I happened to come across my copy of Arty Conliffe’s SPEARHEAD (selling for around $20), published in 1995, Arty’s answer to COMMAND DECISION. Both sets of rules focus on the platoon stand as the basic combat element. SPEARHEAD (SH) indicates that a single tank model could represent a platoon of 4 or 5 actual tanks, a single infantry stand is a platoon of infantry, say 20 to 30 men each. I’ve tried SH several times, and have written several REVIEW articles on SH, and didn’t have too many good things to say about it. I compared it to COMMAND DECISION and didn’t find that there was too much difference between the two sets of rules. This irritated Arty no end, and, in a fit of pique, he stated that it was obvious that I didn’t understand the rules and that he’d never subscribe to the REVIEW again… and he never did. And so now, some 6 years later, I decided to try SH again… perhaps I had matured in the interim and could truly appreciate the finer nuances presented in the pages of SH. In accordance with my penchant for playing historically realistic and realistically accurate (not to mention accurately true-to-life) games, I took out SH’s TABLES OF ORGANIZATION AND EQUIPMENT (TO&E), a 49 page booklet ($20, please), and tried to draw up the order of battle for a German-versus-British encounter, circa 1941. I’ve got a bunch of 15mm armor, and I thought to set up a couple of battalions on each side and see what happened. For the German side, I found that the battalion HQ company consisted of 2 tanks, 2 stands. Under this HQ staff were 3 tank companies, each of 3 or 4 platoons, i.e., 3 or 4 tank models. This gave the total for the battalion as 13 tank models, 13 stands. Not too bad. A German regiment was composed of 2 such battalions, and so, if I desired, I could have a total of around 28 German tank models on the field, which including a Regimental HQ, composed of 2 tank stands. Now for the British The TO&E stated that, instead of battalions, the equivalent British term was ‘regiments’, and a regiment consisted of, not companies, but of squadrons. Egad! This was getting to be a wee bit thick! But I plowed on. First, we had the Regimental HQ, composed of 3 tanks plus a scout car. There were 3 squadrons in the regiment, each with 3 or 4 platoons, i.e., tank stands, in them. The total number of stands for the regiment was, therefore, 15, which should have been the equivalent of the German battalion. But here, the crafty British combined their regiments into brigades, with 3 regiments per brigade, for a grand total of around 47 stands for this battle-field unit. All the above is amazingly factual, and made my head swim, but what it says is that in comparing the British and German scheme of things, the Brits used the term ‘brigade’, while the Germans used the term ‘regiment’ for the same set-up. In similar fashion, the Germans referred to ‘battalions’, while the Brits referred to ‘regiments’ for the same set-up. And in pitting a full German regiment against a full British brigade, the Germans would have 28 stands versus the British 47 stands. Way back in 1941, surely someone on the German General Staff would have noted that there was a mismatch in unit organization. “Look, mein Fuhrer, zere is somsing very wrong…!” The above was interesting to me, for I then referred to another SH booklet, BLAZE ACROSS THE SANDS (another $20, please), which presented 42 scenarios, complete with orders of battle (OOB), for the North African Front. I wanted to see how the Germans used their organization against the Brits, but I was disappointed. The first 1941 battles pitted the Italians against the British, and when the German tanks finally appeared, the OOBs indicated that the Germans faced mainly infantry, not tanks. But enough of this research and historical veracity! The human mind can take only so much! On to the Battle! On the field were 28 German stands, representing a regiment of 2 battalions. I’m going to stick to the German terminology. Opposing them was an equivalent British force of 47 stands, which they called a brigade, but which, to ensure my sanity, I’ll call a regiment. The British 48 stands were divided into 3 groups… termed regiments by the Brits, but which I’ll term battalions. SH mandates that the platoons, i.e., the stands, in a battalion which possesses more than 12 platoon stands, must each be no further than 12 inches from their battalion HQ. This gives the battalion a 24 inch frontage. SH says nothing about the distance of the individual battalions from their regimental HQ. In effect, therefore, the Germans had 2 clusters… each cluster a battalion, and each battalion with a total 24 inch