Hell on Wheels, the Saga of My Dogfaces Trudging Across Europe and the Med

[Martin1914]

That looks and reads fantastic Jack! An impressive amount of work. Looking forward to following this.

[bigjackmac]

Thanks a bunch, Martin, I really appreciate it! 

I played game this morning, it was fantastic!!! 

I'm looking at posting fight #2 on Wednesday, hope to stick to a regular Wednesday 'release' schedule

V/R,
Jack

[bigjackmac]

All,

0930 Local Time
8 November 1942
Near Port Lyautey, French Morocco

"@#$%," exclaimed Major Reisman, frustrated with the slow pace of operations being carried out by his combined arms task force.  They'd landed nearly five hours ago; sure, confusion about what posture the French defenders would adopt caused apprehension, dismal weather caused delays and units to become intermixed, and then there was the natural hesitation and fear of the unknown caused by green troops seeing their first combat, but the Major was severely nonplussed, nonetheless.  On the Task Force's left, Dog Company had run into very stiff resistance, but dogged determination by its commander (Captain May, who was awarded a Bronze Star w/V for his combat leadership in the battle) led to the Yanks carrying the day, while on the right, Easy Company had the good fortune to land opposite a French unit that was only too happy to cast aside its weapons and surrender (despite the threats of retribution from their Commandant).

But that was exactly the point: following Dog Company's victory, Major Reisman had ordered Easy Company to rush forward and seize the back end (east) of the town of Mehdi, thus bottling up the French garrison there.  But that was over two hours ago, and here was Captain Kirkland, Easy's commander, still standing on the landing beach!  "What the hell are you doing, Captain!  And why aren't you behind Mehdi by now!!!???"  "Sir! We're still attempting to untangle the units and..."  "Look here, Kirkland!  If you want to keep those Captain's bars you will drop whatever nonsense you're up to, grab the nearest men with guns you can find, and go, secure the @#$%ing east end of that @#$%ing town!  Do you understand me?"  "Yessir!"  And off Captain Kirkland went...


The table, north is up.  The town of Mehdi stretches across the top of the table, with Hill 27 at bottom left, Hill 32 at bottom right, and sheer bluffs present at top right. 

The Americans are bunched into the southwestern (bottom left) corner.  The French garrison of two rifle platoons, their CO, and the ATG are in the town, right up against the northwestern table edge (top left), with the MG and Mortar holding Hill 32 in the southeast (bottom right) and the Laffly armored car sitting astride the hardball road in the northeast (top right, between the bluffs).

The concept here is this: the French garrison in the town is caught completely off guard, expecting a head-on attack from Easy Company (which is just off camera to the west-northwest, or top left), with heavy weapons support in the southeast (bottom right) and a (very small) armored reserve in the northeast (top right).  But the threat is not coming from ahead of them, it's coming from their left flank, and they are caught with their pants down!

But all is not great for the Americans: Major Reisman's intent was for Captain Kirkland's force to drive east and then north to seal off the back (east) end of Mehdi, pocketing the garrison, but the good Major didn't allow Captain Kirkland to properly organize his forces, so he's got a mixture of troops from different companies and, more importantly, his infantry platoons are understrength and lacking transport.  So Captain Kirkland intends on pushing his mechanized forces east and north to encircle Mehdi, but his infantry are going to have to take a more direct route, lest they arrive well after the battle is over...


The American attack jumps off and immediately runs into trouble.


"Sacre bleu!"  The French commander, over the initial shock of Amis appearing on his undefended left flank, makes a tactical decision: this is no longer an attack-defense battle, it is a fighting withdrawal!  The French commander's goal is now to get as many of his men safely to the rear (off table to the east).


French armor pops out of its ambush positions and makes its presence felt...


With their infantry leaving town, the French anti-tank gunners spike their gun and haul ass down the street, looking to escape the encirclement.  Will they make it?


Or can the Yankee armor (bottom left) slam the door shut?


A desperate and bloody melee (look at all those casualties!) breaks out as the advancing US infantry closes with the French rear-guard position...

