Dad's Army - 15 November 2014

After many, many hours of planning over many, many years, James finally brought his Dad's Army game to the table for the first day of this year's Rivals "Weekend" (the second day will be at Andy's in a few weeks' time).

The figures were bought and painted well over a decade ago, and we did use them once in a wargame back in 2002.  Some of the older style buildings I'd had for many years too, and I'd built and painted the 20th Century buildings last year, after Andy bought them for use with his WW2 figures.

One of the challenges had been finding a ruleset that reflected the spirit of the TV series.  The usual move/shoot wargame just didn't feel right for these figures - it needed something to allow the characters and humour to come through, without lots of firefights and consequences that wouldn't be appropriate in a family-friendly sitcom.

I finally found a role-playing ruleset called Dead of Night that someone had once used to run a Dad's Army horror RPG session.  I didn't want the horror but the story-telling aspect really appealed.  Rather than any detailed rules, the players (and the gamemaster) describe what is happening, make a few rolls when necessary, but together move the story on in a hopefully exciting and amusing way.  I made a few amendments to the rules, created some character sheets, wrote the scenario and we were finally ready to go.  The players and the characters went together pretty well...

Introduction

It is late summer 1940. The air war in Britain’s skies is raging. The people of the small town of Walmington-on-Sea, on England’s south coast, watch the German aircraft fly overhead every day. This may not dampen their spirits but it does increase their fear of invasion.

Like most towns, Walmington-on-Sea is defended by Local Defence Volunteers (or the Home Guard) and Air Raid Precaution Wardens. Walmington’s Home Guard platoon is part the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, and is proudly commanded by Captain George Mainwaring. The platoon meets most evenings in the hall adjacent to St. Aldhelm's Church.

It is the end of the working day and the platoon members are due to meet shortly in the hall for a briefing before heading out on a night exercise.

Scene 1: “There is a war on, you know.”

Jones and Frazer shut up their shops.  Mainwaring, Wilson and Pike closed the bank.  And they all started to make their way to the church hall.  As they passed the village pond, a flock of geese started to attack Captain Mainwaring.  Fortunately Wilson had some breadcrumbs in the bottom of the bag in which he'd taken his sandwiches to work.  The geese were much more interested in the breadcrumbs than Mainwaring's trousers, so they all continued down the High Street unhindered.

Once they remembered they'd left Godfrey up at his cottage and sent Jones to fetch him, all of the First Section were present and correct and met up with Sponge's section in the hall.

Scene 2: “I say, would you mind awfully forming three neat ranks?”

Mainwaring briefed the troops on the planned night exercise but as they went to leave, the phone in the office rang...

“Mainwaring, it’s Colonel Pritchard. Some of our brave boys brought down a Luftwaffe plane earlier this afternoon. It crashed north of Walmington-on-Sea and the aircrew were picked up by Captain Square’s Eastgate platoon. Somehow, don’t ask me how, they managed to get away from that buffoon Square and stole a taxi. We think they are trying to make it to the coast and could be coming through your town any time soon. You must catch them and hold them overnight. You may as well see what you can get out of them.”

Scene 3: “Are you sure that’s wise, Sir?”

Sponge's section was ordered to the far end of the High Street where they broke down the fence around Godfrey's cottage in order to encourage the sheep to block the road.  Jones and Wilson encouraged Mrs Fox and Mrs Pike to seek refuge in the Red Lion.  Sponge rang from the phone box to report that he could see a fast-moving taxi in the distance.  Jones then drove his van up to block the road.

As the taxi entered the town, it swerved to miss the sheep and then Jones' van and ended up on its side.  A German aircrew emerged.

A couple surrendered straight away, another was shot by Jones, and another made a break for it.  Pike attempted to shoot over his head but failed the roll, and shot him in the heel instead.  Pike climbed on top of the telephone box to cover their prisoners with his Tommy gun.

Jones tied some rope to the taxi and righted it with his van.  The prisoners were then escorted back to the church hall - after another altercation with the geese, one of which Frazer took back for his Sunday roast.

