The Adventures of Kampfgruppe Klink

[bigjackmac]

Lemmey - First, I'm glad I'm not playing FoW then, my casualties are already high enough!  That is interesting though.  How does it work?  Is is an 'off-table' thing that happens, and you just roll dice to see if stragglers are run downs, or do you actually place a stand of Uhlans on the enemy baseline to police them up?

TP - Yeah, but I pushed on and it was a close run thing!  That is something though; on the one hand, I'm playing a campaign, so I need to conserve forces, and it crossed my mind to just fall back and call in more air/arty.  But I'm also big on narrative, and that would have sucked as a battle report   So I kept going, and I'm glad I did.

I should have another write-up finished today for posting here.

V/R,
Jack

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

It represents the scattered nature of the Polish army and how they tended to arrive to the sound of the guns.
Remember FOW is company level, so it would be platoons rather than squads or sections.
Rough paraphrase:
A platoon of cavalry or infantry may be held in reserve.
Each turn, roll a d6, on a 6 they arrive, each turn, add another dice.
They arrive anywhere along the enemies base edge, may move and shoot as normal on their turn of arrival, but may not assault.

Polish Cavalry always assault on 2+ with a reroll on the charge, because some carry lances!


Nasty, but hideously expensive.

[toxicpixie]

And only really handy if you catch combat/service support troops in the rear... And a bit overstated for actual doctrine, numbers and actual occurance... /rant off

Very nasty in a game fashion though!

Jack, there's times you do need to stop and call in support. And others where your command is removed from under you and you get to go count beans somewhere safe whilst actual combat commanders get given the job to do that you've shown yourself unwilling to actually handle

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

I agree completely, I think it was designed to show how scattered the Poles were by the end of the Warsaw Campaign!

[bigjackmac]

Wow, that's an interesting mechanic for Polish cavalry, and I agree that it's best against support troops and stragglers, but certainly would have an impact in a campaign.  But it also means you have to model rear area security/elements, and I think that's further than I want to go.

"Jack, there's times you do need to stop and call in support."
Not a very fun batrep to read though.  Not that I'm above it; if everything went to crap right off the bat, and there was no way for me to pull off my mission objective, then yeah, we're pulling back to pound with supporting fires.

"And others where your command is removed from under you and you get to go count beans somewhere safe whilst actual combat commanders get given the job to do that you've shown yourself unwilling to actually handle."
I will make sure my tabletop commanders do not fall into that trap.  Except the ones that have to be executed for running away.  But at least they were on the field

V/R,
Jack

[toxicpixie]

Neither "off table arty commander" nor "logistics commander" are great for gaming or reading batreps for

[bigjackmac]

All,

It's 1000, 1 Sept 1939, and KG Klink is in disarray, having just been thrown back from the village of Mokra by strong anti-tank defenses of the Polish 21st Uhlan Regiment.  As the KG is regrouping, the Polish 21st Armored Regiment and 12th Uhlan Regiment counterattack the 4th Panzer Division, which also was treated roughly by the defenders of Mokra.  One of the Polish counterattack columns strikes just south of the KG's last attack, right at the operational boundary of one of 4th Panzer Division's Panzer battalions and KG Klink.  Seeing the potential calamity, Maj Schultz grabs an ad-hoc force comprising 2nd Panzer Platoon and 4th Grenadier Platoon, and charges southeast to meet the enemy counterattack head on.

**WARNING: SEVERE, DISGUSTING PROXY ALERT**

The opposing forces, very armor heavy; I'll give up the ghost and let you know that the Germans lose (again), but it's the infantry that almost (almost!) save the day...

The Polish force.  I apologize for my hideous use of proxies here, but I don't have any Polish tanks.  So, this is very ahistorical, but I'm doing the best I can, and this is probably the only fight that we'll see Polish tanks in.  The Poles have their CO, three squads of cavalry, three medium tanks (T-26s), two light tanks (T-70s), two infantry tanks (Matilda Is), and two tankettes (Vickers, which I think the Poles actually had some of).  Hold your nose and bear with me, it's a good fight.

Ze Germans: CO for this fight is Major Schultz, the KG Executive Officer, with 2nd Lt Schiffer's 2nd Panzer Plt (of 3 Pz IIIs and 2 Pz IIs) and Officer Cadet Vetter's 4th Grenadier Platoon (of four rifle squads, though Cadet Vetter actually missed the fight as he was aiding Col Klink with the regrouping when Maj Schultz grabbed his platoon and sprinted southeast into the fight).


Overview, north is up, Germans on the left (west) and Poles on the right (east).  The Poles have armor across the board (Vickers in north, then infantry tanks (Matildas), then medium tanks (T-26s) then light tanks (T-70s) and cavalry in the south, and the Germans, with armor in the north and infantry in the south.


Things were going very poorly by the time Sgt Mader distinguished himself by close assaulting a Polish medium tank, earning the Iron Cross 2nd Class and Tank Hunter Badge.

Notes:
-2nd Lt Schiffer WIA, out for campaign.
-Cpl Schonan KIA.
-Sgt Mader recommended for Iron Cross 2nd Class for charging and destroying enemy tank.
-Four of five tanks of 2nd Pz Plt knocked out.
-Lost ~35 KIA/WIA/POW, two Pz III, and two Pz II.
-Caused ~30 KIA/WIA, destroyed two medium tanks.

Check out the full report here:
http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2015/01/kg-klink-poland-game-4.html

Another butt-whoopin'.  Hey, I'm getting used to it.  Just couldn't get my tanks going...  Now time for the enemy's infantry counterattack.  Should go okay, I've been doing better with infantry than tanks anyway

V/R,
Jack

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Oops! 

