Campaign News

 

A new campaign starts today (ACW) and the WWII Krosnogord campaign will shortly see its first major engagement (see link below).

My second campaign undertaking of the year is about to start - the ACW Graysville Campaign, which is a fictitious action between two divisions.

It is Morning, 18th June 1863. Confederate Major General Ewell has been ordered to the town of Graysville, which sits on a strategically important part of the road net. He holds 1st Brigade under Colonel Scott there in reserve, while his 2nd Brigade (Brigadier General Elzey) is dispersed further forwards and has been deployed beyond Mott’s Run to cover the two approach roads and associated bridges. 1st Cavalry Brigade is deployed to cover the small rise that overlooks Old Mine Road,

A Union division under Brigadier General Shields in approaching. His orders are to secure Graysville with all haste.

I have taken the inspiration for this campaign from Charles Grant’s book ‘Programmed Wargame Scenarios’. Accordingly I spent yesterday writing down orders for the two sides, but more importantly, similar to the mechanics proposed by Grant, for each confederate unit and currently held position on the map, I have recorded a dice driven response to any hostile action.

What this means is that, for example, as Dowdall Church is attacked, the 31st Virginia regiment located there will dice against a number of pre-determined response. So until that happens, we will not know how 31st will respond. Mostly the responses are weighted towards a certain decision, but who knows what the dice will give us.

Likewise, I have set up some variables for the Union attack. At the start of play, a D6 will determine how Shields will deploy and direct his division. So the first thing we must do is to determine that. Let’s work out Shield’s initial plan now!

Roll …… 2, the result says;

1st & 2nd Brigade, plus Battery H push down the Old Mine Road. 1st Brigade will clear Peavine Ridge and 2nd Brigade with the artillery will push on along the road to seize Duffy’s Mill.

3rd Brigade advance directly along Piney Turnpike to capture Rock Spring, while Colonel Brodhead will take his two cavalry regiments to secure Dowdall Church.

These manoeuvres are a pre-cursor to taking the bridges across Mott’s Run and advancing onto Greysville.

The next task will be to advance the union onto the map and see how the forward confederate elements respond to the ‘sea of blue’ before them! No doubt a relay of messages and orders will quickly follow and the campaign will start to take shape.

From here on in, all of the campaign narrative will be made solely at my Commanders site, under the Graysville Campaign tag (see link below).

I will be using my own rules and the Warlord Games Epic ACW figures. 

LINK TO ACW CAMPAIGN - https://commanders.simdif.com/grayville_campaign_1863.html

LINK TO WWII CAMPAIGN - https://commanders.simdif.com/krosnogord_campaign_1944.html

As always, thanks for passing by. Norm.

EDIT

An opening action has been fought!

The Krosnogord 1944 campaign - Hypothetical

 

July 1944, while fighting in southern Poland, Soviet forces have come up against a mountain range, where the German positions on the high ground dominate the ground below, bringing accurate artillery fire onto anything that moves. Looking for a way to break through, 1st Brigade  have been ordered to advance into a mountain pass. Their objective is to probe west and take the town of Krosnogord at the far end of the valley. To reach it, they will have to cross the River Wislok, which could be well defended. If they can push beyond Krosnogord, the break through will be complete.

I will be using the tactical WWII boardgame, Old School Tactical published by Flying Pig and designed by Shayne Logan, to fight the various actions, but with a figures system to manage the campaign.

The final chapter in Charles Grant’s book ‘Programmed Wargame Scenarios’ (2nd Edition) has a generic campaign called Reconnaissance in Strength and essentially works as a ‘ladder’ campaign.

It is actually a reconnaissance in strength type scenario that deals with an advance along a mountain pass / valley by the Blue Force (Soviets for us), which will fight over eight game tables, before reaching the final table - the town. We shall replace the individual tables with the small maps that come with the boardgame’s various support modules.

Red Force (Germans for us) is defending the main town at the end of the pass, but they also have detachments further forwards in the valley, with the intent of delaying and disrupting Blue Force.

I will run this campaign with a series of short After Action Reports, so that the reader can follow the progress from map to map. All reports will be added to the campaign folder on my COMMANDERS site (link below). It will probably be played over several weeks or months and will be posted in chronological order.

The order that the paper maps will appear in the chain of advance will be chosen randomly. The final map is fixed and will be map number 1 from the ‘Phantom Division’ module, as this has concrete type building structures that will represent Krosnogord.

There are various mechanics in Grant’s book that will be used in the background to manage the campaign. Red Force can be ordered by the system and accordingly although I am handling both sides in each battle, for the German forces, the programmed system will be used as I sort of ‘Game Master’ things along. 

