The following, is a brief account of a game we played recently, to try out my WWII skirmish rules based on DBA mechanisms. The basic scenario, was similar to that described by Steve Dake in his recent article on 25mm WWII gaming. The action however, was re- located to NW Europe, as I was using the Battle Group Figures, which do British and Germans rather than Russians. I set the scenario up to be played by four gamers, 3 of them handling the British, and I defending the town with the Germans. Originally, I had planned to be "Gamemaster", and run all of the mechanics. Unfortunately, one of our group telephoned the day before the game, and indicated that he had been sick. This put me in the position of having to play the Germans myself, as well as running the game.

Briefly, the game is set in the days after D - Day, as the Allied forces are pushing into occupied France. A British Infantry Platoon, has been given the task of clearing a village of any opposition, and setting up an observation / forward post for their battalion. Opposition was unknown but expected. I had explained the rules changes beforehand to the gamers running the British, stressing the fact that they had smoke grenades to use if they wished, and that they had to choose between bunching up and moving quickly, or spreading out and slowing down.
I deployed my force, a reinforced section of Panzergrenadiers, deep in the town, with just a couple of troopers near the entrance to throw the British troops off. Plenty of cover and debris, would serve to slow the advance down. And so, the game began. Let me begin by introducing the players.

The British were; Ken Skinner ( long time MWANer and long time Friend), Dave Schmid and his son Mark, both recent converts to gaming, (about two years now), as stated previously, I ended up playing the Germans myself. The British were a standard platoon, 3 dozen troops in three squads plus a platoon HQ with a 2 inch mortar. The Germans were a force of 18 Panzergrenadiers, with a pair of MG 42s, a 50mm mortar, and two guys with Panzerfausts. I had deployed hidden, on paper, forcing them to spot for targets. Since this was the first time we had used the rules, I decided to keep vehicles out, and play strictly an infantry vs. infantry action.

To their credit, the British advanced slowly and cautiously, examining every inch of ground that may have concealed a German ( of course, they weren't there! ), so their progress towards the town was a bit slow. They deployed in classic two up, one back formation, and wisely decided to opt for keeping the troops widely deployed. It was great fun, watching them scramble, when I opened up from 3 feet away with a covered Machine Gun, and took out a trooper who was a bit too far ahead. Since I had deployed hidden, I only indicated a rough direction. Once they realized that the countryside around the village was clear, they started moving faster. Ken remembered a recent conversation we had about German defensive tactics, ( he was originally to have commanded the Germans ), and knew that I would have the bulk of my troops deeper in the town. He therefore, started pushing his troops into the edge of the town, and soon entered the nearest building, which of course, was unoccupied.

Once the British closed on the town, things really heated up. Surprisingly, they never bothered to use the smoke grenades for cover, so I did manage to take out several of them while they were in the open, by the time they reached the buildings, they had lost three men. Following standard DBA rules, I determined that the game would be over, when one side had lost 1 / 3 of its starting force, ( 12 for the Brits, and 6 for me ). Grenades started getting tossed around like baseballs, and all of a sudden, I was looking at 2 dead Grenadiers. The platoon mortars on either side opened up, I managed to keep Ken's third fire team back out of the action for the entire game. Dave in the meantime, had tremendous luck, and managed to take out one of my two-MGs with the first mortar round. At that point, losses were 5 British down, to 4 Germans, things were not going well for the Fatherland.

Curiously, once the British had cleared one side of the street, and we were firing at each other from windows, things brightened up for the Germans, and it was suddenly 8 Brits down to my 4 Germans. Eventually though, the German force was restricted to just two buildings, and the British were pushing resolutely forward. Eventually though, their advantage in numbers proved the deciding factor, and my 5th and 6th Grenadiers went down, bringing the game to a close after about 2 hours of play.

Everyone agreed that the game was a good time. It looked right from table level, with troops skirting the building perimeters looking for any cover, and Germans peering around corners and over piles of rubble. This was meant to be a test game, and I fully expected to come away with a need to do some further tweaking of the system. Basically, it worked. The DBA command structure, forced the individual squad leaders to think about what they were doing. When you have 11 guys to move around, and you roll a "3", you have some decisions to make. I had allowed the Platoon Leader ( Dave ), to give out his points, ff he did not need them, and this proved key in getting the British troops forward. This aspect will probably be modified, I may have each squad move on a d10 instead of a d6. As Ken pointed out, a d6 works for the basic DBA game, since you are very often moving elements in base to base contact. I also need to look more closely at grenades and mortars, and devise a better method of having them range in, instead of just picking a target and firing. We all agreed that we will do much more of this sort of game, exploring the different aspects of small unit combat in the WWII era. The rules will keep evolving. I already have an order in to Doug Carroccio for the "At the Sharp End" rules, and I am anxiously waiting to see the new skirmish rules from Arty Conliffe.

EQUIPMENT UPDATE -

In case you haven't heard yet, Battle Honors has jumped on the bandwagon, with a 25mm WWII range. I have Russians on order, and can't wait to get them. The color photos I've seen, show figures that would be similar in style and size to the Battle Group figures, in other words, slimmer and more finely detailed than the First Corps models. The best part though is that they are cheaper !! A set of 15 figures, will cost you $ 15.00. while if you want multiples of certain poses individually, they will cost $ 1.25, a big saving in money over the other two, maybe it will cause some re - evaluation by the competition. Also, on the vehicle front, there is another source of 1/48 scale vehicles. Solido, has long manufactured a range of highly detailed, die - cast vehicles, basically depicting vehicles used around the D - Day landings. They are very, very good, and come already assembled and painted, so can be used right out of the box. Price wise, I think that they represent a great value. I have seen Hannomag i/2 tracks, for $ 18.00, while a Tiger Tank, might go for around $ 25.00. From what I've seen, the Frog / Fuman kits cost about the same. I don't know about you, but if I'm going to spend the money on vehicles, I'd rather buy them already made up and ready to use. You should be able to find them locally, in any hobby shop or collectibles shop, that carries die - cast cars and such.