Eventually, Frazer had the bright idea of searching the prisoners and found the officer was carrying a copy of Germany's invasion plans for the south of England!

Wilson unloaded all the confiscated weapons and rang HQ to report on the discovery of the invasion plans.  HQ ordered them to hold the prisoners until the following day when a courier would arrive to pick up the plans.  Jones took the plans to the bank to be secured in the safe, planning to have a snooze next to the phone.  Pike luckily had the keys on him, and the Verger was convinced to make a second copy of the plans.

Scene 4: “A typical shabby Nazi trick.” 

As dawn broke, the Verger burst into the church hall: “Parachutes, Captain Mainwaring, parachutes. I seen ‘em coming down over the town. I don’t know what his Reverence will say.”

Oberleutnant Muller: “Our rescue party is here already! These plans will soon be safely back in Germany.”

Eight paratroopers dropped in randomly over the town, although mostly around the sea end of the high street, even one straight into the graveyard at the back of the church hall, and one whose chute caught on the church spire.  This led him to be dangling right in front of the window where Fraser had taken up a sniping position.  A quick shot cut through some of the parachute cords, leading the German to drop down a few more feet, enabling Captain Mainwaring to knock him out after a couple of blows with his pistol butt.

The German prisoners started shouting out where the plans were being held, as all conversations had taken place in front of them.  Wilson gagged one with his only handkerchief and then Mainwaring gagged the rest with Pike's scarf.

Wilson shot at a precarious gravestone which toppled over, pinning the unlucky German paratrooper to the ground.  Another German shot at Frazer, missed him but knocking his dead goose out of his hands and into the church doors.  In an extremely unlikely shot, Pike managed to tear a strip down the back of a German's uniform, rendering him harmless if somewhat embarrassed by his nakedness.

Mainwaring broke down the door of Frazer's shop in order to bluff the German in the back garden to surrender.  After calling from the bank to see what was happening, Jones managed to shoot a German who had climbed on top of a truck.  He bounced off the roof, on to the bonnet, and on to the floor, where PC English promptly arrested him and handcuffed him to the truck.

Two other Germans hotwired Hodges van and started driving down the High Street.  Even though they were driving on the wrong side of the road, some members of the platoon didn't realise the threat.  Fortunately, after they'd exited the vehicle near the church hall, they faced a hail of gunfire and the remaining German got dragged backwards and forwards by Frazer in the van.

Scene 5: “You’ve all done very, very well.” 

With all the Germans rounded up in the church hall and the plans still secure in the local branch of Swallow Bank, Walmington-on-Sea was safe once more.  Colonel Pritchard turned up in a taxi to congratulate Captain Mainwaring and his men, and relieve them of the vital plans.

Summary

The players really got stuck into the scenario, with a particular mention in despatches for Andy who even turned up dressed up as Jonesy in full Home Guard uniform!  Everyone played up their character's strengths and weaknesses, and there was a lot of laughter.  The Gamemaster was much relieved!  Here's a little video of the game table:

Operation Comet - 5 October 2013

Just over three years since Jonathan and James wargamed the Arnhem battle over two days (see blog entry for write-up, photos and video), Jonathan had put together another impressive table of figures, vehicles, buildings and scenery for us to play Operation Comet.

Prior to Operation Market Garden, Montgomery had suggested Operation Comet, a limited airborne coup de main operation that was to be launched on 2 September 1944.  Comet envisioned using the 1st Airborne Division, along with the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, to secure several bridges over the River Rhine to aid the Allied advance into the North German Plain.  The Divisional Headquarters for the 1st Airborne Division, with the 1st Airlanding Brigade and the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade were to land at Nijmegen, 1st Parachute Brigade was to land at Arnhem, and 4th Parachute Brigade was to land at Grave.  However several days of poor weather and Montgomery's concerns over increasing levels of German resistance caused him to postpone the operation and then cancel it on 10 September.

So to find out what would have happened, Jonathan and James attacked Nijmegen, which was being defended by Kieron and Orhan.

