Lee Tucker was one of the founding fathers of the Potomac Wargamers. Lee disappeared about a decade ago... quit the hobby... which lost a superb figure painter and excellent rules writer.
Lee was co-author of TRACTICS, one of the first sets of fairly complex modern armor rules... pages of chartst numerous calculations, slow play. Lee was unhappy with TRACTICS; he wanted a faster moving game and he eventually developed BREW UP, in which one player could handle perhaps 5 infantry squads and as many vehicles in a one-on-one scenario.
BREW UP was preceded by Lee's EXPERIMENTAL MODERN RULES (EMR)-, developed in 1974, which served as a test bed for BREW UP. Fred Haub recently unearthed EMR, now 15 years old ' and informed Bob Hurst and me that we each had a 400 point army, that we should choose our units, that we were using our 15mm armor collection, and that the surviving forces of Battle 1 would engage in a second.
"Uh huh!" we replied, and dutifully starting selecting our orders of battle. As an example, 30 points bought for Kriegsgruppe Simon a heavy, heavily armed tank equipped with an 88mm gun. 24 points gave me a 12 man infantry squad. Two extra points for a machine gun; 6 additional points for a halftrack in which to transport the squad, etc., etc. On the other side, 20 points got Hurst's Moscow Guards Brigade a T-34/76.
The map is shown in Figure 1. Our units entered on the north and
south baselines and immediately made for Krumpburg. The Chateau of the
Duke of Krump was out-of-bounds... we could set our forces on the hill
on which the Chateau sat, but due to some arcane international
agreement, we were not permitted to enter the Chateau grounds. Why
Fred set this huge terrain-eating edifice on the field, I do not
know... but then again, when asked, neither did he.
EMR is one of the first rules sets to use the A MOVE/B FIRE sequence... in fact, probably THE first set. Here, a unit fires before it moves as shown in the flow chart of the Cycle. Note also that as the unit moves into contact, it must first take enemy fire before the melee is resolved. My troops learned this the hard way.
- Melee
A Move
B Fire
Melee
B Move
A Fire
In Krumpburg itself, I ordered Squads 3 and 17, 12-men each, to assault an adjacent house in which an enemy squad was located. The enemy had been hard hit... I think there were only 7 men left, and I thought they were ripe for an attack. Hah!
Fred had grafted his own small arms firing procedures on the EMR framework. Here, a 6-sided die was tossed for every rifleman firing; a machine gun received two dice... it got two "bumps" on the target.
A roll of 4, 5 or 6 produced a hit on men in the open; troops in cover had a -2 modifier, hence only a 6 would hit them.
And so off dashed Squads 3 and 17. They were the immediate target of small arms fire from the defending squad plus every other enemy squad in Krumpburg that could bring their weapons to bear. Squads 3 and 17 suffered close to 50% casualties in this initial rush, and each took a morale check. Both tests resulted in a "retire to nearest cover", and the survivors f led back to the house from which they had come.
There they were further bashed by the Moscovian tanks, attempting to demolish the house with HE. Each house in Krumpburg was rated at 600 points, and whenever a heavy weapon fired at it, the value of the building was reduced by the caliber of the gun firing. Thus a 75mm gun would knock off 75 points, a 50mm gun would take off 50 points and so on.
If the house was populated, every 100 point decrease in the value gave rise to a 50% chance of a man being hit. Thus a 75mm gun not only reduced the value of the house by 75 points, but also had a 37.5% chance of causing a casualty within.
Each squad had its assortment of machine gunners, men carrying bazookas, officers, etc., i.e., "special figures". When a squad took a hit, we diced to see if any of these special figures were hit.
Eventually, my infantry within Krumpburg, due to concentrated small arms and heavy weapons fire, were whittled down to the breaking point. I even tossed in my my reconaissance squad, and then bolstered them with five men from the Command Command Squad. No use. Krumpburg was a lost cause.
And I was not a striking success elsewhere. Enemy tanks appeared, working their way, clockwise, south of Krump Woods. All I had at this point were three light tanks, and they proved powerless to stop the oncoming heavies.
When I say "light" and "heavy", I should mention that EMR lists specific tanks, weapons and armor classes. For example, my small force of two "heavy" tanks, each armed with the 88mm gun, were King Tigers, Pzkw VI's
My light tanks, which were located at the south end of Krump Woods, were Pzkw III(j)1s, armed with a 50mm HV gun... they faced three heavy T-34/761s.
