Around 18 months ago, I did a post based on two tank platoons, one German the other Soviet, facing off against each other, using the very detailed boardgame ‘Panzer’ by GMT (see link in the Resource Section below).
The idea of the post was to give some insight into the different experiences of the two platoons, based on their training and tank types on a 1943 battlefield.
I am going to use the background information and scenario of that post again and give a run with 15mm models on the tabletop, using simple rules from Wargaming - An Introduction by Neil Thomas. Can they show such marked differences in the performance of the two platoons as the Panzer game did?
Please use the ‘read more’ tab for the rest of this post.
All references to places, characters and actions here are fictional and any similarity to real world stuff is unintentional. The game would not normally operate with just two single platoons facing each other in this way, but for the sake of this exercise, this is where we are.
It is late 1943 and the ravages of the recent German Citadel (Kursk) offensive and the subsequent Soviet counter-offensive have significantly reduced the strengths of both armies. Casualties have been heavy and as replacements start to feed into the depleted tank units, the new recruits must quickly learn their craft if they are to survive the initiation of battle.
Mladshiy Leytenant (Junior Lieutenant) Ivan Sokolov is a platoon commander by virtue of the fact that he has survived battle since mid July and is considered very experienced. Indeed he and his driver are the only survivors of the original platoon, which has just been brought up to strength of three tanks with the addition of two young crews who have completed their training at the Kurgan Tank School. The two new tanks are commanded by Aleksandr Smirnov and Maxim Popov.
Even at this stage of the war, Soviet tanker training is somewhat comparatively rudimentary, with each crew member only being trained in their specific role, such as driver or radio operator and the resulting lack of awareness in the roles of their fellow tankers, puts them at a disadvantage to the Germans who were trained in doing each others jobs. Gunnery was a particularly weak area in Soviet training with perhaps just a few shells being fired off before being certified as ‘trained’ and being shipped off to the front line with their new tanks.
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| KV-1s from Battlefront |
This platoon is part of an assault brigade and is equipped with the heavy KV-1S. This tank was an evolution of the KV-1c, but with some of the armour reduced to give it greater speed and versatility, but its frontal turret armour could still be a challenge for the German L75/43 with standard ammo, as fitted to the Panzer IV G.
For the sake of this scenario, we will consider the two replacement tank crews as being ‘green’, or second-rate being a more useful term for these rules. Ivan Sokolov’s own capability and experience could well be what me might think of as regular.
I am using a KV-1s model and two KV-1c’s (by Zvezda) which are standing in as proxy for the KV-1s.
Oberleutnant (1st Lieutenant) Otto Müller has been a platoon commander for thirteen months and for much of that time has been in continual action, the only break coming from a short period of leave and a battalion re-fit in May. His rank was gained following 12 weeks of infantry training, followed by 4 further months of tank training.
His platoon is somewhat depleted from recent fighting, now having just three operative PzIV G tanks. Two of his tanks, including his own (the other commanded by Gerhard Schmidt), have old and tested crews, but the third vehicle (commanded by Herbert Schneider) has a young crew that has only been in action for around five weeks. Schneider’s crew trained for several months at the Panzertruppenschule II at Wünsdorf in Germany and were then transferred to a reserve battalion for further training in gunnery and manoeuvres.
They were posted to Otto Müller’s platoon as well rounded tankers and have performed to Otto's approval in the recent fighting. Overall the platoon maintains a high confidence in their own abilities, though they are becoming increasingly aware that their kit is in need of an upgrade to the newer PzIV H model that has started to appear in greater numbers amongst front-line units. Never-the-less, this platoon is considered veteran.
In this small corner of the ferocious east front, three days of intense fighting has seen both sides settle to consolidate their positions, while reinforcements and resupply are organised, though at the local level, commanders are still probing in force to secure avenues of approach that will be essential when the fighting re-starts. The heavy autumn rains are just days away and so hard crossing points over a local stream need to be captured in anticipation of the area soon becoming a muddy quagmire. One of these bridges sits just in front of Kurhva and both sides want it.
