John Shirey appeared at table-side with his 15mm current-day modern armor collection... Croats and Serbs. The Croatians were in the town of Cepin, and the Serbs, of course, wanted it. I must note that John's army was not inexpensive... 15mm vehicles and tank models run at least $5 dollars each, and on the table were about 30 such models, plus all the supporting infantry, and houses and walls and entrenchments...
As his basic rules model, John took the booklet authored by Sam Mustafa called BATTLEGROUP (BG), published in 1990. 1 have only John's changes to the rules in front of me, so I can't directly compare his final version against what BG originally contained. My impression is, however, that he stuck fairly close to the original set.
BG was initially written as a set of microarmor rules, in 1/300 scale. As presented on my table, in 15mm, one infantry stand - about 3/4 of an inch square - represents 50 men, with some 4 stands a company. One vehicle model represents 3 to 6 vehicles; here, the rules give you some leeway.
Fred Haub and I commanded the attacking Serbians. I controlled a battalion of 9 M-80 infantry carrying vehicles, together with 4 BTR-60's, also carrying infantry. Fred's battalion consisted of around 9 M-84 tanks, some BDRM-2's and an assortment of infantry. The sketch shows that I attacked from the south, Fred from the west.
Modified
John's modified version of BG instituted the following 5-phase sequence for the full bound:
a. The sides dice for initiative. High toss has his choice of moving and/or firing first in Phase (d), below.
b. Simultaneous indirect fire comes in for both sides. These bombardments are called in on Phase (c) of the prior bound. On this previous phase, one simply notes on a sheet of paper where the rounds should fall, and when the bombardment phase occurs, two dice are tossed. One is a 6-sided "error" die, telling, in inches, how far away from the desired point of impact the round falls. The other is a directional die... it contains arrows showing in which direction the round falls.
c. On this third phase, all units are given order chits, which will be used in the next two phases. The chits state 'fire' or 'move and fire', etc. On this third phase, indirect fire requests are called for; these will be implemented on the next bound.
d. On this fourth phase, the side winning the initiative on Phase (a) will move and fire. If contact is made, close-assault is resolved.
e. On this final phase, the opposing side gets to move, fire, and close-assault.
We Serbians had 4 indirect strikes, i.e., 4 indirect fire artillery blasts each bound, and on the appropriate phase - Phase (c) - we placed our desired points of impact on the Croatians manning the works surrounding the town. On the following bound, when the rounds landed, we tossed our error and distance dice and located the actual impact points. The 6 sides of the error die contain 4 arrows... indicating the round is off... but they also contain 2 'hits', indicating the round fell exactly where desired. On Bound #11. one of our four incoming rounds hit right on top of an A/T gun emplacement in the front line of works surrounding Cepin. The gun was a Spandrel, a wicked weapon which did my approaching vehicles no good.
BG's casualty determination is 2-phased:
a. First, was there a hit? Normally, this was decided by the weapon's accuracy, cover modifiers, etc. But here, by definition, since the artillery round landed smack on top of the desired target, we skipped this phase.
b. Second, were there casualties or damage? It took about 5 repetitive calculations before I felt I understood the procedure, which runs like this.
The artillery shell (152mm) had a high explosive (HE) value of 13. This was to be compared with the infantry target's defensive values, a mix of morale and cover modifiers. The A/T gun crew's morale value was 10, and the cover value of the trench it was in added another 6, making 16 in all for its morale+cover value. The HE value of the weapon is added to a 6-sided die roll. If the total exceeds the target's morale+cover number, the target is killed. If the total is less by one, the target is pinned.
Here, I tossed a '5'... my HE-plus-5 gave me a total of 18, 2 points more than the defensive morale+cover value of 16. BANG!. The gun crew was wiped out.
Morale
I'm not sure why BG introduces a morale value to compare to the artillery's HE value... something like the. apples and orange game... When the heavy weapons fire at armored targets, the target's armor value is used as the parameter with which the shell's penetration value is compared. But here, with infantry as a target, I assume the morale level represents how hard the infantry squnch down in the trenches... better infantry (higher morale values) squnch down more efficiently than do the poorer troops.
