Some More TW&T! July 1944 AAR - Into The Woods!

Well we revisited TW&T again this fortnight using a scenario I found online. This is the second game of TW&T for our group but I have a couple of extra games up my sleeve. We wanted to really test the rules out.

Germans watching the Tommies advance...

Into the Valley

July 1944 an Allied offensive around Caen has splintered the German defences. The British are attempting to push forward to find gaps that they can exploit, whilst the thinly spread German second line is attempting to stand firm until reinforcements can be brought up...

Defending Germans

1 Big Man Level IV

1 Big Man Level III

1 Infantry Section with LMG Team

2 Tripod HMG Teams

British Attackers

2 Big Man Level IiI

2 Big Man Level II

1 Big Man Level I

3 Infantry Sections each with a LMG Team

1 Light Mortar Team

The objective was for the British to emerge from a wood cross a serene gentle upward country slope with minimal cover and clear the 6’ x 4’ table of Jerries. Easy!

The table ready for the British to arrive from the west, top right in the picture the German blinds can be seen behind the luxuriant hedges at the top of the slope...

Note - sorry tried to find the site again that listed this game without luck so can’t credit it!

The Game

The Germans were deployed with their Infantry Section covering the centre third of the table with a HMG Team on each flank set up with a pre-targeted firing lane ready to sweep their fronts.

All three of the British Sections came on in the centre of the table quickly losing their ‘blind’ status due to the open terrain. The Dummy Blinds played little part in foling the Germans what they were up too. Doing so inadvertently saved initially them the wrath of the Jerry HMG’s!

All started okay for the Poms and one section reach some dead ground on the slope for cover while another moved up alongside them. Then the section in cover deployed their Bren Team to the crest of their dead ground to harass the Germans and this is where everything turned nasty for the Brits!

For several turns in a row they became bogged down, twice aircraft buzzed the field of battle (random event) stopping any movement for the turn and on the others the card draws gave the Germans multiple actions while leaving the British stranded! During this time the German fire kept taking a steady toll of British. Several HMG jams did keep the game alive though.

Both the up front British sections lost their Bren teams and were stuck half way up the slope. The third section tried to suppress the Germans from the cover of a stone wall with little effect and then to top off their bad luck when their mortar came into play another random event occurred and a small structure caught fire and the wind placement sent smoke across the mortars line of sight requiring it to relocate!

The British players now got their Platoon leader up to the men stranded on the slope and he got them moving, unable to move directly forward they followed the dead ground to their left flank and ran straight into one of the HMG’s!

At this point the game was over for the British but as the HMG they faced had jammed and the grenades barrage they had launched against it was ineffective we continued for one more turn to test the close combat rules. Here too the Germans were successful by losing just two men to three. The Brits were broken at this point so it was time for coffee and the debrief!

Some Pictures...didn’t take too many as I was busy umpiring!

The first British section sprints to a patch of dead ground as the advance 'into the woods!'

Germans awaiting the British to attempt to get 'into the woods!'

Just as the British mortar support got into the show a blaze broke out in a derelict building and the smoke obscured their view!

With things going badly the British platoon leader inspired his men to swing to the left!

Straight into the sights of a German HMG Team...

Luckily for the Brits the German HMG jammed and a melee ensued...

The defeated British fled, here's a few with their Platoon Leader trying to stem the tide...'Come on lads lets give Jerry some curry!"

I like these rules and the guys general feedback was good. The turns flowed well and quickly. We covered all the infantry rules from grenades to close combat and found they worked well.  I think the secret to these rules is get your best Big men attached to your strongest units ASAP! This game though the British drew the short straw getting pretty bad card selections but that’s what the fog of war is about troops don’t always do what you want. We will use these rules again and plan on trying out the newer version Chain of Command at some point too!

Trenchworx 28mm French FT 17 Tank

To compliment my 1940 French infantry I need some armour support and what better than the ubiquitous FT 17 tank! in 1940 the French still had around 500 FT 17 in front line use for infantry support. Plus I love the look of this vehicle!

I picked up this kit as part of Trenchworx WW II Kickstarter you could add anything from their shop to the Kickstarter!