But you're gonna have to check the blog to see how it turned out
https://hakunamatatawars.blogspot.com/2023/01/hell-on-wheels-operation-torch-fight-2.html

Next fight coming soon!

V/R,
Jack

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Allez le bleu!
What a fight

[paulr]

     

I like the way you have characterised the Americans

I also agree with MGs suppressing armour in the right circumstances

Definitely "An entertaining, and very interesting fight!"

[fred.]

Another great looking game, Jack, I do like the market stalls, add a nice splash of colour!

I enjoyed the write up, as you note fighting withdrawals don't always work as games, but this one seemed to work very well. 

I had a look at the Five Core rules (and discovered I'd bought a copy previously). I must admit I'm struggling a bit to reconcile what I get from reading the rules, to what I see in your games. Not least as your games seem to be much larger than the recommended game size from the rules. I'm also not seeing you track activations (this may be happening, just not in the photos or narrative). And in general the rules don't grab my attention at all, yet your battles very much do!

[Steve J]

Another cracking game there Jack with lovely photos to boot! I agree with the MG being able to suppress in games terms: afterall there are plenty of circumstances of AFVs retreating when hit by MG's or just HE.

[pierre the shy]

Another tough fight there Jack....your table really looks like French North Africa!

Given you are using Lee Marvin's photo I'm prompted to ask if ex-Sgt Bruschi will become Major Reisman's first recruit for his "Dirty Dozen" squad after his in-game performance?

Sounds like the next chapter might be equally tough given the comment in the last sentence of your blog.   

[bigjackmac]

Lord Speedy - Thank you, Sir!

Paul - I appreciate it!  Yeah, popular opinion appears to be on my side in terms of MGs being able to pin/suppress armored vehicles; from my standpoint I believe it to be true, and particularly armored vehicles unescorted by friendly infantry.  Regarding the characters, still probably not enough 'color' in the characters as I'd like (once the dice start rolling I tend to forget about it sometimes), but I'm definitely making an effort and it certainly adds to the fun.

Fred - Thanks man!  Yeah, fighting withdrawal scenarios don't always work out well, but this one was lucky and a lot of fun.  I'll come back to your comments on 5CCCC in a minute, in a separate post, I might be able to help.

Steve - Thank you, and yes, I agree, plenty of accounts of (particularly unescorted) armor falling back when taken under MG/HE, and sometimes even small arms, fire.  Turns out most people don't enjoy being shot at, even from inside the 'comfy' confines of a big metal box

Pierre - I appreciate the kind words!  I'm happy with the tables, probably a bit too 'busy' and with too much green scrub, but it's the wargamer in me, I can't help but try to make it a bit prettier, I suppose   Now there's something I hadn't thought of, you're a genius!  All the guys that get busted for cowardice are sent to the brig and are awaiting execution or have life sentences, only to be sprung for one desperate mission   Oh, just wait for the next fight, it's my favorite!

Thanks again guys!

V/R,
Jack

[bigjackmac]

And yes, I'm going to take the quite goofy position of replying to my own post

Fred (and anyone else that has an interest in 5Core but is a bit confused by it) - I run into this quite frequently.  Mr. Sorensen, the author of the 5Core stable of rules (amongst others) is quite brilliant but, in my opinion, occasionally... how do you guys say it?  Over-eggs the pudding, or something like that?  He is very much a detail-guy and loves added 'chrome,' like "roll a D6 and if the unit hasn't taken casualties today and you roll a 5 they are in high spirits and get a one-time bonus move of 3" that doesn't draw reaction fire."  For my part, I tend to ignore all that type of stuff and just work with the bare bones of the gaming mechanisms, and play fast and loose, salt-and peppering to taste while I'm playing, rather than looking things up in the book and becoming frustrated when I can't remember all the special rules, circumstances, and exceptions.  I can afford to do this as I play almost all of these games solo

