The Adventures of Kampfgruppe Klink

[Techno]

Thanks, Jack.

I imagined it would be something like that....Thought I'd better check, though. 
Cheers - Phil

[bigjackmac]

No problem, anytime Sir.

V/R,
Jack

[bigjackmac]

All,

It's 1000 on 14 May 1940, and KG Klink, attached to the 7th Panzer Division, has been directed to reduce a French strongpoint manned by elements of their 5th Infantry Division.  Elements of 7th Panzer Division stream by to the north and south as 2nd Panzer Platoon, 2nd Infantry Platoon, and 4th Infantry Platoon fall out of formation into an assembly area, then launch their attack on this thorn in the side of the armored thrust.


The opposing forces, with both sides having a mixture of armor and infantry.

The Germans have their CO, two rifle platoons, a tank platoon, and a (worthless) mortar).

The French have their CO, two light tanks, two 25mm anti-tank guns, two rifle platoons, and a mortar.


Overview, north is left, east is up, the Germans are attacking from top to bottom.  I started the French on blinds, placed the Germans, then uncovered the blinds.  The French infantry and guns begin in emplacements, and with concertina wire (not pictured, I put it on the table after I took this pic).

The German line up, from north (left) to south (right): 2nd Inf Plt, 2nd Pz Plt (with CO nearby and mortar to their rear), and 4th Inf Plt.

The French left has an ATG at far left in emplacement, and two rifle squads (one ATR) in the ville.  The French central position is Hill 47, with their CO and three rifle squads, backed up by an ATG, rifle squad, R35, and mortar at the stone farmhouse, and posted to the far right flank is the other French tank.


Things were going pretty well until ze Germans got a little too aggressive in pushing their tanks forward.  Those are German tanks and French infantry.  The results were... different.

To see the whole fight, please visit the blog at:
http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2015/05/kg-klink-france-game-4.html

What a fight, tense right up to the very end.  I hope you enjoy it, and sorry for so many fuzzy pictures; at this point I'd stop considering it a bug, more of a feature from our (fake computer) war correspondents...

V/R,
Jack

[Techno]

 ......Again !!
Cheers - Phil

[toxicpixie]

It's probably actionsmlikethis where they could have and came close to, losing whole platoons of tanks against half a dozen blokes with sticks that meant they stopped for a breather just before hitting Dunkirk, instead of after

Tactical loss, operational loss, for the French; strategic disaster for the Germans

[bigjackmac]

Thanks guys, and that's a very interesting point TP.

I was looking at much more from the shallow end: the dice have been too good to me lately, I'm bound to be headed for disaster!

V/R,
Jack

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Good old Loeb. Tank assault badge for him!

[ronan]

good AAR !

Tough fight !

[bigjackmac]

Thanks Lemmey and Ronan!

You mentioned Loeb, I don't know what it is lately, but the tank kills have been coming in pairs.  There may be several other tanks there, but once one tank gets a kill everyone else misses until the guy that got the first kill gets another one.  Like I said, the dice have been kinda trippy.  I'm scared of the next one.

If I recall correctly, the next two are both armor-only fights.  Which is cool, but I'm kind of missing my old fashioned infantry fights.

Does anyone else feel like the tanks are playing too big a role?

V/R,
Jack

[ronan]

Does anyone else feel like the tanks are playing too big a role?

I don't think so ( historical, isn't it ?)
As long as
- you're having fun
- you're planning to change some terrain. Try a small city perhaps ?

[bigjackmac]

Ronan,

I think it's historical, but I guess I am missing the more infantry-focused games, and I know the next campaign (North Africa) is going to be super focused on the tanks.

A small city, eh?  I don't know man, I haven't heard of too many tank fights in cities

V/R,
Jack

[Ithoriel]

A small city, eh?  I don't know man, I haven't heard of too many tank fights in cities

Stonne, Jack. You know, the one where Bilotte and his crew in the Char B "Eure" single-handedly shot up more German armour than you'll have on table

Nothing like building up a bogey-man to "frit" the enemy

Bet the French tanks pop like paper bags after that!

[bigjackmac]

"...single-handedly shot up more German armour than you'll have on table..."

Yeah Ithoriel, you're making my point!  Being channelized into the guns of a tank you can't knock out from the front sounds like a great reason to avoid tank fights in the city!!! 

V/R,
Jack

[fsn]

... but they still do it ...

[toxicpixie]

He more kind of drove right into the middle of them, didn't he?!

