One advantage of a gridded game (and one with limited unit types) is that it is pretty easy to record the game state, return the gaming room to standard domestic use for the week, then set the game up again ready to go the next Friday. 

Operation Epsom part 2 is setup and ready to go!

Operation Epsom Day 4+

Despite having had to put away the game last week, to make the table available for general use, resetting up the game was surprisingly straight forward - perhaps helped by having left the figures and terrain on trays rather than putting them back in storage boxes.

Day 4


The morning sequence started with the roll for weather - a 1 indicating bad weather! Meaning the allied airforces were grounded. This was annoying as their attacks against the dug in German armour would have been useful.

As the Germans had momentum (from holding 3 objectives last turn) they also went first, which allowed reinforcement of positions.

The British attack started on the left flank with a series of wearing down attacks on the dug in 10th SS Panzer Division - these where very unsuccessful with the worn attackers being degraded to Exhausted in most cases. 

In the centre 11th AD attacked, causing some attrition to the defenders on the two objectives

Later day 4



In the centre 3rd Canadians, fresh troops and Veterans finally get through the log jam, and manage to capture the centre objective. Here numbers helped the British as they could now surround the German defenders, meaning any retreat caused elimination of their troops.

I also had 1 stockpile left, so at this stage was willing to move lots of units to Exhausted knowing they could be recovered overnight.

Day 5 / 6



The final few German infantry reinforcements arrive - but probably too little too late, as the weather has cleared. The allied air strikes damage the armour on the two objectives in German hands.

On the left the surrounded defenders finally capitulate. On the right 11th AD is battered, and I am struggling to get fresh troops into position.

The German forces at this stage are down to less than 10 units


The end - British have taken all the objectives - have destroyed huge amounts of German forces, so they can't effectively counter attack - even though the 10th SS infantry had a game attempt on the left.

The dead pile


1 destroyed Sherman vs many many dead Germans!

This was a good conclusion to the game - in the mid game the Germans were very strong having got their reinforcements into position. But as time went on they were steadily ground down by the superior British numbers, and then the game was only going one way.

The length of the game really matters in this scenario - 5 -6 days feels about right - the scenario suggests 4-5, but the conversion notes in the book suggests up to 7 days.

We've both enjoyed Eisenhower as a game - the rules are straight forward so you concentrate on what you want to do, the decision making feels that it matters.

As with any attack/defence scenario at times the defender is rather static - but always has the choice to jump into a counter attack - if they dare!

Looking at maps to make a Sedan 1940 scenario, and thinking about how the rules would work for WWI!

Looks amazing

WWI Russians

I've actually been painting some Pendraken figures!!

Some recently acquired sailors and some existing dismounted dragoons. 



I'm getting near to the end* of this project. One more bag of Cossacks to paint (and perhaps some more dismounted Cossacks to buy)

Will have to have a bit of a count up to check total numbers.



* end as in enough for now, until I spot something else I want to add. 

Eisenhower - Sedan 1940

Continuing the recent theme of Eisenhower games, we tried a Sedan 1940 scenario - this was a scenario I had created, largely based on the details in the Osprey France 1940 book - which has a handy map that is pretty much the size of an Eisenhower table!

The game starts on 14th May 1940, with the Germans having forced bridgeheads across the Meuse the previous day. Now their Panzers stand ready to exploit through.



The photos are orienteered looking north, with Stonne in the foreground and Sedan at the top of the table. The Meuse is the wider shiny river running across the top of the table, then angling to the right. Running north to south is the Ardennes canal.

1st Pz Div has forced its way across - supported by artillery from all 3 divisions. On the left 2nd Pz has struggled to shift the prepared defenders. And 10th Pz waits for some space to cross.

The French defenders on the Meuse are the 55th Infantry, rated as conscripts, further south is part of the 71st Division.
On the canal is part of the 14th Division and the 5th Light Cavalry Division both under General Touchon. These units have been in combat in the Ardennes in the preceding days - so on a roll of 1 or 2, they would start the game as worn.