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| Note the entry point of the Pz IV's |
An important element of the original scenario concerned troop quality. Neither Smirnov or Popov would perform well on their own initiative and would be be staying close to and relying on the guidance of their commander, Ivan Sokolov. Müller’s better trained platoon, in contrast, have more latitude and confidence and could operate in a looser formation. Where possible, this will be factored into play.
It is 0915 hours on Sunday 3rd October 1943 and Ivan Sokolov’s newly arrived KV platoon have emplaced themselves on the edge of the woods that are local to the bridge. They will take up defensive firing positions at the woods edge, while waiting for assault guns and infantry to move up to this staging area for the planned attack on the bridge and town at 1100 hours.
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| The 4' x 3' table |
Otto Müller’s platoon have orders to reconnoitre and take the high ground (Hill A.14) that overlooks both the town and the bridge. They are following a dry earth trail that will take them through a short depression behind the hill to conceal his movement. The rest of his company is expected within the hour. They will then support an assault against the town, headed by two companies of panzer grenadiers.
The ever watchful Sokolov quickly scans the ground ahead of him, he has not seen any movement in the past five minutes and believes the immediate area to be free of enemy troops.
Müller’s platoon travels down a trackway leading towards the rear of Hill A.14.
Sokolov is satisfied that their position on the edge of the wood amongst the trees is pretty good. He orders the platoon's tank commanders to put an armour piercing round ‘in the spout’ and await targets of opportunity. They will fire upon the first spotting of enemy activity.
Müller’s platoon, still out of sight of the KV platoon, has reached the base of the hill and starts to climb the reverse slope.
Müller’s tanks move towards the crown of the hill and as Herbert Schneider’s lead tank reaches the top and comes into Sokolov’s view, the Soviet commander orders his platoon to fire ..... well at least that feels like what should happen!
[note - At this point in play, there is a whole set of important relationships going on. Essentially the German vehicles are suddenly going to appear on the skyline and are potentially in danger of being knocked out before they can even engage the KV’s below. The boardgame ‘Panzer’, from which I first derived this scenario, has a very detailed gun / armour system and also the troop quality / experience / training modifiers is a strong feature of the game and in this action, favour the Germans, giving them a fighting chance. These rules however, for armour at least, are not taking much of this into account. The game will be played twice. Firstly just from the rules as written and then with some house rule modifiers added].
First play - Neil Thomas, Wargaming an introduction, published 2005 Sutton Publishing Limited.
[note - we have a 7 page rule set that groups the armour and gun values into major categories of Ultra Light, Light, Medium, Heavy and Super Heavy and essentially these broad categories makes the tanks of both sides in our game identical with Average speed, Medium gun, Medium front armour, Light side and rear armour. The rules do use morale, but it doesn’t apply to tanks, so we are running a game which is pretty much generic in terms of differentiating the vehicles and their level of training].
Time passes!
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| Tanks on the skyline! |
Well in truth, it did not go that well. I wrote notes up for the game, but decided not to bring that element here. There is no mechanic for opportunity fire, so as the panzers crested the hill, instead of taking ambush fire, the panzers were able to half move and still fire without interruption and that fire is not penalised for what we might term moving fire, so, surprisingly it is the KV’s who are hit first and they get no defensive advantage for being amongst the wood edge.
Secondly, tanks don’t take morale tests, so don’t have ratings that reflect experience, training or leadership. The tanks themselves are also put into very broad bands of performance and here in fact, it happens both tanks have identical values in all regards. This means we cannot prosecute the basic intentions of this scenario, which was meant to highlight capability difference in terms of men and machines, as here, both sides are virtually acting as generic forces.
This of course falls out of the fact hat both vehicles are classed as average / medium for their inherent attributes, but if one side had thicker or thinner armour, then you would see a difference open up.
This of course falls out of the fact hat both vehicles are classed as average / medium for their inherent attributes, but if one side had thicker or thinner armour, then you would see a difference open up.
The game defaulted into a gun duel between the two platoons, which are using exactly the same dice values, the woods don’t even offer cover, so it is just a case of which side gets lucky with their shooting.
