Miniature Wargaming with Spudnick: AAR: Fourth Convention Game Test: Bocage Firefight.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

AAR: Fourth Convention Game Test: Bocage Firefight.

     This was another game for testing out and tweaking rules for our Historicon game. For the most part, we were ironing certain things out for how this game should run. In this case, my wife, Kalissa and our friend, Bill decided to play lengthwise to see how it would work out. Since the convention game is going to be broken up into four parts, it was important to answer some questions. For one, we modified the game to use extra command dice per turn as well and multiple unit orders. This seems a little on the dangerous side, but after play testing this, it actually solved two issues. One was that some units never saw action due to an overzealous amount of shooting with one or two units that were determined to kill. This gave more of a chance that other units would be involved in combat. The second, it gave a larger movement possibly. The max movement per turn for a unit, such as infantry, is 24" in our game. These games are going to combat over a 15 foot table, so having this flexibility in combat makes it easier to maneuver.
   So how did it play? The Germans took the battle to the enemy! With multiple dice, several German units were able to engage in hedgerow fighting after crossing five feet of the table by turn two. Kalissa's Allied troops did not really try to make the distance. After all, she had a tactical defensive positions with hard cover, and she knew this. However, the multi-die system with Bolt Action worked really well when it came to mortar fire and the modified Rally we decided on. The mortars had multiple shots to zero-in and kill. The changed Rally order worked that units can withdraw from the enemy, thus removing the ranged in counter. This also saved some units for further combat, instead of staying and dying from multiple hits, though they would be out of action for that turn and could not doing anything else.
    Tank fire was back to the usual. It is a pain to hit anything, but patience does pay off! Bill did get a Panzer IV H to kill a Sherman tank, but not soon enough to stop the massacre of one poor unit on the road. The American mortar effectively took out a PaK40 gun, forcing a squad to re-man it. The American mortar was silenced by counter fire! The game ended with a minor German victory by one unit kill more, but it was a close game. These are the photos. Enjoy!

The field of battle.

Note: as you can see, the mat falls over the side. Ever since I have been making these matts of mine, the tables we have previously used were two 6' x 21/2' in size fit a 5' x 6' mat. At the moment, the Hobbytown U.S.A. is the only place to play nearby, and only have 4'x 8' tables. It happens!