The Germans exploit through with both 1st and 10th Pz advancing through the gap in the French lines.
At the bottom right the French 71st move across towards Stonne.


2nd Pz is now across both the Meuse and the canal - the French cavalry choosing to withdraw from combat. To the south the Panzers push on too - but by now the Germans are becoming very strung out, with reinforcements coming on to the table a long way from the spearheads.
The first French reinforcements have arrived near Stonne with the heavy armour of 3rd DCR lumbering into view - whilst the infantry of 71st Div take up blocking positions.


2nd Pz continue to push west, but have become quite strung out.

Whilst to the south 1st and 10th concentrate before attacking against some now quite strong French forces. On the Meuse a regiment of the 55th hold out in fortified positions - their main influence being to prevent German transit moves which slows down the flow of reinforcements


Counterattack! The French cavalry seize their moment and sweep in behind 2nd Pz - isolating them from their supply lines. The Germans fortunately had a single remaining stockpile they could spend to avoid losses from this event, but in doing this they could spend this stockpile to refresh their Exhausted units (yellow counters) - which limited their combat effectiveness.

Move French reserves continue to arrive to the West - just in time to hold the exit point objective.


The Germans clear the French cavalry, reinstating their supply lines - but the 2nd Pz now supported by elements of the 10th fail to remove the reinforcements from the 53rd Div. who are blocking their exit to the West.

In the South 1st Pz fails to get any traction in their attacks around Stonne. Although they do finally clear the 55th Div defenders off the Meuse.

At this point the Germans called the game as their attacks had petered out in the face of increasing French resistance.

Conclusions
An interesting scenario - felt the Germans were very close to breaking through mid-game, but then with increasing French reinforcements their attacks were not enough.

Scenario wise, I wonder if the Germans should have started with 1 infantry battalion  of each of 1st and 2nd Pz across the Meuse.
The French 71st seemed to be quite significant in blocking Stonne - and I wonder if they should have been fewer in number / more tied to their original defensive positions.

Good stuff Fred, thanks for posting your Eisenhower based batreps.

Looks like a fairly tough nut for the panzers to crack in this game, especially once 3eme DCR arrives with their Char 1bis.

If you're writing scenarioes for these rules you clearly must be enjoying them. Do you find using a grid for WW2 games takes a bit of getting used to?

Having written quite a few scenarios for many different rule sets I still find that a scenario nearly always will need a bit of tweaking. On more than one occasion one of the players has made a really good suggestion that I would not have thought of myself that really makes the scenario better.

 

Thanks Pierre. 

Yes, I'm enjoying Eisenhower, in many ways it is a stripped down version of Rommel, and that has improved the game, but removing some of the fiddly bits, and putting the focus back on the models. 

We enjoyed Rommel, and when it came out even tried gridded games for Sci Fi - which kind of worked, but wasn't quite there. And we enjoy FKaP too. I think if we keep playing gridded games I might need to get a better grass matter with grid corners marked on it - this old GW one is quite plain and tatty these days. 

With the scenario it's quite hard to work out the balance - as the Germans are trying to push west, and any delays will cost them. So it is hard to know which are down to unlucky dice or poor decisions vs not quite having got the balance right. 

Also the French player is likely more aggressive and better informed than his historical counterparts. Though for most of the game, I was fairly passive as the French, as I didn't want to leave my prepared positions. 

WWI Russian Cossacks

Got the second half of the mounted Cossacks finished this weekend, 10 bases of cavalry, 2 horses holders, a few command figures and 2 artillery pieces. The 3rd artillery piece is manned by Frontier Guards who have natty uniforms!



Other than 25 dismounted Cossacks (who I am awaiting delivery for) this is my WWI Russian force done! (Apart from a mass spaying in matt version, but that might have to wait a few months until the weather is OK to spray outside again).

Well done, as in I have plenty of figures to play games with - but a unit of Frontier Guards and perhaps some winter troops, or Red Infantry for the civil war could all be extensions!