EMR classifies the armor capabilities of each tank. Armor values are graded from A (lowest) to J (highest):
| Type | Front Armor | Side Armor | Rear Armor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pzkw III(j) | D | C | B |
| T-34/76 | F | E | E |
| Pzkw VI | J | G | G |
My Pzkw III (j) 50mm guns could just about penetrate, at short range, armor class F, hence it was no contest as my light tanks retreated.
My heavier tanks, the King Tigers, which cost me a full 30 points each, outclassed the Russian heavies, costing Hurst only 20 points. The front armor, class J, of the Pzkw VI's, rendered them immune to frontal fire from almost every weapon on the field, and I thought I had a good thing going for a moment or two. But only for a moment.
As the Russian T-34/76's came south around Krump Woods, I thought to move my heavies over to the east to back up my outclassed light tanks, now in full retreat. I did get one shot off from the King Tigers, blowing up one enemy unit, but discovered that the Moscovians had medium tanks, Pzkw IV(j) Is, coming south over the hill by the Chateau. In maneuvering to face these new units, I exposed the Pzkw VI's flanks to the T- 34/76 heavies and WHOOM!! ... both my King Tigers were gone.
EMR is essentially a one-on-one skirmish set, wherein one tank model represents one tank, one infantry figure is truly an infantryman, etc. As such, firing on armored vehicles is a multiphased affair, since one must determine the specific damage, if any, to a specific target. Infantry versus infantry fire, however, is much simplified... here, a hit indicates a kill and a figure is removed.
EMR uses a three-phase heavy weapon hit determination procedure:
- a.Was the target hit? ... a function of gun size,
range, target obscurity, movement of the firing
vehicle, etc. Two 6-sided dice are thrown, and a 5 or
more (as modified) signifies a hit. One of the key
modifiers in the hit calculation is a "-4" to the dice
throw, applied when the firing weapon has moved, or
will move, during the bound. This gives an advantage
to an emplaced or stationary weapon, in contrast to
an advancing attacker, whose constantly moving tanks
are forced to use the large negative "-4" modifier.
b.If hit, was there exterior damage?... a second dice throw, and doubles indicates that tracks are blown off, a turret ring blasted, etc. A lucky shot from one of the Russian medium tanks, for example, destroyed the gun tube on one of my heavy King Tigers, even though the weapon -itself couldn't penetrate the Tiger's armor.
C.If hit, was there interior damage?... here, the firing weapon's penetration is compared to the target's armor class. The penetration capabilities of each gun are listed in terms of the armor classes. For example, my ~ight tanks' 50mm gun could penetrate F armor to 18 inches, D armor to 36 inches, and C armor to 72 inches. If penetration is achieved, a dice throw results in some disastrous event as "total destruction", or "vehicle immobilized". or "two crewmen killed, crew evacuates vehicle."
About the only weapons I had that proved their worth were two 75mm anti-tank guns that set up at the base of the southern slope of the hill near the Chateau, and when the Russian heavies came over the hill ... BAROOMPH!!
At battle's end, out of my original 400 point force, I only had some 259 points left. Hurst was in the high 3001s. I had purchased quality, high priced equipment (witness my King Tigers), and each lost vehicle represented a fairly high percentage point loss.
I had actually lost more than indicated, but we each "recovered" some of our casualties.
One key mistake I made concerned the small combat engineer detachment I had included in my original order of battle.
The initial 400 point listing for Kriegsgruppe Simon had contained three 30 point Pzkw VI's. Just prior to the start of the action, I turned in one of these heavy tanks for an expensive recovery vehicle, an Sdkfz V(i), for the combat engineers. During the battle, however, I forgot that I had an Sdkfz V(i) in inventory.
When a vehicle is hit, and penetration is achieved, one of the results obtained from the damage resolution phase is "vehicle immobilized" ... as distinguished from "vehicle destroyed". These immobilized vehicles are salvageable, and can be towed from the field.
If I had used the Sdkfz V(i) properly, I could have taken the combat engineer group and towed several damaged vehicles off the field, preserving their points for the second battle.
But no... I was too wrapped up in smashing and bashing the Moscow Guards Brigade.
One key vehicle I inadvertently abandoned was one of my immobilized 30 point King Tigers... it is possible the Moscow Guards may fix it up and I may be facing it during the next encounter.
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© Copyright 1990 Wally Simon
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