Terry Sirk sent in his ideas for a set of rules for WW II encounters. Terry always comes up with some clever routines, and I read his notes carefully, and set up a couple of encounters to test his procedures. I admit to varying his basic system a wee bit, since I was playing the games solo. 1. Forces Terry had suggested, for hidden units, a deck of some 42 cards, placed face down on the field, to represent a number of hidden and unknown-size forces. I'm not sure why he chose the number 42... but, in any case, I quickly gave up on the idea of having 42 cards on the table representing different hidden units... too many. Since I was playing this solo, I set up a simple scenario with no hidden units... 3 defending American units versus 4 attacking Japanese. This was laid out in 20mm, using Terry's unit organizations, although I'm not sure of what he meant by a 'unit'. The defending Americans had 3 forces, one each of the following according to Terry's listed OOB's and Combat Values (1 point for infantry, 2 for a tank, and 3 for artillery): FOrce Composition No of Stands Total Combat Points Armored force 2 tanks, 1 infantry, 1 artillery 4 8 Infantry force 2 infantry, 1 artillery 3 5 Mixed force 1 infantry, 1 tank, 1 artillery 3 6 For gaming purposes, I termed each complete force a brigade. Perhaps the individual stands could be said to represent a battalion. Against the three American brigades (which, as noted above, consisted of a total of 10 stands), I pitted four attacking Japanese brigades. In addition to their ground forces, each side was given an airbase and 5 planes which had to be tracked for damage points. 2. Supply Under Terry's guidelines, ammunition supply should be a very critical parameter in the game. Terry gave each side a couple of supply vehicles which had to make their way to each brigade to resupply the unit. I agreed with the concept, but I didn't want a bunch of teeny supply trucks running around the field. In place of the vehicles, therefore, each side was given a single supply dump set out in midfield, which was vulnerable to attack. The number of points of each force as given above in Paragraph 1 was their ammo fire power in terms of the 'hit dice' they could toss, so that, for example, the armored force could toss 8 dice on the fire phase, using up 8 'rounds' of ammo. Each half bound, the supply dumps of each side distributed ammo. The distribution was "symbolic", i.e., tokens didn't move, but simply diced for resupply: a. First, each half-bound, each of the sides tossed dice to see if it had a supply phase. There was a 70 percent chance that it occurred. b. Second, the sides diced for each brigade for the ammo points it received. 01 to 33 6 ammo points 34 to 66 4 ammo points 67 to 100 2 ammo points c. Each hit on a supply dump added +10 points to the dice toss, making it more difficult to obtain ammo. d. No record was kept of aircraft ammo. Each plane, in combat, always tossed 3 dice. 3. Aircraft The hits on each of the 5 planes on a side were tracked... 5 hits destroyed a plane. a. A plane could 'hover' indefinitely, but immediately after combat, it returned to its airbase for stand-down. b. There was a phase in the sequence, each half bound, during which the sides diced to see how many of the stand-down planes could take off. 01 to 33 3 aircraft 34 to 66 2 67 to 100 1 c. Each hit on the airbase added +10 to the dice throw, making it more difficult to get planes in the air. d. Ammo was not tracked for the planes. A plane always tossed 3 dice. e. Airbases and supply dumps always tossed 3 dice against attacking planes. 4....Data Sheets & Damage. a. Each brigade had a data sheet which contained 10 'boxes' plus an ammo record: Efficiency 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ammo____________________________________________ b. All forces, regardless of their fire power, started out with 10 ammo points. c. For this scenario, forces couldn't be 'repaired'... 10 hits and 'out' d. For this scenario, there were no reinforcement points. e. Despite the number of damage boxes crossed out, a force always tossed its initial number of fire power dice (assuming it had ammo). Terry had wanted the fire power of a brigade to decrease as its strength went down, but I thought the ammo supply restrictions would be enough of a limitation to firing, so there'd be no reason to also decrease the number of dice tossed by a unit. Start And now, the first scenario started. I set up the 3 American brigades in a defensive position. When I took my place on the American side of the table, I tried to 'think American'. What would General Patton do if he had 3 brigades and a small air force to face 4 enemy brigades? The General would go after their supply lines, of course. And so, at first, I concentrated the American planes against the Japanese supply dump. Every hit on the dump would add +10 to the ammo-supply dice throw. According to the supply chart, therefore, with enough +10's as a modifier to the dice toss, while the dump couldn't be blown up, the forces being supplied would never receive more