frontage, since its components could be 12 inches from the HQ. The British frontage per battalion was the same, but with 3 battalions, they could cover much more of the field than their German counterparts. Obviously, the Germans were at a disadvantage, so I set them up in an ambush position. SH states that vehicles in the open can be seen 18 inches away. You don’t dice to see if the enemy is ‘spotted’. You’re either there, or not there. Vehicles in cover are spotted when they’re 6 inches away, but if they fire, they’re spotted at 12 inches. The range of most of the tank guns in SH is pretty short… either 9 inches or 12 inches. What the ambush meant was that, as a British unit moved into range, the Germans would get first shot. The booklet states that the firing unit cannot be fired on in the turn in which it was spotted… hence, on this first shot, the Brits couldn’t return fire. And if the British kept on moving, the stationary Germans would get in a second shot before the Brits fired their first. This comes about because of the sequence, which provides for stationary units to fire first. Out of a total of 11 phases within the bound, the 6 phases critical to this particular scenario were: a. Side A’s units move (after dicing for initiative) b. Side B’s units move c. All stationary vehicles fire (simultaneous fire) d. All moving vehicles fire (simultaneous fire) e. Resolve close assault f. Rally SH requires that each battalion be given specific orders. I gave each of the 3 British battalions ATTACK orders. This meant that all platoon stands must move at least 6 inches per turn. Again, as required by SH, I sketched a map of the table, and, for each battalion, drew a Command Arrow, indicating the battalion’s path on the field. The battalion was obligated to move along the designated path, and when the unit reached the arrow head, it would sit and convert its ATTACK orders to DEFEND, and await further orders. The Germans, of course, had DEFEND orders from the beginning. The DEFEND orders prevented the German platoons from moving, but they could pivot in place, up to 45 degrees. Pivoting, however, is considered a ‘move’ and so if the Germans pivoted to face the oncoming Brits, they’d lose their ‘stationary’ first-fire advantage and would fire further down in the sequence. I ran through a couple of turns in a solo mode, when Jeff Wiltrout showed up, and volunteered to command the Germans. I had completed some 4 Turns and the British 1st Battalion had contacted the German company defending the village of Haj, and had gotten pretty shot up. The British 2nd Battalion had just reached the ridge line and completed its maneuver to the left to support the 1st in its attack on Haj. And the British 3rd Battalion was trading shots with the companies of the German Battalion A. But with Jeff’s presence, we started again. I was still in charge of the British force, and didn’t change the British plan… it remained as shown on the map. But I made the same mistake in the second go-through as I had done in the first. I permitted the 2nd Btn to start out at the same time as the 1st Btn. Since the 1st had a much shorter route to Haj, it made contact sooner, and came under fire sooner. SH has a provision for issuing delayed orders… you can specify the turn number on which you want a unit to commence its actions. Here, I should have let the 2nd Btn start out much earlier than the 1st , so that they arrived at Haj at the same time. Converging on Haj, as part of the 1st Btn, were three types of British tanks. Against them, were arrayed four types of German tanks. The important parameters were: Unit Attack Defense (front) Defense (side) Range Br M-3 Stuart (Honey) 3 3 2 12” Br A-10 4 3 2 12” Br A-9 4 2 2 12” Ger Pz IIF 2 3 2 9” Ger Pz III 4 3 3 12” Ger Pz IIIG 4 3 3 12” Ger Pz IVF 4 4 3 9” All combat tosses in SH use 6-sided dice. With the scale at 1 inch to 100 yards, you’ll note the table-top ranges are fairly small. There are no range increments… the target is either in range or it isn’t. And firing is the essence of simplicity. a. Subtract the target’s Defense factor from the firing stand’s Attack factor to get a ‘delta’. This can be positive or negative. I have to admit that this procedure was the most irritating to me, i.e., looking up, and comparing the two factors on the chart, one for the target, one for the firing unit. b. Toss a 6-sider, and modify it with the above delta. c. Then modify the toss with a -1 for the target hull down, or a -1 for light cover, or a -2 for being in a town. d. Then reference the following table Modified Die Effect 3 or less: No effect 4, 5: Target suppressed 6 or more: Target