SOTR/ Battle Report June

 

Last week ended up killing my spare time with about 70 hours of work in 5 days. That delayed the monthly ATZ-FFO and almost killed my game preparation at the club.

Anyhow, I survived the onslaught and the Saturday game was done.

IT was a Secret of the Third Reich game with very little weird units.

Scenario: The Thing that should not be.
In short, a German convoy carrying a Thing is ambushed by a partisan force. The partisans have to take the APC containing the Thing. As the partisan had little fire power they had a second item. One of the vehicle carried the chief scientist, but which one, they didn't know.

The 2 forces were a little less than 50RP.

German OoB: 

• 2 unarmored transports
• 1 sdkfz 250 with pintle HMG
• 1 sdkfz 251 with pintle HMG
• 1 sdkfz 222 with coaxial HMG and a L gun
• 1 APC carrying the Thing, unarmed
• 1 HQ, 2 MECH squad with 1 LMG each and 1 squad with Panzerfaust, 1 Pioneer with 2 flamethrowers
• Veteran, body armor

Partisan OoB:

• 1 Partisan Hero
• 4 Partisan bands with Molotov and weapon mix
• 3 Saboteur teams
• 1 HMG, 1 LMG team
• 1 4-man 2nd hand APE squad as Support (1 Flamethrower, 2 LMG, 1 HMG)
• Veteran

 The game was played in 4 turns, we stopped because it went impossible for the German to cross (Major traffic jam) and even at full speed the APC would never make it.

There was fun molotov throwing, burning 3 out of the 6 vehicles, instant kill with German flamethrowers and some surprising bullet dodgers.

Ended up as a draw

The convoy.  Partisan Hero, one band and the APE are in grenade throwing distance

The card represent what squad in what vehicle.

The Partisan Hero, a French Templar

Add caption

 

HMG team that will never fire a shot

The LMG team that will be burnt

Foreign Legion APE

The rest of the bands on both sides of the road with the saboteur in the wood

Same view from another angle. a band is hidden in the tower.

A partisan band is wearing old French army gear.

The wall between the squad will save these guys from a HE Panzerfaut blast.

first shots. The APE are down, 2 vehicles are burning but no bailing out

One of the platoon trying to hide in the building. The vehicle was on fire, the building caught fire too

Turn1 German casualties. Almost half the platoon

Turn 1. Few partisan casualties. The bright side for the Germans is to have taken out the HMG and LMG teams

Helmut Faust, last survivor of his squad, the only one with Panzerfaut. Never ever disorganized despite all the flames around him, he would be killed by 2 bands firing at him for 2 turns. He killed a lot of them by firing panzerfaust one after another.

End of Turn1, you can see the APC doing stupid things.

In the forefront the building is in fire, while the Sdkfz 222 shot the wooden building killing 4 partisans with the blast

The Partisans are keeping the convoy from moving

Turn 3, as you can see, the APC has not moved an inch....

The partisan also wear German uniform in a very casual way.

The Tower, a dreadful view for the German, but little impact. The Partisan player trying to find a way to kill my poor soldiers

New partisans

Taking another blow at my New Year Resolution of not buying new miniatures, I bought a set of Warlord partisans before the price hike, price hike that was not going to affect the miniatures I bought anyhow - but a very good excuse for buying them.

That's about 20 more miniatures to add to the many more purchased last minute in December 2012 . This will be a very nice addition to my stock of miniatures for ATZ-FFO and Secret of the Third Reich, with 88 miniatures and 17 already painted.

This is achieving a crazy 2 weeks...

First, I received my Kickstarter Battle for Alabaster, great minis and the rules look very good from the theory. That's a lot of miniatures I need to add to my current total. No need to be too hasty, I have good figures so far.
Secondly, I was working from home for some crazy reasons and used up the commuting time saved to paint and painted a lot! That range from my Urban War Junkers/Gladiator (as Henchmen Proxy to W40k) to K-9 unit of Mongoose Starship troopers.The main aim is Warhammer 40k, which allows me to play with one of my best friend at the (unique!) FLG in Hong Kong. He's playing Orks and Tyranids, and I like the very irregular idea of Henchmen for Inquisitors.

Finally, I am disappointed with FRPGames, as it took them more than a month to process a purchase done at their crazy end of the world sale in late December. As the key purchase (more Junkers!) went out of stock in between and I kept on being ping ponged with "will be processed by week-end, promised!", i decided to cancel the order. Now, I'll see if they actually cancel it or not. That is a very bad customer management and I was very supportive of their website until now. I think I will look twice before clicking a new order.

The miniatures I bought in Warlord. 3 are missing, 3 are in double. But it was sent and received less than a week after purchase. I will still rank Warlord as a good supplier.