Using the above procedure, we quickly noted that the attacking infantry were absolutely impotent against the defending infantry firmly ensconced in works. Attacking infantry had an impact value, i.e., an equivalent HE value, of 6. Add this to a 6-sided die, and you'll see it's pretty difficult to get a total over the entrenched defender's morale+cover value of 16.
As the sketch shows, John's defending Croatians brought up three T-55 tanks against my oncoming M-80's. I off-loaded the infantry from within the M-80's, and none too soon. The Croatian T-55's took out 2 of my vehicles rather swiftly.
The guns of the T-55's had a penetration value of 7. They added a 6-sided die to this and the total had to exceed my M-80's frontal armor value plus any cover modifier. In computing the effect on the target, this armor+cover value is the equivalent of the infantry morale+cover value. Since the M-80's front armor had a '1', and had no cover modifier (they were in the open), their armor+cover value totaled '1'. It was not, therefore, too difficult for the T-55's penetration of 7, plus a 6-sided die, to exceed this. What saved the day was that prior to this damage phase, there was the 'to-hit' phase.
Here the range chart for the T-55's guns showed that at the range at which they were firing, about 15 inches, they had to toss a 10-sided die of '5' or below. That's only a 50 percent chance of a hit, but once they hit... BANGO!!
If you followed the above, you'll have noted that the procedures seem to bounce all over the place. First, in the to-hit procedure, you toss a 10-sided die looking for an impact on the target, and here, you've got to get under the requisite value. Then, once you hit, in order to assess damage, you toss a 6-sided die, and you've got to get over the target's defensive value.
And I note, that, at the end of each bound, when pinned targets (units that have been pinned by enemy fire) dice to see if they are 'unpinned', you toss two 6-sided dice, looking for a number less than the recovery (morale) value of the troops, usually around 8 to 10. This mix of dice seems unnecessary. If you want to 'decimalize', then decimalize. I shall say no more.
Discovered something of interest on Bound #3. First, it was pointed out to me that my heretofore impotent M-80's, which I had thought were good only for transporting troops, had AIT Spandrel units mounted on them. And so I took my vehicles and charged forward, seeking to close with the T-55's, to blast them into Spandrel land. I got to about 6 inches and opened fire. BANG! VVHAMMO! SOCKO! BOOM!
Nothing!
Then I discovered the second item of interest. The Spandrel to-hit chart looks like:
| Range | Under4inches | 4 to 16 | 16 to 50 | 50 to 80 | Roll under | Can't hit | 3 | 6|
| |
10-sided die to hit
It was explained that, due to the weapon's fuse-arming time, the Spandrel can't hit below 4 inches, and that for maximum effectiveness (the maximum value of its to-hit number), it's got to be at least 16 inches away from the target.
This was not good... and the T-55's, when, in reply, they fired at close range, had a to-hit number of 8 (in contrast to the to-hit of 5 they had previously needed at longer range). Two of the three easily tossed their 10-sided to-hit dice below 8, and in the casualty phase, their penetration of 9, plus a 6-sided die roll, exceeded my armor value of '1 ', and they immediately took out another two M-80's.
On the next bound, I backed up my surviving M-80's (about 4 of them) to beyond 16 inches, and had the good fortune, for all Spandrels firing, to toss below my new to-hit number of 6. Now I added my Spandrel penetration value of 11 to a 6-sided die, automatically exceeded the T-55's front armor of 9, and SMASHO!!... they were gone.
To Hit Stress
You may be wondering why I'm stressing and repeating the procedures involving the 'to-hit' number, and the infantry's morale number, and the HE value, and the penetration value, and the use of 6- and 10-sided dice... and so on. The simple reason is that in these procedures lies the heart of the game. First you move, and then you start comparing all these parameters during the fire phases. And you do this over and over again as each of your separate tokens on the board gets to fire. And then, when you're finished, your opponent does it.
