In the December REVIEW, I mentioned an article which appeared in the LONE WARRIOR, some 20 years ago. The piece was authored by Robin Peck and Michael Walker and contained the background for a table-top WWII campaign.
Don Bailey and I decided to use the Peck/Walker article... Don is in Colorado, I'm on the east coast, and we correspond via e-mail. We set up our system according to the campaign map:
Our methodology is for both of us to fight all battles. Then we compare notes, see if anything is awry, and compute the basic statistics for the battle's outcome.
In the first battle, something was definitely awry on my table-top. I command the Allied forces, and I chose to attack Plasdorf. I faced Jeff Wiltrout who played the defending German commander.
Don had sent in his order of battle, which turned out to consist of 2 tank battalions, and 2 infantry battalions. Under the Simon WWII war-fighting system, a tank battalion consist of 3 models, and an infantry battalion consists of 4 stands. This gave Jeff a total of 12 stands to maneuver on the field. My attacking force was composed of 3 tank battalions, and 3 infantry battalions, for a total of 21 tokens on the field.
As to what it was that went "awry" in our battle, it was simply that I forgot that I was involved in a campaign. Consequently, as the turns progressed, and our forces got smaller and smaller, we just kept on going. Forget about victory conditions, forget about the fact that this is a campaign battle, forget about the fact that one should salvage something from a battle, just continue to the last man.
And we did. And the last man turned out to be German... actually it was a tank, not a man. And since the victor was German, Plasdorf still remained in German hands.
This is not the way to wage war.
Don e-mailed me the results of his own table-top Plasdorf encounter. "A great Allied victory!, he said. He had had the common sense to have the Germans withdraw after suffering appropriate losses. So here we had my own complete Allied wipe-out, versus a "great Allied victory" in Colorado. What to do??
Why we fight Plasdorf again on my table-top, making things right this time. And we change some of the procedures which produced an unbalance in the game.
For example, in my rules, there's a phase devoted to an aircraft strike. To combat the planes that are flying overhead, I gave each side a number of mobile HMG's to provide an A/A capability, approximately one per battalion. These HMG's were "gratis", i.e., they were simply tossed into the game and were not part of the original make-up of either the defending or attacking force.
During the engagement, both Jeff and I, noting that our forces contained all these HMG's, used them, not only against aircraft, but as anti-infantry weapons. After all, an HMG is an HMG. The field became inundated with HMG's, for in addition to these "gratis" units, there were provisions in our initial force content for an HMG or two. But here, suddenly, the battlefield was inundated with HMG bullets flying right and left.
My second go-round at Plasdorf cured this. No longer were the A/A weapons termed "HMG's", they were defined as 40mm A/A pom-pom guns, and could be directed only at aircraft. And if you ask, did the ground forces in WWII really have supporting 40mm pom-pom guns, I, like Bugsy Seigel, will plead the fifth.
Another problem in the Wiltrout/Simon battle. On the very first turn, one of my armor battalions appeared on my baseline and raced up the road to Plasdorf, acting, in effect, as a reconnaissance unit, trying to draw enemy fire and have the enemy expose his positions.
This battalion was wonderfully successful at what it set out to do!! It drew enemy fire from all parts of the field! All sorts of enemy positions were exposed! But this, of course, was an hellaciously expensive way to draw fire... it did my tank battalion no good at all.
Jeff and I discussed this problem, and his suggestion was to give the advancing Allied force a couple of recon vehicles, and have them dash up the road, rather than a more expensive tank battalion. And so, in the re-fight of Plasdorf, I tossed in a couple of recce vehicles for the Allies.
As with the A/A units, these recce vehicles were "gratis"; they were not part of the original force and they didn't count at all toward the victory conditions. They had a very limited objective (to draw enemy fire), and once they achieved this goal, they were removed from the field.
In Battle #2, on Bound #1, therefore, up the Plasdorf road advanced the reconnaissance unit, the 58th Fighting Recon. I note that Battle #2 was a solo gaming effort, and I had placed the defending Germans in positions on the field by tossing percentage dice in random fashion.
Now, as the vehicles of the Fighting 58th approached the German emplacements, I tossed percentage dice again. This time, it was to see if the hidden German units could be coaxed into firing at the unit. Each separate German unit tested; there was a 60 percent chance that on the German fire phase, the unit would open up and blast the approaching vehicles.
I must say that the Germans just couldn't hold their fire! Indeed, the entire side opened up on the poor recce unit... it was enveloped in smoke puffs. But the men of the 58th Fighting Recon Unit had done their job... now the Allies knew where the Germans were situated.
When to Stop?
Now we look at yet another problem. When do we stop the battle, i.e., when does one side know when to quit and draw its forces off the field?
This has to do with victory conditions, for I wanted no more of the fight-to-the-last-man type of battle.
In quite an arbitrary fashion, I assigned 1 point to each infantry figure, and 4 points to each vehicle. Totaling up the points for each side, the Allies commenced with 108, and the Germans with 70. Note these totals did not include the "gratis" A/A units nor the recce unit. Using these figures, the ratio of Allied strength to German, at the beginning of the battle, was 108/70, or 1.54-to-1.
The Simon war-fighting system decrees that a complete bound is defined as 6 hours of battle time. Two complete bounds are, therefore, 12 hours of battletime... one day's fighting.
If the battle starts at 0600 in the morning, two complete bounds brings us to 1800, or 6:00 PM in the evening. At this point, combat ends for the day, forces are reinforced,
I kept close track of the losses of both sides as the bounds continued. At noon, on the second day of battle, the Allied force strength was at 70 points, while the Germans came to 34.
At noon on Day #2, therefore, the ratio of Allied strength to German was 70/34, or 2-to-1.
As German losses mounted up, this ratio would increase even more... it could never improve. And so I mandated that, being outnumbered 2-to-1, the defending Germans must retreat out from Plasdorf at noon on Day #2. Not exactly a "great victory for the Allies", but at least a good beginning.
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© Copyright 1998 Wally Simon
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