Playin' with the big boys

Big as in 1/32. Playing = test game of Nuts!

It has been around four years since I first acquired the rules with the intention of doing some squad level games of the Second World War. They had passed the read test, but what about a play test?

Stephen and Julian travelled up/over for the game.

July has been 'visitor season' for us, so I did not get a chance to re-read the rules before hand. The fellas were extremely patient as we used the first couple of moves to get accustomed with the basic mechanics. They are quite easy to come to grips with, albeit idiosyncratic, as were the details of shooting, mêlée and vehicles as we progressed.

Simple game, simple scenario. A couple of squads of paras making their way from the drop zone to the Arnhem bridge. German defenders in woods awaiting them.

The German infantry defenders (front) with possible reinforcing squad of Waffen SS behind (accompanied by a PzKpfw V).

Two squads of paras, one with jeep and 75 mm pack howitzer.

Julian advanced the first squad of paratroops carefully towards the woods, spread out and going prone at each 'step'.

Sgt Smithers and the other leadmen entered the edge of the wood, sparking an 'in-sight' test for the closest German defenders.

Successful with the test, the Germans opened fire, hitting Sgt Smithers who used his 'star' quality to downgrade the hit to a 'duck back'. Corporal Clobber and the other paras returned fire killing the German rifleman who had hit Smithers and taking Col. Klink 'out of the fight'.

Not a good opening for the German infantry with one rifleman 'definitely dead' and Col. Klink 'out of the fight'. However Cpl Harte and Pte Krak remained in place with the MG42.

Paratroops' grenade attack! Fell short.

Unscathed, Harte killed one of the paras and forced the others to take cover.

A second grenade attack also missed the target, but the charge by the paras was more successful. Harte and Krak killed in the ensuing mêlée.

Lead by Corporal Clobber, the paras prepared to advance further into the wood...

While this combat was occuring, Stephen brought the second squad of paras down the road, jeep and gun to the fore (a combined roll of 7 for the initiative had produced reinforcements).

Next turn, we rolled a double for the initiative, producing a 'possible enemy force'. The Waffen SS and tank entered the game.

Kaptain Konrad and his squad come on behind the Panther. It probably should have been a Stug to be more accurate for Arnhem, but that PzKpfw V looks so good!

The Germans seized the initiative, so the Panther moved towards the second squad of paras, stopped and opened fire with the main gun.

The thin-skinned jeep was no more, but Captain Flashman jumped clear (thanks to his 'star power') directing the remaining members of his squad towards the wood.

That brought an enjoyable little game to an end.

It had been great to finally have a go with Nuts! and to get the 1/32 figures back on the table after so long. Both will feature again at some stage for sure.

Thanks to Stephen and Julian for making this first game with Nuts! such an enjoyable experience with laughs a plenty.

Rules

Nuts! 4th Edition by Two Hour Wargames (2017).

Figures and vehicles

Airfix British Paratroops

Airfix German Infantry

Mars German Elite Division (Normandy 44-45)

Classic Toy Soldiers German Panther tank (camouflage)

Newray Willys Jeep 1/32 Scale Diecast Metal Model

Gun that came with a packet of toy soldiers

Joy of 2 for World War Two

After our back to the future playtest of the Wargames Research Group 1925–1950 rules, Julian came to the conclusion that he was happy with the rules, but not the scale. While I might be prepared to 'suspend disbelief' regarding the depth a vehicle occupies, he could not have a great big 1/72 Tiger (for example) and assume that it only occupied a smidgen of it's size. The answer, he thought; 2 mm.

Using the natural scale of the figures (1:1 000, rounding up) means that the ground scale becomes 1 mm = 1 m, what you see is what you get and large games can be staged over a reasonable area.

He proceeded to purchase some 2 mm figures for the Second World War from Irregular Miniatures (already knowing the scale since he has plenty of 2 mm forces for other periods), applied paint, made some buildings and then, on Sunday just gone, staged a second playtest. Stephen came up from Perth to join Julian and me for the game.

Julian designed a fictitious scenario a few days after D-Day, on a roughly 1 m x 2 m table with some really good looking bocage (using strips of kitchen scourers) and some buildings that he has scratch-built from milliput. I took the defending Germans, Stephen the attacking Americans.

View along the table from the American end. Green strips are bocage, large hill at the German end of the table, village behind.

View from the German end. Troops laid out but not deployed. Julian's excellent buildings in the foreground. He has applied his master building for 1/72 to 2mm.

Americans advancing down the road and across country. My plan, if I had any, was to conduct a 'rolling defense', with each line of hidden vehicles/troops retiring to the one behind (or further). I 'unveiled' the first line of a Jagdpanzer (right foreground) and Panzer IV (left foreground), each supported by an infantry.

German tanks open up on the lead Sherman, knocking it out! We played all of the American tanks as Shermans (which these lead ones here are).