In the end I called the game to a halt as it turns into a silly shoot-out. This all rather sounds like I am knocking the system, but I’m not. I actually like the short rules and in an integrated game, with infantry, that is more nuanced and uses morale and having vehicles of different capabilities, the game would no doubt be much more interesting ...... especially as the rules are so robust, they invite the creation of house rules to deliver the game that best suits the player and it is with that in mind that game 2 is played.
I have owned these rules before and regrettably they were lost to a downsizing of property. However Blogger Steve over on his blog - Sound Officers Call (see Resource Section below) a few weeks ago, did a WWII replay with them, which he enjoyed and did a good write-up, so I re-bought them and I can clearly see the positive side of the rules ... but with some tweaks.
I have owned these rules before and regrettably they were lost to a downsizing of property. However Blogger Steve over on his blog - Sound Officers Call (see Resource Section below) a few weeks ago, did a WWII replay with them, which he enjoyed and did a good write-up, so I re-bought them and I can clearly see the positive side of the rules ... but with some tweaks.
This was going to be a Neil Thomas Vs Battlegroup game post, but after the above play, that seemed both unfair and unbalanced, so instead I thought I would run the Thomas game again but include a section of house rules to make things a bit more interesting for me.
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| Smirnov's KV burns. |
Second play - with these house rule mods added;
Immobilised - When first immobilised, immediately take a morale check. On a 3 or less result, the crew abandon the vehicle and will not return for the remainder of the scenario.
Green (Second Rate) tank crew - In the Morale Phase they always take a Morale Test. Give a +1 to the die roll if the tester is within 5cm of a regular or better tank leader.
The TO HIT die roll is modified as follows;
-1 if using moving fire
-1 if the target is in cover
-1 of the firer is inexperienced
+1 if the firer is elite
Opportunity Fire.
A unit can attempt opportunity fire once in a turn, when an enemy vehicle moves while in the firers line of sight. Call the fire and roll a D6 and modify as follows;
-1 Inexperienced firer
0 Regular firer
+1 Veteran firer
+2 Elite firer
On a final result of 5 or 6 the gun can fire and executes an immediate attack following the usual To Hit process .... but the firer is also marked with an ‘opportunity fire’ marker, forcing it to be subjected to a standard Morale Check in its next turn.
So here we go again, starting at the point that the Panzers are crossing the hill crest - they will be using the half move and fire ability this turn as per the Thomas rules.
Lieutenant Ivan Sokolov orders his platoon to fire on the moving panzers (opportunity fire). The To Hit chart needs 4 - 6 to hit, but we are reducing the dice of two new crews by -1 for being green (3 x sixes are rolled - I don’t believe it!). Each of the Soviet tanks are marked with an Opportunity Fire marker, so they will have to take Morale Tests in their upcoming turn.
Schmidt’s tank is knocked out by Popov and Schneider’s is immobilised. His crew take an immediate morale test to see whether they abandon the vehicle, they roll a 4 and pass, so they are sticking with it!
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| One knock-out and one immobilised |
The Germans have been interrupted by the Soviet opportunity fire, so they can now carry on with their turn, which was to move the panzers a half move and then fire. Only Müller Can move, but both he and Schneider will be able to fire.
With the new mods, their To Hit die roll is reduced by -1 for conducting moving fire and by a further -1 for the KV’s being in cover - they miss (rolling two 1’s didn’t help!).
At the start of the Soviet turn, all three vehicles remove their Opportunity Fire markers and take Morale Tests. They each fail so badly that they are not allowed to move or fire this turn (I have included this test to put a brake on too much bonus fire happening in a turn, the fact they can't fire is just a reflection of the fact that they just fired in the German turn).
So it is straight back to the Germans. They are now stationary, so will not be penalised for moving fire, but the target still forces a -1 on the To Hit die roll for gaining cover from the woods ...... and again the Germans miss.
The Soviet To Hit rolls are being reduced by -1 for the two inexperienced crews, but they roll a 6 each and hit, but the more experienced Lieutenant rolls a 3 and misses ..... 'those bloody dice!'