The Brits had to capture the bridge at Grave and the road bridge at Nijmegen (on right) and then attempt to control the road in between to enable ground troops to drive eastwards.  They had two main landing zones and a drop zone, but also dropped a glider each right next to the bridge objectives.

Jonathan's glider troops got shot up by the 88, which was then unsuccessfully close assaulted by those left.  The remaining soldier found refuge and kept his head down - but kept a British presence near the bridge.

James' first wave of parachutists landed but got decimated by Orhan's troops (only a training battalion but sadly still very capable of rolling sixes most of the time).

Fortunately, there were two more waves but Orhan's troops ensured that British progress was very slow.  But the glider landing near the Grave bridge was successful, and once the 88 and 20mm pieces were neutralized, the bridge was taken.

Soon, German reinforcements were arriving from the Fatherland, firstly half-tracks which made a bliztkreig attack by driving right up to British infantry and then engaging in close assaults.

This was followed by a Panzer IV, and the British defensive line south of Nijmegen started to get worn down.

Kieron's German reinforcements had less effect - they arrived into a farmhouse complex, and were rapidly hit by Jonathan's mortars and pressed into a defensive position.  Jonathan's troops had dug in around the village of Beek and along the hedgerows - although they themselves were thinned out by German off-table artillery.

The German reinforcements started to push the British defensive line apart.

We didn't play very quickly and got to turn 6 of the 8 turns in Day 1 (so Day 2's reinforcements didn't even get a look in...).

One of the British Jeeps made a last dash towards the Nijmegen road bridge, getting as far as the cross-roads in the centre of town.

The battle had swung back and forward all day.  There wasn't a clear victory.  The Brits had taken the Grave bridge and many of the buildings in the town, but the Germans still occupied the factory and killed many of the paras occupying buildings in the final turn.  There were still a lot of paras on the edge of Nijmegen but could they take the final bridge and town by nightfall?

The Germans were hanging on in Nijmegen and their reinforcements from Germany had changed the position south of the town significantly.  But tomorrow morning would bring British armour and reinforcements from the West.  Would they save the day or would the Germans ensure this was a bridge too far?

Here's a short video showing the table at the end of the game.

D-Day: Sword Beach - 6 June 2010

Another trip to Jonathan's games room for a big World War II scenario. Sword Beach was the code name of one of the five main landing beaches in Operation Neptune, which was the initial assault phase of Operation Overlord (the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944). Stretching 8 km from Ouistreham to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer it was the farthest east of the landing points and around 15 km from Caen. The initial landings were achieved with low casualties, but the British forces ran into heavily defended areas behind the beachhead. The British landings were the only Allied sectors that faced attack by German Panzer Divisions on 6 June 1944.

The defending Germans were played by Jonathan and another Jonathan. The invading Brits were Adrian and James. The ruleset was Rapid Fire, which made for a smooth and fluid game, getting through 22 turns over the course of the day.

Jonathan had set up his excellent home-made D-Day tiles covering about 8 by 10 feet, chock-full of scenery.

The British landed between Ouistreham...

 and La Brèche d'Hermanville, both heavily fortified with bunkers and barbed wire.

The British invaded in ten waves, arriving in odd numbered turns and landing in the following turn.

The first turns were spent clearing the beaches of mines whilst trying to avoid German artillery strikes.

There were a few initial losses to mines on the beach and artillery, including destroying one of the British flails.

Adrian successfully repaired one of his tanks...

...and then made great progress against La Brèche...

The beach was soon full of landing craft and advancing infantry and armour...

James took the indirect approach to Ouistreham leading the charge with his fearless bulldozer, which trampled the barbed wire whilst dud panzerfaust shots pinged off its shovel.

The British airborne who dropped in on the Germans holding the Orne bridge put up a valiant effort but were eventually overrun by reinforcing Germans.

British tanks were soon making headway inland...

...but German Panzers were arriving down the Caen road...

Repairing tanks as he went, Adrian pushed on and engaged the Panzers, scoring some good strikes.  On the left, James used his engineers to take out the bunkers in Ouistreham and started taking the bunkers further inland.