Warmonger Gendrames

Got these guys finished as well - I had started them months ago, but they had been put to one side, really only needed lances and plumes doing to finish them. The bases need flocking but I need to find the pike units I have done already to check the colour of grass I used!

Great work Fred! Love those WW1 Russians look lovely. I am always tempted to paint up a WW1 Russian army, perhaps one day.

The Warmonger stuff looks great. I bought a heap of their miniatures (they were a bit pricey) and painted up a bunch of their reiters. They are nice little miniatures but the project floundered and I sold them off. Your brushwork on those gendarmes makes me regret abandoning them.

Thanks!

My WWI Russians largely come from the Russo Japanese war range - and they are great figures, my mate nearly has his Austro Hungarians painted, so we can some massive Eastern front battles with some mediocre troops!

Warmonger figures are nice - I have quite a few Pike and Zweihanders painted up - initially they were add-ons to my Empire army, but they can probably function as a stand-alone force now. They are sculpted in a way that makes painting easy, I find. 

Eisenhower - Western Desert DAK vs 8th Army

We decided to play Eisenhower agin this week - the 4th game since its release - we're clearly enjoying these rules!

This time switched the action to the Western Desert 1941/42, for a fictional game, using broadly historical formations. What was surprising is that you can get all the DAK on the table for a Rommel game! I based the British forces on 8th Army troops for Operation Crusader.

The Germans were the strategic offence, and as such had 25pts more to play with, which was probably spent on their forces being largely veteran, rather than in more units.



Early in turn 1, the DAK are attacking from the far table edge. They have the fairly large Italian Ariete Division at the back left, then 5th Light, 21st Pz Div and 15th Pz Div from left to right, and on the far right the 90th light which is all infantry.

The Germans had placed two objectives on the left hand side of the battlefield (which is a little larger than normal at 10x14 squares, as the grid on my desert mat is 12cm). I had placed on in the mountains on the right. The map is from one of the generic ones provided with the rules. Red objectives are German held, those coloured green in post production are British held.

The 5th Light has already successfully attacked 1st Army Tank Brigade pushing them back, and capturing the undefended objective on the left. The deployment order, is defender, attacker, then finally objectives. So the Defender has to spread fairly thin to hope to cover the likely location of the two attacker placed objectives.

The British have 7th Armoured Division in tactical reserve, 22nd Armoured Brigade in the centre, and 1st South African Infantry in the mountains on the right. 2nd NZ div is off table in reserve.


DAK success!

This is the start of turn 2 - And the British have been heavily pushed back - objective markers have moved in the night phase the DAK did capture the 2 on the left in turn 1. The Germans were able to concentrate force (and roll some very good dice) in this turn leading to some big advances. I don't recall why a German division (probably 21st Pz Div) is so far back - I suspect it only had 1 Op available so after attacking couldn't exploit. On the left Ariete were able to make a transit move through the soft ground.

At the rear 2nd NZ Div have arrived (I rolled doubles for reinforcements so the whole formation was available to deploy).




The New Zealanders reinforce the defensive line, and 7th Armoured make some local counter attacks.

On the right 90th Light attacks into the mountains vs the South Africans - fairly ineffectively.

Both sides are starting to suffer a lot of attrition (the hex makers are hits, the brown side is 1, the yellow 2 - units only have 3 hits). In the night phase Exhausted (yellow) units can recover to worn by spending 1 of your stockpiles.


Starting to reach stalemate - some of the German units are now digging in, to avoid counter attacks. In the game prepared units fight first in combat, which can be quite significant. British Air strikes are slowly blunting attacks as well.


The British shuffle fresh NZ units on to the objectives - so even though I was suffering losses, the Germans couldn't take the objectives. On the right the SA troops are getting battered by heavy artillery strikes. With the Germans taking this objective.

