KGN Game Order of Battle

I figured I would post the order of battle I used in my Hold the Line game.

First the U.S. infantry division.
1 Battle group HQ
1 Supply Column
1 Forward Aid Post
1 M8 Armoured car
1 M4 Squadron 2 with 76mm cannon
2 M10 Tank Destroyers
1 Infantry Platoon
1 infantry Squad
1 medium machinegun team
1 medic
1 Forward Artillery Observer
1 High Priority Fire Mission
1 Low Priority Fire Mission

The 2 M10s and a squad stayed off as reinforcements.

The German tried attacking the following force.
1 Battlegroup HQ (Proxied the spw 251/6 with a 251/1)
1 Supply column
1 SdKfz 234/2 Puma Armoured car
1 Panzer Grenadier Platoon
1 Panzer Grenadier Squad
1 Medic
1 Squadron PzKpw IV
1 Forward Artillery Observer
2 High Priority Fire Missions

The Germans left a Mark IV, a squad and the supply column off as their required reinforcements.
 
Pulling the figures for this game made me realize that I need more specialist figures i.e radio guys, medics, dudes with Panzerfausts and that I need to finish my other Armourfast(tm) MG teams as Wehrmact and paint a few more US MG Teams.

KGN game

First game of KGN (Kampgruppe Normandy).

I went for the smallest point size game (250 a side) so I could finish it in an afternoon. I can't play many of the scenarios that come in the book, I'll have to increase my vehicles, both quantity and variety, many of the scenarios require vehicles types I don't have or more than I have. Example: one scenario requires 6+ M5 Stuarts, and I don't have any.

I opted for a "Hold the line" scenario with an American Infantry division defending vs. a German Panzer division. The table is 4' x 4'.

German setup.

US Setup.

The impregnable farm complex, in six turn of being fired upon it suffered only 2 casualties both on the FAO, from artillery no less and was suppressed once.

With the Mark IV on this flank dead a sherman moves to get angle on the grey two storey house.

German surviors at game end, bottled up in the start building. The other mark IV is burning just to the right of this picture.

M8 Greyhound killed by a Mark IV, the only effect they Mark IVs had.

Puma kills a M10

U.S. REMFs hanging around.

 

The scenario as arranged was unwinnable for the German. Attacking a larger force of same quality troops across open ground the outcome was inevitable. I was just trying out the rules to get a feel for the mechanics, so I carried on (it was only a solo run through anyway, so I wasn't inflicting it on an opponent)

The game started with the Germans dropping artillery onto the the crossroads, deviation also hit the mortar team and a sherman, supressed the mortar team and direct hit vs the sherman followed by snake eyes for no effect, then firing with all 3 MMG teams for no effect (the last MMG team being wiped out before it could fire by the sole US unit on covering fire), then moving forward a rifle team into a building and firing on the farm house, no effect, another rifle team advanced in the wheatfield, firing at the US MMG team for no effect, the Puma opened fire (Small arms direct) on the US MMG team and wiped it out. Then the US went, first the rifle squad in the farm complex opened fire on the rifle team in the building nearest, having seen from the German attacks how hard it was to get effects, it decided on two suppressing small arms attacks rolled two 6s on the suppressing fire chart resulting in 2 direct fire attacks, first shot eliminated the entire German rifle team, Another US rifle team the one that had been on covering fire eliminated the Platoon HQ and another rifle team. After the first turn the Germans got to activate 5 units a turn (at most). The Germans only lasted as long as they did by drawing 1 each; heroic action, mechanical failure and air support chits and a several 1s but at end of turn 7, had 2 mmg team, 1 rifle team, the FAO (no missions, left though), Puma, supply tuck and BG HQ. US had lost their FOA (1 mission unused) 1xSquad, 1xM0 Wolverine, 1XM8 Greyhound and 2 other figures.

 

The shermans were surprisingly invulnerable to cannon fire, they were hit 2 or 3 times each and survived all, and with their 76mm guns were able to rapidly kill all the Mark IVs. German bullets had virtually no effect (i.e. couldn't hit, and when they did the US almost always saved them away), save one burst from a MMG that caused the withdrawal of a squad at the crossroads.

The rules were easy to pick up.

I did find it slightly annoying when I had to go the book to look something up, it is a very hefty tome, I wish it had been two books, one with just the rules (the first 60ish pages), and then another with the army lists, scenarios and data.

Fireball Forward playtest

For the last few months I rarely have been in the mood to game.

The few times I was, I couldn't be bothered as I knew it would involve a long process starting with clearing an area in which to game (holiday clutter still hanging around), then assembling my table and then another hour to ninety minutes to set up the terrain and pull the troops.

I decided it was time for a game and I was, and still am, interested in an upcoming WW2 set called "Fireball Forward" as its the same scale as Squad Leader i.e. each unit is a squad, half squad, special weapon team (Heavy machine gun, bazooka, gun crew, et al), leader, vehicle or gun. So I built some quick multi-figure bases, as my troops are singly based. There is a Infantry only play test package on their site, which includes a simple scenario, which recreates easy company's D-Day assault on a German artillery battery, as I had played the trail scenario several times I thought I would try converting the Skirmish campaign scenario Hedgerow Hell to a FBF game. I inflated the map to fill a 4'x4' table and increased the forces, and will play it a few times to balance it.

So last Friday night I did the preliminaries i.e. clear area, build table, pull terrain and troops, with the intention of spending most of Saturday play testing. Unfortunately a broken shower head saw me spend most of the day Saturday trying to find a way to fix or replace the ball joint, which I had finally done by 3 in the afternoon. I had been running around hardware stores since 10 in the morning, so I was a bit tired and only managed to get a single playing in.

The American had 1 squad and a rifle team in one platoon and a HMG and 2 rifle teams in the other platoon. The Germans had 2 platoons of 2 squads, a platoon of 1 squad and 1 rifle team , plus 2 HMG teams.

My flaky camera was acting up again so I only got a few pictures of the last turn.

Some pictures showcasing my terrain.

  

I couldn't play Sunday, my local miniatures group had our Pontic vs. Roman grudge match.

Gallery - WW2 American Infantry

WW2 American Infantry

My U.S. infantry is from a variety of figure manufacturers, ESCI's U.S. Soldiers Big Red One set, IMEX's Korean War U.S. Army set and Caesar miniatures U.S. Army set I.

70 U.S. Riflemen

26 U.S. sub machine gunners

U.S Support weapons 4 bazookas, 2 loaders for bazookas, 1 HMG, 1 LMG, 12 B.A.R. gunners,and  1 60mm mortar team

   I like the Caesar figures, but am slightly annoyed that almost half of the figures are usually armed with SMGs, I would have preferred more riflemen. The IMEX Korean war figures fit nicely though if you look really closely you can see their uniform trousers have a huge thigh pocket, but almost invisible at arms length.