At the end of turn 22, the British had taken the two towns and several bunker positions, and were fighting hard for the ridge.  Although there were a further 10 turns remaining in the scenario, the British had achieved a minor victory.

The liberation of  Europe from Nazi occupation had begun.  The forcefield protection provided to the British by Toby's Bionicles may have helped...

Lastly, the now-obligatory video footage...just 1m30s but with a classic comment from Jonathan at the end (although unfortunately MovieMaker insists on saving my widescreen footage as 4:3).

(Embedded YouTube script won't work if you're reading this in e-mail, so click the link at the end to read this in your browser).

Battle of Arnhem - 19-20 September 2009

[Click on photos for larger pictures]

Last weekend I met up for two game sessions with Jonathan, who has previously joined us for Shako, to wargame the Battle of Arnhem.  Jonathan originally planned for a larger group of players and had done lots of prep including air recce photos...

...and mailing us updates, but circumstances meant that it was just the two of us in the end.  Jonathan had set up a 10x8 feet table representing Arnhem north of the river, with the railway and road bridges at one edge.  The board was full of buildings and the room full of figures awaiting deployment.

I hadn't played the Rapid Fire ruleset before but it was really quick to pick up, and apart from checking the rulebook every now and then, we were able to play pretty fluidly just using the two page easy reference tables.  The game was a tactical one, essentially trying to make the best of the original British plan.  The paratroopers have to attack and hold Arnhem bridge long enough for the Allied troops to arrive, whilst being counter-attacked by increasing numbers of German infantry, artillery and armour.

I played the Brits and entered my first three battalions along the Western roads, "Leopard" and "Tiger" routes into Oosterbeek, and "Lion" route pass the gasworks along the river bank.

The game played out pretty much like history.  The British made a strong push for the bridge and took many of the buildings around the ramp as they were lightly defended.   They managed to prevent the Germans coming over the bridge from the South but as the German tanks arrived on the second day, the Brits started to get pushed out of the buildings they had occupied, having recognised the power of the flamethrowers too late in the game.

There was a real slog and high casualties in the Oosterbeek pocket, compounded later in the game when the Germans entered the map from the West.  We played 29 turns over the course of a Saturday afternoon, evening and Sunday, and concluded that at that point, the tide had turned for the Brits.  They had no more reinforcements, had lost the gasworks, and although they still held the southern "Lion" road, they were under significant pressure around the bridge.  It was time to get out the white handkerchiefs, and let the wounded receive treatment.

It was a great-looking game that was lots of fun to play.  Some of the highlights of the game are illustrated below.

One company made it all the way to the railway station in the North East corner in the first few hours of the battle.  They didn't last long but they slowed Jonathan's advance of troops who had to deal with them before deploying around Oosterbeek.

The early occupation of buildings around the ramp leading up to the bridge.  The bridge was 650m long in reality, so about 9 metres in 20mm scale, so Jonathan had understandably just modelled the Northern ramp!

Jeeps speeding along "Lion" route.

Using handheld anti-tank weapons, a couple of brave chaps managed to take out the lead German armoured vehicles as they came over the bridge - one of the first uses of copious amounts of cotton wool in the game.

Artillery played a big part in the game, and Jonathan's 88 was the most devastating.

I had four figures representing PAN, the Dutch resistance.  One pair were usefully spotting for artillery near the bridge but the other pair had taken up residence in the church tower.  Their single but significant contribution to the battle was the silent throat-slitting of the German observer who later also thought the tower would be a good vantage point.

German tanks approaching from the north whilst the armoured cars burn on the bridge ramp.

The wonders of a double-six!  James' anti-tank crew admire their handiwork whilst a Tiger I burns in the distance.

Arriving from the West, the Germans assault the gasworks...

...where the fight gets up-close and personal.  The British lose an entire battalion in a couple of turns here, marking the beginning of the end for the Battle of Arnhem.

Finally, here's some footage of the battlefield accompanied, of course, by the March from "A Bridge Too Far".