Received in double

Missing miniature

Received in double

Campaign rules for SOTR/Bellum Europa

Campaign rules

Each Player composes 4 platoons 3 additional support as follow:
Use a 300 point basket and discretionary assign them on 4 platoons and 12 supports options.
 Assign up to 3 supports per platoon and keep the remaining support in a “reinforcement pool”.

Each Player has 1 Attack, 1 Defense and Choice (attack or defend)

Campaign organization:
3 engagements in 3 different locations (Spot) will decide where the final battle will take place.
We will name the 3 locations: Spot 1, Spot 2 and Spot 3
The final battle will take place either in Rear Spot Player A, Rear Spot Player B.

Each Player before starting the campaign will assign 1 platoon in each location, including Rear Spot, only the reinforcement pool is not geographically assigned.
Each Player secretly write for Spot 1, Spot 2 and Spot 3 if he is attacking or defending, using his Attack, Defense and Choice.  Then each Player may schedule Reinforcement using Reinforcement Pool support and units from the platoon in Rear Spot.
When all Players have finished all above, they release the total value committed on each Spot and whether the Player is Attacking or Defending.

Engagement rules
Each engagement have the following rules (exception of the final battle which will have variation)

Before starting the engagement, each player say if he is attacking or defending.

After Attack/Defense resolution, each player note his scheduled and unscheduled reinforcement
Scheduled reinforcement: Reserve Platoon can arrive between Turn 3-6, Reinforcement Support between turn 1-3. Note that reinforcement cannot be sent to other spot. Each Player note on a paper what turn and where reinforcement arrive.
Unscheduled reinforcement: In regards to enemy strength, Player can call in unscheduled reinforcement. Unscheduled reinforcement can arrive between turn 3-6 on a 4+ (turn 4), 5+ (turn 5), 6+ (turn 6). Committed reinforcement will not be available for other spot

Attack:
-   2 free artillery strike
-   Reinforcements are deployed at the end of the turn before entering
-   Attack are deployed at no more than 10 cm from its border
-   1st turn initiative. Note that if both players attack, initiative is resolved as usual.
Defense:
-   Benefit from 1 aerial strike after turn 3
-   1 prepared position
-   Reinforcements are deployed at the beginning of the turn, placed at the border of the table
-   Can be deployed up to half of the table.
-   50% of the force to be deployed as reinforcement.
-   Note that if both players defend, initiative is resolved as usual.

Terrain:
Each Player has 20 points to decide for the terrain on each spot:
-   Small Wood : 8
-   Medium Wood : 10
-   Major Wood : 16
-   Small Hill : 6
-   Medium Hill : 11
-   Big Hill : 14
-   Wall : 4
-   Long wall : 8
-   Small Town : 10
-   Medium Town :  20
-   Farm : 4
-   River + Bridge : 15
-   Swamp : 7
-   Anti-tank (3):  5
-   Mines (Defense only) :  10

Victory locations:
Defender place 3 victory locations, 2 in his deployment zone, 1 in no-man’s-land
Attacker place 2 victory locations, 1 in his deployment zone, 1 in no-man’s-land

Victory Points:
-   Control 1 objective : 10 points
-   Each enemy unit destroyed : value in points
-   Each enemy unit destroyed at 50% or vehicle damaged : 50% value in points
-   Each enemy unit withdrawn : 25% value in points

Final Battle rules

After each engagement, earned Victory Points will decide the Winner.
The winner wins with more 50% more points:
-   All its force can be committed (as reinforcement) in the final battle
The winner wins with between 10-50% more points:
-   50% of its force can be committed (as reinforcement) in the final battle
The winner wins with less than 10% more points:
-   1 unit can be committed (as reinforcement) in the final battle
The loser loses with less than 10% fewer points:
-   All its force can be committed (as reinforcement) in the final battle
The loser loses with between 10-25% fewer points:
-   50% of its force can be committed (as reinforcement) in the final battle
The loser loses with more 25% fewer points:
-   No unit can be committed in the final battle

In the average 3 spots, the Player with overall more points attack the Rear Spot of its opponent.

Special engagement rules in the Final Battle:
Defender:
-   1 Bunker and 1 prepared position
-   Reinforcements from Spot 1, 2 and 3 arrive from the flanks
-   1 free standard infantry squad with no upgrade
Attacker:
-   1 free artillery barrage at the beginning of the first turn
-   1st turn Initiative
-   1 artillery strike
-   Reinforcements from Spot 1, 2 and 3 arrive from the rear

Terrain : As above

AAR - Alamo in Sicily (New pictures)

Just receive new pictures from the club.

British bunker - The HMG is already disorganized

Frasier and Aufklarer

Werewolves

British roster

The Mecha is immobilized before action

Team of the battle : The Mortar

The British are waiting the assault

German ambushing

Diminished HQ

End of 3rd turn

Pioneer taking down the British Steel

A nice HQ vehicle, destroyed right at the first British shot

The Aufklarer and their best position