destroyed A suppressed target can neither move nor fire. And a target receiving 2 sequential suppression results is destroyed. Jeff and I each pre-designated our targets prior to firing, so that we couldn’t hit a stand, and then seeing it was hurt, gang up on it. But note the 6 phases in the listing of the sequence. The last is “rally”, and it’s here that suppressed units can recover. Toss a 6-sided die, and with a result of 4, 5, or 6, the stand recovers. A result of 1, 2, or 3 indicates the stand remains suppressed. When rallying, there are a couple of die modifiers… a unit of ‘green’ status subtracts 1, and if the rallying stand is within 3 inches of its headquarters, add 1. Of interest are the probabilities of the to-hit table. On the average, with no modifiers, there’s a 50 percent chance to do something bad to the target, i.e., either kill it or suppress it. SH has no intermediate damage table… it’s all or nothing. As I indicated above, the requirement of looking up, and matching attack and defense factors was the procedure that bothered me most. With 3 British tanks and 4 German tanks, there could be, in theory, lots of possible different combinations. Each of 3 British tanks could be paired with one of 4 German defense factors, and each of 4 German tanks could be paired with one of 3 British defense factors. In practice, however, if you look at the numbers, the listed values pertaining to the era (circa 1941) in which I placed the battle, were only three… either a 2 or 3 or 4… there wasn’t much difference between them. For example, did the German Pz IVF, when targeting the Stuart, rate the same +1 modifier as the Pz III, and the Pz IIIG against the same target? On the SH data sheets was listed all the weaponry for WW2. In the later stages of the war were listed attack factors as high as 10 for the Panther, 7 for the Pz IVF2 and 10 for the mighty 88mm anti-tank gun. The British Firefly had a frontal defense armor of 6. It seemed to me that use of the 6-sided die forced the rules writer to go up against the stops fairly rapidly. There were 17 German tanks and 30 British tanks listed, and each had to have its own separate modifiers. And there’s only so much you can do with a toss of a 6-sided die. But back to the battle. My poor British 1st Btn was getting whomped by Haj’s defenders, and the supporting 2nd Btn was still a couple of turns away, moving at 9 inches per turn, before they’d be within their 12 inch gun range. Poor staff work on Monty’s part in formulating his plan of battle. The result of the casualties taken by the 1st Btn was that it had to take a morale test. Each battalion is graded as either being of ‘green’ or ‘regular’ or ‘veteran’ status. The Brits had one green, one regular and one veteran battalion. The 1st Btn was of green status. And green units have three ‘breakpoints’: When they’ve lost one third of their platoons (stands) When they’ve lost half of their platoons When they’ve lost two-thirds of their platoons. Veteran battalions have only a single breakpoint… when they’ve lost two-thirds of their platoons. Only destroyed platoons count in the tally of losses. Platoons that are suppressed are not counted, hence will not trigger the morale test. Of interest is that (a) the morale test is on the battalion level and not for each individual company, and (b) the morale test for any class (green, regular, veteran) of unit and for any breakpoint is the same… toss your 6-sided die and the result is always that a 5 or 6 on the die says the battalion fights on. Any other result and the battalion “dissolves” and is immediately removed from the field. I’ve got had it to the 1st Btn. Regardless of the breakpoint, the battalion always managed to toss a 5 or 6! They refused to run away! In fact, the entire British force showed an amazing “stick-to-itivity” capability. Losses didn’t deter them at all. But they did lose the battle. Most of the German tanks had an attack factor of 4, compared to the British defense of 3. Which means that when a German gun fired, it added a +1 to its die, giving it a 66 percent chance to do something bad to the target. In our post-game discussion, both Jeff and I agreed that our small set-up of 2 battalions versus 3 battalions (brigade versus brigade) was too small to really provide the true impact of the full size battle that SH mandates… division versus division. But it did permit us to run through the mechanics of the game, and aside from the required chart look-ups, it was quite enjoyable. Back to PW Review July 2001 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 Wally Simon 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