The record will be written mostly from the perspective of the Soviet attacker, so that the reader gets a vague idea as to the German player’s intentions and strengths, which are only revealed as the campaign unfolds.

The order-of-battle here reflects ownership of mainly 1st Edition OST Vol I upgraded to 2nd edition (east front) and the Red Blitz module, hence there is something of a hodge podge collection of unit types in the Soviet Infantry battalion, with companies of standard rifle sections, Irregulars and Guards, which is an unrealistic mix at this formation level, however, the game’s counter mix is what it is and those variables should give the Soviet player some interesting choices as to which troop types should be used at any one time and place. Just think of them as green or veteran etc.

Here are your available forces ……….. Captain Voronin

Soviet Order-of-Battle

Commander of 1st Brigade - Captain Voronin (You the player)

1st Infantry Battalion

Captain Sokolov

1st Company

Lt. Grenko

9 Rifle sections, 1 sergeant, 2 LMG, 1 Molotov, 1 ATR

2nd Company

Lt. Balakin

1 x Commissar

9 Guards Rifle sections, 1 sergeant, 2 LMG, 1 Molotov, 1 ATR

3rd Company

Lt. Aliyev

9 Irregular rifle sections, 1 sergeant, 2 LMG, 1 Molotov, 1 ATR

Heavy Weapons Company, 2 HMG, 2 x 57mm A/T guns with 2 trucks to tow

1st Tank Battalion (understrength)

Lt. Ivashin

1st Company - 10 x T34 / 76

2nd Company - 4 x T34 / 85

3rd Company (attached) - 5 x JSII

1st SMG Company (attached) 7 Shock sections, 1 Lt. Chekov, 1 sergeant, 3 satchel charges,

Reconnaissance Company 1 x Lt (spare), 2 BA-10 armoured cars, 3 trucks, 3 x 1st line rifle sections, 3 x sapper sections, 2 LMG 1 Sgt 1  flamethrower (sapper only)

Artillery support is randomly determined at the start of each battle.

All Gut Check ratings are 7 with the following exceptions.

Guards and Pioneers are 6, while Irregulars are 8.

Impulse Points - For each battle, the Soviet army gets a basic 4D6. After the first battle, this is always modified. At the conclusion of each battle, check how many casualty points the force lost during that battle. If it has been 12 or more then in future battles the Impulse allowance is permanently reduced by 2 points. These are cumulative modifiers, so if the Soviets have taken 12 or more casualties in two battles, their Impulse allowance for the fifth battle would be permanently lowered to 3D6 +2. Note in the final battle, regardless of any loss, Soviet Impulse Points are always returned to the full 4D6.

LINK TO COMMANDERS

https://commanders.simdif.com/krosnogord_campaign_1944.html

Another campaign started.

I have started setting up my second mini campaign for 2025. This one is for my ACW figures.

Charles Grant's book of Programmed Scenarios has a chapter covering two styles of mini campaigns. One is a ladder system, which I am using for the WWII campaign and the other is grid based, which I am using for the ACW.

Rather than compromise his copyright here by detailing his map and system, I have made up my own campaign map, but the total inspiration for doing this is down to the Grant book and I will be using all of his ideas to manage the campaign and using the programmed element to it, which supports solo play.

As an example, Grant's map has two main roads, an east and a west road. At the start of play a dice is rolled to determine whether the attacker will drive down the east and screen the west or drive down the west and screen the east or do 40 / 40 down each road with 20% of the force given other tasks, including a reserve etc.

By also randomising to a degree the defenders 'deployments' and 'responses',  the campaign should start to get a character of its own and feel fresh to my eyes despite all of the planning. 

The map has some made up names, plus a few borrowed from various boardgame maps that I own, so it is typical rather than actual.

Next up I need an Order-of-Battle. I see the campaign being based around a division per side, with the attacker having a 3:2 benefit in numbers. The defender will be dispersed around the map, so the immediate effect will be greater than 3:2 as the attackers meet various outposts and blocking forces etc. 

I will likely choose a division each from a historical campaign such as the Shenandoah in 1862 or 1864 or I might mix that up a bit as you also roll for leader character traits, such as whether a commander is bold or cautious etc as this plays into some of the programmed responses in the game.

Anyway, little steps, but with two campaigns now planned, the ambition that I set at Christmas to get some big picture stuff going, but using smaller games along the way is starting to take shape.

Both the WWII (Krosnogord) and the ACW Graysville) campaigns will be supported over at my COMMANDERS site (link below), where once up and running, I will open up a subject tab for each in the menu there. As always, thanks for looking.

LINK;

https://commanders.simdif.com/