The Americans had laid down a smoke screen/barrage, which fortuitously, for me, over-shot the first line of German defenders. This did not last long as their tanks fired on the now visible Jagdpanzer and Panzer IV, taking out the former, but missing the latter.

Scratch one Jagdpanzer.

According to plan, the Panzer IV and infantry that had accompanied the Jagdpanzer now retired towards the next line: A Tiger. The other infantry remaining in place for now as observers. The Tiger opened up on the lead tank, but missed.

Not so the German artillery which had been called in to fire a little in advance of the initial American position and successfully destroyed another Sherman, second last in the column.

The lead Sherman diverted from the road to attack the retreating panzer grenadiers, but good fortune continued to be with the Germans and they escaped unharmed.

To add insult to (non) injury, the infantry fired their panzerfaust, and hit and knocked out their assailant!

Surviving the American retaliatory fire, the Tiger opened up again...

Sherman no. four of six knocked out.

At this point, Julian remembered that we'd forgotten morale tests. The result for the American company of Shermans meant a retirement to cover away from the enemy. The German infantry that had been fired on by the tank but survived did a similar thing.

We had to end it there. Originally when we'd planned the game we expected to go into the evening, but I found out later that I was working on Monday with an early start, so we were limited to the few hours. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful time with marvellous hospitality from Julian and family, an enjoyable first outing with his twos and plenty of banter and general chatting/catching up. A huge thank you to our wonderful hosts!

Julian is now 'full steam ahead' to paint more vehicles and figures and to build more of his marvellous buildings and other terrain pieces.

Oldie but a goodie

A fabulous afternoon/evening yesterday at Julian's combining plenty of discussion and chatter about a range of topics, a delicious meal and a playtest game using the Wargames Research Group 1925–1950 rules.

Germany late '44-early '45: a Russian advance in force.

Julian had wanted to do a test-game using the rules; a set that he had used in his teens and early 20s and suspected would be a 'viable' set for the sort of level of Second World War games that he'd like to do. Back in August, we had a go using Blitzkrieg Commander, but soon decided that they were not for us. For me the main negatives were biggies: the way the rules handle command and control with command rolls and completely random blunders as well as the combat system of hits and saves. Julian was not enamoured by these mechanics either, but the key blocker for him was the scale/organisation of the game into 'units'. He wants a tank to be a tank, with different effects if fired on from front, side or rear. He previously had this using the Wargames Research Group 1925–1950 rules. These had 'failed' previously due to the inability to replicate attacks by less-good armour against superior types—more on this later.

The Wargames Research Group 1925–1950 rules; an oldie, fondly remembered by Julian, never played by myself—would they still be 'in play' after this game?

Julian's scenario of the game was the same as we had used for the game using Blitzkrieg Commander, a fictitious encounter set in late '44-early '45. A large, advancing Soviet force of infantry and several T-34 85s against (basically unlimited numbers of each, but coming on a few at a time) against a smaller, but reasonably well-equipped German defensive force of a Panther, a Panzer IV, a 28 mm sPzB 41, a panzerfaust & crew and around a half-company of infantry. I had a vivid image of the scenario as it was reminiscent to me of the wonderful series of games played recently by Jon on his Grymauch's Solo Wargaming Blog (final part here, work backwards to see the others). Interestingly, Jon had used Blitzkrieg Commander.

The Russians advanced, initially down the road, then diverting two tanks to their left.

Seeing that enticing bit of side armour, I 'unveiled' my ace, the Panther, hull down in the wooded area (as well as some of the accompanying panzergrenadiers. Unfortunately it failed to hit.

More Russians enter the battle area, as the former lead tanks head around the buildings...

... straight into the spider's web!

Scratch one T-34. In my excitement at this single 'victory', I made my first and biggest mistake, but more on that later.

More good news, if you are the German defenders, as the new lead T-34, no. 47 as it happens, is knocked out by the Panther.

"But still, they come" (apologies to Jeff Wayne).

'Sneaking' around the hill, a shot at the Pz.Kpfw IV fails to strike home.

Despite numerous targets and selecting those that were stationary, the Panther could not repeat the dose. Mind you, the Russians too missed several times—we were both rolling 1s and 2s, using the same die and were beginning to think that it was 'broken'!

Time to bring some of the infantry into action. They missed and were knocked out by the right-most T-34.

As was the Pz.Kpfw IV! The crew paid dearly for my mistake. I should have retired/retreated after the initial success, rather than getting excited about taking out more of the Russian armour.

Not gonna make the same mistake twice though. 'Saddle up!'. Time to move to another position while we could.

End of the game. A Soviet strategic victory, clearing the defenders with losses near even: two T-34s against a Pz.Kpfw IV and some infantry. I think we all know which side could handle even that kind of trade-off for longer!

A really enjoyable game. Enough interest and challenge for both players and a plausible result. We could have rolled on to another table (as Jon did over ten tables in his excellent series), but it was enough for us to be content with the rules in playability and realism.