[bigjackmac]

If you're talking about the Sherman that drove up and stuck his nose in the building in Athens, he sure did!  And the BMP in Syria really cracked me up, driving into the building and firing down the hallway.  The best was the very beginning of Syria when the rocket popped out of the building, narrowly missing the tank as the tank popped the building.

In any case, the fellers in KG Klink don't have a deathwish, and none of this convinced me I should run a tank vs tank game in a city (I'm talking 2 or 3 platoons against 2 or 3 platoons, like I did previously)!

V/R,
Jack

[bigjackmac]

All,

It's 1600 on 14 May 1940, and KG Klink, attached to the 7th Panzer Division, is on the move.  Earlier this morning KG Klink attacked and destroyed a strongpoint manned by the French 5th Infantry Division.  Having broken through 7th Panzer Division is on the road to Flavion.  However, an hour ago, 7th Panzer reconnaissance elements on the march came under fire from the (fictional) French village of Riqueville.  7th Panzer continued west around the village, and KG Klink immediately received a FragO to stand detached to reduce yet another French strongpoint.  Colonel Klink decided to lead the assault himself, composed of the better part of his Grenadier Company, two platoons of tanks, a portion of the Kampfgruppe's Reconnaissance Platoon, and a section of 80mm mortars.  Aerial reconnaissance stated the French force as a couple platoons of infantry with perhaps a couple crew-served weapons, with maybe a single tank in support.  Ordinarily a single tank in support wouldn't be something for Colonel Klink to be too concerned about, but when that tank is a Char B, with it's extraordinarily heavy armor...

Regarding rules, I'm messing around again...  Years ago, when my father was still alive, he'd come over pretty much every weekend and we'd play wargames (sadly, this was before I created a blog to record all my wargaming efforts).  In any case, we primarily played three games: Force on Force, Bag the Hun, and I Ain't Been Shot Mum (IABSM).  So it's been awhile, but I've had a hankering for some larger, reinforced-company level games that are a bit grittier that what I normally play, so I decided to give IABSM another try.  I did change some things up, vastly simplifying the shooting and morale mechanics, but I've kept the 'guts' of the game as written: platoon and 'Big Man' activation randomized by cards and further randomized by the 'Tea Break,' starting the game on 'blinds' and having to be spotted, and variable (diced-for) movement.  I say guts; others may have differing opinions, but to me, those items are what set the IABSM rules apart from others.


Overview, north is DOWN, with the Germans entering the table at left (east) and the French defending the right (west) half of the table, including the village, at top right (southwest).  The north is covered with crop fields and bushes which provide neither cover nor concealment, and while the bushes across the entirety of the table might look a bit bocage-ey, they're just bushes.  At far left is The Chateau, which has The Orchard just above it.  At center top left is The Farm (with a wood fence running around it and north *down* through the fields), and at center/center right is The Granary.

The opposing forces:


Ze Germans: at left is the Kampfgruppe Commander, Colonel Klink, proud owner of the Iron Cross 2nd Class for his actions in Poland.  At top is the German infantry company: top center left is the company commander, Captain Freitag (Iron Cross 2nd Class).  He has three of his four platoons, each with a platoon commander and three squads.  There is a two-tube section of 80mm mortars, two Sdkfz 221s from the Recon Platoon, three Pz IIIs (37mm) from 2nd Pz Platoon, and two Pz IVs from 4th Pz Platoon.


The French: they are commanded by Major Renaut (left) and have two rifle platoons of three squads each, a weapons section of a single machine gun and a 25mm anti-tank gun, and a single Char B heavy tank.

The troops are 10mm, a mix of Pendraken and Minifigs.  Basically it breaks out to most of the infantry are Minifigs and most of the vehicles are Pendraken.


The attack is not going well: a Pz IV and a Sdkfz 221 (center top right) push past a burning German armored car on their way into the village, separated from their infantry support, which is lying suppressed in the fields (bottom left and bottom right), being ravaged by French machine gun fire from the village (yellow building at top left).  To see how the fight goes, please check the blog at:
http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2017/11/kg-klink-france-game-5.html

Hope you had as much fun as we did!

V/R,
Jack

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Great report, thought the boy had ya!

[bigjackmac]

Thanks Lemmey, and you ain't the only one!  I was already planning my tactical withdrawal, just got lucky.  Of course, if I could have ever gotten my mortars into the action, even if only to lay smoke for the infantry, things maybe could have gone a bit smoother...

V/R,
Jack

[petercooman]

Nice one!

Your battlefields always look great! I have some of those fields as well, they work very well!