In any case, I think the rules have a great core but people get put off because 1) they are different to most other sets out there (the activation system itself takes a bit to get used to and rationalize, and I HATED it when I first began playing them), and 2) the way the rules are written can be a bit confusing with all the 'chrome' Ivan has added in there.  I think people start focusing on the detail and miss the bare bones; if I may, here I'll throw out a sort of 'get started with 5Core guide' that has helped some folks jump into the rules and enjoy them, and I hope it helps you, too.  As always, I'm happy to help and glad to answer any questions you may have, so let's get started!  The basics are this:

Pick a side and roll a D6.
  -If you roll a 1, everyone can move without drawing react fire, but then every enemy that saw it gets to move without drawing react fire too, and then it's the enemy's turn.  Roll a D6, rinse and repeat.
  -If you roll a 6, everybody that can shoot gets to shoot, then every enemy that can shoot gets to shoot, then it's the enemy's turn.
  -If you roll a 2-5, count the number of your units and divide by three, that's how many units you can activate to move and shoot/shoot and move.  Enemy units that can see you can react, but then they don't get to activate during their turn.  Now it's the enemy's turn, roll a D6 and carry out.  If they roll a 2-5, any of your units that didn't activate during your turn can react during the enemy's turn.

Shooting is simple: you have the two kinds of dice (Shock and Kill; I roll black dice for Shock and red dice for Kill), and you roll them at the same time, looking for 1s and 6s.
  -1 Shock: The unit is pinned, it cannot move but can fire or rally when activated, can't react, -1 in close combat
  -6 Shock: The unit is suppressed, it cannot move or shoot, only rally when activated, can't react, -2 in close combat.
  -1 Kill: The unit is taking casualties and panicking ("Men Down!"), cannot move, shoot, rally, or react (can only be rallied by another friendly unit moving into base contact with it), -3 in close combat.
  -6 Kill: The unit is knocked out of the fight.

Rallying requires you to roll a D6 to see what happened; 2-5 is successful, 1s and 6s are bad news, carry them out just as you would being shot at, with the exception being that suppressed units that roll another 6 actually fall back 6 inches and stay suppressed.

Close combat is a D6 vs D6 roll with modifiers for troop quality and morale state (described above).

The overall commander (on each side) in 5CCC gets a 'free' activation each turn, which is very useful for rallying troops, and provides a bonus to troops in close combat.  I've also used additional command stands similarly, as a sort of 'bonus,' in order to help model qualitative differences between opposing forces on the tabletop.

The vehicle rules are seamless because they use the exact same mechanisms as the infantry rules, they just move a bit farther, which keeps the game simple and quick. To keep it simple, play as above, but I can tell what I've added to make it more enjoyable for me: vehicles hit on a '1' on a Kill dice are immobilized, and I roll 1D6 to see if the crew stays or bales (usually I say they need a 1 or 6 to stay, 2-5 bale), and for tank on tank games, if you shoot at a tank and miss, the target gets a free return shot (doesn't count as an activation/reaction).

The biggest issue you're going to face is trying to decide how many Shock and Kill dice to roll when shooting, i.e., how to modify up and down based on the type of firing unit and the tactical situation, how to modify for different armor-piercing capability vs different levels of armor.  First, here's my overall view: don't get bogged down in silly details! 

You're a company commander, not a squad, vehicle, or gun team leader, either the firing unit has the capability to render the target combat ineffective or it doesn't (and thus warrants Kill Dice), and/or the firing unit has the capability to affect the target's combat capability (to pin it down or suppress it) or it doesn't (and thus warrants Shock Dice).  The book will tell you that rifle squads shoot with 1 Kill dice and 1 Shock dice at infantry targets in the open and with 1 Shock dice at infantry targets in cover.  But I mess with (adjust) that all the time, based on my own perceptions and biases.  They're at point-blank range? Add a Kill dice.  They're veterans?  Add a Shock dice.  They caught the enemy completely unaware, out in the open?  Add a Kill and a Shock dice.  There are three enemy squads all bunched up?  Add another Kill and two more Shock dice.  Same goes for MGs, mortars, field guns, tanks firing on infantry, etc...  If a tank firing on enemy infantry in cover doesn't have friendly infantry nearby, I typically mark the firing tank down in shooting dice as I figure they might have a hard time acquiring the enemy infantry.  Hell, sometimes I make units make a spotting test in order to engage! Roll 1D6, if it's a hard spot they need a 1 or 6, if it's an easy spot they need a 2-5 (hopefully you've picked up on everything in 5Core being about 1s and 6s).