The added detail of individual tanks, specific classes for armament, two levels of armour and small groups of infantry had not added a great deal of complexity, but had boosted enjoyment and scale of approximation. We used the nominal, base scale of 1:1000 (1 mm representing 1 m), so there was a large degree of 'suspension of disbelief' regarding the size, especially the depth of the vehicles. This did not cause any problems at all. Julian had the fine notion of considering the depth to represent an area which the target occupies in a particular 'bound', a concept that appealed to me. Adapting thinking from naval wargaming, now that I think of it.

What was different between this game and the experience in his late teens-20s?

We suspect it was 'youthful exuberance': a lack of historical perspective and excitement at building numerous of the 'sexy' German tanks and then having them all on the table. An attack by T-34s against equal numbers of well positioned and equipped Panthers, Tigers, King Tigers and Jagdpanthers didn't work. The latter simply stood back and cleaned up the T-34s. In our game I coulda destroyed four T-34s (shoulda, oughta according to me!) for the loss of the one Panzer IV. It was looking a bit concerning for the Russians at 2-0 and should have remained as such or better if I had got the Pz.Kpfw IV out of harm's way when I had the chance. Mind you, there was that hit on the Panther that failed to penetrate, but that is another story...!

Might-have-beens aside, it was success and an initial tick of approval for an oldie but a goodie!

Rules

Wargames Research Group 1925–1950, 1973 with amendments of a 2nd Edition Prototype (1975).

Scales

Tanks and vehicles 1:1 (although the latter were a bit under-represented due to limited availability at this stage).

Infantry 'elements' of four figures (men) representing part of a section.

Figures

Russian

T-34s: Airfix ready-made HO-OO T-34 Tank
Infantry: Airfix Russian Infantry (1964)

German

Panther: Airfix 1/76 Panther kit
Panzer IV: Airfix 1/76 Panzer IV kit
Tractor: 1/72 Airfix kit
Half-track: Matchbox 1/76 PK-83 Sd.Kfz 251/1 Hanomag
Infantry: Airfix German Infantry (1961)

Out of sequence: All Hell Let Loose—Advance to Arnhem

This post is one out of sequence: a few turns of a Second World War game. It is clearly not related to my focus on the First World War and 1916 in particular, but does go back to late 2019 when I had painted and based some of the 1/32 figures of my youth (plus a few that I purchased to supplement them). These figures had sat, patiently, in one of the cupboards in my shed waiting for a 'run' on the table. Current projects and my focus meant that I had nothing planned for them in the near future. Then, enter my good friend serendipity.

Early last month, I was looking over some some of the many blogs that I follow and stumbled across a review of the rules All Hell Let Loose by the 'Emperor' over at L'Empereur Bête et Méchant. They sounded quite interesting, so I looked into them further, including looking at one of several links he had included; to the blog of the rules' author. I was further encouraged by what I read so, since they are available in a form that includes a pdf download and printed version, not super-cheap, but 'reasonable', I decided to get a copy.

Reading them convinced me that they could be worth a go. I had intended my activities for the Second World War to be at the squad level, but these rules, nominally company level for games from division to corps size, would allow games at these higher levels of operation. Even better, they have been written so as to be completely scalable and 'scale agnostic'. I decided to take the latter concept a step further and use the rules, pitched at 6 mm figures, with my 1/32 scale figures!

When I mentioned the idea to Julian he was super keen. We were getting together for one of our roughly monthly sessions, so it seemed an opportune time to try a few turns.

I set up a scenario loosely (very loosely) based on the advance of the 1st and 3rd parachute battalions following their landings on 17th September 1944. The paras were advancing towards Arnhem, having just passed through Wolfheze and would be opposed by German forces in the wooded areas to the east.

Battle of Arnhem 17th September 1944 (Source: Wikipedia)

 

My rough interpretation for this playtest. Third parachute battalion at left, first at right. Wolfheze off-board behind them, woods ahead. Using 1/32, each figure/50 mm^2 base represents a platoon. Each formation (e.g. the two para battalions has an HQ, represented by the officer & radio operator figures. I considered the vehicles  to have a 'footprint' of the same size; i.e. 50 mm^2 at the front-centre

We had a long catch up, dinner and a lot of 'chewing the fat', so only had time for a few turns, just managing to begin the action. We took a parachute battalion^ each, both deciding what the Germans should do. Julian carried out the firing and managed three hits from six platoons; 'destroying' one para—one of mine!
^ Re-reading a bit of the rules, these two 'formations' would be better considered to be part of one of the para battalions. This makes the scale more appropriate too.

Paras advance, not knowing that German troops await in ambush in the wood.

The first German formation springs the trap.

Six platoons fire on the paras.

Three successful hits, resulting in one platoon 'destroyed' (which represents no longer combat effective).

This was sufficient to demonstrate the potential of the rules and, pleasingly, that they could work with the 1/32 figures. I'll play a few more turns later and see how it turns out.