Battlegroup scenario played 'La Gleize'

Another game of Battlegroup today at Stephens as we are on a bit of a WWII binge at present !
Played a scenario from the 'Wacht Am Rhein' booklet entitled 'La Gleize' with Peipers unit having a bit of a last stand on outskirts of the village.
I played Nazis and Stephen got to field his Yanks for a change.
Nice scenario with all Spotting and hitting for Aimed Fire subject to a -1 to simulate Smoke and Mist shrouding the battlefield.
German vehicles also subject to a test to run out of fuel (a 1 on a d6 each time they move).

Great game which despite the Krauts being greatly outnumbered was a close contest.
We both saw Tanks suffer from 'random events' with my drawing a Mine Attack chit and destroying a Sherman but later Yanks drew a Breakdown chit which he placed on a Panther and rolled a 1 to see the crew abandon the Panzer !
With the poor visibility most shooting was Suppression Fire and with Yank Artillery causing a lot of my units to be suppressed leading to a lot of Chit draws to Rally.

German morale broke first as their 36 level was passed first although the US had accumulated 30 of their 38 so a close outcome.
Yanks had taken one of their 2 tactical objectives but would have had a real fight for the other.

Enjoyable game and with both sides having squads split into two teams the Orders issue I had was mute.
Battlegroup are a very slick set which I would term in some ways WWII-lite but they certainly generate a fast flowing and fun game.

Battlegroup a Normandy scenario (Ludemanns Hunting Panthers) played

Played a scenario from latest Battlegroup core rule book entitled 'Ludemanns Hunting Panthers' versus Stephen using 15mm kit.

Scenario set 7th June 1944 in Normandy with 12th SS against 3rd Canadian Divisions.
Been a wee while since we played the rules so decided to play them as is (ie no house rules) including recording ammo usage for tanks (we did not differentiate between HE and AP just an overall total used), which worked fine.

I set up the scenario from the book (actually part of a campaign but fine as a stand alone game).
We then rolled for sides and I ended up with attacking Huns against the dug-in Cannucks.

Huns had an Battle Rating (ie Morale level) of 24 compared to Cannuck 34 so a really tough proposition to attack dug in troops on open pasture land/cornfields, especially as Huns had no artillery support relying on their Panthers (6 in total) to push their weak Grenadiers (2 squads only) forward.
They are also hampered by a reduced Command dice roll due to off-table events.
The Cannucks start with a Troop of 2 Shermans and a Firefly (with a duplicate Troop appearing on fifth turn) supporting a full Infantry Platoon in Foxholes with 2 x 6 Pdr anti-tank guns and and off-table pre-registered aiming point for 2 x 105mm guns (no on board spotters available to adjust or call fire).
They also get an off-table 17 pdr shot (reduced effect compared to on table versions) each turn once Panthers get within a 50" range.

Game played really well despite the 'Hunting' Panthers ending up the 'Hunted' !
Rules are very slick and with every aimed shot requiring a spotting roll and with no hidden units (nice to have all our kit on table) we used a lot more Suppressing Fire (renamed from Area Fire) to try to cause Pins.
The Ammo rules meant our Tanks had to be a lot more circumspect at selecting targets than simply banging away without restriction.
Panthers advanced into a deluge of fire and once their Infantry came up they too suffered from dug-in volleys.
Hun Morale failed first (ie they reached they BR rating) and they withdrew leaving 3 brewed Panthers and one abandoned (crew failed a Morale check whilst Pinned) with their Infantry wiped out.
Cannucks lost a Firefly and a Sherman with another Firefly immobilised but their Infantry and ATGs virtually intact as their foxholes and dug-outs proved effective (3+ saving roll when hit)

Am still not a fan of the Hun squads requiring 2 orders (1 for squad as such and a 2nd for MG Team) as it meant my 2 squads (ie 4 teams) required 4 orders per turn to act in comparison to the 3 squads (1 x single 10 man team) and HQ squad of the Cannuck Infantry Platoon which also used 4 orders (although they did require separate orders for a PIAT Team and a 2" Mortar team).
Seems a bit odd/jarring to require 2 orders just to advance across a field compared to comparative British squad and then when fired upon the MG teams are singled out for attention and if destroyed cause a BR chit to be pulled so therefore 2 per Hun squad vis 1 per Cannuck squad.
But that said they do have some advantages in flexibility (Orders permitting) when it comes to firing (MG pins enemy then squad can kill/assault them at least in theory) but not sure it offsets the perceived disadvantages ?
However ultimately we felt in the round that it all works within the rules framework/structure and probably not worth house ruling/complicating (allowing them to move in concert for 1 order or similar ?).

The table set-up prior to the fray (the 'black' road is a railway line)

The battle................

In other news I acquired a couple more rule sets :-)

And a painting project for the year (he says hopefully !!) of a 15mm ACW Confederate force (I bought an Army Pack in the Lancashire Games sale)

Picketts Charge rules tried

Game at Stephens today using his newly acquired 'Picketts Charge' rules for ACW by Dave Brown (with input from Too Fat Lardies ?).
These are a Regimental Level set and we played the introductory scenario 'The Bloody Lane' set during Antietam battle of 1862.
I was Confederates positioned in defence along said lane and Stephen had Federals assaulting.

The rules are fast playing and quite easy to pick up as I was able to garner most stuff from the Quick Reference Sheets and of course a few look ups in Stephens rules.

Command and Control is nicely done by use of Staff Officers sent out by the CinC (a Divisional or Corps leader).
You get one staff officer per Brigade basically but must roll a 3-6 to have these available each turn.
There are varying numbers of Staff Officers required for several tasks (essentially orders) such as Attaching (allowing a failed Brigade activation re-roll), a mandatory attachment for Faltering Brigades (woe betide you if insufficient officers available), Rallying and several other tasks some of which may require more than one officer (ie Rallying requires 3 to attempt to recover hits once per Brigade per game).
Brigades also require activation again on a 3+ without those failing classed as Hesitant (no charges or advancing).
After then establishing Initiative for the turn its Player A then B declares charges then A then B conducting the charges.
Then A/B Move then A/B shoot.
The movement and shooting systems are quick and easily picked up, charges are as always a tad more involved  due to multiple possible outcomes and so forth but nothing too difficult.
One quirk we discovered was that whilst Cover (walls etc) modify shooting not so when it comes to charges.
However most (it seems anyhow) charges result in one side retiring or routing with only occasional actual hand to hand occurring, which feels correct.
Whilst foot in line move 15cm/6" any that are forced to Retire or are 'Whipped' fall back 30cm/12" (in 15mm 'scale').
Two units Whipped causes a Brigade to Falter or having a single unit Rout.
Faltering Brigades have a separate Command Table to roll on with possible outcomes ranging from Obey Orders through to Quiting The Field type results, all based around unit quality etc.
Units vary in size from small (3-4 bases) to standard (4-5 bases) up to large (6+ bases) sort of like Black Powder and with the number of actual figures per base being of no import.

Overall we enjoyed these rules and indeed Stephen is having another game on the morrow with his brother (the owner of the Confederates).
Am no Civil War expert but felt the rules gave a flavoursome and plausible game.
I could be tempted to collect a Rebel force and most certainly am tempted to obtain the rules.

I also obtained a couple of interesting rule sets from Lance Flint but not read either yet

And made a pre-order of latest from Battlegroup series (a large scale re-print of the mini rulebook with some additions)