Battleground WWII WWII Skirmish Miniatures Rules Review and Photos by Russ Lockwood

At the Fall-In convention, the MagWeb.com team, dressed in the appropriate red MagWeb.com shirts, sat down to play a WWII miniatures game called Battleground. VPs Tibor Vari and Bill Abernathy has played before -- and had given rave reviews -- but CEO Russ Lockwood had only heard good things, not experienced them. One other member of the Soviet side, Fred Stratton (sans red shirt), completed the team. Across the tabletop terrain, four Germans opposed the mighty Soviet juggernaut, circa 1944. The shimmering waters of yet another river meandered through the valley, with stone bridge arched across near a small village. Soviet tank engines pierced the valley's tranquility as four elements glided cautiously forward: Vari's three T-34/85s advanced over the hill west of the river; Abernathy's three KV-1s covered the ridge east of the river, while Stratton's three T-34/85s and Lockwood's three SU-100s clanked straight up the valley floor, east of the river. Germans were nowhere to be seen. Each tank represents one tank. If we had used infantry, one figure would equal one man. But this was a tank vs. tank game of a Soviet breakthrough being met by a scratch force of Germans. Players take turns based on a flip of the cards--an added measure of suspense, if sometimes keeping you waiting for your turn. Spotting is via a die roll -- the umpire Annie Gee handled this aspect--with appropriate modifiers. Each tank may do two actions in a turn: move, fire, aim, etc. Eventually, a pair of StuG IIIs spotted Stratton's and Lockwood's tanks, rapidly bringing them under fire. Range is incredible -- out to about 7 feet (!). Sure enough, one of Lockwood's Su-100s got pounded. It's pretty standard firing fare. One roll is "to hit" (with appropriate modifiers). If successful, then comes a roll for hit location (a tank has 20 different areas). If successful, you compare the firing gun's factor vs the target area's armor factor, which give you a dice roll for "penetration." If successful, you roll for damage, which ranges from complete obliteration to stunned crew. All dice are d20s. Armor Expert? The advance sees Fred crossing the river while Russ covers. SU-100 next to river has three tokens of "parrot" stun immobilization. T=Tibor, F=Fred, R=Russ, and B=Bill. III=StuG, IV=Pz IV, V=Panther, and VI=Tiger. Well, I'm not an armor expert, but I figure that once a tank's armor gets penetrated, the crew is history or chutney. A ping is bad enough, but a penetration seems to me to indicate a hole and bits of metal whirring around inside the tank. Not so here. The end result was my Su-100 crew ended up stunned for three turns. Multiple Monty Python quotes from The Parrot Sketch were hurled at the cowering tankers. Tibor's command rolled to a halt on the hillcrest. There! In the woods far across the valley, he saw sunlight glint off something. Three rounds headed that way, flushing a Panther. The long range duel began in earnest. Stratton crossed the bridge. Lockwood and Stratton parked two of their tanks in a small wood, for covering fire. A StuG erupted in flames from the shots. A PzIV atop a hill had Stratton dead to rights--but the German gun jammed! Lockwood's stunned crew finally recovered and rolled into the woods, to take aim and blow up the Panther. Abernathy continued his run along the ridge, neither getting shot at, nor shooting. Tank vs. tank combat is deucedly quick at times. The small percentage chance of a gun jam adds a little suspense. Many shots missed or pinged but occasionally, the right combination of die rolls caused a major brew. After losing one tank, Fred engages the StuGs, while Tibor's long-range duel loses a tank to a Panther. Bill's ridge ramble is off-photo to the right, while Russ lost a SU-100 to a StuG while potting a Panther. The ominous clank of Tiger I appeared on the battlefield, where it quickly set up and destroyed one of Stratton's T-34/85s, one of Vari's T-34/85s, and a Su-100 from Lockwood. Abernathy was moving as fast as possible, but it was a Vari shot at longish range that turned the Tiger into a metal rug. Soviet arms (and numbers) had triumphed, the valley and its bridge were reclaimed. Victory! StuG brews and the last crew runs. Russ' SU-100 pots a Pz IV by making its crew abandon ship. The Tiger's crew runs for it as Tibor unloads a shot. Bill's KV-1s careen in for a good clean-up of anything crew-like on the ground. From what was inferred, infantry would have bogged down this 2 1/2-hour game. As BattleGround uses card movement with generally sequential (usually not simultaneous) damage, the ability to subdivide platoons into squads means cards all around. And that means waiting all around, too --the Achilles heel of such command and control systems. For one-to-one tank shootouts, Battleground moves quickly, and based on one scenario's experience, rewards proper tactical thinking. Cover works. Tactical coordination works too. Numbers count, and the selection of the right function at the right time can made or break an assault. And a little luck doesn't hurt either. Special thanks to the crew of A.T.A.K. miniatures for providing the terrain, tanks, game, and umpiring. Contact: Battleground WWII at www.battlegroundwwii.com Back to Historical Game Review List Back to Master Game Review List Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Coalition Web, Inc. 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