The fire is effective, Schneider’s tank is destroyed and Müller is immobilised. His crew fail their morale and abandon the vehicle. That seems a fair result as I was going to retreat him out of the game anyway had his tank not been immobilised.
Surprisingly, the game ends with all of the German armour knocked out, without loss amongst the KV's!
Conclusion.
The mods made the second game much more interesting than the first, even with the tanks being rated identically on specs. It should of course have typically gone the German way, but those sixes for the Soviet new boys and the one’s and two’s for the German vets are just typical of the devious nature of dice and the result does at least show that both sides can engage with the hope of a win.
The post originally started with a look backwards to the way that the Panzer boardgame had handled the situation. In panzer, the handling is much more nuanced and the the thing of capability and tank attributes really comes through .... but at the expense of long detailed rules and quite a bit of chart accessing, so there is much to be said for a solid system that makes things a bit easier.
The Thomas rules cannot truly compare with the likes of Panzer, but they were never meant to, they are an introductory set and as such, probably punch above their weight anyway. I like the Thomas set and look forward to doing more with it once I get infantry up and running .
The post originally started with a look backwards to the way that the Panzer boardgame had handled the situation. In panzer, the handling is much more nuanced and the the thing of capability and tank attributes really comes through .... but at the expense of long detailed rules and quite a bit of chart accessing, so there is much to be said for a solid system that makes things a bit easier.
The Thomas rules cannot truly compare with the likes of Panzer, but they were never meant to, they are an introductory set and as such, probably punch above their weight anyway. I like the Thomas set and look forward to doing more with it once I get infantry up and running .
As stated, I was going to run this as a comparison game with Battlegroup by Warwick Kinrade, which would highlight some small differences between the two vehicles and allow for differences in training and leadership to come through. We are of course comparing a 7 page rule set to a 63, well illustrated set, which gives the latter scope to be more comprehensive - obviously. However, I change my mind as the contrast would have been too great and I wanted an opportunity to tweak a bit and see how that went.
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| A view from Kurhva - peaceful for now! |
This game was in part played as my first outing under my Pocket Armies project 2020. The table is sporting the new integrated terrain of rubber roads, river and bridge from TimeCast. The buildings are resins from Ironclad Miniatures and the hills are from S&A Scenics and Battlezone Scenics. The mat is from Gale Force 9.
I painted these tanks up first so that I could run this scenario, so yes, my mid-war east front Pocket Armies at this stage amount to just these six vehicles! Sitting at the painting tray are some Peter Pig 15mm infantry and some half tracks, so the next game should be expanded to bring those in.
It is not ideal to use such a small slice of action to try and reflect generalities of how experience, command and control and confidence come through, but the situation and chance to write a related post are fun things to do, allow us to discuss the Command system and of course it gave me an excuse to get my first 15mm vehicle models onto the table.
The situation is however also useful for a quick and pure way (free of distraction) of bench marking various rule sets against each other and of getting gun / armour rules and processes nailed down and in that regard, the peculiarities of each platoon will likely be better picked up when I run either Battlegroup or Iron Cross next.
Collection Status - Pocket Armies is my 2020 project for getting games using 12 units or less onto a play area of 4’ x 3’ or less. This is a ‘from scratch’ project, so terrain and units are slowly trickling in to doing some viable gaming. If this sort of thing interests you, keep an eye on the ‘Pocket Armies’ label in the right hand margin, which links to related posts.
Complexity - All the rule sets contained in the ‘Wargaming - An Introduction’ book are short and the rules can be literally read in a few minutes before play.
Size - The rules use centimetres and depending on the figure scale used, games can fit onto a 3’ x 2’ table. Today, we were playing on a 4’ x 3’ space.
Solitaire - It plays solo fine, just play each side to their best advantage.
Time - Set-up, play and take-down can all be done in a short midweek evening session.
Resource Section.
My sister webspace COMMANDERS is a bit more snippet based than here. Link.
The Panzer article that formed the base of this post. Link.
Steve’s Blog - Sound Officers Call! LINK
