Sunday, February 28, 2010

Korean War Battle

Last night, I was part of a Korean War battle. We were playtesting so stats and rules were a bit flexible as we worked toward ironing out the major problems. By the last 1/3 of the game, we had everything pretty much ironed out. My oponent was Andrew.

We used some old 20mm Imex figures that I found in my basement about a month ago. They weren't painted. I just glued them onto simple colored cardboard bases in units because this is just for some fun wargaming not displaying or anything like that.

Andrew was the American commander. His force consisted of:
-8 Rifle squads
-3 .50 cal machine guns
-4 BAR armed soldiers
-2 Bazooka teams
-1 Flamethrower unit
-2 Command squads
-1 Engineering squad

I was Chinese and my force was:
-9 Rifle Squads
-1 .50 cal machine gun
-5 LMG armed soldiers
-1 81mm mortar team
-2 Command squads
-2 Grenadier squads
-2 Penal squads
-1 Molotov cocktail armed squad
-1 Sniper squad
-1 Infiltrator squad

The map was split by a river, with two bridges. There was a lone hill on one side and a farm, forest, trenches, and barbed wire on the other side.


The battle began with Andrew occupying the forested side of the river and I had control of the hill on the other side. Andrew deployed a small amount of forces in the forest and on the farm. The vast majority were in a trench between the two bridges. I deployed forces near both bridges with my mortar and command on the hill.


Both of us pushed to cross both bridges first. We both met at the ends of the bridges. On the stone bridge I lost 3 units within the first couple turns of fighting and Andrew was able to forge across the bridge. The wooden bridge, however, was a different story. There snipers, LMGs, and infiltrators held up two rifle squads and 2 .50 cal MGs for most of the game.


Eventually, Andrew's forces broke through my resistence on the wooden bridge. It was too late for him though. During that span of time, I had sacrificed two rifle squads and an LMG to hold up his forces that had crossed at the other bridge, and I had the rest of my men retreat and form a defensive barrier around the hill.



Andrew began advancing across open ground toward the hill. At this point, my mortar (which hadn't fired a shot yet during the game) opened up and began devestating his infantry. Before he could reach the hill, two full rifle squads were wiped out, and two more were weakened.


I began sending out infantry, and Andrew retreated across the river. This is when I had to take Andrew home. I wish we could have finished the battle. Momentum which had been initially against me, moved into my favor and the battle looked to be going my way thanks to the mortar. The battle was fun and I look forward to more. Soon I shall be playtesting an ancient version of the rules we are using.

-Scott

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Backed into a corner



This is the battle report for the first official wargame to take place with the EC Wargamers.

First Battle:
Combatants
-Israel: Andrew (the Israelire army in pictured above)
-Phillistia: Scott
Scenario
-The Israelites are moving through a valley to protect a village from Phillistines known to be in the area.

The Phillistines gained initiative early on and moved along one of the valley's ridge walls. Four squadrons of chariots assaulted King David, his Royal Guard, and his banner. At the loss of no chariots, David and his Royal Guards were all killed with only the banner surviving.
At this point, momentum changed and the Israelite archers in a series of three turns destroyed all Phillistine chariots, killed Goliath, and all of his brothers. Levy militia was able to hold the flank against regular Phillistine infantry and light infantry.
Israel took the offensive at this point. Heavy infantry with archer support, pushed the Phillistine main body back into a corner and proceeded to cut them to pieces. At this point the game was over as only a few Phillistine light infantry remained free to move and fight.

Conclusion: Andrew played this just as he should have and the dice were with him. I really didn't have a chance once the dice turned. It wasn't just bad luck. Andrew let me over step my bounds and I lost a bunch of chariots as a result.