For example, we could say that an M8 Armored Car firing its 37mm main gun at the frontal armor of a Tiger I at point-blank range cannot knock out the target, so warrants 0 Kill dice, but could adversely impact the Tiger's crew, so warrants 1 Shock dice, maybe even a second Shock dice if we're feeling charitable due to the shooting occurring at point-blank range, the quick-firing capability of the armored car, and let's say they've got a cool, veteran crew that knows it's survival rests on not panicking and delivering fast, accurate fire on the Tiger's vision blocks, for example.

Some folks look at this aspect as very limiting, and they spend countless hours poring through the rule book to determine what the author directs regarding the specific situation, and to each his own.  I, however, do feel similarly restrained, and part of what I love about the rules is that I can do whatever I want within the framework of these basic mechanisms, they're apparently impossible to break.

The only thing I'm not happy with in these rules is they don't work particularly well for pure armor vs armor fights; I have a solution for that as well, but that's a topic for another day.

Well, hopefully you find that helpful, even if it's only helpful enough to realize the rules aren't for you.  But I absolutely love them and they give me a great bit of fun, super dramatic.  They never let you do everything you want to do, but you can always do something, so every turn is a full of making (and living with) your numerous tactical decisions.  You really get the glory of winning and the agony of defeat, and you'll constantly be questioning yourself about what the 'right move' was in any of a half-dozen certain, important situations was each game.  It's funny, in the batreps, sometimes the characters have momentous ups and/or downs along the way, and some of it is due to me 'letting the character show through,' but some of it just my poor decision-making, or a bold plan that didn't quite work out the way I'd hoped, and the poor character just has to live with it

V/R,
Jack

[pierre the shy]

Pierre - I appreciate the kind words!  I'm happy with the tables, probably a bit too 'busy' and with too much green scrub, but it's the wargamer in me, I can't help but try to make it a bit prettier, I suppose   Now there's something I hadn't thought of, you're a genius!  All the guys that get busted for cowardice are sent to the brig and are awaiting execution or have life sentences, only to be sprung for one desperate mission   Oh, just wait for the next fight, it's my favorite!

Thanks again guys!

V/R,
Jack

I'll take that complement thanks Jack, been called a few things over the years, but genius is not in the top 10 very often! 

If your happy using 5 Core the way you do then don't change them! Your game reports using them have a real "joi de vie" and you're obviously in your happy place playing them your way.

Thanks for the run down of how you play them.

I'm still loving those simple WW2 air war rules you put me onto a few years ago. Looking at a slightly audacious project using them later in the year with some existing stuff that has been hiding in my lead pile for too long, but need to do some painting first rather than using card counters.

Those Phantoms, Sabres etc that I got off you could be a bit busy in due course too once we wrap up our For King & Parliament scenarioes, though not in quite the same spot as you were intending to use them.....   

 
     

[fred.]

Thanks Jack, that is a very good rules primer / intro. I'll have another look at the rules now I have this to refer to!

[Ithoriel]

Great post Jack. Not going to get me playing 5Core in the immediate future but gives me a much better picture of the mechanics behind your games. Love both your approach and your AARs.

I remember the aircraft AARs fondly too. I kept meaning to ask what  the rules were that you and Peter used but never did. So ..... what rules did you use?

[Raider4]

I remember the aircraft AARs fondly too. I kept meaning to ask what  the rules were that you and Peter used but never did. So ..... what rules did you use?

https://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,20946.msg328904.html#msg328904

[Ithoriel]

Thank you Raider4.