[toxicpixie]

We used to play a big Europe sized WW2 game back in Uni, and on one occasion Germany surrendered after the Polish campaign, the Wehrmacht having gutted itself on the Polish Army to the extent the French & British couldn't beat the Poles to Berlin...

This isn't entirely dissimilar looking

[bigjackmac]

Ah, it's not that bad.  I have a vision in my head of how the early war campaigns went, and it's this: very heavy, ferocious fighting where it occurred, with widespread confusion and panic at the operational level, which doomed the Poles, Dutch, Belgians, French, and Brits.

So, I'm not showing the 'easy' days, where the panzers and grenadiers rolled across the country side, doing 50km per day, I'm only focused on where they ran into serious resistance. My reading of how that went down in real life is that, when they met serious resistance, the Germans suffered some serious adversity and even reverses.

My overall account of the fight at Mokra is actually historically inaccurate: in my fights the Germans did much better than they did in real life! In real life, the first fight the German recon elements and light tanks got shot to pieces, whereas in mine, the KG carried the day. Then my mech attack got beat, same as real life; the Polish counterattack beat the Germans back in real, whereas in mine, at least the KG stopped the infantry portion. Then in real life the Germans made another attack, and again got shot to pieces, but in mine (it's the next fight) the KG actually took the railroad embankment.

In real life the Germans won the fight because the Poles were outflanked by 1st Panzer Division to the southeast, and were forced to fall back. So, I'm ahead of the game. I've also played two games in the fight when 4th Panzer reached the suburbs of Warsaw; both were miserable defeats for the Germans in real life. I fought to a draw in the first one, then won the second one (barely). Now the KG has pulled out to deal with the threat to its rear (Battle of Kutno).

I just posted a batrep from a fun little game my 5-yr old son and I played.  I hope to have another of these batreps posted tonight or tomorrow.

Take care fellas.

V/R,
Jack

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

You missed Norway from your list!

[toxicpixie]

.       Ah, it's not that bad.  I have a vision in my head of how the early war campaigns went, and it's this: very heavy, ferocious fighting where it occurred, with widespread confusion and panic at the operational level, which doomed the Poles, Dutch, Belgians, French, and Brits.

Yeah, I'd agree with that. All the right fighting in all the wrong places. A quote I liked in the Command Decision army lists was about the structure & tradition of the Commonwealth army making it an army whose units were very difficult to make panic, but very easy to confuse. And could always therefore be relied upon to do the wrong thing in the wrong place at the wrong time...

[bigjackmac]

Sorry, Lemmey, wasn't thinking about them as they're not on my list of stops for KG Klink.

Toxic - Hadn't heard that before, that's a good one 

V/R,
Jack

[bigjackmac]

All,

It's 1100, 1 Sept 1939, and the counterattack by the Polish 21st Armored and 12th Uhlan Regiments has been spectacularly successful, except for two issues: 1) they didn't really have a plan for success, so after breaking beating back 4th Panzer Division (and KG Klink) they drove about another kilometer, then lost their forward impetus, and just sort of milled about until 4th Panzer could mount a counterattack of its own to drive them back; and 2) the armor and cavalry pushed through with great speed and no coordination with the 12th Mounted Regiment, who found itself alone while following in trace of the Polish armor.

So, we find ourselves in the time after successful Polish armored counterattack, but before 4th Panzer's counterattack, where (mostly) dismounted portions of the Polish 12th Mounted Regiment runs smack into infantry elements of KG Klink, who were moving southeast (to where their armor had just been punished) when enemy activity was spotted to the east.  The two forces met on the fly, neither expecting the enemy to be where they found him.


The opposing forces: The Poles, with their CO, three squads of cavalry, and nine rifle squads.  As the 21st Armored had left them behind, in their haste to move forward they have left their heavy weapons struggling to catch up.

The German force, with their CO (again in action is the Schutzen Company Commander, 1st Lt Freitag, recipient of the Iron Cross 2nd Class for his actions at the frontier), portions of his Weapons Platoon (two x MG34 and 1 x 80mm mortar), and the better parts of two infantry platoons.  Both have 1 x HQ section and 2 x rifle squad, being 1st Platoon under Cadet Hinkle (with his 1st and 2nd Squads, the 2nd under Sgt Haas, also an Iron Cross 2nd Class recipient from the frontier), and the 3rd Platoon under 2nd Lt Tausch (with his 1st and 4th Squads).


Overview, north is up, Germans on the left (west) and Poles on the right (east).  Both sides are starting on their baseline.  The hill and the ville are the same from the KG's mechanized attack a few hours ago.  You can still see two Panzers burning on the hill, and a number of casualties from both sides lying about.


Things started well, then got a little crazy on the hill.  For the whole batrep, please visit the blog:

http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2015/01/kg-klink-poland-game-5.html

I won, but it was much more difficult than it should have been.  Another thing that's funny is about heroes; I really was trying to get Lt Freitag and Sgt Haas (the guys that already won the Iron Cross) into positions to further demonstrate their personal bravery, but it just didn't work out that way, though Sgt Haas' 'hero' ability allowed him to rally his troops without activation, which probably saved them from being overrun on the hill.  They subsequently got pinned, but stopped the enemy charge with snap fire, which they wouldn't have been able to do if they were still 'man down.'

More to follow.

V/R,
Jack

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Great report Jack! 

However, not as good as the game vs your son! He ripped you to pieces! Rule 1 of Juves, their dice are amazing.
Rule 2- they alway beat their dad!