A Winter's Tale

Last night  tried out my "FireForce" skirmish rules as applied to the Eastern Front, Winter 194x. I was curious to see how this set of 1960/70s African conflict rules, borne out of a set of Vietnam rules, would work in a WW2 setting.

I tried a small scenario, a German infantry platoon supported by a panther and a Stug IV engaging a small Russian force on the outskirts of a village, essentially an infantry squad, HMG, a T34, an M4 Sherman and a 45mm ATG.

The Germans distributed their squads on the left, centre and right, with the Stug supporting the central team and the panther on the right. Early Russian shots from the ATG disabled the central Sdkfz 251, and the Sherman came up to engage and then kill the Stug. The infantry team went to ground and never really moved forwards despite the urgings of their squad leader, instead they fell back into cover to avoid the uncannily god shooting of the Russians to their front and the machine guns in the Sherman. On the right the infantry headed for cover when the HMG opened up on them. The T34 moved out to engage the Panther and scored a hit on the front armour but with no effect. The tanks traded more shots until a solid hit brewed up the T34. The panther then advanced and put a 75mm HE shell into the HMG. The infantry, still shaken from the effects of the HMG, took a while to gather their wits and advance. In the meantime the Panther hit and immobilised the Sherman, then moved ahead to try to outflank it.

The Germans advance. Yellow dice indicate casualties suffered. I may think about some better markers for the future but they'll do for now

The T34 advances and gets a sneaky early shot in at the Panther - missed!

Stug and infantry advancing in the centre

The right hand section head for cover 

T34 brews up, and German LMG fire peppers the HMG

 On the left the German squad doubled across open ground and into cover, their half-track providing covering fire. From the woods they spotted the ATG and a lack of covering troops. The Russians spotted the threat and limbered up the gun, heading to the rear as the Germans doubled across the open ground to occupy the earthworks. From there they assaulted the Russian in the centre; their attention concentrated on the central German squad, they  didn't spot the threat to their flank until too late. In a fierce melee two Russians lay dead, as did a coupe of Germans but the remaining Russians, now heavily outnumbered, fled to the rear. The Germans, now in cover alongside the Sherman, rued the lack of a panzerfaust, but the Panther emerged from cover and killed the Sherman with a shot through the side armour.

The Germans on the left flank charge the ATG position

Oh for a panzerfaust!

Never mind, the Panther got him

It was all over in an hour or so and I thought it went rather well. A few tweaks in terms of leader capabilities, pinned troops and the lack of a vehicle close assault rule (now rectified), but I was very pleased with the results and I'm satisfied that I have a sound basis for a set of rules covering WW2 as well as the post war insurgencies.