Whilst the first turn was 2:1 to the Germans, the next 3 where 2:1 to the British - so the Germans trail 5:7


Yellow exhausted markers everywhere as both sides have run out of stockpiles to recover their troops. The German attack in the centre has petered out, they just don't have enough fresh units to have a decisive hit. I do wonder if they should have kept pressing even at the loss of units, just to whittle down the British forces.

On the right the 90th Light should have taken the objective again, and forced a 6th turn - but they had been too confident and not moved their second regiment up to be in position to attack! So my 1 exhausted unit managed to cling on, due to some solid defensive dice rolling that meant they won the combat against their attackers so weren't forced to retreat.

The British score 3:0 this round so handily won 10:5, even though losses where massively in the German's favour  - who only lost 2 units vs 12 British



Another great game.

I was really pushed in the first couple of turns, and all my reinforcements arriving at the start of turn 2 (and my troops having fallen back so far they could easily get to the front line) was very helpful.

Later in the game I was tempted to counter attack the Germans, especially where they had exhausted units, but the risk always seemed too high, so I largely sat in defensive positions absorbing the attacks by shuffling fresh units in.

I was pleased at how quickly I was able to research some historically plausible forces and get them turned into Eisenhower forces.

Great looking game once again Fred !

It's great seeing all these Eisenhower games.
I have the rules, but have not played, for lack of enthusiastic opponents.

I get the impression that the combat has a lot in common with old Avalon Hill games.
Meanwhile the supply, and stifling owes a lot to the Japanese board game Go.

I would love to see more about your methods to create scenarios.
Scenarios are somewhat lacking in the official rules.

Thanks Steve and Steve 

Shame you haven't got an opponent to play against Steve H - though they may be fairly solo friendly as there isn't really any hidden info in the game, and the defender is often quite passive.

Scenario wise

The latest Western Desert one was the quickest to put together as it largely followed the Fictional Game rules within Eisenhower. Where it varied was I had a look in an Osprey and on Wikipedia to find unit names and structures.

Given how high level and abstract the rules are it's fairly quick to count up the number of tank and infantry battalions in a formation, check how much artillery it has - which gives you the base. The only question I have had is what to do with Recon and Anti-Tank formations. In the Desert game I decided to count the German recon formations as Mechanised Infantry - giving them good attack range, but not that hard hitting. I ignored any equivalent formations on the British side (not least as they weren't obvious on the Wiki page) but also I think from a doctrinal perspective they weren't used as battle formations.

These unit counts then mapped pretty closely to the Army Lists given in Eisenhower (which is pleasing). I did find my forces landed about half-way between a medium and a large game - but it was trivial to work out what the points difference between Offence and Defence should be.

This probably took about 30-45mins to do - it was surprisingly quick.

For terrain I rolled 2d12 to get two maps from those supplied, the first didn't feel very western desert, the second fitted much better.


For the Sedan game, it was a lot more involved.

For the terrain, the map in the Osprey France 1940 book was a very good match size wise for an Eisenhower battlefield. Then it was a case of sketching a grid on top of a copy of the map - I drew this directly on, and I think I was lucky in how I aligned it. I think I should have spent a bit longer aligning the grid to the map so that key features fitted with the grid well.

Then I made a gridded map on squared paper - this was fairly quick to do - the hardest bit is deciding which terrain features are significant enough to be represented. I chose to use urban for villages on the western side of the map. But bocage may have been better (I have to say that the bocage terrain type is badly named - it probably should be called villages and farmland, as that is what the description refers to (and how it is used in the Epsom scenario).

Working out the forces and the timeline took a bit of effort - perhaps because of the way the Osprey is structured, it covers the whole battle of France day by day so it takes a bit of scanning to find the Sedan bits in each day and extract them out.

Also resources for French forces are thinner than for British or German ones, so these took a bit more searching (but again I found the Army Lists in the rules were super close to the historical formations - so in future I might just go with the Army Lists).

Do ask more, if the above isn't clear or complete.

You have been busy Forbes, great painting and two lovely write ups.