than 2 ammo points per supply phase. Unfortunately, the US planes couldn't seem to drop their bombs on the target. No hits for the first three turns. Then I turned the American planes against the Japanese airbase. Here, too, each hit scored a +10 to the dice throw which told of how many planes took off. No luck. The American Air Force performed miserably, irritating the General considerably. After that, I concentrated the American aircraft directly against the Japanese forces. Each plane tossed three 10-sided dice. A toss of a 1, 2, or 3 was a hit. These hit numbers were 'universal'...all forces tossed 10-sided dice and looked for 1, 2, or 3 on their dice. After I spent the half-bound on the American side of the table, I ran to the Japanese side, and I tried to 'think Japanese'. What would Colonel Yamaguchi do if he had 4 brigades facing 3 enemy forces? The Colonel's thoughts followed those of General Patton's. For some time, I sent the Colonel's planes against the American supply dump. It took awhile, but finally 4 hits were inflicted on the dump... +40 added to the supply dice throw for the Americans. After Bound 4 or so, the Americans suffered from a lack of ammo, and the Japanese planes turned to other targets. In truth, at first, I wasn't sure about the actual sequence to be used, but after a couple of bounds, it worked itself out to 6 phases for each half-bound: 1. Sides A and B each dice (70 percent) to see if their forces can be supplied. If so, they use the supply chart for the ammo points delivered to each brigade. Here, the hits on the supply dump limit the amount of ammo distributed. 2. Sides A and B each dice to see how many of their stand-down aircraft will take off from the airbase. Here, the hits on the airbase limit the number of aircraft taking off. 3. Side A, the active side, moves all forces, ground and available aircraft. 4. Side B reacts with the planes he has available in the air. 5. All forces toss lots of dice (all firing is simultaneous) and combat is resolved. After combat, all planes return to the airbase and stand-down. 6. Sides A and B each dice to see if they receive off-board artillery support. Ground forces moved 10 inches on their movement phase... airplanes were unrestricted in their movement. I was using only half the ping-pong table. Colonel Yamaguchi decided to converge 2 Japanese brigades on the single American brigade headed by Colonel Moon, which was stationed on the American left flank. Moon's force was the weakest of the three American brigades... 2 infantry and 1 artillery, for a total of 5 combat dice. Colonel Moon's men lost and pulled back. Yamaguchi had sent in 3 aircraft to help out in the attack against Moon's men. With each aircraft tossing 3 dice, and the other 2 Japanese brigades tossing a total of 14 dice, it was no wonder that Moon retreated, losing 6 of his 10 efficiency boxes. Melee was decided by the old Simon formula... count your remaining efficiency boxes (S, your survivors), then count the enemy's crossed out boxes (H, his casualties), multiply their sum by the toss of a 10-sided die, and high product wins. P = Die roll x (S + H) After being whacked solidly once, one bound later, Yamaguchi launched another attack against Colonel Moon's men, and the Moonmen simply vanished... all their efficiency boxes were crossed out. What was troubling about the loss of the Moon brigade was that the force still had 13 ammo points left at the time it was driven from the field. About this same time, other brigades on the field were down to 2 and 3 ammo points, hence couldn't even fire their full allotment of combat dice. Eight bounds and the first battle was over. One of the two remaining American brigades had only a single efficiency box left, and both of them were completely out of ammo points. While the Japanese were also low on ammo, they had two strong brigades left and one weak one. Colonel Yamaguchi was victorious. The sequence I outlined above contains, as the last phase in the sequence, an off-board artillery phase for both sides. They each diced, and could come up with either 2, or 1 or no artillery barrages. An artillery barrage produced a toss of 3 dice. This phase was dropped in subsequent 'editions' of the rules... it seemed to me there was enough dice tossing . It was pretty difficult to balance the supply points. I started each brigade with 10 ammo points, regardless of its size. Colonel Moon's brigade, for example, could only toss 5 dice, and with 10 points, he was guaranteed to fire at least twice, and by the time he fired his initial allotment of ammo, he should have received additional ammo points. Other, stronger brigades used up their ammo proportionately faster. At the end of the battle, one Japanese brigade had 3 ammo points left... all other units on the field had no ammo at all. Noting that the sides had run out of ammo simultaneously in about 8 bounds, I 'upped' the supply table. Instead of receiving either 2,4, or 6 points per supply phase, each brigade could now receive either 3,5 or 7 points., Another problem area concerned