Using the popular Spearhead Rules with Geo Hex terrain tiles. First some notes: The terrain used a Geo-Hex Battlescape mat & Hills (1 1/2 " Hexes), plus home made town sectors & hexagonal forests. The hexes are actually 1" on each face, so are just a fraction small for 1 1/4 " x 1 1/4 " bases - but the stands fit in okay as long as you don't mind the occasional overlap of corners where they stick outside the hex(es). There were some necessary modifications to the rules as follows: 1. All shooting, Command Radii, Spotting, and Movement was divided by 1.5 (or at x 2/3 if you wish). So 6" = 4 hexes, 9" = 6 hexes, 12" = 8 hexes, 18" = 12 hexes. 2. Hill contours added +2 hexes to visibility. In woods visibility was adjaceant hexes only. 3. Fire arcs for towed guns & SPGs were reduced from 90 degrees to 60 degrees (i.e. one hexside), others remained at 180 degrees (3 hexsides). 4. Pivoting was increased from 45 degrees to 60 degrees (1 hexside). 5. When moving into a hex adjacent to the enemy you had choice of close assaulting or not doing so. Any CA'er who got suppressed bounced back 1 hex. 6. Any air attacks were 1 hex by 4 hexes, Rocket artillery a circular 7 hex (flower) pattern. 7. Town sectors were 5 hexes, a row of 3 and a row of 2 (Trapezoid), and this meant they had 16 'external' hex faces, so anyone in "outskirts" had to have 3 hexsides between them and the next guy (i.e. 1 outskirts stand every 4th hexside). Otherwise no other changes were required. Game Play The game played really well, the reduced ranges actually worked really well, making the forces "snuggle" together closer. It still remained manoeuvre orientated, and actually "looked" really good with the hexes (which surprised me). My opponent 'loves' hexes (too much Battletech), and reckons they are visually satisfying because they appear a lot in nature so we are use to seeing them... Anyway some quick conclusions on the game: 1. Hex size was a minor problem (2" hexes would be great) but didn't disrupt the game. This could be solved by measuring about 3mm from each corner (of the stands) and making a diagonal cut to remove the corner - then again just basing on hexes would also work. 2. The game played really fast - not needing a tape measure was great, and there were no problems with flank shots, who was closest, etc. Actually there were more cases of more than 1 stand equi-distant, but we didn't have any problems with the firer just choosing... 3. The Hexes seemed to give a natural appearance and spacing to the units/stands - although the spacing may have been a disadvantage, preventing 1 less stand from being in the front line every 7 1/2 " (6 hexes). Overall a satisfying experience - Definitely will try it again. May also try a normal game with all the ranges reduced by 1.5 to 4", 6", 8", 12" instead. Definitely made a 4' deep table seem quite large with lots of room... Now for a quick game report The battle consisted of about 3/4 of a UK Armoured Division attacking the Dug in 2nd Panzer Division. The forces were: UK Armoured: 1 Armd Bde HQ, 3 Armd Regts (each 1/3 Fireflies) 1 Inf Bde (incl. HMG Coy), 3 Inf Battalions 1 SP AT Regt Bty (3 Achilles) 1 LAA Regt Bty (3 SP Bofors) 1 weak A/car Sqd (2 A/car, 2 S/car) 1 SP Arty Regt (6 Sexton) 1 Field Arty Regt (6 25pdr) 1 Med Arty Bty (2 5.5") The balance of Division, including Motor Battalion was missing. One Battalion of each type was Vet, balance were Regular with risk of Green (none came out Green in the end). 2nd Pz.Div (Historical late 1944 OOB) 1 Pz Regt I Btn (5 Panthers + HQ) II Btn (7 Pz.IV, 3 StuG III* + HQ) 1 PzGr Regt: 1 Battalion (6 stands in 251 + HQ) 1 Mtz Regt: 2 Battalions each about 8 stands Rifles/HQ 1 Flak Battalion: 1 Heavy Bty (1 '88', 1 Quad H/track), 1 Light Battery (3 towed 20mm) 1 Artillery Battalion (2 x 105mm in GS) The Battalions were 1/3 Vet, but by random selection, only 1 ended up Vet (I Mtz Btn). * As there were no towed PaK in the Infantry units, the StuGs were attached out as AT support for Infantry (to the 2 Mtz Btns) weakening the II Pz Btn. Everything is told from the British perspective (for simplicity). The table consisted of an "upside down" 'Y' road, the intersection was a 4 sector town. closer to us on the right hand branch was a 3 sector village. In both the left and right rear corners were high dominating hills. A smaller hill was closer to us on the left side inside the road. Everywhere were large andsmall woods, in many paces channelling the open terrain to only 2-3 hex wide bottlenecks. The German Infantry were dug in. They were deployed as follows: Left rear hill, Pz.IV Btn, Centre Village largest Veteran Mtz Btn, large wood on right of town lining road other Mtz Btn, Right rear hill Panther Btn, and in reserve PzGr Btn on road in centre. My attack plan was a double envelopment - to take