Blitzkrieg Commander: first rules test

Andy and I put a small (1000 points each) eight-turn Encounter scenario together to have an initial test of the Blitzkreig Commander rules.  1000 points doesn't go far: CO, 2xHQ, 4 tanks, 6 infantry, plus one each of MMG, mortar, field gun and artillery piece for the British; for Andy's Italians this was CO, 5 tanks, handful of infantry, an MMG and mortar, with a special guest star of a German 88.

As this was an Encounter, we followed the mobile deployment rules: the HQs are lined up on the table edge and the player makes a Command Roll (CR) to see whether they move on, or are delayed.  As with every CR a double-six is a Command Blunder - and that was what James managed to throw on the very first roll of the first play of BKC!  The worst case with a Command Blunder is losing units but fortunately James' armour was just delayed a turn.  His infantry also failed to enter, and his CO with the guns slowly entered the table.  Here's how the game turned out over the 8 turns:

1. British initial deployment delayed; Italians fail CR so no actions
2. British proceed but infantry still delayed (see photo above); Italians fail CR again
3. British tanks stall, infantry enter, first mortar attack misses enemy tank; Italians finally make a CR and fire off the German 88 suppressing one of the Crusaders
4. British tanks press on, all other CRs failed; Italian tanks fire on approaching British tanks but all shells fall short (we agreed not to measure distances before issuing orders)
5. British tanks mostly fall short, one hits but Italians save; Italian 88 gives 3 hits to a Crusader and counter-mortar fire inflicts one hit (see fifth bullet below) 
6. British Armoured HQ fails CR but CO exerts control and orders them to fire on Italian tanks; Italians destroy first Crusader
7. British armour takes out their first Italian tank and damages a second, but loses one of their own to a barrage of Opportunity fire (see sixth bullet below); Italian 88 destroys one more British tank
8. British fail all CRs; Italian 88 takes out the last British tank, and fires on British mortar and anti-tank positions

The British had lost 4 tanks and destroyed just one.  This was more than 25% of the British forces so the Italians achieved their minor objective as set under the scenario.  This gave them 2 Victory Points plus a further 2 VPs for inflicting more than double the casualties received.  4 VPs is more than double the British zero VPs, so Andy and his Italians achieved a Major Victory.  As the Hurricanes flew over the battle field, this is how it looked: British armour pushed up the left but all destroyed.  British infanty very slowly moving up the centre.  British guns moving up the right against advancing Italian tanks.  The rest of the Italian force in defensive positions at top of photo - after two CR failures at the beginning of the game, the British tanks were already in range so Andy felt no need to move when he could just fire away.

Here are the lessons we identified from our first battle:

• you need multiple commanders in order to maximise your flexibility (just like DBM)
• slow moving units are at a disadvantage when entering the table (-1 on CR) so having a better commander with the infantry might be useful
• in an Encounter scenario, the infantry needs to be in trucks or carriers to start with or it will never get anywhere near the battle
• although destroyed Commanders come back to life (once, and with -1 on Command Value) firing on them to suppress them is valuable because it means they can't issue commands the next turn
• if units are not destroyed in a turn, the "hits" they take are removed at the end of the turn; an Optional Rule (which we started using in turn 5) allows those hits to be retained and so accumulate making it easier to destroy things (need to research a bit more to see whether this is really a Good Thing or not)
• Opportunity Fire is very useful (and we overlooked it until most of the way through the game); it allows you to shoot in your opponent's turn at the expense of a -1 CR modifier in your own next turn
• measuring distances from vehicle to vehicle is simplest; the rules (which say basing is irrelevant and not necessary) also say distances are from base to base, but this makes no sense where vehicles are not based, or on large bases
• lastly, the "guest" 88 was devastating - it pretty much won the battle on its own; so it needs to be taken out early on

The game was very enjoyable.  The rules are clear with not too much cross-referencing.  There are some great mechanisms which make the game so good: the CR concept is really clever - it allows you to keep ordering the same unit again and again but with the die roll getting harder to meet each time - if you fail, that's the end of that commanders turn, but you can turn to another unit and start again at the original Command Value but you can't switch back to a unit you've already ordered - this makes for some interesting decisions and risk-taking.  The other good mechanism is the combat - everything is on D6 and although there are modifiers applied, it all seems quite straightforward and without lots of exceptions to worry about.  We played pretty slowly since it was our first game, around 3 hours in total, but that will be significantly quicker next time.  Certainly this has scope for larger games to be played in an evening.