the aircraft. Too powerful. I thought that planes would fall from the sky... like, well, like planes falling from the sky. Not a single plane fell. During the entire battle, one plane suffered 3 hits, others only one. Obviously, there was a need for some special rules concerning both air-to-air combat and anti-aircraft fire to devalue the aircraft. Second Scenario The same forces as the first... and this one was a push-over for Colonel Yamaguchi... he won in just 3 bounds. What happened to General Patton? If I could buy stock in Yamaguchi Enterprises, I certainly would. The sequence paralleled the one used in the first battle, except that I left out the off-board artillery phase. And, as mentioned, I changed the supply chart... instead of obtaining either 2, 4, or 6 ammo points, now the brigades could obtain either 3, or 5, or 7 points. Another change focused on the aircraft. There had been very little anti-aircraft fire in the first scenario, which was why there were so few hits on the planes. Now I gave each brigade and the supply dump and the airbase 3 hit dice apiece to toss for A/A fire. And there was also added an air-to-air phase in which any opposing aircraft at the same location shot at each other. If a plane was hit by A/A fire, or during air-to-air combat, its pilot took a morale test: Morale Level = 80 - (5 x Number of hits on the plane) If the pilot failed, he'd take another hit and return to base without engaging the enemy. In this second battle, I placed the weakest American brigade, that of Colonel Moon's, fairly far back, out of Yamaguchi's reach. But Yamaguchi again attacked, 2-on-1, against one of the stronger American brigades placed on the American left flank. And Yamaguchi not only had 2-to-1 odds, but tossed in 4 aircraft, each with 3 dice, against the Americanos. One plane was hit by A/A fire, took a morale test and failed and returned to base, but the remaining three planes added 9 dice to the melee. Many dice throws, and BOOM!, the American unit was wiped out, all of its 10 boxes crossed out. Initially, prior to playing the scenarios, I thought that an allotment of 10 boxes was too much for the units, giving the brigades too much 'longevity'. But it appeared that, perhaps, 10 were too few... perhaps 15? In this second encounter, the American Air Force concentrated solely on the Japanese supply base. A couple of planes were driven off by A/A fire, but the supply base suffered 5 hits. A modifier of +50 to the Japanese logistics throw meant that they only received a maximum of 3 ammo points per turn. Even so, with their reduced ammo, the Japanese were victorious. Third Encounter And now, the third encounter. Jeff Wiltrout walked in the door and took General Patton's role in the game. The forces were the same, as were the rules, except for one modification. This concerned a 'reconnaisance', or spotting, rule. If you didn't spot a target, you couldn't fire at it. Terry's original concept had contained this sort of provision (which I had dropped in my solo encounters), and now we implemented it. Jeff noted on a map of the field, the positions of his units. As Colonel Yamaguchi, my first objective was to locate the hidden American forces. And for the first couple of turns, as my ground forces slowly moved up, I sent my aircraft out in recon missions. My prime goal was to locate the American supply dump and blast it to bits. But the Japanese Air Force failed me. I flew over the Walsim Woods, located on my right flank. I tossed a 10-sided die... a roll of 1-through-5 and I'd spot any unit in the woods. My die toss was a 6, and my recon aircraft reported back there was no enemy activity in the woods. Colonel Yamaguchi and I proved to be a wee bit impatient... instead of sending out another aircraft for a better recon report, I moved a Japanese brigade into the woods... and right up against a hidden American force. Yamaguchi (certainly not me!) had run into the mother of all ambushes. Two American brigades and the entire American Air Force of 5 planes descended upon the advancing Japanese unit. The Walsim Woods reverberated with the sounds of hundreds of hit dice being tossed... but not for long. The Japanese brigade was quickly wiped out. Yamaguchi now had three brigades left. Another Japanese plane overflew the town of Wiltro in a recon mission... again a negative report, but this time a second flight over Wiltro proved successful... I, and my buddy Yamaguchi, had finally discovered the location of the American supply dump. The Japanese Air Force immediately took action against the American supply base. Three hits were scored. And 2 more hits against the American airbase. Alas! too little, and too late. Determined to show his enemy no mercy, General Jeff "Patton' Wiltrout, despite his ever-decreasing ammo supply, again attacked, in 2-to-1 fashion, a Japanese brigade, just about wiping it out. Yamaguchi had had enough! He pulled back. End of battle. Back to PW Review August 1998 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 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