out the two dominating heights on either flank. The strongest surviving battalion from each attack would then be used to attack the central town from flank and rear supported by the (Armd) reserve who would be used for a frontal assault. The left flank attack was made by 1 Infantry Battalion (with Achilles) and 1 Armd Regt. It went reasonably well, the Infantry Btn were Veterans, and the Armour ultimately survived a morale check (we were using advanced rules). They advanced virtually unchecked until nearing the heights, the 88 did terrible damage until stonked by 25pdrs for a couple of turns! The Pz.IVs proved incompetent and got seriously out shot by the Shermans (later supported by Achilles fire once the Infantry caught up). The Germans rushed the PzGr "fire brigade" to this flank, into a wood on the reverse slope of the high ground behind the Pz.IVs. On the right again 1 unit of each attacked. They were supported by the 3rd Inf Btn which was in the right centre area and attacked and occupied the empty village as a flank guard for this attack and to cover the main town. The Armour got horribly pasted in the open by the Panthers on the dominating height, even the Crusader AA was rushed forward in a fruitless attempt to out shoot the Panthers. On the extreme right the Infantry were trying to work round behind the Panthers but ran into their engineer platoon in a small copse. Needless to say it fought off 4 close assaults (1 involving 3 attackers), survived 6 turns of artillery bombardment by 2 25pdrs, killed a Daimler A/car, a Carrier Platoon, and a Rifle stand with direct fire, and later moved onto the main hill and successfully Close assaulted a couple of Infantry stands from another Btn! It was initially supported by a single 20mm Flak, although later a Wirbelwind moved up on top of the hill and helped mow down more hapless infantry as well (until it was stonked and destroyed)! Meanwhile in the Panther's rear a Pz.II Luchs Recon platoon moved forward to Overrun the stands of Infantry that had filtered past on either side of the engineers (who were fighting off 3-4 stands single-handed) and the Luchs also successfully overran 4 Infantry stands caught in the open! Meanwhile the Armd Regt had broken (caught in a crossfire from the Panthers, and a couple of StuGs off on its extreme left) and dispersed, the A/car Sqd (attached to right-hand Inf Btn) failed morale and withdrew to cover, and (losing site of objective and becoming obsessed with the failure on the right) I ordered the centre Inf Btn to move right and try to take out the Panthers. As it had Fld & Med arty support its move was covered by Smoke laid along the flank of its advance (so it wasn't molested by StuGs). At this stage the Panthers had only lost a single stand (the Wirbelwind). On the left things went much better, the Pz.IVs broke, the Armd Regt held on (although reduced to 5 stands), and the Infantry began to swarm over the hill and into the PzGrs in their little wood! In the centre I committed the reserve Armour and sent it too, after the Panthers (Duddhh)!! As my two Infantry battalions converged the Panthers began a gradual withdrawal. The right Infantry failed morale however and withdrew to join the A/cars in a wood near my baseline! The other took casualties slowly from the Panthers but got close enough to force these to hurriedly withdraw off the hill. In the centre the Armd reserve, cutting across the middle of the table came under enfilade fire from the StuGs and lost 3 Shermans without being able to see the firers! On the left the PzGrs were swamped, a bitter hand-to-hand taking place with the Veteran British Infantry, but their days were numbered. The remnants of the left hand Armd Regt approached the central town and hunkered down to cover the left side of it. In the centre the reserve force dispatched two StuGs but lost a couple more Shermans (and the bloody Crusader AA - again)! Being Veterans they didn't need to check morale, but their advance on the Panthers halted and they were left stranded in no-mans land.... On the right the Panthers prepared to depart back towards the centre rear as my Infantry swarmed over the top of the hill and down towards the wood (and Panthers) beyond... I had secured 2 of the 3 objectives, but had only 1 reasonable Infantry Battalion left, one half strength Btn, 1 broken Btn, and 2 heavily depleted and shaky Armd Regts made up the rest. There wasn't enough resources left to try and take the town from the two Btns of Motorised troops, supported by the Panthers, so we halted here and consolidated!! A somewhat Pyrrhic victory - damn those Engineers!! Back to Frontline Vol. 1 Iss. 3 Table of Contents Back to Frontline List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Rolfe Hedges This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com