Game Two of Force on Force (Counter Attack)

On Saturday I ran my second game of Force on Force for members of our gaming club. Unfortunately all but one of the players from the first game were unable to play in the second game so I had to start from scratch again. The good news is that most of the regulars have now had a go at the rules. There were a total of 7 players, 4 German (Clay, Bruce, Dave and Mike) and 3 British (Daniel, Rick and Tyler).



We played Scenario 4 - The Counter-Attack. The British were the Red Force and the Germans were the Blue Force. The game ran fairly smoothly until about turn 4 when I totally choked and let the reaction fire get completely out of hand (everyone was reacting to everyone and then reacting to reactions, it devolved into real chaos). Once things got back in hand it continued to run fairly smooth.




This is a picture of the battlefield from the British point of view.

These are the German Forces. Two Mk IV tanks, 3 full squads, a med. mortar, med. MG Team, command section, a Tiger and their Asset Card was a Flame Thrower team (this guy earned his pay later in the game).

These are the British Forces, a Sherman Firefly, a Cromwell, 2 full squads, command squad, med. MG Team, Mortar Team and their asset card was an additional med. MG Team.

I allowed the British to deploy up to the edge of the town and in an adjacent field (about 2 ft. in). All troops were dug in and hiding at the start. This is a squad of British along a hedge, near a burning Flak Panzer. The Cromwell and Mortar Team were deployed behind these troops.

The remaining British infantry were deployed in the buildings and supported by the Firefly.

The Germans used the Tiger early on to push up the middle and provide fire on the British in the buildings upper floors. Later this Tiger would race up the British right flank and destroy the Firefly after a couple of rounds exchanging fire.

This Mk IV advanced slowly up the British left, effectively pinning down the Cromwell. It spent 2 or 3 turns bogged down attempting to cross the Normandy hedges (I had the players make a skill roll each time they crossed a hedge (a roll of '1' would have left them stuck for the remainder of the game, otherwise the next turn they rolled to see if they pushed on through).

The Germans slowly worked along the main road under constant pressure from one of the med. MG teams. One group was cut to ribbons as it approached the British left flank.

As withering German fire eventually destroyed most of the British in the upper building floors they were able to flank two sections of British troops. With the help of the flame thrower and this Mk IV (that had 1/2 Fire Power due to a smack on the nose early on from the Firefly) the Germans broke a critical strong point in the British lines.

This is another view of the German flanking move. The Cromwell was quickly forced to retreat by the Mk IV in the upper right of the picture and a Panzer Faulst team.

Just after this photo was taken (Turn 7), the Tiger destroyed the Firefly and many of the infantry shown stormed the British HQ building and Aid Station. At this point the British casualties rose above 60% (the victory condition) and they called it quits.

Though the British players took a lot of lumps I think if they had been more familiar with the rules they could have held out 8 turns (keeping casualties below 60%). One issue that they ran into, in my opinion, is that they began using reaction fire too early and did not have enough mutually supported fire positions. The ability to have all of their infantry forces hidden at the start of the game could have been much more deadly.

I definitely have a better feel for the rules than I did and I have now read the rules all the way through twice. I will read them again before I play my next game (hopefully next weekend). I also need to order some dice. It is helpful to have a set for each end of the table (10 of each type d6, d8 and d10) as well as to color code the dice (all d6 blue, all d10 yellow, etc...) in solid easily read colors. Additionally I am going to go to the craft store and pick up some glass beads in various solid colors to use for wound, pin, shooting markers etc... For this game I threw out Combat Stress because I felt it was a bit cumbersome to keep up with for 7 un-initiated players. I will add it back next game. I also forgot about the Fog of War cards because of the general confusion during the game. Due to the number of players I fudged a few rules on indirect fire and building damage as well, just to keep it moving.

I am excited about getting the members of the club up to speed so that I can jump in and play in future games. I think the group is split about 70/30 on like/dislike of the rules. Some of the players didn't care for the reaction rolls (which I admit I goofed on at one point) and others are just partial to other games. Hopefully when I know it better I can present the game in a smoother fashion. Personally I like about 90% of the game. I am looking forward to seeing some more vehicle stats posted. For those interested in such things, below are the stats I used in my game (the Churchill didn't make the cut, but I had it in case we needed it due to an asset card).

Sherman Firefly
Fire Power: (Class 3) 4d
Crew Position MGs: 3d
Defense: (Class 3) 3d8 Side/Rear 2d8
Survivability: 4+ / d8
Crew: 5
Notes: When fired at vehicles add 1d.

Tiger I
Fire Power: (Class 3) 5d
Crew Position MGs: 3d
Defense: (Class 3) 4d10 Side/Rear 3d10
Survivability: 4+ / d8
Crew: 5
Notes:

Cromwell
Fire Power: (Class 3) 3d
Crew Position MGs: 3d
Defense: (Class 3) 3d8 Side/Rear 2d8
Survivability: 4+ / d8
Crew: 5
Notes:

MkIV
Fire Power: (Class 3) 4d
Crew Position MGs: 3d
Defense: (Class 3) 3d8 Side/Rear 2d8
Survivability: 4+ / d8
Crew: 5
Notes: Schurtzen adds 1d to defense on flank.

Churchill
Fire Power: (Class 3) 3d
Crew Position MGs: 3d
Defense: (Class 3) 4d10 Side/Rear 3d10
Survivability: 4+ / d8
Crew: 5
Notes: