Game 3 of Force on Force (Watching Jerry)

On Saturday I was able to run another game of Force on Force. I was also able to finally play in a game. Duane and Bruce pushed Germans and Dave and myself ran the Brits. I took inventory of the troops I have painted and looked through the scenarios and picked "Watching Jerry".

The German objectives were to visit each objective points and get off the table or to visit two and drop some men off at each one. Completing either one would give them 10 Victory Points. Each killed enemy was worth an additional VP.

The British objective was to escort an Observation team to one of the three objectives and keep them there for 2 turns and then get back off of their boards edge.

The game was limited to 8 turns.

Here are the British Forces (The FAC would come later from a FoG of War card that gave the British an Asset Card)

Here are the German Forces.


The Table (the table was only 5 ft wide, instead of 6 ft, so terrain was adjusted slightly)

Here is the table from the other end. The British moved up quickly to occupy the field in their center early on. The Germans deployed quickly into the building on their right as well as the building in the center of the table.

Early on the British drew friendly fire. It pinned a unit and caused a casualty. Not a great way to get started.

The Germans taking up a position in their center on Objective C. They would dominate the board from this position and halt the British advance.

A British Bren gun section deploys in the hedges. This position had excellent fields of fire and the team was able to hide. Unfortunately to cover their comrades they came out of hiding and received a huge volume of fire and eventually were wiped out.

After taking up a center position on an objective the Germans played the "Excellent Position" card on the house. This is not good...not good at all...unless your a German player.

The Germans abandon the house on the British left flank after the Fire! Fire! Fire! Fog of War card came was played on them. Unfortunately this only served to move them even further onto the British flank.

The British push up the center, this squad was quickly decimated by the Germans in the Center house.

Uh oh...the Brits brought Typhoons to the party. We rolled and got fighter-bombers. Once this card was drawn things changed drastically. Objective C (the "Excellent Position") took a hard pounding and the building was reduced and the squad forced to fall back. Two turns later the Germans on the British left flank would also be pounded into submission and forced to withdraw.

As the Typhoons pounded the German center a Brit Rifle team, escorting the observer team, was able to take up position on the wooded hill and observe for two turns and withdraw (completing the British objective for 10 Victory Points).

Germans on the British left flank. These guys really ate away at the Brit fire teams in the center. Very little of the return fire had any impact. Fortunately for the British the Typhoons would blast these guys out of position before the game ended.

In the end both teams scored 14 points for a tie. The game was limited to 8 turns.

During this game we wanted to try out Combat Stress. We all liked the idea of it in theory (and I know, it's optional) but in practice, as written, it didn't work well for our scenario. We are going to use it in our next game but remove the modifier for each turn past turn 1 (this mechanic almost guarantees that units will degrade off the table in an 8 turn game). By the end of the game there were morale Failures for everyone due to Combat Stress.

I was able to pick up some small bead like things (4 colors) on sale from Hobby Lobby this week. To cover most scenarios I will need at least 8 unique colors. I was much more prepared with dice for each side (at GenCon I am going to hit the Chessex booth and get color coded dice to make it even easier). One of the nice things about owning the book in PDF as well as hard copy is that I could print off the scenario and quick reference sheets for all of the players.

After three games I still have a few questions, which I will post on the forum as time permits, and there were a few rough points during the game but I am enjoying it and it has got my WWII figs on the table (some of which, like these Brits, haven't seen a game in 4+ years). I have also been inspired to finish up the Flames of War project on my paint table so I can get to my Gulf War II Marine project. Now I hope that some other members of the club decide they want to do some troops for the game.

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:

First Game of Force on Force

Last night some members of our club played our first game of Force on Force. I supplied the two forces, my 1940 French and German Armies. At the last minute I opted out of fielding the vehicles, guns and weapons teams. I decided it would keep things simple.

We played the Meeting Egagement from the Force on Force Primer. The Germans were Red Force and the French were Blue Force.

Unfortunately for the French players Duane, the German commander, has much more wargaming experience and apparently is a refugee from the law of averages (he rolled an amazing amount of 8s during the game). The French spread out to cover their whole table edge, the Germans formed a large assault column and ran down one edge and overran the French. Much of this was due to the fact that the French sent their squads piecemeal into the corner of a field and were eliminated one at a time. The Germans successfully took up positions in several wooded areas and a barn and were able combine fire from 5 units on one or two French units at a time.

By turn 3 the French (who couldn't win a roll) capitulated. Overall the game was interesting. Once I had a chance to re-read the rules I realized that I made several mistakes (Sub Machine Guns only using D6 outside of Optimum range would have made a big difference).

I am going to try again on Saturday with a some other guys from the club with Late War British Infantry vs. Germans. I am also going to have a go at the vehicle rules.

German positions in the woods.

Germans rush into a barn and the French fail to pass their interrupt roll....again.

Germans assault through open ground.

This position will cost the French 3 units before they abandon it.

28mm WWII

My German Army

My French Army

Modern Figure Comparison

Comparison of a Mofo, Eureka and Devil Dog Design Figure.

Modern figure comparison. This is a comparison of 25/28mm modern figures from Foundry, MoFo, Britannia and Devil Dog.

In each group the Britannia figure is on the Left and the Devil Dog equivalent on the Right.

Leaders

RPGs

AK armed Somali

From Left to Right (Britannia Ranger, MoFo Downed Helicoptor Pilot, Foundry Merc, Devil Dog Russian Para with head swap, Devil Dog Delta Operator)

Close Up of Foundry Merc, Devil Dog Russian Para with head swap (Painted as Merc) and Devil Dog Delta Operator.


Close up of Britannia Ranger, MoFo Downed Helicopter Crew, Foundry Merc.