has been encroached upon by trees and crops as time has gone by). There is a small graveyard above and to the left of the entrenchments. There is also a burned-out village near the center of the table which includes a ruined church and coal tower. The rest of the table is made up of an assortment of trees and garden plots. 

The next image shows where both the Raiders and the Settlers have established their 'jump-off' points from which they will be able to deploy their troops. As you can see the Raiders have established jump-off points near and in the destroyed village and along the left-hand treeline, close to the graveyard. The Settlers have set the majority of their jump-off positions along the forward entrenchments, with one being held back near to the T-90.

For forces, the Raiders have three squads, each squad composed of a eight man rifle team along with a LMG team of four men. Two of the squads are rated green while the third is composed of veteran picked-men. The Raiders are led by 'The Brothers Kalashnikov' with each squad being led by one of the brothers (Junior Leaders in CoC terms) while the eldest brother commands the entire raiding force.

The Settlers are led by Boris, the original commander of the T-90, along with his son Yuri. Together they have fourteen men and women, ten riflemen and four in a LMG team. The Settlers are classed as regulars.  

Boris and son Yuri (both mounted on hex-shaped bases) command their fellow settlers in the defence of their village.

In addition, just before the Raider assault began, Boris managed to signal a plea for help to a nearby encampment composed of old hard-as-nails ex-Spetsnaz troopers. These guys are in heavy body armour and are classed as veterans. Due to their age (old wounds, too much vodka and bad joints) they move at a -1. Boris' Spetsnaz neighbours will arrive at the beginning of the 3rd turn.

Spetsnaz trooperx (gone-to-seed but still dangerous) rolling out as 'possible' reinforcements

After everyone had established their jump-off points I allowed the the Raiders to deploy a sniper who was secretly positioned in a second floor window in the ruined village. From there he had a commanding view of most of the battlefield (becoming a sporadic but very annoying thorn in the Settlers' side).

For a bit of post-apoc seasoning I added a few special rules into the mix. One was that even though EVERYONE carried an AK47, and there was a relative abundance of LMGs and HMGs on the table, the quality of the ammunition was very bad (being either over 20 years old or, worse yet, home made). So when a group fires its AKs and rolls more 1s than 6s then they will not be able to fire at full auto for the next turn (reduced to 1 die for each rifle) - this replicates the jamming and furious magazine swaps from bad ammo. Similarly for the LMGs and HMGs a die is rolled separately for each shot, if it is a 1 then the gun suffers a stoppage, and for any following 'shots' it will take a 5-6 to clear the stoppage in which case the gun can continue firing at its remaining rate of fire (but still looking out for 1s). I gave each team one turn of worry-free shooting, saying that each man had hoarded one clip/drum of military grade ammunition which would not be in danger of jamming. This turned out to be pretty fun in the game as each side bit their nails to see if their automatic weapons would work as they should and just when they should use their military grade ammo. For the heavy body armour of the Spetsnaz troopers I ruled that they would always be treated as being in Light Cover (upgraded to Heavy Cover if they were in terrain that provided some protection).

The game began with the Raiders jumping off with a squad (reinforced with a LMG) in the woods on the Settler's left flank and another within a field near the central wood. As the Raiders had no targets (the Settlers being hunkered down offboard) they ended their phase. 

Raiders moving forward under fire through a wood - figures from Pig Iron, painted by Greg

The Settlers' first phase started with a bang as they emerged ('jumped off' in CoC parlance) at their entrenchments and rattled off a 7.62mm 'greeting' towards the Raiders in the woods. This caused a point of shock but not much else. Next, one of the Settlers emerged from the tank cupola and began to rock-and-roll with the HMG causing a couple casualties and more shock on the same Raider squad in the woods.  To add insult to injury the Settlers rolled well enough to sustain their actions for another phase and continued to hammer away at the poor hapless Raiders causing more mayhem. These bad ladz were not having a good run of it!

Nonetheless, when the Raiders began their next phase their sniper cracked off a shot at the HMG gunner (who was isolated on the tank) and shocked him so badly that he broke and ran, leaving the HMG unmanned.

The Raider sniper lining up his shot on the HMG, getting fire direction from a nearby leader - figures from Pig Iron, painted by Greg

The Raiders then moved their squad up to the wood edge in order to get their LMG into close range, while their other squad began to move towards the edge of the central wood.

I'll telescope time here a bit and briefly describe the ensuing action which occurred over the next 20 or so phases:

While they managed to cause a few casualties on the entrenched Settlers, the Raider squad in the wood on the left flank ultimately broke and fell back under the punishing fire. 

Boris, the Settler leader, sent another runner back to the tank to re-man the HMG. 

A Settler clambering onto the T90 to man the HMG...

The lad made it to the T-90 but only lived long enough to fire off a single burst before he was killed by a single shot from the sniper. During this game the sniper also managed to wound both Boris and his son Yuri (reducing their command abilities).

...only to be ruthlessly sniped by the marksman back in the burnt-out village.

The Raiders who had moved into the central wood suffered much the same fate as their compatriots but they did manage to pull a few teeth before having to withdraw, carrying back as many wounded as they could.  

By this time the Raiders had deployed their last ace-in-the-hole: their veteran rifle team which was supported by a LMG unit. They advanced deftly under fire and began to press the Settlers heavily, breaking their LMG team which severely reduced the villagers' firepower.

Raider LMG - figures from some obscure outfit, painting by Greg.

By the beginning of Turn 3 the game was winding down to a nail-biting conclusion. The Raiders' veteran squad, led by the elder brother, moved through the central wood toward their final assault positions. Meanwhile, the remnants of Boris' force (down to four riflemen and his wounded son) looked over their shoulders for any sign of reinforcement from their Spetsnaz neighbours.

The Raider assault goes in...

Just as the Raiders began their assault (they used a Chain of Command Dice to initiate their run-in), a well-worn APC rolled up next to the T-90 and disgorged a somewhat creaky team of hard-bitten warriors in heavy body armour. Nonetheless, while the Spetsnaz had finally arrived, they decided to hold back to see what would happen in the aftermath of the assault before they would commit one way or the other.

...the Spetsnaz de-bus next to their BTR to see what happens...

Even though the Raiders had the advantage in quality and a marginal edge in numbers the fact that the Settlers were in entrenchments made the fight virtually equal. So both sides rolled their dice... and in a total collapse of fortune the Raiders were wiped out to a man. From the smoking entrenchments Boris, Yuri and two Settlers emerged to squint back at the approaching Spetsnaz...

...and the game hangs in the balance with the final dice roll.

It was a great game which came right down to the wire. The Raiders had a looong streak of appalling luck (Brett? Stacy? How did you insult the Dice Gods so?) which probably cost them the game in the end, but they did a great job in pushing the Settlers to their limits. It was always going to be tough proposition for the Raiders to assault dug-in positions, and they almost pulled it off, but fortune favoured Boris and Yuri. 

I really have to thank the guys from both groups for being such good natured guinea pigs with this scenario. I had a wonderful time running it and look forward to the next outing.  Special thanks go to Greg for providing the superb Russian vehicles and the Raider force - I couldn't have pulled off the scenario without his help. I hope those who've read this AAR liked it as well.

Resin Entrenchments from Architects of War

For an upcoming game I wanted to give the players the option of deploying their troops in some forward entrenchments and so I needed to come up with something to fit the bill.

I knew I could've made something from foam-core insulation, MDF, etc., but notice I did not say 'simply make'.  I know many hobbyists (yes, I'm thinking specifically of you: Scott, Sidney and Andrew) who would see this a simple matter of going to the DIY store, purchasing an assortment of items and then happily spend the weekend making some amazingly artful holes in the ground. Yes, yes, but to me this is not simple. In fact I believe this path leads to madness - to an activity which would take me away from reading, painting figures and following my prurient pursuits on the interweb.

So, being unrepentantly lazy, I decided instead to bolster the economy and purchase an off-the-shelf product, namely these great resin entrenchments from Architects of War.

These entrenchments come either as a four-piece set or can be purchased individually.

They are very robust and quite detailed, with lots of texture to grab hold of a drybrush (I particularly like the footprints at the bottom of the foxholes). They only needed a warm wash to remove the release agent and then it was a simple matter of tarting them up with some cheap craft paint. I think I did all four of these in about 2 hours, from unboxing to finish.

A sneak peak from an upcoming AAR.

My only quibble is that I found the entrenchments to be a little snug for my individually based 28mm models. If your guys and gals are based on anything larger than 25mm bases then these won't work. 

Nonetheless, while I was fiddling around, trying them out with different figures, I discovered that the entrenchments work very nicely with 20mm models, perhaps even better than the 28s. 

In these last photos I've put in some venerable SHQ 20mm WWII models in order to show them in comparison to the terrain. 

Note, these 20mm models are in the midst of being re-based so they would actually be about 2mm taller in the foxholes when standing astride their bases - pretty good fit, I think.

Granted, these resin entrenchments are not necessarily cheap, but they provide a quick, sturdy and attractive solution. A fine product that I'm happy to recommend. Now, back to reading, painting and, well, other things...