The model looks spot on and the casting is crisp, it just falls together! The kit includes both gun and MG options and these are interchangeable via a magnet setup. All in all a great product!

Here are the parts primed: 

Base coat sprayed on:

The fished product, I went for a kit without the trench crossing attachment and didn't apply any markings one day when I know someone with a 1940 French tank kit I'll see if I can snag any left over transfers:

28mm French 1940 Platoon - TW&T

I picked up some 1940 French figures cheap. After purchasing them I found out they were Warlord figures there were 30 in total, 10 of which were painted. I painted them up to a war gaming standard and I went for a khaki brown uniform look rather than the greenish colour I see some people use (this meant repainting the 10 that were painted!). Pictures like this one from the German Signal magazine influenced the colour choice...

I have 3 9 man sections, a 2 man platoon HQ and a Hotchkiss HMG, that is actually a WW I item with 2 crewman but they pass okay for WW II and they have a Warlord figure to boost them up...

Here's a close up of some of them...

And here they all are...

With 1940 interest peaked by the Dunkirk movie I'm thinking a game on the topic is called for!

TW&T (Troops, Weapons & Tactics) Play Through

I have played a few solo tests of The Two Fat Lardies Troops, Weapons & Tactics rules and last night rolled it out for our Monday Night game. These rules have been superseded by Chain of Command but after reading both I had a leaning towards TW&T especially because of the way Leaders/Big Men are treated. The other reason it appealed to me is many of its processes parallel the I ain't Been Shot Mum rule set which I like too!

Everyone seemed to be happy with how the game played but it was a tad slow as we were all learning the rules as we went. I umpired and we had single German player defending against two attacking British players. I made a few blinder mistakes while umpiring/training, not adding a German squad's card to the action deck when it entered play was he biggest (this meant it spent a few 'rounds' taking punishment idly sipping on ersatz coffee), also I missed some end of turn units reserved actions, I didn't have a reinforcement section available for the attackers when that random event occured (crikey a 1 in 36 chance!) and lastly not going through the pinning fire process...if the other guys want another game set up I'll definitely organise one, as it is I'll continue to play it solitaire in the hope of mastering the rules.

The scenario was kept simple no vehicles and a minimum of complicating rules i.e. only integral squad/section snipers were used etc:

Operation Wuzburg, Belgium August 1944

Late August 1944 the British 11th Armoured Division pushed toward Antwerp against stiffening German resistance from the 15th Army. The 1st Battalion, Herefordshire Regiment from the Divisions infantry support Brigade was assigned the mission to clear their left flank.

A coastal Wuzburg radar station that had survived an air raid was in the Herefordshire Regiments area of operations. Divisional Intelligence reported the radar base was lightly held by troops from the 712nd Fusilier Battalion, 712nd Grenadier Division LXXXIX Corps. A reinforced Platoon was detached to take the radar station...

The British

A Reinforced Platoon
1 x Platoon Leader
4 x Infantry 'Good' Sections (each with a leader)
1 x Light Mortar

Germans
2 x under strength 'Good' infantry squads (each with a leader)
Variable reinforcements - deployed at the discretion of the Umpire
1 x Platoon Leader
1 x under strength 'Good' infantry squad (with a leader)
1 HMG

Victory Conditions
The British must occupy the Wuzburg radar station or break the German forces.

Some pictures, I took very few as running the game kept me busy!

The battle field, the road runs east west with the west edge of the gaming area closest in the picture, the radar station defences are aligned against an attack from the north i.e. the coast...but the British will be entering from the west!

The first phase of the of the battle the 'Blinds ' manoeurve the British seek out the Germans true positions while the Germans 'lay low'...

The first Jerries are spotted an LMG team!

Overall view of the game with all the British and most of the Germans on the table, 

Germans left flank unit cunningly using a hedge for protection...

View of the battlefield from the Wuzburg Radar station, the centrally placed German LMG have been knocked out and in the background the Poms are just visible...

In the game the British held back and preferred to wear the Germans down with fire rather than rashly rush into an attack on the radar station, it slowed things down but with no time limits on their attack made sense, I added two German HMGs onto the field to liven things up a bit but time beat us and the game wasn't concluded, mind you it was just a rules run through so I wasn't fussed.