Having discovered the secret of the M-80's, or so I thought, I now concentrated on the Croatian defenders in the works surrounding the town. I took my surviving M-80's, plus a couple of my BTR-60's (armored cars), and ran 'em right up against the Croatian trench-works, seeking to break through. It was time to test the close-assault rules!
Alas! I ran right into the infantry squnching rule again! In close-assault, all contacting tokens keep firing at each other until one, or both, are destroyed. Here, the calculations were:
a. First, in close-assault, there was no 'to-hit' phase. Stands were simply paired off, and we went directly into the casualty phase.
b. Since I was going against entrenched infantry, I used the M-80's HE value of 3, added it to a 6-sided die and tried to exceed the infantry's morale of 10, plus their cover value of 6, which gave them a defensive total of 16.
c. The above meant the infantry couldn't even be scratched by my vehicles.
d. In contrast, the infantry took their impact value of 6, added ft to a 6-sided die, and easily exceeded my front armor of '1'. CRASH! All my attacking vehicles destroyed!
This left me - around Bound #5 - with three M-80's and a bunch of infantry.
On this bound, we dropped the Order Chit system. It had done nothing except fill the field with excess markers. The chitties marked 'fire' and 'move and fire' were pretty much ignored, All the units that could move, kept moving... all the units that could fire, kept firing.
Final Assault
Around this time, I noted that Fred Haub, attacking the defenders on the western side of the town, was ready for his final assault. In particular, in the middle of the Cepinishkin Woods, he had 6 M-84 Main Battle Tanks, supported by about 8 infantry stands, ready to descend on the Croatian line defending the woods.
Much smoke, many yells. The result of the close-assault in the woods was a loss of 7 infantry stands for the Croatians, versus 2 infantry stands and one M-84 for the Serbs. This pretty much broke the defenses on the western edge of the field.
The reason for the successful assault was that the infantry, when closed with in the woods, didn't get their trench-works squnch factor of 6. They only got a 7 for the woods. Their total defensive value was, therefore, their morale of 10, plus 2, a total of 12.
In contrast, the M-84's all got an HE value of 10 to add to their 6-sided die roll to exceed the defenders' 12 points. Thus they took out every stand with which they came into contact. Now, both Fred and I were ready for the grand assault.
Around Bound #6, we discovered yet another item of interest which helped our cause. Infantry stands had an impact value of 6. Normally, when firing against other infantry, they took this impact value, added it to a 6-sided die roll, and tried to exceed the target's defense value: morale value plus cover modifiers. Since morale levels were in the '9's' or'10's', this was hard to do. This was why, earlier in this article, I explained that attacking infantry were completely impotent against the defenders in the works surrounding the town.
But then, word arrived that we could add two or more infantry stands' impact values together, giving the firing units a total impact factor of more than 6... perhaps 12, or 18, or however many stands you wanted to. link together.
The penalty for this linkage was that the infantry stands had to be "shoulder to shoulder", thus placing them all under the same bombardment template, subjecting them to horrendous bombardment potentials when artillery rained from the sky.
Phooey on the penalty! In went the Serbian infantry, shoulder to shoulder, firing as they went.
At the same time, I took my remaining three M-80's and had them shoot into town over the abandoned works of a section of the now lightly-held front lines. One possible result of the result of this breakthrough is sketched below, as the M-80's cross the front lines, and then make an abrupt right turn to plow into the rear of the Croatian troops in the trenches.
I voted no on this maneuver... there are certain silly 'gotcha!' maneuvers which must be outlawed in an alternate move game. Given the fact that the non-active side cannot move, the active side should be held back from taking undue advantage of his own mobility.
Final words on the game. Again, I have to repeat that I'm not sure of how much of the rules was BG's and how much was John Shirey's. This was a first-time presentation for John, and he went home fairly saturated with suggestions for good housekeeping. How many of them he actually implements is another issue. In general, I thought it went well... once one got used to the 'to-hit' and casualty calculations.
It helped, of course, that there were only 4(?), 5(?) types of weapons on the field. The calculations are repetitive, and once you've done a hundred or so, you sort of get used to it.
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Copyright © 1996 Wally Simon
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